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January 15, 2025


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** Will there be justice for the military killing of Isy Obed Murillo in Honduras?
That was aided and abetted by impunity and corruption of U.S. and Canada
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By Grahame Russell, Rights Action, January 15, 2025
[link removed]

On July 5, 2009, I was on the streets of Tegucigalpa, amongst 100s of thousands of Hondurans protesting the U.S. and Canadian-backed military coup ouster, on June 28, 2009, of the government of President Mel Zelaya. It was on this day that Isy Obed Murillo was shot dead, hit in the head by military M-16 bullets.

On January 11, 2025, over 15 years later, a trial began in Honduras against three army generals for the killings of Isy Obed Murillo and Alex Zavala ([link removed]) that day, in that protest.

Silvia Mancía, mother of Isy Obed, outside the courthouse, surrounded by supporters of the governing Libertad y Refundación Party (LIBRE) and National Police. Tegucigalpa, January 2025. Photo: Contra Corrientes / Fernando Destephen

Prominent among the three generals is General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, former head of the Armed Forces who planned and led the U.S. and Canadian-backed coup.

From the day of the coup through to January 28, 2022, when current President Xiomara Castro (wife of the ousted President Mel Zelaya) took office, Honduras was ruled with an iron fist by a military-backed ‘Narco-Regime’ headed primarily by President Juan Orlando Hernandez, whose governments were considered “democratic allies” by U.S. and Canadian governments throughout the entire 12 years and 7 months.

As this trial hopefully proceeds in Honduras, here are reminders of just a few of other trials against key leaders of the “democratic ally” Narco-Regimes in power from 2009-2022.

On June 26, 2024, Juan Orlando Hernadez, former president and primary leader of the Narco-Regimes (2009-2022), was sentenced to 45 in jail in the U.S. ([link removed]) for overseeing a drug-smuggling operation from inside the government and State institutions during the entire time he was in power, … while his governments were feted as a “democratic ally” by successive U.S. and Canadian governments.

On February 6, 2024, Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla (chief of police during the Narco-Regime) plead guilty in the U.S. to conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. ([link removed]) .

On March 30, 2021, Tony Hernandez, former congressman and brother of Juan Orlando Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. for cocaine-importation, weapons, and false-statements offenses ([link removed]) .

Maintaining mutually beneficial relations with 12 years and 7 months of military-backed ‘Narco’ governments was not limited to the governments of the U.S. and Canada.

Aura Minerals and Narcos

In July 2020, Rights Action reported that Aura Minerals – formerly both a Canadian and U.S. based company, now majority owned by Northwestern Enterprises Ltd – was carrying out its gold mining operation in Honduras in partnership with INCOBE, a Honduran heavy machinery company, that was accused of involvement with drug-trafficking organized crime ([link removed]) .

Gildan Activewear and Narcos

In May 2023, Contra Corrientes published a major report - “The Narco’s Sacred Mountain”, by Celia Pousset ([link removed]) – that details some of Canada’s Gildan Activewear Corp. business deals with Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, a major Honduran drug trafficker who had extensive ties to and protection from the recently ousted ‘Narco-Regime’ headed by President Juan Orlando Hernandez. In March 2020, the DEA arrested Geovanny Fuentes for cocaine importation and, in February 2022, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the U.S.

While I do not know or understand the full degree or nature of the business relations that Aura Minerals and Gildan Activewear had (or still have) with people and/or businesses controlled by Narco-trafficking interests, these reported relationships give a clearer idea of just who successive U.S. and Canadian governments and some of our companies will happily and profitably maintain political and economic relations with.

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It is impossible to overstate how much violence, destruction and harm the U.S. and Canadian-backed Narco-Regimes did to the Honduran people and society and all of its government and State institutions from 2009-2022.

Rights Action recommends listening to Episode 7, parts I and II, of the “Under the Shadow” podcast series, recapping the U.S. and Canadian-backed military coup in 2009, and then close to 13 years of unconditional U.S. and Canadian support for Narco-Regimes in power.
* Episode 7, Part I – 2009 Honduras: La Resistencia ([link removed])
* Episode 7, Part II – Honduras 2009: Legacy of a Coup ([link removed])

In Update 3 of the podcast, Karen Spring (former Rights Action colleague, long-time co-coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network) takes the listener inside the ‘Narco Trial of the Century’ that found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of drug trafficking.
* Update 3 – Narcodictator, Convicted ([link removed])

Karen provides a devastating summary of just how much violence and damage the Narco-Regime did to Honduras, its people, society, government and State institutions, all enabled by the U.S. and Canada.

One can only decry, again, the utter lack of political oversight or legal accountability in the U.S. and Canada when our governments (and often times businesses) support and enable repressive, corrupt regimes, and lie about it. It is the majority Honduran population that suffered the consequences of this U.S. and Canadian-enabled nightmare, as all aspects of their quality of life were flushed down the toilet.

Background

Caso contra militares por homicidio de Isy Obed Murillo reabre las heridas en una Honduras militarizada
by María Celeste Maradiaga, Contra Corriente, 13 enero 2025 [link removed]

More information / get involved
* Honduras Now: [link removed]; [link removed]
* Honduras Solidarity Network: www.hondurassolidarity.org; [link removed]
* Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective: www.solidaritycollective.org, [link removed]
* Friendship Office of the Americas: [link removed] ([link removed])

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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