Demand Fair Reporting on Honduras

Thank you for all that you have done so far to increase U.S. pressure on the coup regime in Honduras.  

While the Obama administration’s previous round of targeted sanctions demonstrated great promise in helping to reverse the coup, the administration has since appeared to back down from its position of active support for the reinstatement of President Zelaya.1  This may be at least in part due to the outspoken opinions of a few Senators and Congressmen who wish to allow the coup to stand.2

One reason there hasn’t been more public pressure on the Obama Administration to help Latin America reverse the coup in Honduras is that repression in Honduras and opposition in the U.S. Congress have been under-reported in the U.S. press.

Will you help us ask the Miami Herald and McClatchy News to report on repression in Honduras since the coup and opposition to the coup in Congress?

www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald

Human rights observers and international media have documented the killings of at least ten people — mostly of supporters of ousted president Manuel Zelaya, and all apparently politically motivated — since the coup.3

This week, Rep. Raul Grijalva and 15 other Congressmen wrote to President Obama, asking him to speak up about the repression in Honduras, and to cancel U.S. visas and freeze U.S. bank accounts of leaders of the coup regime.4

But while the Miami Herald — a very influential newspaper in its reporting on U.S. policy in Latin America — and McClatchy News, the Herald’s parent company, have reported on Congressional support for the coup, they haven’t reported either of these key facts.

Could you urge the Miami Herald to report on repression in Honduras since the coup and calls in Congress for the Obama Administration to take further measures against the coup regime?

www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald

Thank you for all you do for a just foreign policy,

Megan Iorio, Chelsea Mozen, Sarah Burns, and Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy

 

References:

1  Robert Naiman, “In Honduras, Simon Says End Your Coup,” Huffington Post, July 31, 2009.

2  Tyler Bridges, “U.S. Cools Its Support for Reinstating Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya,” Miami Herald, August 7, 2009.

3  “Obama Administration Should Demand an End to Coup Regime’s Killings in Honduras, CEPR Co-Director Urges,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, August 13, 2009.

4  “Grijalva, Members of Congress Call on President Obama to Take Further Measures against Honduran Coup Regime,” Tuesday August 11, 2009.


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