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Honduran Junta Murdering Journalists - by Stephen Lendman
This article follows an earlier one titled Death Squad Terror in Honduras, accessed through the following link:
Orchestrated by Washington, it discussed the June 28, 2009 coup, Honduran soldiers arresting President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint, exiling him to Costa Rica, obstructing his return, committing widespread killings and human rights abuses, conducting a sham November 2009 election under martial law, installing Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo Sosa president on January 27, 2010, the Obama administration's man in Honduras, succeeding interim leader, Roberto Micheletti, using death squad terror to solidify coup d'etat rule, what most Hondurans oppose and want ended.
Founded in 1981, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is "an independent, nonprofit organization... promot(ing) press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal."
On July 27, it published a special report titled, "Journalist murders spotlight Honduran government failures," saying seven were killed from March - mid-June, six during a seven week period, the "government fostering a climate of lawlessness (letting) criminals....kill journalists with impunity....assassinations carried out by hit men."
Calling them routine street crimes, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said "there is nothing to indicate that it is because of their journalistic work," dismissing them out of hand with no investigations or prosecutions, suggesting government forces behind them silencing critics. Post-coup, state terror is official policy, especially against independent journalists, pro-democracy groups, human rights workers, campesinos and others challenging state/oligarch/drug lord power.
For their part, journalists fear the murders were "conducted with the tacit approval, or even outright complicity (on orders) of police, armed forces, or other authorities," ongoing death squad terror since mid-2009.
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