The eyewitness account of events in Honduras on July 30 is by Al Giordano. It is abridged from Rightsaction.org. Hundreds of activists have been arrested by the illegal coup regime that overthrew Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28 and an unknown number assassinated.
On July 30, military and police carried out a nationwide violent crackdown on peaceful protesters demanding Zelaya's return since the coup. Many were injured, 38-year-old Abraham Vallejo Cerrado was shot and killed, and a number of activists are being hunted by the military.
In an appeal for solidarity, Fausto Torrez, from the farmers' rights organisation Via Campesina, said: "Today, July 30, since the early hours of the morning, the combined forces of the police and the army have been carrying out the most violent repression to date against unarmed protesters. There are many injured people, some very severely, and others being pursued at this moment.
"The state of barbarism continues. We need to urgent actions to denounce what is going as peaceful protesters are being violently beaten at this very moment in various parts of Honduras. They are launching tear gas from helicopters and shooting rubber bullets at the people.
"Please, we must stop the military violence against the people, to avoid more tragic outcomes."
Torrez asked people to send messages of protest to the coup-installed dictator Roberto Micheletti, <
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Approaching a road blockade by pro-Zelaya protesters about 80 kilometres out of the capital city Tegucigalpa, the first signs came in the form of tractor trailers, miles and miles of them, easily thousands, laden with melons and pineapples and bananas and sports apparel manufactured in the factories to the north, frozen in place, engines turned off, on the side of the road.
It was 1pm on July 30 and there were no cars or trucks coming from the other direction. The road blockade had been in place since early morning.
At a stretch of the road at the bottom of the miles-long hill stood 300 or more military soldiers, National Police and specialised riot police. They stood alongside the remains of burning matter, rocks and other debris that had just been cleared.
The terrible sting of teargas clung to nostrils and throats and burned the eyes. But no remaining protesters could be seen anywhere.
The ANSA press agency later said that here, in Cuesta de la Virgen, the coup regime's show of force against the non-violent blockaders wrought a toll of 156 arrests, including three seriously wounded.
In the same hour, Radio Globo said that the violent repression against peaceful demonstrators was nationwide.
Roger Abraham Vallejo Cerrado, 38, secretary of the San Martín high school, who had participated in a different anti-coup demonstration in Tegucigalpa, was shot in the head.
Another 88 arrests and 25 wounded was the body count from the illegitimate state repression on this same road, at El Durazno, five kilometres from the capital.
Among the arrested was presidential candidate Carlos Reyes, beaten violently by the coup soldiers, left with a broken arm and a bloodied ear. Also arrested was national union leader Juan Barahona.
The news team from a Venezuelan state TV channel was physically attacked by the police.
Those are just a few glimpses from the ground level in a country occupied by a military coup regime.
The full toll of Thursday, Bloody Thursday in Honduras has not yet been counted.
"They treated us like animals", Baranhona told Prensa Latina, while under arrest. The "forces of order" pursued and brutally beat the multitude in many locations across the land that had, for the fifth time in three weeks, successfully blockaded the key points of the country's major arteries for most of the business day.
The civil resistance to the Honduran coup is visibly growing in size, organisational capacity and geographical scope. Today was the first time the people had put up a blockade in Cuesta de la Virgen.
Despite the bloody repression — more likely because of it — don't make any bets that it will be the last.