Americas Program Coverage of the Coup in Honduras
Part 1: The Coup’s Version of ‘Order in the Court’
Laura Carlsen
25 August 2009
The workings of a modern-day democracy depend on the open and orderly day-to-day functions of institutions based on law. The international community has unanimously agreed that this does not exist in Honduras. But few people outside Honduras really understand what it means to live in a society where the institutions are in the hands of the same people who broke with the rule of law.
Tuesday was the preliminary hearing for 24 people arrested during protests held Aug. 11-12. The press and statements from those released on bail has confirmed that the day security forces picked up the prisoners they took them to an illegal detention center, improvised behind the Congress where, in another farce of justice, members rubber-stamped the ouster of the elected president Manuel Zelaya with ad hoc charges and a falsified letter of resignation. Men and women of all ages were thrown in together. They were stripped semi-naked, laid face down on the floor, and in many cases beaten.
Raquel Hernández’s son Alan, was taken away that day. She says, in tears, “He told me, ‘Mama, I was taking photos and a soldier grabbed me in the march, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong…’ He’s just a university student. When I heard this it gave me chills, a sense of impotence with this government…”
This is not a normal trial. Armed police officers refused admittance to the lower court where the preliminary hearing is being held. The court is militarized. In the hallway outside the hearing, four soldiers in camouflage surreptitiously snap photos of family members and supporters as more soldiers fill the courtroom—an ominous reminder that institutions in the hands of the armed forces have lost all semblance of real institutionality or justice.
Laura Carlsen is Director of the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org). She was in Tegucigalpa this past week as a member of the international delegation of Women’s Human Rights Week in Honduras.
Further coverage of the coup in Honduras on the Americas Blog:
Coup Catalyzes Honduran Women´s Movement
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/08/coup-catalyzes-honduran-womens-movement.htmlAn Open Letter to President Obama on “Hypocrisy”
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/08/open-letter-to-president-obama-on.htmlIn Mexico, Zelaya Criticizes “Weakness” of the International Community
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-mexico-zelaya-criticizes-weakness-of.htmlThird Stage of Operation Crack the Coup: Popular Mobilization
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/07/third-stage-of-operation-crack-coup.html