Tegucigalpa, Honduras - July 3 - For us it is clear that the same terror and repression against the people from the 1980’s is occurring today. We, the people of Honduras, are still mobilizing for the return of our constitutional rights and the constitutional right of our President returning to power, despite the powerful efforts to deny both.

The militaries manipulation revealed itself again when Grenades exploded in Tegucigalpa, and the Spokesperson for the National Police Force Hector Ivan Mejilla, stated that the explosions were from demonstrators.

Because of the state of exception, the government is controlling our right and privacy to communicate. All of our phones are now being tapped by the death squads, and the army is systematically detaining people attempting to enter into
Tegucigalpa to participate in the organized protest. They are pulling people
off of buses, confiscating identification cards and disrupting regular transit routes throughout the country in order to bring supporters en masse to the capital. This morning at 11am, they began detaining people attempting to join the marches which was long before the 4pm official curfew. During the same time 10 Nicaraguan citizens were detained.

The military is fully mobilized and controls the country, especially outside the capital where militaries tactics are much more violent and extreme. Of the 50 people who were arrested at yesterdays march in San Pedro Sula 18 were released and it is still believed that official charges will be brought against them.

The group Committee for Peace and Democracy is mobilizing in favor of the coup government, consulting with experts in psychological warfare. This is the same group that in the 1980’s functioned as the political committee for the paramilitaries and death squads, known as the Association for the Progress and Development of Honduras (APRO). They are standing in favor of the decreed state of exception, and are calling for an extension of the decree, which suspends constitutional rights, for 15 more days. They are making concentrated efforts to persuade the general secretary of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza, that it is an ideological struggle, not a physical one, further stating that Chavez is a demon threatening Honduras.

The committee has already erased all of the messages demonstrators had left on the walls yesterday to inform people of what is happening, and this is the ONLY mode of expression we have left. There are now huge signs over the streets and freeways in favor of the de facto government.

Today the military shut down the only radio station reporting on the coup, Radio Globo, and a journalist from that station called the national commissioner for human rights, Ramon Custodio to denounce the violation of her rights. The commissioner responded by saying, “why are you speaking about what you shouldn’t be speaking about? I can not hear you because I am going to the Presidential seizure of police authorities.

The defacto government has been swearing in government officials. It is believed that the international delegation scheduled to arrive and the subsequent negotiations will guarantee Michelletti and his government a safe escape from justice and will perhaps allow some of the officials he has sworn in to keep their positions when Zelaya returns to office.

COFADEH demands:

• The immediate return of our constitutionally elected President Manuel Zelaya.
• International condemnation of the Honduran Commissioner of Human Rights in Honduras, Ramon Custodio, due to:
• positions taken which place him as an apologist for the coup government
• negligance of duties  required by international law concerning human rights
• not defending certain sectors of the Honduran people (those opposed to the coup government).