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On Sept. 30, police and army forces raided the facilities of the National
Agricultural Institute (INA) in Tegucigalpa and arrested the 55 people who were
occupying the building. Several peasant organizations had taken the facilities
as a form of protest against the coup, with the support of the National
Agricultural Institute Workers’ Union (SITRAINA), an IUF affiliate. Now they are
being penalized by the country’s judicial system for defending the constitution.
“Inhumane” is
the most accurate term to describe the conditions in which the police held these
38 people, who are members of the country’s three leading peasant confederations
(COCOCH, CHMC and CNC). For 48 hours they were locked up
for in a small 15x15 meter cell at the First Metropolitan Police Station, better
known as the Seventh Regional Command (CORE-7) of
Tegucigalpa.
Sirel
gained exclusive access to the police facilities, thanks to efforts by the
Commission of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH),
and was able to speak with the detainees before they were transferred to the
National Penitentiary, located in the town of Támara.
“We’re being
unjustly charged with the crime of “sedition,” a crime we have not committed; so
that make us political prisoners. Yesterday, Oct. 1, at noon, we began a hunger
strike, and we’ll be staying on a liquid-only diet indefinitely. Maybe this way
we’ll get some justice,” said Ramón Adalberto Díaz, one of the 38 people
detained, who was chosen as the group’s spokesperson.
“They’re
holding us in inhumane conditions, packed like animals in a small, pitch-dark
cell. We have no electricity, there are only two toilets, and we’re forced to
sleep on the floor. We haven’t been able to wash for two days, and the heat is
suffocating.”
“The
International Red Cross came to see us today,” Díaz continued, “and we
asked them to deliver a petition to the police chief requesting that we be
allowed to shower or clean ourselves.”
“The only
ventilation we have is from a small window and two holes in the concrete
ceiling, which are opened manually. The bars on the main door of the cell were
recently painted and give off foul fumes,” Díaz said describing the
conditions they were in.
“In the first
hearing, the judge did not act with impartiality. He denied us bail, forcing us
to stay locked up for six days while we wait for the preliminary hearing.”
“We’ve already
organized ourselves, and formed different committees -Discipline, Food, Health
and Press. We’ve also named a general coordinator: Leonel Cruz Padilla.”
“Our resistance
will be historical. We’re asking the world to reach out and help us, reporting
what we’re going through and pressuring for justice,” Ramón Adalberto Díaz
concluded.
The prisoners
issued a statement in which they expressed concern for their physical safety,
called for the enforcement of Decree 18/2008 and the reinstatement of democracy,
and demanded a fair trial and due process.
A few hours
before they were transferred to the Támara National Penitentiary -a decision
prompted by a request from Deputy Chief Flores, who considered that the
CORE-7 facilities were inadequate to hold so many people- the detainees
asked to see a doctor, as many of them were suffering from different complaints.
As for the
other 17 people who were arrested at INA headquarters, 13 of them -six
women, two minors, and five men- were released on bail, and placed under
COFADEH’s care, while four workers who are members of SITRAINA were
set free.
Luis Santos
Madrid,
general secretary of SITRAINA, reported that the trade union is already
working to make sure no repressive measures are taken against it members.
Judicial repression
As a way of
countering this new strategy aimed at leaving the Resistance movement without
leaders and spreading terror among the protesters who have been mobilizing for
the past 96 days, COFADEH and the group “Lawyers United Against the Coup”
announced that they will appeal the decision issued by Judge Laura Castro
against the teacher Agustina Flores López, who is Bertha Cáceres’
sister. Cáceres is a prominent activist, member of the Executive
Committee of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of
Honduras (COPINH) and one of the leaders of the National Front Against
the Coup.
In a press
release issued Oct. 1, the lawyers’ group denounced “a number of irregularities
in the proceeding that led to (the teacher’s) imprisonment on charges of
sedition,” and informed that they will “appeal the prison sentence and request a
review of the measures ordered against the teacher, which render her a political
prisoner of the current de facto government of Roberto Micheletti.”
The Resistance supports the political prisoners
In line with
its actions throughout the three months of struggle, the National Front
Against the Coup expressed its full solidarity with the INA political
prisoners.
It called
demonstrators to rally in front of the facilities of Channel 36, which was
recently closed down by the de facto government, but a huge police action
stopped them from coming near the site.
So the hundreds
of protesters marched instead to the U.S. embassy, defying the Executive
Decree that curtails individual and collective rights of Hondurans, carrying
signs and painted cloths demanding the immediate release of the unjustly jailed
activists.
Despite the military presence, the demonstrators marched to CORE-7,
chanting their support for the prisoners, and concluded their march at the
central park of Tegucigalpa.
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