The Murder of Walter Trochez: Political Violence and Impunity in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

The Murder of Walter Trochez: Political Violence and Impunity in Honduras

Vincent WarrenExecutive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
Posted: December 13, 2010 05:04 PM

Today marks the one year anniversary of the assassination of Walter Trochez, a human rights, LGBTQ and democracy activist in Honduras. His death, like those of many other activists, LGBTQ leaders, journalists, unionists and teachers has been nominally investigated by a police force that itself has been implicated in violence against civilians since the coup on June 28, 2009. Despite the efforts of the U.S. State Department, multinational corporations, the Government of Honduras and their lobbyists to portray the current situation as sporadic violence, attributable to generic 'crime' within a post-election return to normalcy, it is clear that targeted bloodshed and a culture of impunity has taken hold.

Trochez was abducted on December 4, 2009 by four masked men in civilian clothes who beat him and ordered him to give up the names and addresses of political activists. According to Amnesty International they told him "Even if you give us the information we're going to kill you, we have orders to kill you." Trochez was able to escape at that time but was later shot to death by gunmen in police uniforms, according to witnesses. This style of abduction, assault, interrogation and homicide is reminiscent of the brutal tactics of Battalion 3-16, an intelligence unit within the Honduran Army that was notorious for their death squad tactics and use of torture, which was later found out to have received training in the United States. COFADEH (The Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras) and the journalist Jeremy Kryt have denounced what they see as a new wave of state sponsored death squads.

Walter Trochez was a well known activist who worked to build coalitions between the National Resistance Front and the LGBTQ community. At 27-years-old, he was the General Coordinator for the Sexual Diversity Advocacy Group and a co-founder of the Committee of Auditors, an organization that worked to end violence and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. Following the coup he began compiling information on the murders of LGBTQ resistance members which he saw as part of a continuum of homophobic violence. His work was a powerful indictment of those who participated in the coup and its brutality. Trochez's voice still resonates in a vibrant and committed resistance movement which has actively and intentionally integrated feminist and queer spaces.

Despite demands for a full independent investigation by Amnesty International, PFLAG, Human Rights Watch, Rights Action and other organizations, the Honduran government only partially bowed to calls to open an inquiry to Trochez's murder under the Attorney General's Office, although not an independent one. The Honduran Police have affirmed the beginning of an investigation and have denied any law enforcement involvement or collusion in the murder. A secretive organization that employs violence and coercion investigating itself is a hallmark of impunity and is something that should concern all who value human rights.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-warren/the-murder-of-walter-troc_b_796094.html

http://farm5.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/4044/4187211840_b950911090.jpg http://www.defensoresenlinea.com.nyud.net:8090/cms/images/stories/walter_trochez_1.jpg

[social_critic]

1. What is the solution to this problem?

Human right abuses are very common. What is the solution?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Withdraw financial support of the government which does this.

Also do NOT condone an illegitimate military coup and its officials, do not recognize their reign of terror (which ensued after they seized power, beat, even hospitalized leftist candidates who would have otherwise participated in the Presidential election, drove scores of other candidates to withdraw from the race in fear for their lives) as the acceptable platform from which to operate a legal, honest campaign resulting in a "democratic" election.

Do not recognize the candidate "elected" under filthy circumstances, just like other Latin American countries.

Human rights abuses involving torture and murder are NOT acceptable, are NOT pardonable, even though US ally Islam Karimov has been known for many years to boil his political prisoners alive, even as _{George W. Bush} befriended him warmly.

[social_critic]

4. Limited in scope

Withdrawing financial support is fairly meaningless. Consider the human rights abuses in places such as Honduras, Cuba, and the USA. Each of them is different, all of them do have problems, and withdrawing financial support doesn't do much - not really. What I had in mind was something a bit more powerful, like broadening the scope of the international court of justice, so that it can impose penalties on individuals such as denial of visas to travel to countries willing to honor its judgements.

[Judi Lynn]

5. That would have meant the Cuban "exile" she-wolf Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wouldn't be able

to thrust herself in front of the cameras with people like the coup President Roberto Micheletti, as she did immediately after the filthy coup, just as did untra-slimy, deviant Republican dirtbag Jim DeMint and his entire welcoming committee of several other US right-wing politicians.

Obama's administration also suspended visas for Hondurans to the US, infuriating Honduran business/political figures, but that was withdrawn almost as quickly as it was operational.

The only time Cuba EVER had any problem similar to what Honduras has endured was during the Batista era, and it took a very difficult struggle to get rid of him and his heavily armed and financed military, just like that comandeered by the morally diseased Honduran right-wing.

[naaman fletcher]

3. certainly

our tax dollars should not be going to support it.