Meanwhile, the Honduran military police are carrying out targeted attacks against protest leaders, journalists and human rights defenders in the wake of the post-electoral crisis, according to a leading Honduran human rights organisation, COFADEH. Thirty-four social leaders have been forced to leave the country or relocate due to political persecution. COFADEH documented excessive use of violence strategically used against protesters to instill fear and squash dissent. They cite use of torture, kidnappings, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings, among many other tactics. Thirty people were killed and hundreds gravely injured during anti-fraud protests between November 30 and December 31, mainly at the hands of the military and special forces.
These deaths are a stark reminder for Hondurans, who suffered a similar wave of violence against human rights defenders after the illegal coup d’état in 2009, led by Hernandez and backed by the United States. Since then, Hernandez has been a loyal ally in Washington’s effort to stem the flow of drugs and migrants from reaching US borders. Honduras has received nearly $114 million dollars of security aid since 2009, used to train and fund elite military police units deployed to fight gangs and drugs on the streets. The result has been a dangerous expansion of military and authoritative power that has taken civil society hostage.
Honduran military police are notoriously corrupt and overwhelmingly implicated in egregious human rights abuses against indigenous leaders, trade unionists, journalists, land-rights activists and lawyers. The Inter American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) described Honduras as “one of the most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders”. Hernandez himself has repeatedly and publicly charged human rights defenders with undermining the country. Just last year, his administration revised the penal code to criminalise anti-government protest and anti-government media coverage as acts of terrorism.
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