Monday, August 03, 2009

The military and graffiti

I must say I have never seen a military publicly complain about graffiti, but the Honduran military is so mad that it posted an article on its official Web site. It's not really about graffiti per se, of course, because the graffiti photos they show have anti-coup messages. They end the article with a statement that it is "worth mentioning" that it is an illegal act to spray paint an historical monument.

Left unmentioned is their previous statement that if they enforce the law, there is no human rights abuse. Also left unmentioned is the basic fact that this is a matter for the police, not the armed forces.

3 comments:

Nell 1:22 PM  

Today, five senior military officers including Gen. Vasquez went on 'Frente a Frente' to threaten leaders of the popular movement.

In San Pedro Sula yesterday, a demonstration was broken up in the same way as last week's roadblocks, with the police wading in with batons to make mass arrests. Fifty people were detained, most of whom have been released, but many are wounded.

CODEH made the point in a statement this weekend that the police are not recording the names many of those taken in these mass arrests, or using regular procedures, which both sets the stage for disappearances and abuse and (in the absence of strenuous documentation efforts by human rights groups and reporters) makes it easy for them to pretend that only a few arrests have been made.

Early Sunday morning the police shot and stabbed to death a teacher, Martín Florencio Rivera Barrientos, as he was returning from the wake of Roger Vallejo.

The silence of the U.S. State Department is deafening as the threats intensify and the bodies pile up. Between July 8, when military aid was suspended, and July 28, when diplomatic visas were revoked for some coup officials in Tegucigalpa and Washington, the U.S. government took not one concrete action to pressure the coup government.

Apparently we're going to have to wait another three weeks for any further sign that the Obama administration's supposed opposition to the coup government goes much further than words.

leftside 1:35 PM  

the U.S. government took not one concrete action to pressure the coup government.

The US has not even had one negative word to say about the human rights abuses. They also have not said one thing that comes close to putting the blame for the failed Arias negotiations where it belongs - on the golpistas. You know being shamed counts for a lot - and the US is blowing it. Nevermind the total media silence on the recent military violence - particularly when compared to the hyper-ventilation over the same security techniques (clearing the street with batons) taking place in Tehran.

Unknown 1:51 AM  

Thanks for sharing...

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