The month following the installment of President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo has been one of increased repression against anti-coup activists in Honduras. The Jan. 27 inauguration was an attempt to legitimize the U.S.-backed military coup d’etat that ousted Manuel Zelaya.
On Feb. 4, union leader Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda was abducted after leaving a union meeting and later found shot to death in her neighborhood. On Feb. 15, Julio Funes Benitez, a leader of the National Resistance Front, was assassinated by four unknown men. On Feb. 9, four members of the anti-coup resistance were abducted and two of the women were raped. They reported their captors saying that it was “a greeting from Pepe.”
The repression is being carried out by paramilitaries, acting in the interests of transnational corporations. Unionists and resistance leaders are targets because of their resolve to block neo-liberal privatization measures. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission documents that, since the coup last June, human rights abuses have become commonplace.
