Coup regime in Honduras seeks to close media that report it’s activities
Al Giordano, General Joe and friends | 05.08.2009 14:56 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | World
Radio Globo, after its first shutdown at the hands of military soldiers, won a court order to reopen and has broadcasted constantly since June 29. If not for its news team and conductors and the thousands of calls they have received live on the air from Honduran citizens, the nationwide public would not know the real facts about what has been happening to their country."
Honduras Indymedia was there at noon, in the capital city, and photographed inside and outside the station at the moment that the order was delivered. Its report (in Spanish) and the photographs appear here.
This morning’s televised threat by coup General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez to “go after them” – the leaders of the civil resistance to the coup – also included broadcasters and journalists.
Radio Globo, after its first shutdown at the hands of military soldiers, won a court order to reopen and has broadcasted constantly since June 29. If not for its news team and conductors and the thousands of calls they have received live on the air from Honduran citizens, the nationwide public would not know the real facts about what has been happening to their country. Thus, the military coup’s thirst to censor Radio Globo’s signal.
Repression has also been on the rise here in the country’s second largest city, and so has the resistance"
Coup regime in Honduras seeks to close media that report it’s activities.
AUGUST 4, 2009, SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS: The order was printed on the hijacked stationary of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL, in its Spanish initials), executed by a military judge, and delivered to Radio Globo’s flagship station on 88.7 FM in Tegucigalpa at noon today: charged with “sedition,” the people’s radio station will be closed by decree, it proclaimed.
But the station continues to broadcast here in San Pedro Sula at 104.5 FM and also from 14 other cities throughout the country, in defiance of the order, which had been solicited by the Armed Forces of Honduras clandestinely on July 31 and granted today by the illegitimate coup regime.
This highly illegal situation – in which Armed Forces that claim to obey the orders of civilian authorities are the ones giving the orders to the regime over which media may broadcast and which may not – makes a lie, again, of the legaloid claims to be a civilian coup. But it’s the military – the same one that invaded and closed Radio Globo in the early hours of June 28 – that is calling the shots in Honduras today.
Honduras Indymedia was there at noon, in the capital city, and photographed inside and outside the station at the moment that the order was delivered. Its report (in Spanish) and the photographs appear here.
This morning’s televised threat by coup General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez to “go after them” – the leaders of the civil resistance to the coup – also included broadcasters and journalists.
Radio Globo, after its first shutdown at the hands of military soldiers, won a court order to reopen and has broadcasted constantly since June 29. If not for its news team and conductors and the thousands of calls they have received live on the air from Honduran citizens, the nationwide public would not know the real facts about what has been happening to their country. Thus, the military coup’s thirst to censor Radio Globo’s signal.
Repression has also been on the rise here in the country’s second largest city, and so has the resistance. Yesterday, Monday, August 3, as a peaceful caravan headed to protest outside the Honduran Arab Club where coup “president” Roberto Micheletti would address business leaders, National Police violently intercepted the participants, arresting at least 24 and wounding at least 47 men, women, children and seniors.
After beating and arresting the caravan participants for the crime of riding in cars toward a peaceful protest location, the National Police converged on the city’s central square. According to pro-coup daily El Tiempo, they did so “because they had information that resistance members were reassembling in that location.”
Local stores and businesses near the square, upon viewing the violent charge of the police, began closing their metal gates to protect themselves and their customers. Among them, Mr. and Mrs. Miguel Mejía, proprietors of a cyber-café. “In the building, police were seeking various pregnant and elder women who they sought to arrest because they considered them part of the protests,” wrote the pro-coup daily. When the Mejías did not open the gates, the police arrested them. You can see that scene in this photo:
The central park of San Pedro Sula has been the site of constant round-the-clock demonstrations since July 2, when troops invaded its City Hall and Mayor Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri disappeared. Narco News has learned that Mayor Padilla has been in exile ever since, due to the threats on his life. The coup regime attempted to install William Hall Micheletti – nephew of the coup “president” by the same last name, and third place defeated candidate in 2008 for the Liberal Party nomination for Mayor – in a local regime mirroring the national coup.
The response by the Municipal Workers Union was to close City Hall and it has remained locked and protected by peaceful protesters for more than a month now.
Tomorrow, from every corner of the country, national marches toward San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa will begin, scheduled to converge on the two cities early next week.
As the repression escalates, so does the civil resistance.
When Radio Globo’s eight p.m. hour team signed off shortly before nine p.m. for a regularly scheduled paid half-hour
Evangelical broadcast tonight, the broadcaster added two words: “This is Radio Globo… in resistance.”
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With your help we will beat back this offence against democracy. Spread this information everywhere. General Joe
Al Giordano, General Joe and friends