Honduras imposes State of Siege in South
Clifton Ross
Thousands of Zelaya supporters stranded en route to meet the president
By Marcy Rein as reported by Clifton Ross from the Nicaraguan/Honduran Border
July 25,
2009 8:30 a.m.
“People
could be arrested, imprisoned or shot for being out of their houses,
but we have no houses here to return to,” said California-based
journalist Clifton Ross, who accompanied the caravan and is stranded in
El Paraiso. Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti imposed the state
of siege on the evening of July 24. It is in effect round the clock in
the department of El Paraiso, closest to the border. The rest of the
country is under curfew from midnight to 4:00 a.m.
Police
shot three Zelaya supporters, ran over three more and tear-gassed the
crowd several times yesterday, Ross said. They captured, torutured and
murdered a 24-year-old from Tegucigalpa. (According to Telesur, the demosnstrator's name was Pedro Ezequiel or Pedro Munoz. see link below.--Ed.) Thousands of supporters had
reached the border before the government set up roadblocks, detaining
busloads of others who wanted to meet Zelaya.
President Zelaya
crossed the border yesterday unarmed and negotiated for a half-hour
with an Honduran army colonel. Zelaya was denied entrance, the colonel
was arrested for talking to him, and the coup government called the
state of siege.
“Nothing can get in or out of El Paraiso at
this point,” Ross said. Zelaya supporters slept in their cars, under
trucks or on neighbors’ porches as heavy rain fell on and off through
the night.
“People here have been fighting for Zelaya’s return
for a month now. They are incredibly committed and won’t back down,” he
said. He urged people to call Congress and the White House and demand
that the U.S. government pressure Micheletti to lift the siege.
White House comment line: 202-456-1111
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121
Eva Golinger's Blog--Frequent updates on situation i, Honduras
http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/update-saturday-3pm-zelaya-at-honduran.html
Telesur
reports on tortured and murdered detainee.
La Jornada Report
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/07/25/index.php?section=mundo&article=017n1mun
INACURATE LA Times story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-honduras25-2009jul25,0,1351145.story
For more information: Clifton Ross can be contacted at clifross@gmail.com, Marcy Rein can be reached at marcyrein@yahoo.com
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About Clifton Ross
Some Information
Visit his Freedom Voices blog!
Clifton Ross is a free lance writer and videographer who has been reporting on Latin America for over 25 years.He has edited many anthologies including: A Dream Made of Stars: A Bilingual Anthology of Nicaraguan Poetry and Voice of Fire: Communiques and Interviews of the Zapatista National Liberation Army. He is the translator of Quetzalcoatl by Ernesto Cardenal and author of When Good Dogs Have Bad Dreams: Four American Poets.
Fables for an Open Field has just been released in Spanish by La Casa Tomada of Venezuela. His forthcoming book of poems in translation, Traduciendo el Silencio, will be published later this year by Venezuela's Ministry of Culture editorial, Perro y Rana.
In 2005 Clifton represented the U.S. along with Genny Lim in Venezuela's World Poetry Festival.
Ross currently teaches English at Berkeley City College, Berkeley, California. He can be reached at clifross@gmail.com .
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