Trampling on Honduran democracy

[Louisiana1976]

On Sunday, Honduras's coup regime, with the support of the US, is staging a presidential election of a special kind. Voters will have a choice of two candidates: the coup supporter Porfirio Lobo or the coup supporter Elvin Santos. The anti-coup candidate, Carlos Reyes, has withdrawn his nomination and condemned the election as fraudulent.

"Cash discounts" will be offered to anyone who can prove they voted, courtesy of the country's coup-supporting big business federation. Trade unions and social movements calling for a boycott of the election are facing mafia-style threats, with the regime's chief of police boasting that he has compiled a blacklist of "all those of the left". "We removed the so-called head , and we know everyone, from A to Z, that forms part of these groups."

Those on the blacklist have good cause to be concerned. Since Zelaya was overthrown by the military in June, 4,000 people have been arrested, hundreds beaten and hospitalised and dozens charged with sedition. Yet more have been kidnapped, raped, tortured, "disappeared" and assassinated.

Independent media has fared little better. Anti-coup TV and radio stations have been raided by the army and forced off air; their broadcasting equipment confiscated or destroyed with acid. In one case, journalists leapt from third-floor windows to escape the soldiers.

snip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/26/honduras-democracy-election-us

[leftstreet]

1. Yeah but, but...that Adam Lambert guy kissed some dude, or something

Interesting article. Loved the last paragraph:

In this most conservative of central American nations, a historically passive population has been galvanised into political action on an unprecedented scale. Here in Honduras, the resistance movement says with well-founded confidence, nobody surrenders.

K&R

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks, Louisiana1976. People need to hear the facts. n/t