Here is a collection of (mostly non-mainstream) articles that I found interesting about events in Honduras in 2009, compiled from my daylogs which were in turn compiled from various other sources. Many of these articles were written by socialist / democratic socialist reporters. While I consider myself to have more anarchist leanings, that doesn't mean I automatically see their reporting as useless simply based on differences in political preference.
(May 17) Special Forces briefing to Congressman Miller exposes involvement in 19 Latin American countries during 2009 including Honduras
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Special_Forces_briefing_to_Congressman_Miller_exposes_involvement_in_19_Latin_American_countries_during_2009_including_Honduras%2C_17_May_2009
"On page 7 of the document, it is proudly proclaimed that the 7h Special Forces Group has conducted missions in every Latin American country. On page 10 a map is given, revealing Special Forces deployments to 19 Latin American countries during 2009 alone, including two bases or missions in Honduras."
(July 1) Three major unions launch strike against current Honduran regime
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/30/honduras.political.turmoil/
About 100,000 workers joined the strike, said Oscar Garcia... "It will be an indefinite strike," Garcia said. "We don't recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy..."
(July 1) The US and the Honduran coup
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j01.shtml
"A US official speaking anonymously confirmed to the New York Times that US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas A. Shannon, Jr. and US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens spoke to military officials and opposition leaders in the days before the coup. He explained: There was talk of how they might remove the president from office, how he could be arrested, on whose authority they could do that."
(July 5) Honduras
http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot.com/2009/07/tragedy-at-toncontin-army-shoots-and.html
A word is worth a thousand pictures. More from another blog.
(July 20) Honduras: Father speaks of his dead son before being arrested
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/hond-j20.shtml
Obed Murillo's father, David Murillo, described his son as a person who was "self-educated in the principles of social rights... He never compromised his principles... His death, his leaving us, hurts me deeply, but I am proud that he did not die while committing a crime or out of drunkenness, but because he fought against repression."
(July 21) Honduras: Employers force employees to join pro-coup marches
http://cupe.ca/updir/CODEMUH-statement-forced-marches.pdf
...employers then order them to work an extra day to make up for lost time.
(July 24) General strike in Honduras
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/julio/vier24/Honduras.html
"a new problem has presented itself to the de facto government... police discontent over delays in paying their wages... has provoked a strike"
(August 3) Honduras: Teacher Stabbed to Death Leaving Another Teacher's Wake
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47950
"High school teacher Roger Vallejo, who was shot in the head when the police broke up a roadblock... died after two days in intensive care. Another teacher, Martin Florencio Rivera, was stabbed to death after leaving Vallejo's wake Saturday... the authorities say 260 demonstrations, roadblocks and public sector strikes have been held around the country"
(August 11) Honduras: Coup regime fires local staff of hospital. Doctors / nurses ignore their orders.
http://www.medicc.org/ns/index.php?s=22
"The hospital and its community health outreach are supported by a number of U.S. and other international organizations, including the Sacramento, California Central Labor Council, Global Links, The Birthing Project, and MEDICC. Several US medical schools also have cooperative arrangements with the Garifuna hospital, including Johns Hopkins, Emory, Charles Drew and University of California (SF)."
(August 12) Honduras: "It all appeared staged"
http://www.revleft.com/vb/honduras-second-frontline-t115106/index.html
it took the firefighters more than one hour to get to the scene of the fires -- time to keep all the media cameras rolling... all night and all morning the only media story in the mainstream press was the "violence and terrorism" perpetrated by Zelaya's "handful of goons." There was nothing in the media... about the mass march of tens of thousands of people
(August 20) 'Hundreds of Hondurans brutally beaten by police'
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/layout/set/print/layout/set/print/content/view/full/79601
"A Chilean photojournalist said that about 20 police surrounded him, demanded his camera and beat him when he refused to give it up."
(September 14) Honduras: resistance against the coup grows
http://www.marxist.com/honduras-resistance-coup-boycott-elections.htm
"On September 1, the IMF announced that Honduras had been allocated $163 million in Special Drawing Rights. This lead to an uproar of criticism of the IMF, which was then forced to do a partial retreat... the question of socialism, which was completely absent from the discussions before the coup, has now penetrated popular consciousness... In their desperation, the oligarchy is increasingly resorting to paramilitary means of repression. Already a number of prominent activists have been killed using death squad methods."
(September 22) Barrios y Colonias de Tegucigalpa se Revelan contra toque de queda en Honduras
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YartPc2UBjI
Video of Hondurans defying the curfew.
(September 23) Honduras: Regime resorts to repression - Insurrection in working class neighbourhoods
http://www.marxist.com/honduras-regime-repression-insurrection.htm
"hundreds of heavily armed agents of the anti-riot police and the army, with armoured cars, tear gas and live ammunition, attacked the 5,000 people who still remained outside the (Brazilian) embassy... More than 200 people were arrested and taken to the Chochi Sosa stadium, in scenes reminiscent of those of the National Stadium in Chile after Pinochet's coup... The list of places where people resisted repression, defied the curfew and in some cases chased away the police and the army is long."
(September 24) Honduras: Police even beating those passing by to buy provisions
http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1557135&postcount=24
Hooded men with firearms are "hunting" people in the avenues and in the area surrounding the Embassy. ...there are some settlements of the country where not even the army was able to enter.
(September 25) Another teacher killed in post-coup violence
http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1098&theme=rights&country=honduras
"Murillo was also a key witness to the murder of fellow teacher Roger Vallejo"
(October 1) Honduras: Interview with Juan Barahona
http://links.org.au/node/1286
"We just received good news from the US. They have informed us that the dockers have decided to boycott the unloading of products from the maquiladoras (sweat shops) here. This is a good blow to the business owners. If it wasn't for the business owners and the right wing in Latin America, there would be no coup in Honduras."
(November 27) Election in Honduras: Witch hunt against opposition to ruling regime
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/hond-n27.shtml
"mayors have reportedly been ordered by the armed forces to draw up lists of people considered to be opponents of the elections for possible detention... government will criminally prosecute anyone in the media who advocates a boycott of the November 29 vote... incursion of cars bearing no license plates and with tinted windows, driven by heavily armed subjects, with their faces covered in ski masks in the neighborhoods identified with resistance to the coup."
(November 30) Election in Honduras: Army jams opposition radio
http://www.marxist.com/honduras-election-repression-boycott-resistance.htm
"On election day itself, a bomb went off outside the offices of the Women's Rights Centre in San Pedro Sula. The headquarters of STIBYS, the trade union of beverage workers... were attacked with machine gun fire in a drive by shooting... radio station Canal 36... 80% of the time is off the air, because the Army is broadcasting a powerful signal on the same wavelength, particularly when the station is broadcasting news or opinions against the de facto government"
(December 1) Election in Honduras: Soldiers ordered to destroy opposition to sham election
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/hond-d01.shtml
"Over 1,000 people had marched to the central plaza and the San Pedro Sula Cathedral, where they sang the national anthem and carried crosses memorializing the dozens who have been killed during the last five months of repression... the soldiers set to work demolishing a truck that had carried sound equipment and posters protesting the illegitimate vote."
(December 6) Honduran elections exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_0uJqoVtI
A high ranking official at the election tribunal told me off camera that the president of the tribunal, Saul Escobar, on the night of the election, announced the number out of nowhere. When I asked the official to say that on camera, they responded, "Do you really want me to get shot?"
(December 7) Honduras: An election validated through blood and repression
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MW9i2M5UE
"the electoral process is being run by the same assassins of our people... the only glass breaking we observed that day was done by the police themselves"
(December 14) Honduran Resistance Movement Member Decapitated in Recent Wave of Repression
http://www.quixote.org/honduran-resistance-movement-member-decapitated-recent-wave-repression
"A member of the Resistance Front against the Coup was decapitated Friday night presumably by the police under orders of the de facto regime... Corrales had been detained on December 5th by five people wearing DNIC uniforms (National Criminal Investigation Division) carrying Galil machine guns and 9mm revolvers in a neighborhood in the south of Tegucigalpa..."
(December 16) Daughter of Controversial Journalist murdered in Tegucigalpa
http://www.quixote.org/daughter-controversial-journalist-murdered-tegucigalpa
"the daughter of controversial journalist Karol Cabrera was murdered by unidentified individuals on a motorcycle. Cabrera works for Channel 8, a state channel which changed administration after the military coup detat on June 28th. The unidentified individuals fired on 16 year old Catherine Nicolle Rodriquez Cabrera who was seven months pregnant."
(December 17) With "Enemies" Like This, Who Needs Friends?
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23384
"Obama administration has never condemned the massive human rights violations... documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as Honduran, European, and other human rights organizations. There have been thousands of illegal arrests, beatings and torture by police and military, the closing down of independent radio and TV stations, and even some killings of peaceful demonstrators and opposition activists."
(December 21) Urgent Action Alert for Honduras
http://www.quixote.org/urgent-action-alert-honduras
Emboldened by the United States endorsement of the November 29th “elections,” the state terror apparatus in Honduras has ramped up its grisly repression. There has been a spike in targeted murders and abductions following the November 29th “electoral event” ...Dec. 6th Death Squad style killing of five members of the resistance movement in the Villanueva neighborhood of Tegucigalpa... Dec. 14th Death of teacher/activist Karen Hernandez Mondragon after fatal shooting... Dec. 17th Abduction of two members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan, MUCA in Sinaloa, Colón on Wednesday morning by four hooded men.
(December 22) Honduras: The Coup That Never Happened
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/290.php
"state henchmen shot Alejandro Villatoro, the owner of Radio Globo – one of the few media outlets brave enough to speak out against the coup... Radio Globo had by that point resorted almost exclusively to broadcasting online from secret locations... Some, like Canal 36, have shut down altogether after having equipment destroyed, signals interrupted, offices ransacked and editors assassinated."
(December 23) Killing Activists in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2278/1/
"Wendy Molina, 32, was shot several times and played dead when one of the assassins pulled her hair, checking to see if anyone in the group was still alive. She was taken to the hospital and survived... those fearful for their lives cannot report to the police. Complaints they file... could soon become signatures to their own death letters."
See also:
Honduras 2010