'We are all Hondurans!'

Posted to the IUF website 07-Jul-2009

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On July 6, at least two people were killed as troops fired on people converging on Tegucigalpa airport to meet President Zelaya, whose plane was not allowed to land.

On July 7, IUF Latin American Regional Secretary Gerardo Iglesias and IUF General Secretary Ron Oswald issued the international appeal in solidarity with the Honduran resistance "We are all Hondurans".

Union and popular resistance to the coup remains powerful despite the military blocking of Zelaya's return to Honduras as elected President. Along with STIBYS and other IUF affiliates in Honduras, the banana workers' union SITRATERCO has been active in the popular protests to oppose the military coup and to call for the restoration of ousted president Zelaya.

Regular updates on national, regional and international mobilization and solidarity are available in English and Spanish on the web site of the IUF Latin American regional secretariat .

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We are all Hondurans!

The IUF and its 374 affiliates around the world strongly condemn the coup in Honduras as an anachronistic, authoritarian effort to thwart the will of the people expressed in the country's last election, and affirm our support for democratic institutions.

We also condemn the attempt to kidnap Brother Carlos Reyes, General Secretary of the Union of Beverage and Related Industry Workers of Honduras (STIBYS) and member of the IUF Executive Committee, who, along with other union members, was taking part in a peaceful demonstration against the coup.

The IUF had earlier warned of the growing threat to democracy in Honduras, publishing a letter to President Jos� Manual Zelaya on June 26 condemning "conspiracy and seditious action" being plotted against the constitutional government.

At the same time, our correspondent in Nicaragua, Giorgio Trucchi, was asked to travel to Honduras, from where he continues to report first-hand. His presence is not only an act of solidarity as a representative of the IUF Regional Secretariat and the IUF as a whole, but is also aimed at breaking the silence of press censorship, typically imposed by dictatorships.

The civic-military group that ousted President Zelaya on June 28 is both an ideological shadow of the past and a flesh-and-blood defense of the economic interests of large multimedia groups, huge mining projects, agribusiness, banks and the financial system, maquilas and related business.

The Honduran Armed Forces are acting under the pretext of �addressing the political polarization�, but in fact they have no hesitation in trampling the laws, breaking the constitutional system and launching Honduras on the path of even greater polarization.

The IUF joins in the worldwide defense of Honduran democracy, of its legal institutions and of the right of the Honduran people to self-determination.

We declare our full support for our affiliates in Honduras and reach out our hand in solidarity with them.

We support all action aimed at re-establishing democracy and the rule of law, individual and collective rights and liberties in Honduras.

Finally, we hold the illegitimate government of Roberto Micheletti liable and responsible for the safety and security of our brothers Carlos Reyes and Giorgio Trucchi, the members of our affiliated unions and of those taking part in the popular and union resistance movement