Environmental groups urge Honduran government to solve killing of activists

[Judi Lynn]

Environmental groups urge Honduran government to solve killing of activists
The Associated Press
Published: January 22, 2007


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Eleven environmental groups announced Monday that they have sent a letter to President Manuel Zelaya demanding a full investigation into the killing of two Honduran activists.

Activists Heraldo Zuniga and Roger Ivan Murillo Cartagena were fatally shot on Dec. 20 in the central Honduran town of Guarizama, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Tegucigalpa in the province of Olancho, a region being rapidly deforested near the Nicaraguan border.

The two men were local leaders in the Environmental Movement of Olancho, or MAO, which opposes logging by timber companies.

The organization alleged in a news release that Zuniga and Murillo Cartagena were shot by four police officers in front of several townspeople. Both men reportedly had received death threats from logging companies in the nearby town of Salama, MAO said.
(snip)

About 50 percent of timber in Honduras is illegally harvested; the U.S. is the primary market for its pine and mahogany products, the letter said.
(snip/)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/22/america/LA-GEN-Honduras-Slain-Environmentalists.php



Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and associate.

Wikipedia profile:

Mr. Zelaya served as a national congressman from 1985 to 1998, and was instrumental in implementing the so-called "Open counties program" which increased decision-making powers of municipalities, a plan he says will grow further during his administration. He has been known as a wealthy landowner who carried himself with a sort of bravado both in Congress and on the campaign trail, often dressed in cowboy boots and Stetson hats. He has also worked in engineering, in addition to his successful careers in agriculture and politics.
(snip/)

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Manuel_Zelaya_sworn_in_as_President_of_Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

1. Two Forest Activists Murdered in Honduras

Two Forest Activists Murdered in Honduras

International coalition of environmental groups demand full investigation
and overhaul of national forest policy

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Eleven environmental
groups, with millions of members worldwide, are demanding action from the
President of Honduras following the alleged murder by state police of two
Honduran activists.

On the eve of the first anniversary of his inauguration, President Jose
Manuel Zelaya Rosales faces an international outcry over the shootings of
Heraldo Zuniga and Roger Ivan Murillo Cartagena on December 20, 2006, in
the town of Guarizama in central Honduras. The men were local leaders in
the Environmental Movement of Olancho (MAO), a grassroots organization that
fights illegal and unsustainable logging by commercial timber companies in
their community forests. Their police killers were allegedly acting under
the influence of the country's powerful timber interests.

Zelaya took office on January 27th, 2006, voicing strong commitments to
crack down on the logging these activists were fighting. Up to 50% of
timber in Honduras is illegally harvested; the U.S. is the primary market
for its pine and mahogany products. Zuniga and Cartagena are among eight
environmental activists killed since 1995 in Honduras. Although MAO's
guiding force, Father Andres Tamayo, has brought international attention to
his cause (including a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize), he and
fellow leaders continue to be subject to death threats and intimidation.

The letter calls on Zelaya's government to "give this case the thorough
attention and due process it requires to ensure that the perpetrators are
brought to justice, and do everything in your power to prevent this from
ever happening again."
(snip/...)

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-22-2007/0004510461&EDATE=

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hopefully, some DU'ers will remember the similarity to the murder of the American nun, Dorothy Stang, who took Brazilian citizenship, and spent her life working to preserve the Brazillian forest dwellers, the poor, and the Brazillian rainforests, killed by three hired assassins, in the employ of a wealthy Brazillian rancher who wanted to clear the land and take it for his own purposes.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Important news item from yesterday:Honduras does about-face on oil terminals

January 21, 2007
Honduras does about-face on oil terminals
The Associated Press

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS — The Honduran government announced on Friday that it had reversed its decision to temporarily take over the private oil storage terminals of two U.S. oil companies.
The U.S. ambassador had warned the takeover could have "serious" consequences. :scared: :scared: :scared:

The government's decision was revealed after Honduran presidential legal affairs adviser Enrique Flores met with executives of Chevron and Esso, the Honduran subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., and the Dutch company Shell.

The government instead will use the storage terminals of the Honduran fuel distribution company Distribuidora de Productos de Petroleos SA, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

President Manuel Zelaya announced Jan. 13 that the government would temporarily take over the terminals as part of a program to drive down fuel prices. It was described as a stopgap measure until ConocoPhillips Co. could build the terminals it agreed to provide when it won a contract for the service last fall.
(snip/...)

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070121/BIZ/701210368/1005

[burrowowl]

3. Will have to get the U$ of A

out of Honduras to do that.

[Judi Lynn]

4. As if Honduras didn't ALREADY have enough problems, some American has been

sending brain-defective idiots to Honduras for sexual holidays with children:

Florida Man Sentenced to 250 Months in Prison for Arranging Sex Tours Involving Minors
1 hour, 2 minutes ago

To: NATIONAL EDITORS
Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, [phone], TDD, [phone]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A Florida man was sentenced today to 250 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for conspiring to arrange for men in the United States to travel to Honduras to have sex with young teenage girls, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez of the Middle District of Florida announced today.

Gary B. Evans, 58, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., was sentenced today before Chief Judge Patricia C. Fawsett in U.S. District Court in Orlando. Evans was ordered to forfeit his interest in his house, various computers and electronic equipment, and two cashier's checks totaling $24,000.

Evans was arrested on May 11, 2006, and indicted on May 23, 2006, on one count of conspiring to arrange the travel of an individual for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and one count of arranging such travel. After Evans' computers were seized and examined, agents discovered digital images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On August 9, 2006, a superseding indictment was returned which added one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Evans pleaded guilty on October 23, 2006, before Magistrate Judge David A. Baker to one count of conspiring to arrange for the travel of a person to engage in illicit sexual conduct -- specifically, a commercial sex act with a person under 18 years of age.

According to the plea agreement, in August 2005, Evans contacted the operator of a Web site which purported to sell "sex tour" packages to overseas locations. According to the Web site, the tour price would include an under-age companion who would have sex with the traveler. Evans proposed a partnership with the operator of the Web site in which they would jointly operate tours to Honduras and Costa Rica, where clients would pay to have sex with minors. However, the Web site was actually part of an undercover investigation being conducted by FBI agents who are part of the Innocent Images task force based in Calverton, Md.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070123/pl_usnw/florida_man_sentenced_to250_months_in_prison_for_arranging_sex_tours_involving_minors