Interview with LGTB Activist (Spanish version)

    Gabcast! Interviews from Honduras #5 - Interview with LGTB Activist (Spanish version)

Spanish version of Interview with LGTB activist


       

Interview with LGTB Activist (English version)

    Gabcast! Interviews from Honduras #4 - Interview with LGTB Activist

English version of Interview with LGTB activist


       

Environmental and Political Activists Murdered

Adalberto Figueroa was murdered on Saturday 8th May at about 8:30am. He was getting ready to collect firewood in the company of his 11-year-old son and his nephew, barely a kilometre from his house, but he was ambushed by people wearing ski masks. They fired several shots which killed him immediately. 

Adalberto was an unquestionable leader inside and outside his community, who always had an extraordinary sense of solidarity and was utterly committed to social causes. He was a directive member of our organisation; initially he was our spokesperson. He was committed to the environmental struggle and participated in most activities organised by the Environmentalist Movement of Olancho (MAO). 

Days before his murder, he had put his demand that logging be stopped in this area to the National Institute of Conservation and Forestry Development (Instituto Nacional de Conservación y Desarrollo Forestal, ICF). In addition, he organised an open council in which resolved to take steps towards declaring the area a protected forest area.  

A few days later on Thursday 13th May two young activists, Gilberto Alexander Núñez Ochoa (27) and Jose Andres Oviedo (26) were shot dead inside a home, in Colonia Cruz Roja at kilometer 11, on the main road that leads south.

Since the coup d'état on June 28 , Gilberto Alexander Núñez Ochoa (27) joined the mobilizations of the National Front of Popular Resistance and was part of the Security and Discipline Committee.

On several occasions, Núñez Ochoa along with members of the committee of safety and discipline, identified infiltrators in the demonstrations whose goal was to provoke the police commandos by attacking private and public facilities and establish chaos to hold accountable for vandalism the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) besides creating profiles of the protesters.

Reports provided to defensoresenlinea.com, state that Gilberto Alexander Núñez Ochoa participated in the recent demonstration that the teachers' organizations held last Wednesday at the base of the National Congress, which demanded respect for the Status of Teachers and the reinstatement of 10 departmental directors unfairly dismissed by the current regime.

Núñez Ochoa formed part of the protest along with hundreds of people from the FNRP in solidarity with teachers' unions, but at the end of the demonstration in the National Congress at about 11:30 am, he decided to stop following the mobilization that led to the Supreme Court (CSJ).

In the afternoon, he along with his friend, José Andrés Oviedo, went in a taxi to the Cruz Roja neighborhood, where at about 5:30 pm they were killed by two men carrying guns of unknown caliber and ski masks, according to witnesses who saw the offenders flee.

At around 6:30 pm on Wednesday afternoon, Núñez Ochoa was found lying in the living room where he lived, result of various impacts on the head and face and the body of his friend (Oviedo) lay lifeless on a bed.

Last November, Gilberto Alexander Núñez Ochoa had testified before the Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) since he was being a victim of stalking, threats and harassment by criminal investigation officers.

Visit to Honduras

As you may be aware (if you are reading this blog) President Zelaya was forced from power in June 2009 by a military-backed coup, prompting a political crisis and a severe deterioration in respect of human rights and the rule of law.
A group of 4 people from the UK travelled to Honduras during the March 2010 in order to visit organisations and individuals involved in the resistance to the coup. We are now safely back in Manchester after what turned out to be a trip packed with really powerful experiences.
The visit to COPINH was amazing. On the first day they took us to a "Cabildo Abierto" in San Francisco de Opalaca, a municipality about 2hrs drive from La Esperanza. The community is strongly Lenca (indigenous) in background. The Cabildo Abierto was an example of grass roots politics in action. It took the form of an open air meeting (very hot/dusty) with anybody being able to take the microphone. They also took votes by a show of hands. People had come in from a number of villages dotted around Opalaca. The main resolution passed on that day was to oppose the construction of Hydro-electric dam projects in their municipality.
We stayed (4 nights) in the Utopia Centre just outside La Esperanza. The Utopia centre is currently acting as a kind of refuge for people fleeing persecution by the golpistas, so it has a kind of nervous edginess to it. The place is also continuously being watched by the police or by other coup supporters who usually pass by in unmarked cars once or twice a day. The Utopia Centre also recently served to accommodate 1200 delegates to the meeting held by COPINH just before we arrived in Honduras which was an Encuentro por la refundacion de Honduras.
We got an interview with one of the guys staying at Utopia as well as another interview with Berta Caceres of COPINH. We also picked up one or two documents produced by COPINH over recent months.
After COPINH we moved on to the community of Triufo de la Cruz and were able to visit Radio Faluma Bimetu (Sweet Coconut). This radio station broadcasts news, views and music from the perspective of the Garifuna (Afro-Honduran) community. The radio station was attacked in the early morning hours of Wednesday 6th January. The unknown armed individuals proceeded to torch the community radio and to loot the station’s radio equipment. Since then the radio station has been rebuilt with the help of COMPPA (loosely translates as Communications for Popular Autonomy) and the Garifuna community themselves.

Gabcast! San Francisco Opalaca #0 - San Francisco Opalaca

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