Honduran congresswoman speaks about the dictatorship

By Belén Fernández, Special to The Narco News Bulletin:

AUGUST 30, 2009, SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS: Congresswoman Silvia Ayala of the anti-coup Unificación Democrática (UD) Party had just returned from Mexico and was en route to the Dominican Republic, part of a trajectory aimed at strengthening international condemnation of the June 28 coup d’etat against President Mel Zelaya. She made time to speak with me at a cafeteria in the northwestern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and arrived with her husband and two children, who alternately contributed anecdotes to the discussion, answered Ayala’s cell phone, and—in the case of her young son—drew pictures in a notebook.

A lawyer herself, Ayala announced that about 200 Honduran attorneys had actively joined the coup resistance despite the general alliance between Honduran law school faculties and the political right. The Spanish description of the alliance exploits the homophonic similarity between derecho—law—and derecha, right, with additional Spanish homophony made possible by the arrival that day of Judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain to investigate coup regime violations of derechos humanos, human rights.

Such derechos had been one focus of Ayala’s recent appearance at the Foro de Sao Paulo in Mexico City, attended by over 500 mainly Latin American delegates.

At the cafeteria in San Pedro Sula, Ayala listed what she considered to be some of the primary violations currently occurring in Honduras, including instances of assassination and torture and a general persecution of Nicaraguan nationals innocently going about their business. As for curtailment of other liberties, Ayala informed me that she had learned from a hotel television set in June that Roberto Micheletti had been unanimously voted in as coup President, a unanimity that was apparently easier to maintain when certain members of Congress [including Ms Ayala herself] were not permitted to vote and were instead reduced to watching congressional proceedings on television.

US role in Colombia and Honduras sparks Latin American criticism: here.

Honduran Military Coup Reverses Women’s Gains in Human Rights: here.

US trade unionists have called on Washington to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the restoration of democracy in Honduras and prevent the coup regime from “brutalising” Honduran women: here.

Joseph Shansky was part of a Global Exchange delegation of activists to Honduras who went to witness the daily protests, monitor human rights violations and report back to the international community on conditions since the June 28 military coup: here.

MANAGUA, Nov 5, 2010 (IPS) – Nicaragua has made some progress promoting gender equity and the empowerment of women, but it will have to step up efforts and overcome a number of hurdles if it is to eliminate inequalities between the sexes at all levels by 2015: here.