IFCO/Pastors for Peace Calls on President Obama: Don't Support the Illegal Coup Regime in Honduras, Don't Recognize the Nov. 29th Elections
Waldina Mejia, spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance and
Manolo De Los Santos of Pastors for Peace are available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Under the glare of international condemnation, the illegal coup government and the military in Honduras have decreed a state of emergency as they move forward toward elections on Sunday, November 29th.
Resistance forces who are calling for the reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya have continued street demonstrations for the past 148 days. They remain steadfast against any election without Zelaya’s reinstatement and are calling for the immediate end to violence and repression by the coup regime.
“Elections under these conditions would be an act of fraud against the people of Honduras,” said Dr. Luther Castillo, a young Garifuna (African and indigenous descendant) physician from the Atlantic Coast region of Honduras, who is secretary of communications for the National Resistance Front Against the Coup.
Castillo reports that a new wave of repression has been unleashed by the coup regime. “The military has attacked our Garifuna Community Hospital, and arrested many peaceful demonstrators.”
“These elections are illegal because they were called by an unconstitutional government. They were set up to legitimize the illegal coup against the constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya” said Waldina Mejia, a spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance, who is currently in the US.
The National Resistance Front Against the Coup is calling for the international community not to recognize the election and to support the restoration of their constitution and their duly elected government.
They are also calling for a constitutional assembly to respond to the letters from 600,000 marginalized Hondurans who want equal treatment under the law in their own country.
The US State Department has said that the US will recognize the results of the November 29th elections. The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (both conservative think tanks who were active in destabilizing the region in the 1980’s) are sending observers to the elections, indicating that they recognize them as legitimate and not the farce elections that they are.
"We support the people of Honduras and the Honduran resistance in protesting the continuing repression, the illegal coup and the fraudulent elections in Honduras. An election held at gunpoint cannot be free and fair,” said Manolo de Los Santos, spokesperson for IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE
418 West 145th Street, 3-FL.
New York NY 10031
tel: 212.926.5757 - fax 212.926.5842 - e-mail ifco@igc.org
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