Reflection on the murder of Carlos Mejia, Radio Progreso

Radio Progreso Manager Murdered

Was Carlos Mejía a Target?

*This reflection was written by Lucy Edwards (PROAH, Hope in Action, Congregational United Church of Christ, Ashland, Oregon)

On the evening of Friday, April 11, Carlos Mejía Orellana, 35, was stabbed to death in his home in El Progreso, Honduras. The white Rosary his mother had given him that day was broken and on the floor of the living room of his home. Nothing of value was taken from house. His well maintained Toyota sedan sat on the carport, its alarm sounding. Why was Carlos murdered? Was he targeted for his work at Radio Progreso?

Carlos was the eldest of 11 children to parents Salvadora and Nicolas. The family moved from a rural area near Ocotepeque to the growing northern city of El Progreso when Carlos was 8 or 9. He was entrepreneurial man, an intelligent and diligent worker who began at the Jesuit radio station Radio Progreso in his early twenties, and eventually became promotion and marketing manager. He was quiet and thoughtful, and knew how to get things done. He seemed to anticipate your needs before you knew you had them.

His house was well constructed and secure. He paid attention to issues of security. The home had a high wall surrounding it, with strong gates and tightly coiled barbed wire. He had a boyfriend, but lived alone, with two socialized and friendly dogs; they were not part of the security plan. He adored them and spoiled them. They were companions.

His work at the radio station took him into the community. While shy in social settings, Carlos was not shy about the radio station. He loved his work selling ads and producing events promoting the station. He also had other jobs outside the radio station, all approved by his supervisor, Catholic priest Ismael Moreno, known as Padre Melo. Carlos had taught management classes, and recently was helping a community radio station get off the ground. He had just purchased a washing machine for his parents. It was still wrapped in plastic on in the carport the day I visited.

Carlos Mejia was one of 16 members of the Radio Progreso team granted protected measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Station employees had received threats of violence, and many journalist colleagues in Honduras have been murdered. Radio Progreso studios were occupied by the armed forces during the 2009 coup, and the station was surrounded by police on another occasion.

In a country with so many layers of corruption, militarization, violence and impunity, Radio Progreso, and its affiliated Jesuit research team ERIC (equípo de reflección, investigación y comunicación) are an irrepressible daily affirmation of freedom of expression, creativity and courage in Honduras. Their work confronts and directly challenges the corruption and impunity.

Was Carlos targeted because of his work at the Jesuit radio? At this point one can only speculate. He was murdered at his home, stabbed several times with a knife. It appears his body was posed. It appears the killer or killers removed his clothes and tried to create the illusion of another kind of murder. But the shirt he was wearing that night was never found. Someone took it. Someone took the knife. Someone left by the front door and the front gate, leaving them both open.

It appears Carlos’ attacker came to the house with him, perhaps in Carlos’ car. They ate chicken, and shortly after Carlos was attacked–perhaps initially in the living room where the Rosary was broken, and then murdered in the bedroom where his clothes were then removed.

As the marketing manager, Carlos’ work provided the financial capital for the radio. His death has been a huge blow to his coworkers and a direct hit against the radio station economically. As a gay man, his killer or killers may have considered his sexual orientation a vulnerability to exploit. Someone gained Carlos’ trust enough to be invited to his home, and murdered him.

In an immediate newspaper online account, police declared their suspicions of a crime of passion before they had conducted any investigation. No one has ever investigated the many threats against the radio station staff and management that began in earnest in 2010 and remain as permanent threats.

On April 18, U.S. Representatives James P. McGovern (MA), Sam Farr (CA), and Janice D. Schakowsky (IL) released the following statement on the murder in Honduras of Carlos Mejía Orellana.

“We are shocked and saddened by the news of the murder of Carlos Mejia Orellana, journalist and marketing director of Radio Progreso in Honduras. We extend our deepest condolences to his family members, friends and colleagues. Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this difficult time.

“We are very familiar with the important work of Radio Progreso, a community-based radio station that is a work of the Jesuits of the Central American Province. We note that the Director of Radio Progreso, Father Ismael “Melo” Moreno, testified before the U.S. Congress at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and described the constant death threats and attacks perpetrated with impunity against journalists in Honduras, including against Radio Progreso, its employees and its research arm, ERIC. Given the level of threats and violence, including assassination, targeted against journalists, the media and freedom of expression in Honduras, we are dismayed that the Government of Honduras has failed to implement protective measures for the employees of Radio Progreso, as called for by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights when, on four separate occasions over the past five years, it issued precautionary measures on behalf of 16 staff members, including Carlos Mejia Orellana, of Radio Progreso and ERIC. We are further troubled by news reports that the police had announced the murder was carried out by someone close to Sr. Mejia Orellana before any investigation had yet begun. We call upon the Honduran authorities to immediately implement protective measures for Radio Progreso and ERIC employees and to carry out a thorough investigation of the murder of Carlos Mejia Orellana to determine both material and intellectual authors of this heinous act and to bring them to justice in a timely manner.”

Walking with victims of violence in Easter light

By Phil Little

http://www.prairiemessenger.ca/18_03_21/Melo_18_03_21.html

DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS — Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno, known nationally and internationally as Padre Melo, is seen with longtime friend Berta Caceres, a Lenca environmental and human rights defender. Berta was assassinated on March 2, 2016. credit: Lucy Edwards

Editor’s note: Nothing is more destructive of Easter faith than to ignore the problems of the poor in our midst, the scourge of violence in all parts of the world. The following story is a powerful example of the power of the resurrection. Father Melo’s commitment to the church and the poor reveals the Easter light of Christ.

Two months ago the readers of The Prairie Messenger (01/17/18) were introduced in an article by Michael Swan to the situation of a Honduran Jesuit priest, Ismael Moreno, known nationally and internationally as “Padre Melo.” He is one of many Jesuit priests around the world who live on the edge because of their discipline, their high intellectual standards, and their commitment to the church and the poor.

I met Father Melo in 1988 when he came to study in Toronto and since then a bond of friendship and love has connected my family to him. In 2013 Father Melo invited me “to accompany” him in Honduras, which means to walk with him or to shadow him in his travels. The theory behind accompaniment is that the presence of a foreigner is a hindrance to would-be assassins employed by the state or by someone from the oligarchy.

Father Melo, like many Hondurans, knows the pain of violent death among friends and family. His parents, Pedro and Angela were poor campesino farmers. Father Melo’s father, Pedro Moreno, was the president of a farmer’s co-operative that was under siege by foreign investors who wanted to buy land to grow sugar cane. Pedro urged the poor farmers to stick together and not to sell. It was Melo who, at the age of 13, discovered his father’s mutilated body in the office of the co-operative. Shortly afterward the farmers started to sell off their parcels and become part-time workers on the sugar hacienda.

Angela, known as Doña Lita, carried her first pair of shoes for many kilometres to her wedding so as not to get them dirty. Her husband farmed until his murder and Lita worked hard producing tortillas and other items to support the family. Melo would have had financial difficulty to continue in high school and he had thought about getting a job to help support the family. However, he got the highest grades in Grade 8, which won him a scholarship to the private Jesuit school that mostly catered to the rich of El Progreso.

His keen intellect kept him at the top of his class throughout high school. Melo’s ambition was to go into law or the Jesuits to work for the poor. He remembers a day when Jesuit Father Padre Guadalupe was visiting the family and Pedro said to his young son, “If you want to be a priest, be like Father Guadalupe or don’t bother.”

Padre Guadalupe was an American missionary who became radically aligned to the struggle of the poor farmers, particularly the banana workers in the northern plantations of the Standard and United Fruit companies. In 1983 Padre Guadalupe was captured by Honduran and U.S. troops and after being tortured he was thrown alive over the jungle along with other political prisoners.

On Nov. 16, 1989, an elite American trained murder squad of the Salvadoran army entered the campus of the Catholic University and killed six Jesuit professors and the two women housekeepers. Those Jesuits were professors of Father Melo when he was in training as a seminarian. When Melo’s mother, Doña Lita, heard of the assassination of the Jesuits, whom she knew personally, she summoned Melo to her side and, having him kneel beside her, she told him to have his affairs in order because if he was to be faithful to his calling they would come some day for him.

So why do they want to kill Padre Melo today? Honduras is a failed and corrupt narco-state. It is ruled by a military dictatorship, many of whom were trained at the infamous School of the Americas. The American embassy calls the shots in Honduras as it has up to six military bases in the country, including the largest airport in the country. The country just went through a fraudulent electoral process, which has confirmed the most corrupt in society as the government: an alliance of military, embassy, oligarchy and drug cartels. Padre Melo is director of an independent radio station, “Radio Progreso,” and a human rights centre, “ERIC.” Of the most dangerous careers in Honduras are law, journalism, and environmental defence.

Father Melo is perhaps the leading figure in the Catholic Church in the area of human rights and interpreting the “signs of the times” (Vatican II). Politically he is non-aligned, but his political astuteness is widely sought by many sectors of society. I have accompanied Melo to meet with sociology professors, with teachers groups, with women indigenous campesina groups, with youth groups, with leaders of co-operatives and labour unions, with political groups and even with groups of clergy. They all look for the same thing. “How can we understand what is happening in Honduras?” they ask. Melo has that rare ability to speak to any group at their level, to engage them in meaningful dialogue and shared wisdom.

During my most recent five-week trip this year, Melo was called to the capital city of Tegucigalpa to meet with three United Nations representatives who had come to Honduras on a fact-finding mission. They spent the entire day in conversation, just with Padre Melo. He is often called upon to meet foreign delegations and commissions such as the O.A.S.-sponsored MACCIH — “Support Mission to Combat Corruption and Impunity in Honduras.” In 2015 Padre Melo was awarded in Norway the “RAFTO” award, sometimes called the “Alternative Nobel.” There have been numerous other awards given to Father Melo and the twin apostolates he directs: Radio Progreso and ERIC.

Since the military coup of 2009, documented in the video La Voz del Pueblo (https://ignatiansolidarity.net/la-voz-del-pueblo/), the Jesuit mission has been under attack by the military dictatorship. One radio manager, Carlos Mejia, was murdered in 2014. More than 16 of the Jesuit’s staff have received credible death threats, the most recent in late February 2018.

In 2013 Father Melo was at a road blockade supporting an indigenous Lenca community in their resistance to an illegal hydroelectric project that would deprive the farmers of their source of water. Along with him was Berta Caceres, a Lenca environmental and human rights defender and a longtime friend of Father Melo. Berta in 2015 received the prestigious Goldman environmental award, which her supporters celebrated thinking this international recognition might give her some protection. At the Rio Blanco blockade, an American woman who at that time was accompanying Padre Melo took a photo of Melo and Berta together. Berta smiled at Father Melo and said, “Who of us will they kill first?” Berta was assassinated on March 2, 2016.

In my trips to accompany Melo I know he has quietly saved lives. I have gone with him to a federal prison to visit political prisoners. His legal team advocates not only for persons dealing with political and human rights issues, but poor people wrongly imprisoned.

In Honduras there is no other prominent Catholic Church official who speaks out against the corruption, the violence, the fraudulent electoral process, and the high “femicide” rate. The combined teams of Radio Progreso and ERIC did a full-year campaign about violence against women. It was followed by an intensive national program promoting Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, Laudato Sì. Father Melo openly supported the Movement of the Indignant — a national protest against the bankruptcy of the Social Security Health Program — because the dictator drained the funds for use by his own political party.

Father Melo has lived with death threats for most of his priesthood. He has been kidnapped more than once. People around him have been killed. He cannot be bought, although there have been efforts internationally and nationally to compromise him with financial support. As Father Melo once explained, “First they try to be nice and ingratiate themselves with praise and admiration. Then they try to buy your support. If that doesn’t work they try to ridicule you or criticize your work. When that doesn’t work they move to criminalize you or paint you as a traitor to the country. Then they kill you.”

Little is a retired teacher living on Vancouver Island. Born in Alberta, he went to university in Ottawa. As a member of the Oblate congregation he went to Peru as a missionary from 1972 to 1980. Returning to Canada he married and taught in the Toronto Catholic school system for 26 years until retirement.

Jesuits Decry Attacks on Honduran Jesuit Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno

Jesuits Decry Attacks on Honduran Jesuit Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno

Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno, SJ

Jesuits Decry Attacks on Honduran Jesuit Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno, Prominent Human Rights Activist

August 7, 2017 — On July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, Latin American Jesuits raised an alarm for one of their brother Jesuits, Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno, director of the Honduran Jesuit radio station, Radio Progreso, and the Honduran Jesuit social action center.

An outspoken human rights advocate in a country plagued by government corruption and violence, Fr. Melo has worked for years to promote dialogue while advocating for the marginalized.

Last year when the national university, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), was embroiled in student strikes, Fr. Melo sat at the negotiating table at the request of students. While agreements were reached between the students and the university, this year student strikes and protests continued, and in the aftermath many students have been injured at the hands of university-hired security forces and many more arrested. In addition, the recent murder of the father of a student activist, who was killed after attending the judicial hearing of his son, has created a climate of fear for those exercising their right to protest peacefully.

Fr. Melo at a protest.

On July 19, at a concert held on campus, Fr. Melo joined hundreds of students protesting the treatment of their fellow classmates by university authorities. Retaliating against Fr. Melo for his support of the students, the university’s rector accused the Jesuit of promoting anarchy and generating violence. The university subsequently canceled its contract with ERIC, the Jesuit-run social action center that Fr. Melo leads.

In their statement, the Jesuits of the Central American Province said, “We want to declare that the attacks directed against Fr. Melo are the consequence of working to defend the human rights of all sectors of society. … The defense of human rights … is the horizon that guides the work of the Society of Jesus in Honduras.”

The statement, which was endorsed by the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S. and the president of the Conference of Provincials for Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed strong support for ERIC-Radio Progreso and Fr. Moreno for maintaining “a spirit of open and flexible dialogue, of reasonable tolerance, and of unwavering struggle for justice.”

Fr. Timothy Kesicki, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S., said, “Fr. Melo’s entire life has been devoted to freedom of expression and human rights. It’s egregious that he’s being accused of inciting violence when he’s watched dear friends like environmental activist Berta Cáceres be gunned down for speaking up for the people of Honduras.”

According to U.S. Jesuit Matthew Ippel, the public attack against Fr. Melo by the university rector is a threat and part of a pattern of attack against human rights defenders. “It is embedded in a larger narrative that makes any dissenting voice the enemy. It is deeply alarming that those who advocate for justice, for the defense of the rights of the marginalized and excluded, are being discredited, criminalized and assassinated.”

Matthew Ippel, SJ, with Fr. Melo.

Radio Progreso, an important independent voice in a country where most broadcast outlets are controlled by special interests, serves both rural communities and large cities. In the last several years, two employees of ERIC-Radio Progreso have been murdered and threats have been made against others. In late March of this year, a defamation campaign targeted Fr. Melo and other activists.

According to the Organization of American States, Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world for human rights defenders.

In 2015, Fr. Melo was honored with the prestigious Rafto Prize for his “defense of freedom of expression in one of the most violent countries in the world.” In accepting the prize, Fr. Melo said, “I believe profoundly in life, and I profoundly believe in human beings and I deeply believe that the good will prevail against any kind of evil and violence.” [Sources: Central American Province of the Society of Jesus, The Jesuit Post]

Human rights lawyer assassinated in Honduras

http://www.jesuit.org.uk/human-rights-lawyer-assassinated-honduras

17 Apr 2014

Jesuit Province of Britain

A worker at a Jesuit-run radio and social action centre in Honduras has been stabbed and killed in what is believed to have been a politically-motivated attack.  CAFOD partner Carlos Mejia Orellana (pictured), a 35-year-old lawyer who worked for ERIC-RP was stabbed four times in the chest at his home in El Progreso. The Catholic aid agency vowed yesterday that the struggle for justice that he helped to lead will go on.

Carlos and other colleagues at ERIC-RP had received repeated death threats in response to the organisation’s advocacy and communications work, through which they challenge injustice and corruption in the government, police and judicial system. The threats against Carlos were so serious that, for the last five years, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has called on the Honduran government to provide him with special protection measures. Sadly, no such protection was provided.

CAFOD currently supports the work of ERIC-RP in the Atlantic coastal region of Honduras where programmes cover human rights, water, livelihoods and disaster risk reduction. The social action centre is one of the organisations that protested against the recent appointment of Roberto Herrera Caceres as the new Human Rights Ombudsman, asserting his links to the 2009 presidential coup and mining interest groups and his insufficient experience in human rights law.

At a press conference, ERIC-RP’s director, Fr Ismael Moreno SJ, rejected rumours implying that Carlos’ death was linked to relationship difficulties and insisted that the police carry out a thorough investigation.

CAFOD’s Head of Region for Latin America and the Caribbean, Clare Dixon, said: “ERIC-RP has been one of our partners for more than 20 years, and the loss of Carlos at such a young age is deeply felt by us all. As with so many brave men and women in Latin America who have been cruelly robbed of lives spent fighting for justice, his struggle will go on, with the support of the Catholic community in England and Wales.”

According to UN statistics, Honduras has the world’s highest murder rate. Last year, an average of 20 people were murdered every day in Honduras, a country of just eight million inhabitants. El Progreso is close to San Pedro Sula, where the homicide rate is 173 per 100,000 people, reportedly the highest in the world outside a war zone.

CAFOD partner assassinated in Honduras

April 16 2014. Last updated April 16 2014

http://www.cafod.org.uk/News/International-News/Honduras-partner-assassinated

Carlos Mejia Orellana

We are sad to report that last Friday, CAFOD partner Carlos Mejia Orellana was assassinated at his home in El Progreso, Honduras, but – with your support – the struggle for justice that he helped to lead will go on.  

Carlos had been stabbed four times in the chest. His death is believed to be politically motivated.

He was a 35-year-old lawyer who worked at ERIC-RP, the Jesuit-run radio and social action centre. We are currently supporting its work in the Atlantic coastal region of Honduras in programmes covering human rights, water, livelihoods and disaster risk reduction.

Carlos and other colleagues at ERIC-RP had received repeated death threats in response to the organisation’s advocacy and communications work, through which they challenge injustice and corruption in the government, police and judicial system.

So serious were the threats against Carlos that, for the last five years, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has called on the Honduran government to provide him with special protection measures. Sadly, no such protection was provided.

ERIC-RP is one of the human rights organisations that protested against the recent appointment of Roberto Herrera Caceres as the new Human Rights Ombudsman, asserting his links to the 2009 presidential coup and mining interest groups and his insufficient experience in human rights law.

At a press conference, ERIC-RP’s director, Fr Ismael Moreno SJ, rejected rumours implying that Carlos’ death was linked to relationship difficulties and insisted that the police carry out a thorough investigation.

Clare Dixon, CAFOD’s Head of Region for Latin America and the Caribbean, said: “ERIC-RP has been one of our partners for more than 20 years, and the loss of Carlos at such a young age is deeply felt by us all. As with so many brave men and women in Latin America who have been cruelly robbed of lives spent fighting for justice, his struggle will go on, with the support of the Catholic community in England and Wales.”

According to UN statistics, Honduras has the world’s highest murder rate. Last year, an average of 20 people were murdered every day in Honduras, a country of just eight million inhabitants. El Progreso is close to San Pedro Sula, where the homicide rate is 173 per 100,000 people, reportedly the highest in the world outside a war zone.

Kaine Statement On The Murder Of Carlos Mejia Orellana In Honduras

Tim Kaine – United States Senator from Virginia

Kaine Statement On The Murder Of Carlos Mejia Orellana In Honduras

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

http://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-statement-on-the-murder-of-carlos-mejia-orellana-in-honduras

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on the murder of Carlos Mejia Orellana in Honduras:

“I was shocked to learn of the murder of Carlos Mejia Orellana, journalist and marketing director of Jesuit founded Radio Progreso in Honduras.  My prayers go out to Carlos’s friends and family in the  El Progreso community that welcomed me as a young student in the 1980’s.

“Too often, Honduran officials have dismissed threats and attacks against journalists, and questioned whether the violence was connected to the victims’ profession.  In Carlos’s particular case, police have announced possible conclusions without even the start of an investigation.    Premature and speculative judgments cannot be allowed to stand in the way of a thorough investigation.  This must not be yet another homicide in Honduras that goes unpunished.

“Honduran police failed to protect Carlos, despite repeated requests to do so from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  The police need to take immediate steps to protect Carlos’s surviving colleagues at Radio Progreso and its research arm, ERIC, who also live under constant threat.”

¡Auxilio doña Lisa Kubinske!

Domingo, 13 Abril 2014 23:55

(Lisa Kubinske es la embajadora de los EE.UU. en Honduras quien señaló a Juan Orlando Hernandez como futuro presidente de Honduras)

http://www.tiempo.hn/editorial/noticias/%C2%A1auxilio-dona-lisa-kubinske

Roberto Quesada

“Esta acción criminal contra nuestro compañero de equipo Carlos Mejía Orellana es un golpe a nuestro trabajo, a nuestra institución y por lo tanto denunciamos este hecho, porque vulnera el trabajo de comunicación, vulnera el derecho que tenemos a la libertad de expresión y vulnera la vida de todos y cada uno de los miembros de nuestro equipo.”—Ismael Moreno (cariñosamente “el Padre Melo”), sacerdote jesuita, director de Radio Progreso.

Los asesinatos en Honduras siguen desesperadamente, como para no dejar duda que ese primer lugar del país más violento, sangriento del mundo no se lo quita nadie. No faltará quien se sienta orgulloso de por primera vez tener a Honduras primera en algo.

Ya casi el pueblo hondureño se ha acostumbrado a que encuentran a unos cuantos encostalados, otros atados, mutilados, en fin los asesinatos en su más diversas formas, tonalidades como para ser exhibido en una vitrina como apetecible producto a la venta.

Y aquí se dice guerra entre maras, ajuste de cuentas, en algo andaba, no era mansa palomita, pero es una desgracia para el pobre muerto, que encima de estar muerto, se le culpa de su muerte. Y reina la impunidad a todo nivel. Aunque no crea hay mucha gente en Honduras que no sabe qué quiere decir la palabra impunidad, pues se lo decimos con sencillez: Es cuando se asesina, roba, se delinque de cualquier manera y no existe castigo alguno para los malhechores.

Pero entre estos crímenes, sobresalen unos, los que se hacen selectivamente. Esto se ha venido acentuado en Honduras desde poco antes del golpe de Estado del 28 de junio del 2009.

Poco antes del golpe comenzaron a asesinar a personas cercanas al entonces presidente constitucional Manuel Zelaya Rosales, y desde entonces a la fecha, eso no se ha detenido.

Y uno de estos  asesinatos, que tiene todas las características de provenir del terrorismo de Estado, es el del joven responsable de mercadeo y ventas de Radio Progreso y miembro del Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación, ERIC de la Compañía de Jesús en Honduras, Carlos Hilario Mejía Orellana.

Este tipo de asesinatos, así como las intervenciones militares a gran escala, se dan generalmente en fechas en que la población esta distraída por festividades. Para navidad o año nuevo, Semana Santa en que la mayoría de la gente anda pensando en playas y otras diversiones, se ordenan este tipo de crímenes.

De esta manera se evita la repercusión de la prensa, sobre todo en los países que tienen una prensa no tan servil a los intereses de la minoría pudiente y de los extranjeros injerencistas, como es el caso de Honduras.

Y el hecho pasa como una noticia que pocos vieron y cuando se regresa de vacaciones ya hay nuevos asesinatos, nuevos problemas después de haber despilfarrado lo poco que se tenía en el festín semanasantero, y el asesinado pasa sin pena ni gloria al otro mundo.

Por supuesto que el asesinato de Carlos Mejía es calculado para darle un fuerte golpe bajo a Radio Progreso. Emisora insigne, emblemática con su postura digna contra el criminal golpe de Estado, de hecho, nosotros colaboramos tanto retransmitiendo sus noticieros como pasándoles informe de primera mano, tal como alimentamos a Radio Globo, Cholusat Sur, sin costo alguno, de pura fe en la solidaridad, durante lo álgido del golpe de Estado que aún persiste en Honduras.

Los funcionarios que frisan cifras, que los ponen como loros en estaca a mentirle a la población hondureña de que el crimen ha bajado (ha bajado de los cerros a la ciudad), ni ellos mismos se creen lo que los ponen a decir; por eso tartamudean, se equivocan, se enfadan ante ciertas preguntas, por eso el Gobernador no permite preguntas, da los “informes” y sale corriendo.

Entonces los hondureños/as, ¿a quién podemos pedirle auxilio? Pues a los verdaderos jefes, a los Estados Unidos. Los demás son monigotes puestos allí para devengar jugosos salarios, prebendas y meterles el cuento de que son importantes, cuando en la realidad para el ala radical estadounidense solo ellos importan, los demás son objetos desechables. Allá el Gobernador que se crea el cuento.

Es aquí en donde debería de pronunciarse Doña  Lisa Kubinske, embajadora de los EEUU, encargada de darnos la más moderna democracia a los hondureños/as, que se pinta para andar visitando “tigres” e inaugurando bases militares, pero se llama al silencio ante estos asesinatos fuertemente sospechosos de ser terrorismo de Estado. Nos predican la ejemplar democracia estadounidense, pero con palabras no con hechos, la jefa del gobierno de Honduras, Sra. Kubinske, debería jalarle las orejas al Gobernador y ordenarle, exigirle que cesen todo tipo de asesinatos, pero especialmente los selectivos, encaminados a silenciar al pueblo hondureño, cercenando la libertad de expresión, matando la libertad de prensa.

Asesinan a miembro del Equipo de Radio Progreso 
Alerta 017-14 
12 de abril de 2014

Comité por la Libre Expresión (C-Libre).- Carlos Hilario Mejía Orellana responsable de mercadeo y ventas de Radio Progreso y miembro del Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación, ERIC de la Compañía de Jesús en Honduras, fue asesinado a puñaladas la noche del viernes 11 de abril en su casa de habitación en la colonia Suazo Córdova de la ciudad de El Progreso, departamento de Yoro, al norte del país.

En conferencia de prensa el sacerdote jesuita, Ismael Moreno, expresó que el hecho sangriento es un golpe directo, no solamente a la vida de Carlos Mejía y su familia, sino que también al trabajo que realiza Radio Progreso y el ERIC.

“Esta acción criminal contra nuestro compañero de equipo Carlos Mejía Orellana es un golpe a nuestro trabajo, a nuestra institución y por lo tanto denunciamos este hecho, porque vulnera el trabajo de comunicación, vulnera el derecho que tenemos a la libertad de expresión y vulnera la vida de todos y cada uno de los miembros de nuestro equipo. Para nosotros es altamente sospechoso que este hecho criminal haya ocurrido justamente en las vísperas de semana santa, cuando todo mundo se retira a sus respectivas vacaciones especialmente los entes responsables de la justicia, y cuando también es mucho más fácil que los hechos lamentables como estos pasen a un segundo y tercer término, por lo tanto nosotros presentamos como altamente sospechoso que ocurra precisamente en estos días”, explicó el padre Moreno.  

“Su asesinato es una muestra más del fracaso de las políticas de seguridad del Estado hondureño y de su falta de voluntad política para adoptar las medidas efectivas de protección establecidas por la CIDH. Frente a ello, exigimos una investigación seria y diligente que conlleve a la identificación, juzgamiento y sanción de todos los responsables de este crimen, sean actores materiales e intelectuales”, exigió Joaquín Mejía, también miembro del ERIC.

Con el fin de proteger la vida e integridad de Mejía Orellana la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) había otorgado medidas cautelares el 2 de julio de 2009, el 26 de abril de 2010, el 03 de mayo de 2010, el 02 de junio de 2010 y el 27 de mayo de 2011.