Today in #WhyPeopleFlee #Honduras, history edition:
Elections 1 year ago today were so suspect that the head of the OAS called for new elections, but the US recognized the outcome, deepening the crisis. Here's a thread of my reporting re US role, protests, crackdowns & more. 1/12
Elections 1 year ago today were so suspect that the head of the OAS called for new elections, but the US recognized the outcome, deepening the crisis. Here's a thread of my reporting re US role, protests, crackdowns & more. 1/12
"They all know full well that the candidacy of Juan Orlando Hernández has no legal basis," priest and activist Ismael Moreno said of the US, OAS, UN, and European Union. The Honduran Constitution bans presidential reelection. That didn't stop it. 2/12 towardfreedom.org/archives/ameri…
The uprising against election fraud was also an uprising against authoritarianism and neoliberal policies. "In turn, the violent response to the protests has exposed ongoing tensions within the state, in the form of discontent among security forces. 3/12 nacla.org/news/2017/12/1…
"The military police is Juan Orlando’s police," Angélica Medrano said at a nighttime city barricade. "They repress people," she began, but was interrupted by a teenage girl calling out a warning: "the military police are shooting bullets up there..." 4/12 towardfreedom.org/archives/ameri…
Virgilio Yareth Ávila loved to sing & play drums at his church. That's where the 16-year-old student was headed on Dec 4. Shots rang out. His mother ran up the street. "He was still breathing, but in my heart I knew I was going to lose him," she said. 5/12 towardfreedom.org/archives/ameri…
In the wake of post-election protests, 1,000+ people were detained, some by the US-supported TIGRES special police force trained by Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group. Thirteen protesters are still in max security prisons awaiting trial. 6/12 theintercept.com/2018/02/20/hon…
"It was like a war zone," said Pajuiles community leader Albertina López. Security forces, including TIGRES trained by US Green Berets, arrived en masse to escort machinery past the community protest camp and up to a contested dam construction site. 7/12 truthout.org/articles/us-tr…
"No responde este asesinato a un interés particular. Responde a un interés de una empresa por aplacar la lucha de una comunidad y la lucha de una organización," dijo Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, coordinadora del COPINH y una de las hijas de Berta Cáceres. 8/12 es.mongabay.com/2018/03/hondur…
El pasado 10 de abril Carlos Hernández estaba trabajando en su bufete cuando escuchó el timbre. Al abrir la puerta un hombre le disparó seis veces y lo mató. Era abogado de un alcalde criminalizado por apoyar una lucha comunitaria contra una represa. 9/12 es.mongabay.com/2018/06/asesin…
The verdict for eight men on trial for murdering Berta Cáceres is set for this Thursday. But other trials address the initial measures for the Agua Zarca dam that sparked the years of community resistance and state violence leading up to the killing. 10/12 sierraclub.org/sierra/officia…
"There is a firm intention to deny the political dimension of the trial in every way possible," Heidy Alachán, a lawyer representing COPINH, said of the trial of eight men for the 2016 murder of Indigenous and social movement leader Berta Cáceres. 11/12 truthout.org/articles/hondu…
"They told me they were going to disappear me," opposition activist Junior Rivera said of the military police when I first met him. I interviewed him again the other day in Mexico, where he's seeking refugee status. Here's my coverage of the exodus. 12/12 aljazeera.com/profile/sandra…
