Suggestion for Canadian action:
Take a moment to call or write to your MP (to find out your MP's contact information, go to http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC) and:
- Express your concern over these recent killings, for the campesino communities that Mr. Trejos represented, and for the lives of all who work for truth and human rights in Honduras, and ask what the Canadian government is doing to protect human rights defenders in Honduras.
- Ask your MP to contact Minister of State for the Americas Diane Ablonczy and urge Canada to publicly suspend all political and economic support for Special Development Regions (known as "Charter" or "Model" Cities) in Honduras, which have been linked to recent attacks.
- Add your own concerns!
If you e-mail your MP please Cc:
-Minister of State for the Americas Diane Ablonczy Ablonczy.D@parl.gc.ca
-Foreign Affairs Critic for the Official Opposition Paul Dewar paul.dewar@parl.gc.ca
-Human Rights Critic for the Official Opposition Wayne Marston wayne.marston@parl.gc.ca
September 27, 2012
Dear Friends,
We
write at this moment to ask for your help. Those who struggle in
defense of human rights in Honduras, already shaken by months of
relentless violence, are now reeling from the recent murders of two
prominent human rights lawyers.
On
September 22, Antonio Trejo-Cabrera, a courageous attorney representing
peasant groups in land conflicts in the Aguán region of Honduras, was
gunned down. Trejos had recently presented a constitutional challenge
to the highly contested "model cities" venture advanced by corporate
investors and the Honduran government. Trejo planned to travel to
Washington D.C. in coming weeks to testify at the Inter American
Commission on Human Rights with peasant leaders. He had received death
threats in the months leading up to his killing.
Two
days later, Manuel Díaz-Mazariegos, a public prosecutor with the human
rights division of the Attorney General's office, was gunned down. In
2008, Díaz Mazariego had participated in a hunger strike against
corruption and for transparency in the Attorney General's office.
In response to the murders, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva stated:
"There
is a menacing climate of insecurity and violence in Honduras, and human
rights defenders have been targets of threats, harassment, physical
assault and murder. The impunity that surrounds these violations is
unacceptable. When the perpetrators know they are very likely to get off
scot-free, there is nothing to deter them from killing off more of the
country's finest human rights defenders."
Bertha Oliva of COFADEH (Committee of the Victims of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras) issued an urgent plea to the international community:
"They
want to paralyze us by picking us off piece by piece. I continue to
trust in the people of Honduras, because they are wise. The people keep
walking, demanding. It is clear where the repression comes from and who
the repressors are. To stop us they will have to kill all of us.
International solidarity to spread the truth about what is happening in Honduras will be key in this situation."
On October 3, 2012, the Commission of Truth
will release its final report on the 2009 coup d'état and the crisis it
has unleashed. Presentations will be made in three cities in Honduras.
You can also help "spread the truth about what is happening in Honduras." Take a moment to call your member of Congress: (To find the name of your Representative in the U.S. Congress, go to http://www.house.gov/. The Congressional Switchboard # is 202-224-3121.)
-
Express your concern over these recent killings, for the campesino
communities that Mr. Trejos represented, and for the lives of all who
work for truth and human rights in Honduras
-Ask
your member of Congress to contact Hillary Clinton at the U.S. State
Department and urge the U.S. to SUSPEND ALL POLICE AND MILITARY AID TO
HONDURAS.
Thank you for helping to spread the truth.
