A Honduran teacher died three days after he was shot in the head while protesting the ouster of president Manuel Zelaya, as the military-backed regime threatened to crackdown on future demonstrations.
Roger Abraham Vallejo, 38, who was shot on Wednesday during a protest in the Mercado Zonal Belen, in northern Tegucigalpa, succumbed to his injury on Saturday.
Witnesses have said he was shot when hundreds of police officers charged a crowd of pro-Zelaya marchers. Police allege he was shot by his fellow protesters.
PHOTO: AP
“All I know is that the police killed him for struggling for a just cause,” his 78 year-old mother Maria Soriano said, as hundreds of Zelaya sympathizers crammed into a hall to mourn Vallejo.
Vallejo became the third Zelaya supporter killed since the leftist president was bundled out of his bed gunpoint and kicked out of the country in a military-supported June 28 coup.
“The blood that is being spilled will not be in vain, because we are going to fight tirelessly” to reverse the military-supported coup, said Zelaya, from the Nicaraguan town of Ocotal, on the border with Honduras.
“The people have the right to insurrection when someone takes power by force of arms, and we are using that right,” Zelaya said.
He is organizing what he has called his “Popular Peaceful Army,” made up of hundreds of Hondurans who crossed into Nicaragua to support his cause. On Friday he threatened the interim Honduran regime with “generalized violence” if the coup was not reversed.
Honduran police, perhaps anticipating further clashes, issued a warning late on Saturday that they would fully enforce the penal code forbidding protest marches “when they could affect free circulation and the rights of others.”
People who organize or lead “in an illicit manner any demonstration” face up to four years prison and hefty fines, the statement read.
The coup has been roundly condemned abroad, and the regime, headed by acting president Roberto Micheletti, has been trying to find a peaceful solution to the crisis that does not involve restoring Zelaya to power.
Micheletti said he was surprised that Zelaya had taken to the hills and “called for an insurrection.”
Micheletti said in a televised address on Saturday that his government is resisting “with pride” the international condemnation and sanctions that have included the suspension of aid programs and freezing of military assistance.
He also reiterated that his government reserves the right to cancel visas for US diplomats after Washington revoked the diplomatic visas of four officials in his government.
Meanwhile representatives of foreign human rights groups visiting Honduras called on authorities to “respect” the demonstrators, including activists from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, France and El Salvador.
over a week ago with Zelaya who stepped across the border but turned back in the face of Honduran riot police.
On Friday, Zelaya’s militia in training chanted “Down with the coup plotters!” as they went through their drills. The volunteers did their best to follow unfamiliar maneuvers like moving quickly while on all fours.
The lone woman lagged behind her male colleagues, then seemed to have a leg cramp. She dropped out of the exercise and opted to do some abdominals instead.
Most of the would-be troops were young and strong-looking if a bit out of shape. One jogged around, trying to embarrass laggards into getting back on the training track, shouting, “You are here to train!”
Leaders of the group said training of the new militia force also was being carried out in several similar camps along the border.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS