Pastors for Peace on Honduran Elections

[roody]

For Immediate Release: Contact: Manolo De Los Santos 347-573-1246

Honduran Resistance Warns of Escalating Violence as Coup Regime
Decrees State of Emergency

IFCO/Pastors for Peace Calls on President Obama: Don't Support the
Illegal Coup Regime in Honduras, Don't Recognize the Nov. 29th Elections

Waldina Mejia, spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance and

Manolo De Los Santos of Pastors for Peace are available for
interviews in English and Spanish.

Under the glare of international condemnation, the illegal coup
government and the military in Honduras have decreed a state of
emergency as they move forward toward elections on Sunday, November 29th.

Resistance forces who are calling for the reinstatement of President
Manuel Zelaya have continued street demonstrations for the past 148
days. They remain steadfast against any election without Zelaya's
reinstatement and are calling for the immediate end to violence and
repression by the coup regime.

"Elections under these conditions would be an act of fraud against
the people of Honduras," said Dr. Luther Castillo, a young Garifuna
(African and indigenous descendant) physician from the Atlantic Coast
region of Honduras, who is secretary of communications for the
National Resistance Front Against the Coup.

Castillo reports that a new wave of repression has been unleashed by
the coup regime. "The military has attacked our Garifuna Community
Hospital, and arrested many peaceful demonstrators."

"These elections are illegal because they were called by an
unconstitutional government. They were set up to legitimize the
illegal coup against the constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya"
said Waldina Mejia, a spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance, who
is currently in the US.

The National Resistance Front Against the Coup is calling for the
international community not to recognize the election and to support
the restoration of their constitution and their duly elected government.

They are also calling for a constitutional assembly to respond to the
letters from 600,000 marginalized Hondurans who want equal treatment
under the law in their own country.

The US State Department has said that the US will recognize the
results of the November 29th elections. The International Republican
Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (both
conservative think tanks who were active in destabilizing the region
in the 1980's) are sending observers to the elections, indicating
that they recognize them as legitimate and not the farce elections
that they are.

"We support the people of Honduras and the Honduran resistance in
protesting the continuing repression, the illegal coup and the
fraudulent elections in Honduras. An election held at gunpoint cannot
be free and fair," said Manolo de Los Santos, spokesperson for
IFCO/Pastors for Peace.


IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE
418 West 145th Street, 3-FL.
New York NY 10031
tel: [phone] - fax [phone] - e-mail [email protected]