Human rights organizations protest Honduras’s return to OAS

On May 16, activists belonging to a group of 20 human rights organizations filed a request asking to keep Honduras from returning to the Organization of American States (OAS).

The organizations sent a letter to the Permanent Assembly of Foreign Ministers of the OAS, insisting that the Honduras government continues to abuse the human rights violations of citizens who opposed the coup d’etat that took place on June 2008, when former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted.

The activists expressed their concerns for what they called “harrasment practices” performed by police forces against journalists, teachers and members of the  opposition party People’s National Resistance Front. According to the document, these people lives are constantly endangered when they speak out against the government of President Porfirio Lobo. 

The letter also accuses Lobo’s goverment for not providing real support to the ongoing investigations that seek to clarify the murder of several journalists and political dissidents soon after the coup.

Lastly, they assure that the accusations against Zelaya have not been properly annulled and that charges against him may resume anytime.

Ousted president Zelaya returned to Honduras on May 28, after cutting a deal with president Lobo that would guarantee him a safe return to the country (TT, May 28).

Some of the  organizations that signed the letter are the pro-democracy Honduras Judges Association and the International Federation on Human Rights