On June 28th, 2009, the legally and democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was arrested and exiled by the Honduran military. This coup detat was justified by the claim that Zelaya intended to re-write the constitution in order to extend his presidential term. However, the process of constitutional reform would have made this impossible; Hondurans would have been participating on June 28th in a non-binding opinion poll as to whether they were interested in adding a fourth ballot to the usual three in the general elections of Nov. 29th, one ballot for each of the three levels of government and a fourth ballot asking if they support the creation of a national constituent assembly to re-draft the constitution. Zelayas term would have already long since ended before any new constitution could have possibly been written, making it impossible for him to extend his term in office.

Since the coup, Hondurans have been subject to a ruthless campaign of state terror. Thirty-two people have been assassinated or disappeared, including one killing on the day before the elections. Hundreds more have been arrested without justification, snatched from their homes at night, beaten, raped and threatened with death. Hundreds of thousands of people have organized peaceful marches and demonstrations they have been met with tear gas, batons, rubber bullets and even live rounds from automatic weapons. Police and military have followed and documented organizers of the peaceful resistance, as well as local human rights observers, and have terrorized them and their families. Just days before the elections, the military sent a letter to all of the countrys mayors, demanding that they provide a list of names, pictures and phone numbers of all organizers of the peaceful marches.

The five largest and most respected national human rights organizations in Honduras delivered a formal report to their Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) on Nov. 28th, saying that the massive violations of human rights and the campaign of police and military terror in Honduras made these elections totally illegitimate and undemocratic.

With Honduras completely militarized; with the elected President holed up in the Brazilian embassy; with all critical media silenced or shut down completely; with all independent candidates in the Nov. 29th elections withdrawn; given the massive and widespread violations of human rights designed to create fear; it is impossible to claim that the conditions for free and fair elections were present on Nov. 29th.

We call upon the Canadian government to withdraw its support for the brutally repressive and illegal coup regime; to reject the legitimacy of the Nov. 29th elections; and to call upon the regime in Honduras to immediately restore the democratically elected President, Manual Zelaya, to office in order to re-establish rule of law and the conditions for truly democratic elections in Honduras.

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For supporting information and documentation, please visit the following websites, or contact petition author:

English - Rights Action, a North American Human Rights NGO - http://www.rightsaction.org/
English - Reports from Human Rights Observation Delegate, Nov. 24 - Dec 1 - http://canadiandimension.com/blog/author/27
Spanish - Committee for the Families of the Disappeared and Detained in Honduras - http://www.cofadeh.org/
Spanish - Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Honduras - http://www.codeh.hn/

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