10 Years In Honduras
My good friend Jessiel Rivera reminded me the other day that it was 10 years ago this month that I arrived here in La Ceiba. I remember my arrival here from Costa Rica fairly vividly. I had been getting teary-eyed on the plane from a combination of sleep deprivation, my longing to remain with my friends in beautiful San Jose and some sad indie music on my iPod. It was a hot and terribly humid Sunday afternoon when I landed in the La Ceiba airport and when I stepped off the 10-seater hotbox of an airplane onto the tarmac I was sweaty, bleary-eyed and disheveled. I looked like a typical gringo backpacker except for my mountain of luggage that I had in tow. Two members of the Central Mennonite Church picked me up in their car; how they knew I was the Gringo they were supposed to collect was beyond me but they got it right. I remember them remarking on the number of suitcases I had brought (3) and their heaviness (maximum weight allowance); and the resulting weight of embarrassment I felt ...
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I've been reading about death squads operating in Honduras. Here are the recent cases reported by the Quixote Center:
-Dec. 6th Death Squad style killing of five members of the resistance movement in the Villanueva neighborhood of Tegucigalpa.
-Dec. 11th Decapitated body of resistance member Santos Corrales Garcia was found dumped on the road just outside of Tegucigalpa after being abducted by men wearing National Criminal Investigation Directorate uniforms and armed with machine guns. His body showed signs of torture.
-Dec. 12th Human rights defender Walter Trochez, member of the BGTL community and active member of the National Resistance Front was murdered after having survived a previous assassination attempt.
-Dec. 14th Death of teacher/activist Karen Hernandez Mondragon after fatal shooting.
-Dec. 16th Murder of 16 year old Catherine Nicolle Rodriquez Cabrera, daughter of journalist Karol Cabrera..
-Dec. 17th Abduction of two members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan, MUCA in Sinaloa, Colón on Wednesday morning by four hooded men. Eleven arrest warrants have been issued for other members. 1000 peasant families occupying land in the region have been threatened with forcible removal by security forces.
What have you heard about these killings? I'm thinking about doing another post on YAR and I'm interested in you perspective.