The situation in Honduras calls for our action!
September 29, 2009
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
www.maquilasolidarity.org
