Honduran Priest Says Cops Tortured Him

[Judi Lynn]

Caracas,
Monday
January 9,2012

Honduran Priest Says Cops Tortured Him


TEGUCIGALPA – A priest in western Honduras filed a criminal complaint accusing eight police officers of torturing him and two of his brothers.

The incident took place Dec. 26, the Rev. Marco Aurelio Lorenzo told reporters as he was living the prosecutor’s office in the northern city of San Pedro Sula.

Lorenzo, the pastor of Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Macuelizo, said he and his brothers were traveling to visit their parents the day after Christmas when they decided to pull over for a rest.

While sitting in their vehicle at the side of the road, the three men were accosted by eight police officers.

More:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=458993&CategoryId=23558

[Peace Patriot]

1. "Lorenzo is known in ... Honduras for his activism on behalf of human rights and the environment."

"Lorenzo is known in western Honduras for his activism on behalf of human rights and the environment.

The Honduran national police force is already under pressure after cops have been caught engaging in drug trafficking, extortion and auto theft.

Demands for a thorough overhaul of the force intensified after eight police were named as the chief suspects in the Oct. 22 murders of two unarmed college students who were killed while driving home from a party.

One of the victims was the son of Julieta Castellanos, chancellor of the National Autonomous University of Honduras." --from the OP

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This was not random violence. This was targeted violence of the kind that we have seen in that other U.S. "free trade for the rich" state, Colombia. The U.S.-supported coup in Honduras has unleashed the powers of darkness to threaten, intimidate, torture and kill those who question Corporate/War Profiteer Rule. Many thousands of people--trade unionists and other advocates of the poor--have been murdered, in Colombia, by the U.S.-funded and trained Colombian military and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads. And now this horrible phenomenon is at work in Honduras.

It seems that wherever the U.S. "military-industrial complex" gains a foothold, elections are rigged, the rightwing takes over and murder, oppression, social chaos and the empowerment of selected criminal networks are the result. A similar process is under way in Mexico, instigated by the rightwing government and the U.S. "war on drugs" establishment. There, too, there is widespread suspicion that the election of Calderon was rigged (with the help of the Bush Junta). The Bush Junta then infused billions of our tax dollars into Mexico to create a "drug war" that needn't have been and to bolster fascist forces within democratic Mexico. It is so bad that a commission of former presidents of Mexico recommended the legalization of marijuana and re-thinking the entire "war on drugs."

But the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" goes on and on and on. The Pentagon is now building more bases in Honduras in its name, after funding and mentoring the Colombian military in how to use the "war on drugs" for fascist ends. I don't think they have any intention to stop the drug trade. It is great cover for murdering leftists and humanitarians, stealing peasant lands, intimidating all and profiting from illicit trade of various kinds, including the BILLIONS of our tax dollars WASTED on the "war on drugs."

And now that the Pentagon has secured its military foothold in Honduras and is expanding that foothold, and has its rightwing coup government in place, Honduras has become the most notorious transit point for the cocaine from Colombia moving north. The horrible loop of the "war on drugs" is complete. It is used as the excuse for robbing us blind and oppressing others; and it always results in yet more excuses to rob us blind and oppress others. Both the drug trade and the "war" on the drug trade never end! It is a Mobius Strip of corruption and oppression.

And this priest and his brothers got caught on that dreadful loop and were lucky to escape with their lives. Perhaps the thugs doing the dirty work for the U.S. and its rightwing puppets in Honduras had a seizure of conscience. (They took Fr. Lorenzo and his brothers to the hospital--though Fr. Lorenzo states that the perps did not realize that he was a priest until they got to the hospital.) Such incidents most often result in murder, with hundreds of examples of people like Fr. Lorenzo in Honduras--activists for the poor or human rights or environmental concerns or mere truth (journalists)--ending up dead.

This is the result of U.S./Corporate domination. They are trying to decapitate the unions in Honduras--to create an intimidated, slave work force--and to silence all advocates of the poor. This was CLEARLY the intent of the coup against Mel Zelaya, who was allied with the labor unions. And now we are seeing the result of that destruction of Honduran democracy--in weekly, if not daily, reports, scattered here and there in the newstream, of rampant political violence and murder in Honduras.

[Judi Lynn]

2. More: Honduras: police torture priest and his brothers

Honduras: police torture priest and his brothers

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 13:14. Marco Aurelio Lorenzo, a Catholic priest based in the western Honduran department of Santa Bárbara, filed a criminal complaint with the Public Ministry on Jan. 4 charging that he and his two brothers had been tortured by eight police agents. Lorenzo said the attack occurred on Dec. 26 on a road between La Esperanza and San Miguelito, Intibucá department, as the brothers were driving to visit their parents in Yamaranguila, also in Intibucá. "They beat us on every part of our bodies," Lorenzo told reporters after filing the charges in the northern city of San Pedro Sula.

The new accusation against the police follows several months of media reports about police involvement in corruption, drug trafficking, auto theft and murders, including the Oct. 22 killing of two college students. (EFE, Jan. 4, via Univision, Jan. 5, via Latin American Herald Tribune)

Lorenzo is known for his activism in defense of the environment. He was arrested and beaten by police agents on July 17, 2007, after a peaceful protest against open-pit mining, and he was beaten by three unidentified men on Aug. 13, 2004. The Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) is demanding that the Honduran government take measures to guarantee the physical integrity of Lorenzo and his brothers and their access to justice, without allowing reprisals against them. The human rights organization asks for letters to be sent to Honduran officials, including Supreme Court President Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés ([e-mail]) and Public Prosecutions Director ([e-mail]), with copies to COFADEH ([e-mail]). (Alliance for Global Justice alert, Jan. 5)

http://ww4report.com/node/10714