Honduras: saying my piece

The news is very bad, and I can't be on the computer much more today.

This was my email letter to the State Department this morning (links added here; the previous post has more on the embassy attacks and rejection of negotiations):

Subject: Honduras

What will it take to get the U.S. government to do the right thing? How many dictatorial, murderous, and outlaw acts must the coup regime take before this department utters one single word of condemnation?

Since Friday morning alone, the regime has:
- mocked the UN Security Council by renewing its attacks on the Brazilian embassy, assaulting those inside with chemicals and sonic cannon (LRAD).
- detained, searched, and harassed diplomatic and medical personnel entering and leaving the embassy.
- deported from the country OAS ministers arriving to help facilitate negotiations.
- rejected negotiations of all kinds, including those previously agreed to (including feeble, obvious time-wasters like the 'consultations' suggested by the U.S. as announced by spokesman Ian Kelly on Thursday).
- issued a decree suspending basic human and constitutional rights, paving the way for even more deadly repression.
- decreed the closure of the only two broadcast media reporting on the regime's crimes and giving air time to the majority of citizens who support the restoration of the legitimate, elected government.

Lives are at stake. The credibility of the U.S. government, and this administration in particular, is at stake. The future of elected democracies in the hemisphere is at stake.

Don't delay: Immediately denounce the undemocratic, vicious repression of the Micheletti regime. Freeze the U.S. accounts of those participating in and backing the coup; you know who they are. Formally declare this a military coup, at long last, now that the masks are completely off, and follow through by ending all U.S. aid -- including the so-called "democracy promotion" money that goes exclusively to the coup-supporting organizations in the Union Civica "Democratica".

The two-faced policy must end today. Stop encouraging the dictators in Honduras by remaining silent while they assault and murder citizens, by encouraging their run-out-the-clock-to-elections strategy with fake negotiations, and by continuing to send money while mouthing support for restoration of the constitutional order.

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[Image: Wendy Elizabeth Avila, a law student in Tegucigalpa who died Saturday from the effects of tear gas.]