The following letter was sent to Congressional Representatives by the Latin America Committee of Brooklyn For Peace. It is reprinted here as a template for your use in formulating your own letters to your Congress member. We urge concerned citizens to write their representatives.
Monday, August 24, 2009
I am writing to you this afternoon about the coup in Honduras on behalf of the School of the Americas Watch NYC and the Latin America Committee of Brooklyn For Peace. We call upon you, as a member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign relations, to support two resolutions that will soon come before the House of Representatives and to sign on to the letter to President Obama written by Rep Raul Grijalva. These action are aimed at appealing to President Obama to fulfill campaign promises he made that he would initiate a new era of neighborly relations with the countries of Latin America. Respect for the United States will be enhanced by closing the notorious School of the Americas (SOA), now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) and by implementing US law requiring our government impose sanctions against a military that seizes power through illegal use of force.
President Obama must call a military coup a coup, acknowledging the illegal kidnapping and expulsion of the duly elected President Zalaya from Honduras on June 28th. Extremely important and according to US law, Ambassador Hugo Llorens should be immediately recalled. Ambassador Llorens was appointed by President Bush and was his security advisor for Latin American Affairs at the time of the 2002 coup attempt against President Chavez of Venezuela. President Zayala requested Llorens replacement citing that he was ‘provocative’. Withdrawing diplomats is a clear act that shows to the world that the US joins the OAS and the EU nations in denying legitimacy to the junta. Cutting off all aid, freezing bank accounts and denying all visas to those who participated in the coup, tourist visas as well as diplomatic visas, will quickly bring the Micheletti junta to their senses.
The San Jose Accords negotiated by President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica require the restoration of President Zalaya with limited powers, and he has agreed to accept these conditions. The Micheletti government still refuses to do so. We encourage you to call upon President Obama to insist upon the immediate return of President Zalaya, the only condition that will stabilize the country now torn apart by violence perpetrated by the police, army and paramilitaries against ordinary people defending the president for whom they voted. Please sign on as a cosponsor of HR 630, the Delahunt-Serrano-McGovern Resolution.
Violent repression of Zalaya supporters’ protests presents a terrible throw-back to the days of chaotic impunity in Central America. We are shocked by the public presence of Billy Joya, the leader of a notorious death squad Battalion 316 who is still under indictment for torture he allegedly committed during the 1980s. Nine assassinations, numerous beatings and thousands of detentions and arrests show that the Micheletti junta uses brute force to intimidate the population in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for November. Elections cannot be free and fair under these conditions. If Zalaya is not returned now, how can any one certify that the Honduran people have been given an opportunity to express their political will. The situation requires immediate action to restore order and stability. Action by the US government is the key.
We have a particular responsibility to act. The military leaders who gave the orders to kidnap Zalaya and are now giving the orders to the troops firing on demonstrators were trained in and by the US at the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Monday, August 24, 2009
I am writing to you this afternoon about the coup in Honduras on behalf of the School of the Americas Watch NYC and the Latin America Committee of Brooklyn For Peace. We call upon you, as a member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign relations, to support two resolutions that will soon come before the House of Representatives and to sign on to the letter to President Obama written by Rep Raul Grijalva. These action are aimed at appealing to President Obama to fulfill campaign promises he made that he would initiate a new era of neighborly relations with the countries of Latin America. Respect for the United States will be enhanced by closing the notorious School of the Americas (SOA), now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) and by implementing US law requiring our government impose sanctions against a military that seizes power through illegal use of force.
President Obama must call a military coup a coup, acknowledging the illegal kidnapping and expulsion of the duly elected President Zalaya from Honduras on June 28th. Extremely important and according to US law, Ambassador Hugo Llorens should be immediately recalled. Ambassador Llorens was appointed by President Bush and was his security advisor for Latin American Affairs at the time of the 2002 coup attempt against President Chavez of Venezuela. President Zayala requested Llorens replacement citing that he was ‘provocative’. Withdrawing diplomats is a clear act that shows to the world that the US joins the OAS and the EU nations in denying legitimacy to the junta. Cutting off all aid, freezing bank accounts and denying all visas to those who participated in the coup, tourist visas as well as diplomatic visas, will quickly bring the Micheletti junta to their senses.
The San Jose Accords negotiated by President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica require the restoration of President Zalaya with limited powers, and he has agreed to accept these conditions. The Micheletti government still refuses to do so. We encourage you to call upon President Obama to insist upon the immediate return of President Zalaya, the only condition that will stabilize the country now torn apart by violence perpetrated by the police, army and paramilitaries against ordinary people defending the president for whom they voted. Please sign on as a cosponsor of HR 630, the Delahunt-Serrano-McGovern Resolution.
Violent repression of Zalaya supporters’ protests presents a terrible throw-back to the days of chaotic impunity in Central America. We are shocked by the public presence of Billy Joya, the leader of a notorious death squad Battalion 316 who is still under indictment for torture he allegedly committed during the 1980s. Nine assassinations, numerous beatings and thousands of detentions and arrests show that the Micheletti junta uses brute force to intimidate the population in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for November. Elections cannot be free and fair under these conditions. If Zalaya is not returned now, how can any one certify that the Honduran people have been given an opportunity to express their political will. The situation requires immediate action to restore order and stability. Action by the US government is the key.
We have a particular responsibility to act. The military leaders who gave the orders to kidnap Zalaya and are now giving the orders to the troops firing on demonstrators were trained in and by the US at the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Romeo Vasquez Velazquez, head of the Honduran armed forces administered the seizure and expulsion of Zalaya and is now in command of the forces protecting the Micheletti regime and attacking opponents. He was trained at the SOA/WHINSEC.
So was General Luis Javier Prince Suazo, head of the Honduran air force. Two-time SOA graduate General Daniel Lopez Carballo said the coup was justified to minimize the influence of Chavez.
Two previous military coups suffered by the Honduran people were perpetrated by graduates of the SOA. General Juan Melgar Castro was the military ruler of that country after a taking over the government by force in 1975. He was overthrown by another SOA grad, Policarpo Paz Garcia in 1978. Another graduate, Gustavo Alverez Martinez helped found and run Battalion 316. All these connections led UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto to comment that ‘Honduras has a history of total collaboration with the US’. For that reason it is of paramount importance for us to take clear and immediate steps.
You can take leadership by speaking out on the three initiatives mentioned above: Co-sponsor and strongly support HR 630 to implement the San Jose Accords and restore President Zalaya; cosponsor and support HR 2567 to close down SOA/WHINSEC, and sign the Grijalva letter calling on President Obama to bring US policy into line with the rest of the world in showing outrage that a duly elected president can be captured in his pajamas and expelled in the middle of the night and the army can perpetrate crimes against citizens.
Here are some sites that will provide documentation and more information:
Click here for : Obama and the Honduran Crisis: Friend or Foe of Enlightened Change? – Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Click here for: Ad Hoc Memorandum by Honduran Human Rights Activists
Click here for: Resolution on SOA Coup in Honduras - SOAWatch
Click here for: Honduras and Washington: A Few Contradictions – North America Congress on Latin America
Click here for: WOLA Urges Tougher Sanctions on Honduran de facto Government, Pressure on Both Sides to Accept San Jos̩ Accord РWashington Office on Latin America
Click here for: Wednesday, August 12 in Tegucigalpa – Nicaragua Network
Saludos Solidarios,
Susan Metz
No comments:
Post a Comment