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Six years after the destitution of democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya, the perpetrators of the coup are still in power, while human rights violations are more common than ever. The current government has ignored the ongoing protests by social organizations and movements. Only a few months after the Zelaya was ousted, the World Bank awarded a US$15 million loan to the Honduran corporation Grupo Dinant, indirectly legitimizing the 2009 coup.
Menwhile, violence and poverty rates have skyrocketted in the country: 60 percent of Hondurans live below the poverty line, making it one of the poorest nations in the region. It is also the most deadly, with about 85 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Murders target vulnerable populations like children (alomst 1,000 died in 2014, partly explaining why so many flee north to the United States), women (the femicide rate has reached epidemic levels – one woman is killed every 14 hours), and activists: Honduras is the most dangerous place for environmentalists (over 100 killed between 2010 and 2014) and journalists (29 killed since the coup) and rural leaders.
However, the political elites are more delegitimized than ever, after the explosion of a corruption scandal. Tens of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets demanding the president's dismissal and he finally admitted that his 2013 presidential campaign had received funds from the companies linked to the scandal.
Honduran Democracy Still in Crisis 6 Years After Coup – Six years ago Sunday, a U.S.-backed military coup ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, flying him to exile in Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning on June 28. Since the coup, the human rights situation in Honduras has deteriorated drastically, earning the monicker of the “murder capital of the world.” Read more…
Disaster Capitalism and Outrage in Post-Coup Honduras – While tracing the trajectory of individual actors is important, it cannot adequately capture the scope of the ongoing damage of the 2009 coup. The main function of the coup was to open the floodgates for neoliberal plunder. Like most disasters these days, the coup was man-made, and has played out as a textbook example of disaster capitalism at its worst. Read more...
On the human rights situation…
Violence in Honduras Since the 2009 Coup – Today Honduras is recognized as one of the most violent countries in the world, with the highest per capita murder ratio in the Western hemisphere. Read more ...
Dangerous Diplomacy: US Praises Mexico and Honduras, Targets Venezuela – President Barack Obama declared Venezuela an “extraordinary threat to national security” March 9 on the basis of alleged human rights abuses and political corruption. Read more ...
From Reagan to Obama: Forced Disappearances in Honduras – The 1980s saw widespread political violence and countless forced disappearances in many countries in Latin America, and Honduras was no exception. Read more …
Honduras Sees Freedom of Expression Plummet – There are almost 15 assaults per month against journalists, opposition supporters, human rights defenders and artists in Honduras. Read more …
Honduras: The Most Dangerous Place for Environmental Activists – Between 2010 and 2014, 101 activists were murdered in Honduras, the highest rate per capita of any country surveyed in a report by Global Witness. Read more …
On government corruption…
Washington Complicit in Honduras' Corruption Scandal – Corruption is too deeply entrenched in Honduras to entrust its ouster to the very actors that benefit from its largesse. Read more …
Honduras Police Clean Up Declared a Failure – The strategy of tackling corruption and criminality was launched after police agents, killed a group of university students in 2012. Read more …
Post-coup resistance…
In Honduras Communities Fight for Their Territory – Campesinos and community movements in Honduras presented their claims and denounced the repression. Read more …
Honduran Movements Slam Campesino Repression in Land Fight – Honduras' largest landowner, responsible for grave abuses of campesinos, died this week in the lead-up to the anniversary of the coup he supported. Read more …
teleSUR Investigation: Garifuna at the Forefront of the Honduran Resistance – The implications of a neoliberal project in Honduras have abandoneds any political agenda respecting and guaranteeing indigenous peoples' rights. The Garifuna's struggle is opening the door at an international level as they challenge a growing transnational tourist economy. Read more
teleSUR Investigation: Garifuna Take on Mega-Tourism, Displacement and Organized Crime in Honduras. – Indigenous and subsistence farmer communities face incredible repression in Honduras. They are systematically intimidated off their lands by the state, foreign investors as well as drug traffickers and are constantly under the threat of eviction. Read more …
Imaginary Lines looks at Honduras:
