John Jay College
Room 1.108 524 W 59th St, New York, NY 10019
May 15, 2018
12:00 PM - 1:50 PM (GMT-5)
Host:
LeftForum 2018
As part of LeftForum 2018, roundtable participants discussed the ongoing crisis in Honduras, with a particular focus on the increasing, and increasingly militarized consolidation of power since the recent installation of Juan Orlando Hernández as dictator following blatant electoral fraud. Today, over 40 people who protested the 2017 fraud are dead and dozens of anti-fraud political prisoners languish, pre-trial, without healthcare, adequate food or access to family members in new, post-coup U.S.-style maximum security prisons that have enriched foreign corporations with no accountability or transparency. International extractive and tourist corporations, in collusion with powerful drug lords, oligarchs and politicians (often the same people) harass and murder activists and journalists with complete impunity. While the 2017 electoral fraud was roundly and internationally condemned, it came as no surprise to Hondurans that the U.S. State Department supported its outcome, just as the Clinton State Department supported the 2009 coup that laid the path for the nation's downward spiral into neoliberal fascism. Similarly unsurprising are the crickets coming from mainstream media regarding U.S.-supported violence in Honduras, compared with depictions of state violence in, for example, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Despite this bleak panorama, Hondurans continue to bravely resist. This panel will provide examples of that resistance on multiple levels, and will discuss strategies for effective solidarity.
Speakers included:
Adrienne Pine
Alexander Main, Senior Associate, International Policy, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Rodolfo Pastor, Libre Party of Honduras
For more information, visit the conference site.