Why Honduras needs your help

In the 47 days since the kidnapping of our democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, and Roberto Micheletti's regime seizing power in a coup, Hondurans have been witness to detestable attacks on our people. Human rights organisations have documented thousands of human rights violations, including illegal detentions, disappearances, torture, assassinations, excessive use of force, and death threats. On Wednesday hundreds of people were wounded and more than 40 detained after protesters from all parts of the country converged on the capital to demand the return of President Zelaya and his democratically elected government. As well as this generalized violence, social movement leaders and activists, including groups like our own–Friends of the Earth Honduras and Via Campesina Honduras–are increasingly being targeted because of our role supporting the resistance to the coup regime and trying to protect ordinary Hondurans fighting for their democratic rights. On Wednesday night in our capital Tegucigalpa bullets were fired at the offices of Via Campesina, an alliance of peasant farmers–a clear attempt to silence one of the leading social organizations in the National Front Against the Coup d'etat. Our trade union colleagues and others have also been targeted with bombs and kidnapping.