Honduran prosecutors family attacked after he denounces military coup on CNN
Solidarity | 20.07.2009 01:08 | Repression | Social Struggles
The family of Honduran public prosecutor Jari Dixon Herrera were attacked by police on Tuesday shortly after he made statements to CNN en Español and other international media in Washington denouncing the recent military coup in Honduras.
Dixon's mother’s house, located in the town of Talanga, was first shot at repeatedly by police agents with automatic weapons. The agents then broke the door of the house down and entered the residence, beat Dixon’s mother and arrested and took away his brother.
Jari Dixon is currently in Washington, DC, as part of a delegation of Hondurans that has been meeting with members of Congress, representatives of the World Bank, the State Department and human rights organizations to discuss the rights abuses committed by the Honduran de facto authorities.
The attack against Jari Dixons family comes in the wake of the killing of two leaders of the United Democrat Party. On Saturday evening, hooded armed men stormed the house of Roger Bados of San Pedro Sula and shot and killed him in front of his family. That same night, Ramon Garcia was ambushed and killed in the street close to his home in Santa Barbara.
These violent acts, that have gone largely unreported in the US media, strongly resemble the selective repression that occurred under the previous military dictatorship in Honduras, when paramilitary death squads killed or kidnapped key dissidents to maintain a climate of terror in the population. Human rights activists in Honduras have been speaking out against this development under the new coup regime, which comes on the heels of two weeks of violent repression of peaceful demonstrations, the closure of radio and TV outlets and intimidation of journalists who have criticized the coup and hundreds of arbitrary arrests of nonviolent protesters.
Jari Dixon is currently in Washington, DC, as part of a delegation of Hondurans that has been meeting with members of Congress, representatives of the World Bank, the State Department and human rights organizations to discuss the rights abuses committed by the Honduran de facto authorities.
The attack against Jari Dixons family comes in the wake of the killing of two leaders of the United Democrat Party. On Saturday evening, hooded armed men stormed the house of Roger Bados of San Pedro Sula and shot and killed him in front of his family. That same night, Ramon Garcia was ambushed and killed in the street close to his home in Santa Barbara.
These violent acts, that have gone largely unreported in the US media, strongly resemble the selective repression that occurred under the previous military dictatorship in Honduras, when paramilitary death squads killed or kidnapped key dissidents to maintain a climate of terror in the population. Human rights activists in Honduras have been speaking out against this development under the new coup regime, which comes on the heels of two weeks of violent repression of peaceful demonstrations, the closure of radio and TV outlets and intimidation of journalists who have criticized the coup and hundreds of arbitrary arrests of nonviolent protesters.
Solidarity