Live radio broadcast from Honduras
On June 28th, the Honduran military ousted the democratically elected government of Honduras, detaining and then exiling President Manuel Zelaya to Costa Rica.

On Monday, June 29th, an emergency rally and press conference to denounce the coup in Honduras took place at the Honduran Consulate, 870 Market St. in San Francisco. Video: 1 | 2

The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for an opinion poll on a new Constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez, who refused to step down. The heads of all branches of the Honduran armed forces quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by support in Congress and a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous School of the Americas (SOA). According to a School of the Americas Watch database compiled from information obtained from the US government, Vasquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.

At an emergency session of the OAS, the Honduran representative compared the coup to Chile in 1973, noted that Zelaya has not requested asylum in Costa Rica as reported by some press, and called for immediate condemnation of the coup. The Venezuela representative has accused former Bush Sub-Secretary of State Otto Reich of complicity in the coup: "We have information that worries us. This is a person who has been important in the diplomacy of the US who has reconnected with old colleagues and encouraged the coup: Otto Reich, ex sub-Secretary of State under Bush. We know him as an interventionist person." He said Reich is operating under an NGO.

Radio Es Lo De Menos, broadcasting from Tegucigalpa, is repeatedly pleading with the international community that protests be organized outside Honduran embassies around the world.

Military Ousts President Manuel Zelaya, Supporters Defy Curfew and Take to the Streets | Updates from the coup | Resistance and Repression in Honduras | "In Solidarity with the Organizations of Via Campesina and the People of Honduras" | Coup in Honduras | "We Will Not Be Silenced or Humiliated" | Honduras' Dictator-for-a-Day Rails vs. Obama & Chávez, Declares Martial Law | Military coup in Honduras this morning | Obama's First Military Coup

More coverage: Narco News | Americas Mexico Blog | TriniCenter Updates | Hands Off Venezuela

Coverage From Latin American Indymedias: Honduras | Argentina | Colombia | Bolivia | Puerto Rico

On June 5th, Peruvian national police attacked a roadblock near the city of Bagua in northwestern Peru, killing at least sixty people. Several thousand indigenous protesters had been blocking the main road to protest measures the government has taken to sell their ancestral land to energy companies. Peruvian indigenous leader Alberto Pizango has been granted asylum in Nicaragua due to his involvements in related protests.

On Tuesday, June 16th, over 30 people converged outside the Peruvian Consulate in San Francisco to amplify their concerns with the Peruvian and US Government's complacency in protecting indigenous rights. Outside folks held protest and spoke with passer-bys educating them on the current situation in Peru, while inside over 15 people went into the consulate to take their concerns directly to the Consul General of Peru.

Photos From SF: 1 | 2 | Peruvian Police Accused of Massacring Indigenous Protesters in Amazon Jungle | Qorianka Kilcher Heads to Peru to Support Indigenous Rights | Peru Faces its Tiananmen | Indigenous Massacre in Peruvian Amazon, Indymedia Israel | Rising Tide Bay Area

In recent years, attacks against the Peruvian Army have escalated by a new formation of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), a Maoist rebel group in Peru. Long believed to have faded away after the capture of its leader Abimael Guzmán (Presidente Gonzalo) and other top leaders from its central committee in 1993, the Shining Path has recently gained force and weapons. According to the Defense Minister of Peru, Flores Araoz, Shining Path rebels killed thirteen soldiers on April 9th in two ambushes in the southeast Ayacucho Region of the country. The attacks are said to have been the deadliest by guerrillas in the past ten years.

New Formations Of The Shining Path Emerged in the Andes jungles | More than 300 families displaced by "counter-terrorist" operation | Chasing Shining Path, Interview with a Member of the Shining Path | Peruvian soldiers die in ambush | Documentary: The People of the Shining Path | Political Line Of CPP (pdf) l PERU: Guerrillas on the Warpath for Peace Talks | Wikipedia: Shining Path

The Peruvian military, under the pretext of fighting the drug trade and the guerrillas, has launched a military offensive against the peasants in areas associated with the Shining Path. In reports by human rights organizations, the Peruvian military is accused of raping and assassinating civilians, and burning food crops.

Reports of abuse by the Peruvian Armed Forces are not new. On April 7th, 2009, Alberto Fujimori, the former President of Peru during the height of the offensive by the Shining Path, was found guilty by a Peruvian court for "crimes against humanity" for his involvement in the killing of dozens of civilians by Peruvian death squads. Fujimori has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and is the first elected Latin American leader convicted in his home country of human rights abuses.

Fujimori guilty of rights abuses | April 7th Mobilization in Lima for the Imprisonment of Fujimori | The Fujimori Verdict: Justice in Latin America | Human Rights Watch: Peru | Amnesty International: Peru

Past Coverage of Fujimori: Mumia: Crimes of State | Ex-Peruvian president jailed after first trial | Fujimori to go on trial for murder | Chilean court extradites ex-Peruvian President Fujimori | Peruvians demand extradition of ex-president Fujimori | Peruvians Skeptical over Justice for Fujimori | Fujimori held by Peru authorities | Fujimori extradited from Chile

Previous Indybay Peru Coverage

Peter Herlihy and Jerome Dobson, professors of Geography at Kansas University, received funding from the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), located at the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base in Leavenworth, Kansas, to map communally held indigenous land in the states of San Luis Potosi, and in Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, named the Bowman Expeditions or México Indígena, began mapping in 2005 in an indigenous region known as La Husteca, which is partially located in the state of San Luis Potosi, and then moved their operation to the state of Oaxaca amidst the statewide popular uprising of the Oaxacan Peoples’ Popular Assembly (APPO) in 2006.

On January 14th, 2009, the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO) released a communique in which the organization expresses concerns of geopiracy in the México Indígena mapping project, cites a clear lack of transparency, and claims that communities were deceived, having no idea that a primary funder of the project was the FMSO.

The FMSO official assigned to the Bowman Expeditions is Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey B. Demarest. During a 23-year military career, Dr. Demarest served in multiple assignments in Latin America and is also a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. He has written numerous articles dealing with internal conflict including “The Overlap of Military and Police Responsibilities in Latin America.” Dr. Demarest’s first book, Geoproperty, considers property ownership as an issue of national security and strategy. Read more

When vote totals came in from the Salvadoran presidential election Sunday, the winner by a slim but significant margin was the candidate of the FMLN, Mauricio Funes. The FMLN website said “Hope won over fear.” The FMLN, in Spanish called the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (The Farabundo Martî Front for National Liberation), fought fascism in Central America with a military effort that went on for twelve years. A truce was called in 1992, but the extreme right wing remained in power until now.

Funes was a very popular talk show host; a media star who began his career in journalism covering the civil war. He lost his older brother to a death squad in 1980. He worked for corporate media, joining CNN’s Spanish Edition in 1991. In 2007 he left CNN. That year he also joined the FMLN. He has pledged to work with the Obama administration, and the U.S. has given signals it will accept his victory.

Interviewed on Democracy Now, Salvadoran-American journalist Roberto Lovato said the FMLN victory is the end of 130 years of nearly complete domination of the Salvadoran political system by oligarchy and dictatorship. The Bay Area has been a center for solidarity with El Salvador. An Indybay report by Jorge Castillo said CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) was “one of the biggest solidarity organizations in US history.” A San Francisco celebration of the FMLN victory is planned for March 21 at 7:00 at the Women's Building.

Reflections on the Salvadoran Election
Democracy Now 1 | 2 | 3
Fascism Dealt Lethal Blow in Central America

FMLN Website (Spanish)

For almost two months, the teachers union in the Mexican state of Morelos rose up against the "Alliance for Quality Education", a neo-liberal plan akin to "No Child Left Behind" that would pave the way to the privatization of education, among other things.

They were supported by the people of Morelos in their marches, encampments in public plazas, and blockades of interstate highways. On October 7, 8, and 9, the army and state and federal police were sent in to brutally smash the movement. This model is a mirror of the crackdown that occurred in Oaxaca in 2006 and has enraged teachers and the public across Mexico.

There is little to no information in English about the situation in Morelos, but there are photos that don't require translation. Photos

Several hundred protesters, mostly students, took to the streets of Tijuana, Mexico October 4 in remembrance of the 1968 massacre of leftist students in Tlatelolco Plaza. At that time hundreds, perhaps thousands of students were killed when troops opened fire on a demonstration protesting the Mexico City Olympics.

The Mexican government meant to put an end to the student movement, whose leadership was wiped out. Luis Echeverría, who was Minister of the Interior in 1968, gave the order for the massacre. He was later made President of Mexico under the rule of the PRI Party. Echeverría was charged with genocide in 2006, but the charge was dropped because of the statute of limitations. Documents have become declassified showing that the CIA was involved in the preparations for the massacre. In Tijuana, the demonstrators chanted “ni perdon, ni olvido” (no forgiveness, no forgetting).

Rally organizers and other student speakers told the crowd that gathered in front of a Calimax market that they must unite to oppose the selling off of the state-owned Pemex oil conglomerate to greedy world corporate interests, as well as create a student movement that would increase the quality and availability of 21st Century educational opportunities for all, including the poor. Read More and See Photos

The indynewswire show airs weekly on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites. The October 3rd episode features discussion of sexual violence, patriarchy, and militarism across Mexico. This show is dedicated to Sali (Marcella Grace Eiler), found dead September 24th in San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico. Read More and Listen to Audio

related links: Mujeres y la Sexta || Mexico Solidarity Network || Lydia Cacho || MexicoReporter.com || El Enemigo Común || Tlatelolco - the 40th anniversary || “The Road To Hell” || Community Radio Producers Murdered in Mexico || Standing With Those Who Fight for Themselves || The right to choose is not enough - Mexico DF

Marcella "Sali" Grace Eiler, a solidarity activist with the struggle in Oaxaca and Chiapas, was found dead on September 24th in a deserted cabin twenty minutes from the village of San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico. She was brutally raped and murdered.

Sali, born in Eugene, Oregon, USA, was always inclined to help. She used her artistic talents to paint, Arabic dancing to raise funds for the struggle, put on punk shows, published photos on indymedia, gave self-defense courses to women, and much more. Sali was also an international accompanier for people in Oaxaca who felt harassed by the Oaxacan government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

On different occasions and to different people, Sali mentioned that recently she had suffered political persecution and surveillance in Oaxaca. Many people believe that her murder is part of the widespread repression against the social movement and directed particularly at international observers. Because of this, it is believed that the intellectual authors of Sali's killing are the same who ordered the repression against the people of Oaxaca in their struggle for justice and freedom.

On September 30th, the day Sali would have turned 21, a march was held in Oaxaca demanding justice for Sali and an end to violence against women. (Photos)

Read More with Photos, Video and Poetry | Ya Basta De Asesinatos Contra Los Que Luchan Por La Justicia Y Libertad!

In response to international pressure, US officials returned to members of Pastors for Peace 32 computers bound for Cuba. Federal agents seized the computers from the humanitarian group as they attempted to cross the Pharr International Bridge early on July 3 at the US-Mexico border. The confiscated computers were officially released by US authorities early this week and are now en route to Cuba.

With this successful challenge to the US blockade of shipments to Cuba, the 19th such challenge by IFCO/Pastors for Peace, it appears that every item of the nearly 100 tons of humanitarian aid collected by the caravan from all across the US will in fact make it to its ultimate destination. The donation to the people of Cuba includes wheelchairs, medicine, medical equipment, musical instruments, sports equipment, six brightly-painted school buses and a bookmobile.

The confiscated computers were donated by a Japanese-American group from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Challenge to US Blockade Against Cuba a Success | 19th US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan Blog | Pastors for Peace

Previous Indybay coverage

Under the guise of the "War on Drugs" the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.

While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of the Zapatista communities in the "War on Drugs" is equally alarming.

Mary Anne Tenuto of the Chiapas Support Committee recently wrote, "President Bush has proposed a billion dollars in military assistance to Mexico for its war on drugs. A bill known as the Merida Initiative, more commonly labeled 'Plan Mexico,' after the failed Plan Colombia, is currently winding a twisted path through the two houses of Congress as H.R. 6028. Each house has approved a different version of the bill and lots of political influences are at play: defense contractors; Mexican politicians; and human rights groups to name a few. Much of the money would go to U.S. defense contractors to buy those helicopters that swoop down on protesting communities, like in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Atenco and many others."

The Chiapas Support Committee will host a discussion on the recent militarization in Mexico. They will also present a film about military repression of indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Guerrero at 7:30 p.m. on June 26 at the Unitarian Universalists Church in Berkeley (1924 Cedar St.). Their story is the story of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Atenco and organized indigenous communities throughout Mexico.

Mexican Army Incursions Threaten Zapatista Jungle Region | Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities | Event Announcement: Chiapas Support Committee | Previous Coverage

Hector Antonio Ventura, one of 14 people arrested during an anti-water privatization protest last year in the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador, was assassinated in his home on May 3. The assailants apparently stabbed him to death, while another man was attacked but survived. Organizations such as the legal group FESPAD have called for a full investigation into the death of the 19-year old Ventura, while expressing concern that Salvadoran authorities will not address the likely political motivation for the murder.

Read more

More news from El Salvador: From U.S. to El Salvador, ‘gangs’ and the ‘global war on terror’ | Another SOA?: A Police Academy in El Salvador Worries Critics | El Salvador: FMLN Mayor Assassinated in Usulután | Funes Still Ahead in Salvadoran Race

On April 7, two indigenous Triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while on their way to Oaxaca City to participate in the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.

According to the state attorney general, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino (24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old). Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores (22 years old), and their son Jaciel Vásquez Martínez (three years old) were also injured in the attack.

According to prelimary reports, the women had left the station, which is part of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio Stations of the Southeast (Red de Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste), around 1 p.m. They were traveling in a truck on their way to Oaxaca City, but were ambushed on the outskirts of the community of Llano Juarez.

The two community radio activists were supposed to coordinate the working group for Community and Alternative Communication: Community Radio, Video, Press, and Internet, at the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Oaxaca, which was to begin on April 9 in the auditorium of the teachers union in Oaxaca. The Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS) released a statement denouncing the murders and demanding that the state authorities investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.

The state attorney general said that twenty 7.62 caliber bullet shells were found at the site of the murders, along with other arms including an AK-47. International supporters have been asked to contact their local embassies and consulates and organize demonstrations condemning the paramilitary repression of indigenous women and community media projects.

Read more | Two Community Radio Announcers Killed in Copala, Oaxaca | Deep Dish TV blog

The international network demanding accountability for the murder of US journalist Brad Will released secret documents detailing proposed military support for Mexican security forces implicated in murder, torture and continuing arbitrary detentions.

“Finally we were able to obtain these documents, which even Members of Congress have yet to see. We hope that by releasing them to the public we will be able to better make our case for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military subsidies to the Mexican military. The murderers of Brad and many others in Oaxaca and Atenco and Chiapas must be brought to justice if U.S. support for human rights is to mean anything.” said Harry Bubbins, of Friends of Brad Will. Over 70% of the proposed $1.5 billion would entail lethal aid analysts revealed.

President Bush announced a $1.5 billion dollar “security cooperation initiative” proposal for Mexico that the President is trying to bury into the Iraq supplemental spending package submitted to Congress. The initiative allows sharing of U.S. military intelligence information with Mexican military counterparts and provides weaponry and training with the notoriously corrupt and brutal Mexican military and police. Read More

PDF of leaked documents: high resolution (33 MB) or low resolution (3 MB) | Indynewswire: Harry Bubbins on Plan Mexico and Brad Will | Stop "Plan Mexico" (Merida Initiative) | Friends of Brad Will | El Enemigo Común