Protesters in Honduras were being beaten and arrested by police and the military for opposing the de facto government, Amnesty International said yesterday.
The London-based rights organization said it has collected evidence of mass arrests and violence against protesters by authorities since the interim government came to power in the June 28 bloodless coup.
“Mass arbitrary arrests and ill treatment of protesters are a serious and growing concern in Honduras today,” Amnesty researcher Esther Major said. “Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing.”
Major said interviews with protesters, including students, detailed how police beat them with batons after their arrest at a peaceful demonstration on July 30 in the capital Tegucigalpa.
Earlier, the interim Honduran government ordered Argentine diplomats on Tuesday to leave the country within three days, sending a defiant message ahead of a visit by six foreign ministers who are seeking the restoration of ousted president Manuel Zelaya.
The Foreign Ministry said the diplomats were ordered to leave in response to Argentina’s decision to expel the Honduran ambassador, who has recognized the government of Interim President Roberto Micheletti.
It was another signal that Micheletti is not budging on international demands that Zelaya be restored to power.
“If Argentina decided to expel us, then we will do the same thing,” Micheletti said. “We have to act the same way they are acting with us.”
Argentine Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Taiana dismissed the expulsion order.
“We maintain diplomatic relations with the legitimate government of Honduras and ignore any deadline about anything,” Taiana told reporters in Mexico, where he is on a diplomatic visit.
Also on Tuesday, US State Department officials met with a delegation representing Micheletti’s government at the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the US supports the peaceful restoration of democracy in Honduras and Zelaya’s return.
“We continue to believe in the need for a negotiated solution,” Clinton told reporters.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS