Honduran Civil Society Groups Call for the Resignation of President One Year into Term

KGNU has extensively reported on the human rights crisis in Honduras.  We reported on-location during both the primary and general presidential elections in 2012 and 2013.  We have been reporting since the military coup of 2009 that ousted the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya by graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA) renamed Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).  In protest to the coup, hundreds of thousands took to the streets and held vigil in the capital for weeks immediately following the military coup.  Right-winger Miguel Micheletti was then positioned as president and later, right-winger Porfirio Lobo was placed after an election that was boycotted by the majority of electors in the country.

Soon after the coup, the political party LIBRE was founded to represent small farmers, unions, the poor, women, the LGBTQ community and other progressives in the country.  The party ran Xiomara Castro, the wife of deposed president Zelaya, as its candidate.  After highly contested election results by the great majority of election observers, the conservative National Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez was named as president by his own party that oversaw the election process and the counting of ballots.  In November of 2013, KGNU reported on the numerous irregularities during the presidential elections including inconsistent election procedures and counting, threats to voters, assassinations of voters and LIBRE party members and the ruling party’s control over the election process.

Gerardo Torres Zelaya teaches, is a journalist, and lives in the capital Tegucigalpa.  Here he speaks to KGNU about events leading up to the January 27 kickoff of actions to press for the current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to resign.

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