The human rights crisis in Honduras
The human rights crisis in Honduras
Journalists are amongst those being killed for speaking out in the country with the highest murder rate in the world
Vicky Baker |
5 hours ago|
Journalists, gay-rights activists, student protesters, indigenous campaigners and farmers on disputed territories all have something in common in Honduras: speaking out about their work puts them in extreme danger.
“Impunity, threats, attacks, harassment and criminal defamation charges are all risks faced by those who try to work in sensitive areas, exposing corruption, militarisation, human-rights abuse and narco-trafficking,” says Dina Meza, an investigative reporter in the country, who has also seen a rise in threats made against her this year.
Meza, a renowned reporter started her own news site in April, Pasos de Animal Grande (Steps of a Big Animal), which seeks to give a platform to the issues often overlooked by mainstream media. Many stories go unreported in Honduras and self-censorship is rife. The country’s murder rate was the highest in the world, discounting war zones, in 2014. It looks set to take the title again this year, or be a close second to El Salvador. Last week a footballer for the Honduras national squad, Arnold Peralta, was gunned down in a shopping centre, and although this high-profile case is currently being investigated, the vast majority aren’t.
Meza says she has personally tallied 36 security incidents against her between January and October this year. On the eve of her visit to London earlier this month – where she met with UK human-rights campaigners and briefly met with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – she says she was being followed by a black-windowed vehicle. She has also received multiple death threats, and her children have also been followed and photographed. Once, just minutes after posting a story on Facebook about the murder of a political activist, she received an anonymous phone call warning her “not to mess around”. Her colleague, a young journalist Cesario Padilla, has had armed men turn up to his house.
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/campaigns/voicesindanger/the-human-rights-crisis-in-honduras-a6778551.html
The fascists who approved the coup will see this as the height of fascist glory, but it's utter degredation and filth to human beings.
