Honduras

A military coup, backed by the United States, ousted a democratically elected government in Honduras on June 28, 2009. It has arrested, without trial, thousands of democracy activists. More than 50 activists from the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) have been killed, and there are more than 100 other violent deaths related to the coup and curfews. The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trangender and intersex (LGBTI) community is being particularly targeted.
Repression and resistance. These two words sum up Honduras today. There is truly terrible repression — reminiscent of the Central American “dirty wars” run by US-trained militaries in the 1980s. But there is also unprecedented resistance that has mobilised a previously compliant majority. This is the situation that exists in the aftermath of the June 28 military coup last year that overthrew the elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya’s crime was to agree to the demands of a united front of social movements to start a democratic process of writing a new constitution
The article below is abridged from the September 24 column by former Cuban president Fidel Castro.