Cry Honduras, now becoming a new killing field and the murder capital of the world. Besides 24 journalists, more than 50 peasant leaders engaged in land struggles, and unknown numbers of lawyers, teachers and activists, at least 70 LGBT people have been murdered since a United States-supported coup overthrew legally elected president Manual Zelaya on June 28, 2009.
Hondurans elected Zelaya in 2006 as a wealthy landowning member of a traditional party. Zelaya, however, betrayed his 1 percent background by promoting policies that supported the Honduran 99 percent �" reducing poverty by almost 10 percent during two years of government.
He also sought to incorporate Honduras into ALBA, an organization founded for the political and economic integration of Latin America and the Caribbean by Venezuela, greatly influenced by Hugo Chavez, and fiercely opposed by the elites of Honduras and the United States.
The opposition became most intense when Zelaya called a nonbinding survey for June 2009 to gauge if the population wanted to begin a process to change the undemocratic constitution of 1982, enacted immediately after the lifting of 10 years of military rule. The Congress, the armed forces, and the wealthy would not allow their power to be questioned or diminished, however, so they carried out a coup on June 28, when the Honduran military kidnapped Zelaya and forced him into exile in Costa Rica.
The majority of Hondurans rose up in protest, carried out huge demonstrations, and started to build a resistance movement, currently organized through the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) and a new political party, LIBRE. Many LGBT people joined this movement, and many of them are among the 70 people who have been murdered in targeted killings since the coup. Some bodies have been mutilated or burned. Many people suspect police involvement.
The most prominent are much respected youth resistance leaders Walter Trochez, 27, and Erick Martinez, 32. Trochez had been active in documenting and publicizing homophobic killings and crimes committed by the forces behind the coup. He had been trailed for weeks before his murder by thugs believed to be members of the state security forces. He was kidnapped, beaten, and threatened on December 4, 2009, but he would not shut up and was murdered nine days later in a drive-by shooting.
Martinez was a journalist and LIBRE Party candidate for Congress, one of only three people elected unanimously to the leadership body of the first national congress of the FNRP, held in 2011. He was kidnapped on May 5, 2012, and his strangled body found in a ditch outside of Tegucigalpa two days later. Martinez and Trochez were both part of the LBGT organization Kukulcan, as well as active in a leftist political organization, Los Necios. They played key roles in integrating LGBTI demands and goals into the broader agenda for social change. Los Necios eulogized Trochez, "We met Walter fighting; we quickly saw within him an indisputable leader in the defense of human rights," and Martinez, "Erick was a brave and tireless leader, totally dedicated to the social struggle. The oligarchy has killed one of our best comrades."
Even U.S. Ambassador Lisa Kubiske has recently spoken out about the LGBT killings, calling for the rights of LGBT people to be respected, for the killings to be investigated, and the killers brought to justice. She does not address the fact however, that the U.S. government is massively arming the suspected killers, and supporting the illegitimate Honduran government of Porfirio Lobo that allows this violence to proceed with impunity.
Besides the more targeted political killings in Honduras, there are many drug related killings, and on average one woman a day is murdered, some targeted movement activists, but most killed in acts of random misogyny. A great sense of insecurity exists in Honduras today, and many Hondurans fear for their personal safety.
The United States government plays a duplicitous role in this situation. Besides its huge air base at Palmerola, it's adding new bases, escalating its military presence and funding in the name of fighting drugs. Our government deploys commandos with Special Forces backgrounds to work closely with the Honduran police and military. On May 11, DEA officials were involved in the shooting deaths of four innocent peasants.
Yet WikiLeaks has revealed that a ranch owned by Miguel Facusse, the largest landowner and richest man in Honduras and a major supporter of the Lobo regime (and implicated in the above-mentioned peasant deaths), has been used to transfer cocaine with the knowledge of the State Department. At the same time, Facusse's guards work closely with the Honduran military and police, and receive funding from the United States to fight the war on drugs in the region.
The repression of the LGBT movement and violence against its leaders cannot be separated from the overall political situation in Honduras. The Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition/BALASC will hold a denuncia (speak-out) and vigil at 24th and Mission streets today (Thursday, June 28) from 5 to 7 p.m. to commemorate the third anniversary of the coup against Zelaya and to demand an end to U.S. military aid to Honduras, the war on drugs, and the ongoing repression and murders. We will address the repression against LGBT people and invite LGBT participation. We also ask people to call the White House �" (202) 456-1111 �" and your local members of Congress �" (202) 224-3121 �" to make these demands of our elected officials.
Charlie Hinton became politicized in the 1970s through Bay Area Gay Liberation. He represents Haiti Action Committee in the Bay Area Latin American Solidarity.