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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2zKfQFv:
Honduras troops shoot dead teenage girl amid election crisis protests:
chamerionwrites:
wakanibbolo:
chamerionwrites:
A teenage girl was killed as troops opened fire on unarmed protesters in the Honduran capital on Saturday, after the government declared a 10-day curfew and suspended constitutional rights in an attempt to contain an escalating political crisis fuelled by evidence of electoral fraud.
According to witnesses, Kimberly Dayana Fonseca, 19, was shot dead in Tegucigalpa in the early hours of Saturday morning by military police – members of a huge force loyal to the rightwing government of Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of meddling in the vote count after last Sunday’s election in an attempt to cling to power.
There were reports of mass detentions and serious injuries overnight after the government deployed troops across the country in what many fear is a return to autocratic rule. At least four people were confirmed dead.
Six days after the election, the winner of the presidential race has still not been declared by the beleaguered electoral commission (TSE), which is controlled by Hernández’s National party.
The opposition Alliance leader, Salvador Nasralla, was five points ahead until a spate of irregularities including mysterious delays in rural votes and computer glitches saw his seemingly insurmountable lead overturned.
The fraud can no longer just be called fraud,” Eugenio Sosa, a sociologist and political analyst, told the Guardian. “This is a type of electoral coup against the president-elect, Salvador Nasralla.”
The election debacle has plunged the Central American country of 8.5 million people into its worst political crisis since a 2009 military-backed coup which unleashed a violent crackdown against social and political activists.
The current crisis is closely linked to the consolidation of power by Hernández and his allies since the coup, which has given the National party control over Congress, the judiciary and the armed forces. Hernández used a controversial ruling by friendly judges in the supreme court to justify his bid for a second term in power, despite the constitution prohibiting re-election of sitting or former leaders.
Military police units were patrolling the streets of Tegucigalpa, where no unrest had been reported by Saturday afternoon. The curfew, which began on Friday at 11pm local time with very little warning, suspends the right to free movement from 6pm to 6am and allows security forces to detain anyone breaking the curfew or who is “in some way suspected of causing damage to people or their property”.
Honduras received $17.3m in security aid from the US this year.
The opposition Alliance claimed looting and violence seen in some cities was prompted by government-aligned provocateurs tasked with generating chaos in order to justify state repression.
Human rights groups fear that a new terror law, approved weeks before the election, will be used to quell dissent. Thousands are expected to demonstrate across the country on Sunday morning, after opposition leaders issued a call for peaceful mobilizations in public parks and squares.
Meanwhile, cracks appear to be growing within the electoral commission. TSE magistrate Marco Ramiro Lobo told the Guardian the delayed rural votes and computer failures – the main system and backup both allegedly failed – must be investigated as “the tribunal president on Monday gave the order to stop counting for 10 to 12 hours”.
Alliance leaders are locked in negotiations with the TSE over an 11-point list of demands.
“The Alliance’s demands for a transparent recount should be met … otherwise this will go on for days and call into question the legitimacy of the process,” said Lobo.
To all those in America that think Trump is the devil and that we Americans have a ‘Fascist’ government cough *Antifa* cough. This is was fascism really looks like. No one is getting shot with anything other than beanbags and peperballs during protests over here. And that’s only after they turn violent. So the next time some kid in a mask screams into a mic that America is evil, just yell back, ‘Try that in North Korea and get back to me.”
#1 - There’s always someone. There’s always someone who feels the need to turn the conversation back to American politics, because apparently we are incapable of caring about Third World lives except as ammunition in our first world political debates.
#2 - But since you’ve raised the subject, Honduras has received over $17 million in U.S. military and police aid this year. The bullets and tear gas being fired at Honduran protestors right now? They came from the United States. Los TIGRES - the elite (and corrupt) military police unit potentially implicated in the murder of activist Berta Cáceres last year, and specifically denounced by human rights groups for contributing to the current violence? They’re vetted, funded, and trained by the US military. John Kelly is a big fan of this style of policing, and of corrupt Honduran president Juan Orlando. The Clinton State Department under Obama played a major role in bringing the current ruling party to power after the 2009 coup. So, y’know, maybe it’s worth asking the kid in a mask why he feels so strongly that America is “evil.” You might learn something.
#3 - This just in, folks: you’re not allowed to criticize your government as long as any other government in the world is more repressive than yours. Nor are you allowed to point out worrying authoritarian traits in your leaders unless they are full-blown dictators. We’re big fans of locking the barn after the horse is stolen, around here!
#4 - I also have concerns about the lack of nuance we often see in conversation surrounding Donald Trump. A post about the ongoing election crisis in Honduras - a crisis which is already being comprehensively ignored by much of the media and the public - and the murder of a nineteen-year-old girl (Kimberly Fonseca was reportedly out looking for her brother, because the curfew was declared scarcely twenty minutes before it went into effect) IS NOT THE PLACE TO RAISE THOSE CONCERNS, JFC.
Also, here is a link where you can write to Congress about military and police aid to Honduras.
(Your picture was not posted)
Honduras troops shoot dead teenage girl amid election crisis protests:
chamerionwrites:
wakanibbolo:
chamerionwrites:
A teenage girl was killed as troops opened fire on unarmed protesters in the Honduran capital on Saturday, after the government declared a 10-day curfew and suspended constitutional rights in an attempt to contain an escalating political crisis fuelled by evidence of electoral fraud.
According to witnesses, Kimberly Dayana Fonseca, 19, was shot dead in Tegucigalpa in the early hours of Saturday morning by military police – members of a huge force loyal to the rightwing government of Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of meddling in the vote count after last Sunday’s election in an attempt to cling to power.
There were reports of mass detentions and serious injuries overnight after the government deployed troops across the country in what many fear is a return to autocratic rule. At least four people were confirmed dead.
Six days after the election, the winner of the presidential race has still not been declared by the beleaguered electoral commission (TSE), which is controlled by Hernández’s National party.
The opposition Alliance leader, Salvador Nasralla, was five points ahead until a spate of irregularities including mysterious delays in rural votes and computer glitches saw his seemingly insurmountable lead overturned.
The fraud can no longer just be called fraud,” Eugenio Sosa, a sociologist and political analyst, told the Guardian. “This is a type of electoral coup against the president-elect, Salvador Nasralla.”
The election debacle has plunged the Central American country of 8.5 million people into its worst political crisis since a 2009 military-backed coup which unleashed a violent crackdown against social and political activists.
The current crisis is closely linked to the consolidation of power by Hernández and his allies since the coup, which has given the National party control over Congress, the judiciary and the armed forces. Hernández used a controversial ruling by friendly judges in the supreme court to justify his bid for a second term in power, despite the constitution prohibiting re-election of sitting or former leaders.
Military police units were patrolling the streets of Tegucigalpa, where no unrest had been reported by Saturday afternoon. The curfew, which began on Friday at 11pm local time with very little warning, suspends the right to free movement from 6pm to 6am and allows security forces to detain anyone breaking the curfew or who is “in some way suspected of causing damage to people or their property”.
Honduras received $17.3m in security aid from the US this year.
The opposition Alliance claimed looting and violence seen in some cities was prompted by government-aligned provocateurs tasked with generating chaos in order to justify state repression.
Human rights groups fear that a new terror law, approved weeks before the election, will be used to quell dissent. Thousands are expected to demonstrate across the country on Sunday morning, after opposition leaders issued a call for peaceful mobilizations in public parks and squares.
Meanwhile, cracks appear to be growing within the electoral commission. TSE magistrate Marco Ramiro Lobo told the Guardian the delayed rural votes and computer failures – the main system and backup both allegedly failed – must be investigated as “the tribunal president on Monday gave the order to stop counting for 10 to 12 hours”.
Alliance leaders are locked in negotiations with the TSE over an 11-point list of demands.
“The Alliance’s demands for a transparent recount should be met … otherwise this will go on for days and call into question the legitimacy of the process,” said Lobo.
To all those in America that think Trump is the devil and that we Americans have a ‘Fascist’ government cough *Antifa* cough. This is was fascism really looks like. No one is getting shot with anything other than beanbags and peperballs during protests over here. And that’s only after they turn violent. So the next time some kid in a mask screams into a mic that America is evil, just yell back, ‘Try that in North Korea and get back to me.”
#1 - There’s always someone. There’s always someone who feels the need to turn the conversation back to American politics, because apparently we are incapable of caring about Third World lives except as ammunition in our first world political debates.
#2 - But since you’ve raised the subject, Honduras has received over $17 million in U.S. military and police aid this year. The bullets and tear gas being fired at Honduran protestors right now? They came from the United States. Los TIGRES - the elite (and corrupt) military police unit potentially implicated in the murder of activist Berta Cáceres last year, and specifically denounced by human rights groups for contributing to the current violence? They’re vetted, funded, and trained by the US military. John Kelly is a big fan of this style of policing, and of corrupt Honduran president Juan Orlando. The Clinton State Department under Obama played a major role in bringing the current ruling party to power after the 2009 coup. So, y’know, maybe it’s worth asking the kid in a mask why he feels so strongly that America is “evil.” You might learn something.
#3 - This just in, folks: you’re not allowed to criticize your government as long as any other government in the world is more repressive than yours. Nor are you allowed to point out worrying authoritarian traits in your leaders unless they are full-blown dictators. We’re big fans of locking the barn after the horse is stolen, around here!
#4 - I also have concerns about the lack of nuance we often see in conversation surrounding Donald Trump. A post about the ongoing election crisis in Honduras - a crisis which is already being comprehensively ignored by much of the media and the public - and the murder of a nineteen-year-old girl (Kimberly Fonseca was reportedly out looking for her brother, because the curfew was declared scarcely twenty minutes before it went into effect) IS NOT THE PLACE TO RAISE THOSE CONCERNS, JFC.
Also, here is a link where you can write to Congress about military and police aid to Honduras.
(Your picture was not posted)
