Third journalist gunned down in Honduras in two weeks

2 more were just killed (Radio journalists Jose Bayardo & Manuel de Jesus Juarez were gunned down late last week out in Oloncho), so at least 5 in March alone. Though there are various theories, few try to reconcile these acts, which dont benefit any political party, with the fact that the country is bankrupt, there is a major staple foods shortage, there is record unemployment and yet somehow the new CID Gallup poll puts the post-coup President with an rather amazing 75% approval rating.

The alleged second wave of murders is blamed on Zelayistas, as revenge for the alleged first wave of political murders, blamed on the Golpistas. The problem with the theory -which is all it is as there isn't any evidence at all that either half is true- is that the first wave obviously didn't benefit Micheletti's supporters and the second wave clearly can't benefit the Resistence. One “group” that benefits from the downward spiral is cartels (and it is far from the first time the tactic has been used by them). The focus on journalists is important because of the statement such a murder makes about information and testimony (criminals, of course, like neither). But, these are not the only significant people being killed. And, the newspaper focus on successful murder attempts blinds the public and especially those outside the country to the number of key people who have fled the country due to death threats and failed murder attempts.

The country was already split though not truly in half as widely reported (the true Resistence is relatively small). These murders help that end though, as they undercut what little confidence there is or was in Honduran government, make democracy look less successful or important and worthy of pursuit, and succeed in making the police suspect everyone yet accomplish nothing - and look incompetent doing even that. The murder progression has been from “fake police” allegedly killing peaceful resistance leaders to unknown teams of heavily armed men murdering pro-coup parties. The first wave places blame on not just the business elite, but on the real police too as the assumption fed to the public via poor journalism and rumor is that they are handling it (they might be; but, to believe this theory one needs to believe that real police in their off-duty hours where uniforms that look like their real ones but aren’t, and drive around in cars that look like their normal ones but aren’t, and go out with weaponry better than that afforded them by their real police job, in groups of 6-10, all to off some unsuspecting and unarmed protester who isn’t a real threat to the administration and never really was). The anti-coup forces have no other way to explain the course of events. The second wave places blame on Zelaya’s hardcore defenders. Though there was little anti-coup violence, this explanation is viable since the coup press hasn’t any other way to explain the events – and it provides a plausible Chavez connection which will never go unused in Honduras.

The coup and international response set up the failure that followed. The coup guaranteed full use of the military, including the air force and navy, through the next planned elections. The dispersement of the military to the borders, coupled with the protests, utilized every police officer in the country. The country’s fairly active and sometimes successful anti-drug setup not only stopped to function, everyone in the country knew it did and those that care outside the country also knew it did. Honduras has more clandestine air strips than any other country between Colombia and Mexico. Honduras hasn't an independent air transport monitoring system and the U.S. -as one of the few, real, meaningful retaliations for the coup- shut down all radar access and assistance. The country was bombarded. At times averaging a couple to several per month planes crashes all with the same cargo: drugs. If in good weather 3 planes crash loaded with cocaine in less than a week, it is as if no political observer asked how many didn’t crash?

Due to the coup and then location of most journalists, newspapers didn't cover many of the incidents or if they did there were no accompanying photographs or detailed stories on what happened. In C.A. news, if there isn’t a photo, preferably a gory one, it is usually a sound bite and not a real article – so often the public was lucky to come across blurbs that police recovered such and such, usually after scavengers made off with most of the real cargo. The Honduran drug czar and many lesser figures were murdered late last year. There was little if any worldwide attention focused on this as what little they seemed willing to afford went toward feigned coup analysis. The coup itself "coincided" with a massive flood of dollars into Honduras, which was covered by many sources. What isn’t widely reported now is that a second smaller flood of dollars is in Honduras. This is occurring in the same region where the most confrontation coup-protest marches were held (some of which was funded), which is the same region where the current Lower Aguan land disputes between campesinos and large landholders is taking place (the campesinos are funded), a region for which real financial dealings take place in Tocoa – which is where journalist Nahúm Palacios was murdered and is the site of investigations by David Meza, the journalist later killed in La Ceiba. Just because the political left and right are the victims doesn’t mean the left and right are necessarily the perpetrators, nor the beneficiaries; it is easy to assume this, as all one needs to do is migrate political arguments to acts of violence making them criminal arguments, but because it is an easy way to interprent events doesn't make it true. While Honduras is a very poor country and is more violent than most neighboring countries, what is happening now isn't simply more of the same old bad or an extension of what happened before, it is different - and the fact that the country is bankcrupt makes it all the easier.

As indicated by the Knight Centre for Journalism, which is the source of information which Fyl references in his thread, the campaign of terrorism against journalists in Honduras is apparently being orchestrated by the faction of former president Manuel Zelaya.

Attacks on journalists in Honduras have evidently increased since the pro-democracy forces in Honduras under the leadership of Roberto Michaletti overthrew the Zelaya dictatorship and ushered in the free and fair elections that resulted in the victory of Porfirio Lobo, who campaigned on a platform of increasing social benefits for the poor.

One of the Knight Centre articles which Fyl quotes in his post focused on the murderous attack by the Zelaya brigades on Karol Cabrera, a TV host on Channel 8, a non-profit broadcaster that functions as a counter-weight to the corporate-owned media in Honduras. Cabrera was an outspoken supporter of the ouster of Zelaya and had reported getting several death threats from the Zelaya faction.

It should comes as no surprise that the Zelaya brigades are using terror to undermine the democratic process in Honduras. Zelaya is a key ally of Hugo Chavez. Currently, the socialist workers party in Spain is demanding that Chavez explain why Venezuela facilitated contacts between narco-traffickers in Colombia and Basque terrorists in order to assassinate foreign statesmen.

I think the implications for Nicaragua are clear. The circle around Ortega are the last remaining government in Central America to give uncritical support to Zelaya and Chavez.

Personally, I would like to see pro-democracy advocates who post on the Ben Linder list use their influence to mount a campaign to pressure Ortega to publicly disassociate himself from the terrorist acts of the Zelaya brigades. The Ben Linder list is the pre-eminent forum in Nicaragua for English-speaking, pro-democracy anti-authoritarians, and as such, I am sure that influential political elites in Managua carefully read every word that is published on it.

Fyl, on behalf of all the civil libertarians and democratic socialists who visit nicaliving, let me thank you for drawing this matter to our attention.

The 16 year old pregnant daughter of Karol Cabrera, who gets a last line mention in the article as being wounded (on a live outside broadcast) was shot and killed last December in the same drive by manner. So the families are being targeted as well.