Right-Wing Death Squads Starting up in Honduras

by Zack23
www.dailykos.com
Jul 05, 2009

According to School of the Americas Watch, Honduran human rights organizations are receiving reports that opponents of the recent military coup (led by School of the Americas graduates General Romeo Velasquez and General Luis Javier Prince Suazo) are being assasinated.

Bodies are being found with all their clothes, money, and cell phones, a strong indication that gangs and robbers are not behind the murders. According to a news release by SOA Watch:

On Friday, journalist Gabriel Fino Noriega, who was reporting on the coup and military developments, was killed. He was last seen alive leaving Radio América after transmitting his latest report. Radio América is a well established Honduran news corporation which gets international coverage.

In a town in San Pedro Sula, a family of four was found assassinated. It is known that the mother of that family worked in her local court.

In Tegucigalpa, the nation`s capital, at least 5 corpses have been found. Two corpses were found yesterday in barrels. Another corpse, of a young man, was found in La Montañita [La Montan~ita]. La Montañita [La Montan~ita] was the first unmarked, clandestine cemetery established in Honduras in the 1980`s by the national army`s death squads, which were trained by the CIA and other U.S. military officers. It was established under the command of former chief commander of Honduran armed forces, Gustabo Álvarez Martínez [Gustabo Alvarez Martinez]. This unmarked cemetery, along with many others throughout the country, was used by the military`s death squads to depose of the bodies of students, activists, missionaries, political organizers, and others whom they detained, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in the 1980s. It is once again being used, presumably by the armed forces of Honduras.

Bertha Oliva, a key human rights activist, asserts that military repression has been much more violent and unsupervised outside of the capital, where there is almost no international presence or press coverage. With the recent events of murder and repression within Tegucigalpa, human rights organizations are increasingly worried of what must be going on outside of the capital. ...

CONTINUED: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/5/750139/-Right-wing-Death-Squads-starting-up-in-Honduras