Please take a few minutes to voice your concern over human rights abuses in Honduras. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forced into exile following a military coup in the country on June 28.
Zelaya defied the coup regime"s efforts to keep him out of the country by staging a return to Honduras on September 21. Despite a hastily-imposed curfew, thousands of Hondurans defied the coup regime"s orders and gathered in front of the Brazilian embassy in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, where Zelaya is currently in refuge, to support the democratically-elected President.
The coup regime is responding with a brutal crackdown on the Honduran democracy movement. Reports are being received from Honduras by the hour of cases of brutal military repression and assaults which have resulted in a large number of injuries and an unconfirmed number of deaths, including that of an eight year old child. The military has surrounded the Brazilian embassy and is out in force in poor neighbourhoods. The national stadium is reported to have been converted into a large holding center for the detained.
The coup regime leader, Roberto Micheletti, has threatened to cancel the embassy"s immunity if Zelaya is not handed over to the de facto regime.
In the face of this escalation of violence, Canada is one of the only countries that has failed to act effectively to isolate the coup regime. We need to speak out now and demand action from the Canadian government, before it"s too late.
Please phone:
Call Canadian Minister of State for the Americas Peter Kent and deliver the following message:
"I want Canada to work for the unconditional immediate reinstatement of President Zelaya and to pressure the Honduran military to stop the violence against the Honduran people and their democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Canada should make clear that it will not recognize the November elections and announce further sanctions against the coup regime and its leaders."
Call Minister Kent at: 613-944-2300.
EMAIL:
Maquila Solidarity Network
606 Shaw St. Toronto, ON M6G 3L6 Canada
416 532-8584
