Honduran Indigenous Leader Asks Sen. Dick Durbin To Help ‘Stop the Assassinations’ in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

June 9, 2016

Honduran Indigenous Leader Asks Sen. Dick Durbin To Help ‘Stop the Assassinations’ in Honduras

Activists say U.S. policy in the region is still leading to violence.

BY Parker Asmann


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Gómez Membreño speaks outside of Sen. Durbin's office building. (Parker Asmann)
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A small crowd gathered outside of Chicago’s Federal Plaza Wednesday morning to demand that Senator Dick Durbin halt all security aid to Honduras and instead support an independent investigation into the assassination of Berta Cáceres.

Tomás Gómez Membreño of the Consejo Popular Indígena de Honduras (COPINH) was joined by organizers and members from the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN), La Voz de Los de Abajo-Chicago and Witness for Peace before delivering their message. Stan Smith of the Chicago ALBA Solidarity Committee, a group that supports progressive movements in Latin America, said his group was in attendance to show solidarity with the Lenca people of Honduras and the increasing privatization of the nation’s natural resources.

“Tomás and his people are being abused by the government of Honduras,” he said. “And the United States is backing the government in Honduras and what they’re doing since the coup in 2009 has contributed to the problem today.”

Tensions have risen in Honduras after security forces raided the home and murdered environmental activist Berta Cáceres in March, the former General Coordinator of COPINH. After her murder, Gómez Membreño assumed the role as general coordinator and has been leading a speaking tour across the United States to raise awareness about U.S. influence in Honduras.

U.S. intervention in Central America has persisted for decades. Throughout the 1980s the Reagan Administration created various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups based in Honduras, known as the contras, to oppose the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Numerous reports were generated that accused the Contras of committing severe human rights abuses with no discouragement from the C.I.A. Many of the contras’ bases were located in Honduras, with the backing of the U.S.-allied Honduran government.

More:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19190/honduran-indigenous-leader-asks-sen.-dick-durbin-to-help-stop-the-assassina/

[Herman4747]

1. Hillary really messed up that poor country, didn't she?

When she decided to support those preventing the return of the democratically elected president, a move that would make her mentor Henry Kissinger proud.