This
eyewitness report was submitted by participants in the protest.
On
the morning of June 28, around 200 people gathered a few miles away
from the entrance to Palmerola Air Base, which is located in Honduras
but used by the United States Air Force. The marchers proceeded
towards the main gate to denounce the US military base due to the
United States’ military presence and its role in the overthrow of
Honduras’ democratically elected government on June 28, 2009. The
plane that sent Honduras’ president Manuel Zelaya into exile on that
day flew from the capital Tegucigalpa to Palmerola Air Base before
continuing in the opposite direction to Costa Rica.
The
protest was organized by COPINH, the Civic Counsel of Popular and
Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, which works to oppose
multinational mining, agricultural, tourism, and hydroelectric energy
projects. These projects, which have been fast-tracked under the
post-coup government, work the current system to cheat Lenca,
Garifuna, and other Honduran people out of their farms and land.
Also
attending the march were about 25 citizens of the United States, who
were present to monitor police behavior, to support COPINH’s
anti-exploitation struggle, and to protest the waste of taxpayer
money on militarization in Honduras.
Traffic
on the highway was blocked for over an hour. At one point, a young
Honduran activist got too close to the wall of the air base, bearing
a large stencil and a can of spraypaint, and a police officer
(dressed in military garb) pulled him to the ground in a
stranglehold, while others threw a few baton hits to the protesters.
As other marchers, including an elderly Lenca woman, approached the
scene, the police pointed rifles at them menacingly. Without warning,
at least 2 tear gas canisters were fired and the marchers fled down a
nearby street, then promptly continued the march. No one was detained
or severely injured, although some emerged with bruises and cuts
sustained from the batons.
Upon
reaching Palmerola’s main gate, there was a rally in the driveway in
which the people chanted, “Yankee trash out of Honduras!” and
“More food, zero weapons!” The crowd also remembered the more
than 200 activists that were shot and killed by the police during
marches in the 2 years since the coup, chanting, “Present with us
today, tomorrow, and always, they keep on living through our
struggle!”
