Testimonies by Honduran coup resistors

By Denise M.
Special to Rebel Youth

The lack of media attention to the coup in Honduras disgusts me. Not enough attention is being brought to human rights violations that are being committed by this military regime that assumed power through violent means and ousted democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya. President Zelaya is now in the Brazilian embassy demanding that dictator Roberto Micheletti steps down. Thousands of supporters are out in the streets defending their president, despite the terrorist actions that have been taken by the military and the police. These are two testimonies written by two coup resistors.


The names of the authors were removed for their own protection.


From XXXX

Friends,

I am now in a building close to Brazil’s embassy with 30 comrades, the majority of which are members of the Artists of the National Front Against the Coup D’etat (Artistas del Frente Nacional Contra el Golpe de Estado).

We came to this place to rest, all the while knowing that at any moment the military and the police could enter the perimeter where we, around 5000 people, are to protect President Manuel Zelaya.

They attacked at 5:45am with guns and teargas. They killed an undetermined number of comrades from the first barricade at the end of the Guantaste bridge. They also surrounded and attacked the barricade of La Reforma bridge.

After doing approximate calculations, the militant operation counted with around 1000 active policemen and militaries.

They cornered and beat up. 18 were severely hurt and taken to the Escuela Hospital. In Barrio Morazan and in Barrio Guadalupe, they are still hunting down the brave students that organized the precarious barricades.

At this moment it is 8am. In front of Brazil’s embassy they now placed a loudspeaker which is blasting the national anthem while they search the houses that border the embassy. They threw teargas bombs inside the embassy. The president remains inside threatened by the coup participants that have explained to the media the “legal” reasons for searching these homes.

Thousands of people that were heading towards the city of Tegucigalpa (where the Brazilian embassy which is where Zelaya is) have been detained all around the city. The city is completely empty: a ghost town. The curfew has been extended to entire day.

The repression against defenseless protestors was brutal. In various occasions, Globo Radio and Channel 36 were taken off the air.

Hundreds have been imprisoned.

We are alienated.

Here we are, the principal members of the planning of great cultural events of resistance: poets, singers, musicians, photographers, film makers, painters…humans.


Read an interview with President Zelaya on his return.