Honduras: Women’s Rights Under Seige After Military Coup

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras: Women’s Rights Under Seige After Military Coup
Posted on 03 December 2010

23 of 217 registered cases (10%), women have declared that they were victims of groping, being bashed in the breasts and vagina, being subject to sexual violence, insults and torture/humiliation.There have been 12 cases of rape by police/soldiers reported after protests or during curfews or who had been targeted for kidnapping for their participation in the resistance.

I read on a website that women made up 70% of the (to date, non-violent) Popular Resistance – the broad movement of people organising courageously in opposition to the coup and towards a National Constituent Assembly. Unfortunately, as I try to look up this reference, the website is currently down due to targeted virus attacks – a common occurrence for media outlets reporting the truth about Honduras

4 women have been killed in protests/for participating in the resistance: Wendy Avila and Olga Osiris Ucles were both killed by tear gas soon after President Zelaya’s entry into the Brazilian Embassy. In February 2010, Vanesa Zepeda, a vocal unionist and participant in the anti-coup movement has recently been killed and dumped on the street dead, leaving young children. Also in February 2010, Claudia Brizuela, an active resistance member and daughter of a prominent activist, was shot dead in her home in front of her young children, when she opened her door. Several women reported death threats the day Claudia was killed.

When I was in Honduras as a human rights observer some of the most inspiring and brave actions I witnessed were of women in resistance. In one moment I saw how one woman journalist witnessed police covering over their number plates (to be unidentifiable for when they commit human rights crimes), this woman was jotting down the number plate and someone inside the vehicle took her photo and threatened to kill her. Instead of being scared, she got angry, talked back and ripped off the piece of paper that covered one of the number plates and reported the number on her mobile to a human rights organisation. Another woman journalist showed no fear toward the lines of soldiers that barricaded the Brazilian Embassy; she approached them and took photos of the soldiers. A mother protested as the military took one of her sons away during curfew one evening; they knocked her to the ground, but they did not silence her.

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