As caravans of migrants stream toward the US border and protesters in Honduras demand the presidents resignation, a coup in Tegucigalpa exactly 10 years ago is now making for strange political allies in Washington.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) thus found herself on the same wavelength as US President Donald Trump when she advocated cutting off the aid to the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez in March, and tweeted out a photo with the daughter of the slain Honduran activist Berta Caceres on Friday.
In 2016, Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was murdered by US-trained Honduran special forces.
The next year, I had the honor of meeting her daughter, Bertha.
Today marks 10 years since the coup in Honduras. We in the US must stop funding its brutality. pic.twitter.com/dwcYZrs5cJ
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 28, 2019
Trump also wants to cut US funding to Honduras, but for a completely different reason: along with Guatemala and El Salvador, the country is a major source of migrant “caravans” that have been streaming across the US border over the past year. All three Central American nations have experienced Washingtons meddling throughout their history.
On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military raided the home of President Manuel Zelaya and led him away at gunpoint. He was replaced by Porfirio Lobo Sosa, leader of the National Party, who held the office until 2014, when he handed it over to Hernandez.
The administration of Barack Obama – specifically, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – was involved in planning and executing the coup, it later emerged. Clinton herself admitted it in her memoir “Hard Choices,” first published in 2014. After public scrutiny, however, the part of the book detailing her involvement in Honduras was removed from the paperback edition.
In the decade since, Honduras has become a human rights nightmare, according to organizations such as Amnesty International, which accused state security forces of routinely engaging in torture and extrajudicial killings.
Caceres, for instance, was murdered in 2016 in attack widely believed to have been in retaliation for her activism against the construction of the Aguas Zarca dam in the Gualcarque river.
In 2016, Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was murdered by US-trained Honduran special forces.
The next year, I had the honor of meeting her daughter, Bertha.
Today marks 10 years since the coup in Honduras. We in the US must stop funding its brutality. pic.twitter.com/dwcYZrs5cJ
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 28, 2019
Over the last several months, public anger at Hernandezs rule has turned into widespread unrest. Riots first began in April, in Read More – Source
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