From Honduras to Maricopa County: Golpistas and Arpaio

Press Conference

and

Public Protest

From Honduras to Maricopa County

From the World Bank to Wells Fargo

From the Assasins of the School of the Americas to Ass..... of the MCSO Sheriff's Office

 Friday 10:00 AM to 12:00 NOON

Wells Fargo Towers Downtown Phoenix
1st Avenue and Washington

! Press Conference and Community Protest !

 
  
A community protest and press conference upon the 4th anniversary of the coup d' etat in Honduras and the MCSO/Arpaio training of Honduran National Police: CALL TO ACCOUNTABILITY!

The MILITARIZATION of AMERICA: Doctrine of Discovery 1492 - Papal Bull Inter Caetera 1493 - Waldseemuller Map of "America" 1507 - Requierimiento 1513 – Johnson v. M’Intosh (SCOTUS) and the Monroe Doctrine 1823 – Manifest Destiny 1874 - Treaty of Paris  (US-Spain) Transfer of Power from Divine Right of Kings to the Divine Right of States 1898 - Roosevelt “Big Stick” Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine 1904 – Establishment of the School of the Americas in Panama 1946 –Battalion 3-16 of the Honduran Army, Torture and Death Squad, establish with support and Training of the CIA 1982 - NAFTA 1994 – War on Terror 2001 – Arpaio in Honduras (Bay Area Sister Cities Project) 2007 - Reactivation of the US Navy 4^th Fleet, whose theater of operations is the “Americas” Uncle Sam’s “Backyard” 2008 – CIA: School of the Americas graduates illegally topple President Mel Zelaya of Honduras 2009

NOW:

La Bestia Migrant Train in Chiapas, Mexico receives the constant infusion of blood, extortion, violence and abuse that is fomented by the social turmoil in the Central American Republics of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras engineered with the US backed military and  Intelligence Gathering apparatus, while Indigenous Peoples continue to be  the first and least protected victims of the IILLEGAL INVASION of the Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, the Mayflower: The NAFTA and the NARCO.

SOA graduate involved in criminalization of Indigenous leader Berta Caceres

On Friday, May 24, Berta Caceres, the General Coordinator of the Indigenous Lenca organization COPINH, and Tomas Gomez of COPINH’s community radio station, were traveling on rural dirt roads to reach the Indigenous Lenca community of Rio Blanco when they were stopped by 15-20 soldiers. The whole area had been militarized just two weeks before in response to the area-wide mobilization against a hydroelectric dam being illegally built in the Indigenous Lenca community of Rio Blanco. The First Battalion of Engineers, commanded by an SOA graduate, occupied the area to protect the interests of the company and enable dam construction to continue in direct violation of ILO Convention 169 and the will of the communities in the area.

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For immediate release    June 29, 2013

Contact: Hendrik Voss

202-425-5128, hvoss@soaw.org

4 years after the SOA Graduate-Led Coup

Repression and Resistance in Honduras Continues

What: A direct action outside the World Bank 1818 H St NW, Washington DC

When: Friday June 28 12:30-1:30

Why: This week marks the 4th anniversary of the coup in Honduras (as well as the popular resistance against it). The World Bank, like the U.S., has been very friendly with the coup government and power elite. Specifically, the World Bank extended a $30 million loan to the Dinant Corporation, whose paramilitary has killed at least 40 people, mostly small farmers struggling for their right to land, in the Bajo Aguan region. At least another 60 civilians have also been killed in this same region-- where Dinant and others are engaged in land grabs from small farmers -- by a combination of military, police, and private forces like Dinant's. 

The World Bank's International Finance Corporation also extended a $70 million loan to Honduras' FICOHSA Bank, whose President was one of the “intellectual authors and financers of the coup d’etat.” FICOHSA is financing an illegal dam project in Indigenous Lenca territory, where the population now faces death threats, militarization, and illegal evictions. To illustrate the link between government, international financial institutions, and corporations in the murder and repression of Hondurans, we'll uncelebrate the 4th anniversary of the coup outside the doors of an international financial institution that continues to underwrite the bloodshed.

Who: the action is being organized by School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots Latin America solidarity and anti-militarization movement based in Petworth, DC. Soaw.org

How to get involved: contact owen@soaw.org or show up on Friday

Recent Developments

Four years after the military coup in Honduras, pressure continues to mount on the Hondurans directly responsible and the international actors who enable them. On June 18, 21 U.S. Senators sent a letter to the State Department urging Sec. Kerry to reevaluate aid to Honduran military and police forces. Including arms sales, this aid was in excess of $1.4 billion dollars since the coup.

The World Bank has also come under scrutiny for a $30 million loan to the Honduras-based Dinant Corporation, whose paramilitary security forces have perpetrated dozens of murders as well as other human rights abuses. On March 19, an Open Letter from by 17 NGOs and an international petition signed by over 63,000 people was delivered to the World Bank calling for a cessation of the Bank’s support for Dinant. Today, activists are gathering in front of the World Bank’s Washington, D.C. headquarters to mark the 4 year anniversary of the Honduran coup and decry the violence underwritten by both the World Bank and the Obama Administration. Other similar actions will take place across the U.S.

Background

Following the June 28, 2009 military coup led by School of the Americas graduates, state forces murdered, tortured, beaten, and disappeared civilians. There were curfews, restrictions on movement, and media blackouts. Today, repression of social movements and targeted assassinations continue and violence has spiraled out of control. Honduras now has the world's highest murder rate. Honduran human rights organizations report there have been over 10,000 human rights violations by state security forces and impunity is the norm – most murders go unpunished. The Associated Press has repeatedly exposed ties between the Honduran police and death squads. A new political party, LIBRE, has grown out of the Honduran resistance to the coup and LIBRE politicians and leaders also face death threats and murders as the November elections near. With LIBRE is currently ahead in the polls, the letter from 21 U.S. Senators specifically urges Sec. Kerry to do everything in his power to ensure fair and free elections on November 24^th.

Links:  

Key leaders of Honduras military coup trained in U.S.

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The 15th Battalion of Honduras 

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Cardin Leads Senate Call For Accountability In Honduras For Human Rights Violations

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Honduras: When will the US stop funding death squads?

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Defending Rio Blanco: Three Weeks of the Lenca Community Roadblock