Mennonite Weekly Review

I concluded my August column about the coup that ousted Honduran President Zelaya with, “I know of no military overthrow of a democratically elected government that has turned out well.”

Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

When I wrote those words, I was certain I would be doing a future column on massive human rights abuses that would occur because of the coup in Honduras. To be writing this column on exactly that topic brings me no satisfaction.

Since I last wrote, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both issued reports describing Honduran security forces beating up and raping demonstrators, as well as arbitrarily detaining, torturing and “disappearing” some opponents of the coup.

The police have also attacked the offices of human rights organizations, shut down media outlets, assaulted journalists covering events and stolen their equipment.

President Zelaya slipped into the country and took refuge in Brazil’s Tegucigalpa Embassy Sept. 21. Hundreds of Zelaya supporters flocked there to protect him, which resulted in further deaths and injuries at the hands of Honduran security forces.

The coup government of Roberto Micheletti cut off electricity, phone lines and water to the embassy and delivered an ultimatum to the Brazilian government, saying it had 10 days to turn Zelaya over to the coup regime or grant him asylum in Brazil.

On Sept. 28, the coup regime denied entry to four diplomats from the Organization of American States who came to mediate a solution to the crisis.

The United States has condemned the coup, withheld aid and recently deported Micheletti’s daughter, Bianca, saying that she and two other Hondurans had to leave for “representing the de facto regime of Honduras” in the United States.

However, the United States is the only major country that has not withdrawn its ambassador to Honduras, and the Obama administration, while denouncing the coup, has said almost nothing about the repression that the coup has left in its wake.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has spoken eloquently on behalf of Congolese rape victims, has not commented on rapes perpetrated by security forces against Honduran opponents of the coup.