Honduras

We continue to monitor the grave situation in Honduras with alarm. Our friends at the Quixote Center are doing a great job by regularly posting updates about what's happening in the tense stand-off as well as background materials on many underlying social and political issues in Honduras, such as the divides between poor and wealthy classes, the military and grassroots communities, and more. Together with Witness for Peace (FOR Task Force on Latin America & the Caribbean members helped found WFP in 1983), Quixote cosponsored an emergency fact-finding delegation to Honduras this month. This Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (ET), WFP is offering a free online briefing (via webinar and teleconference) titled "Honduras Coup Exposed" featuring WFP International Team member Galen Cohee Baynes.

A military coup took place in Honduras on Sunday, June 28, led by School of the Americas (SOA) graduate Romeo Vasquez. In the early hours of the day, members of the Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace and forced the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, into custody. He was immediately flown to Costa Rica.

A national vote had been scheduled to take place today in Honduras to consult the electorate on a proposal of holding a Constitutional Assembly in November.  General Vasquez had refused to comply with this vote and was deposed by the president, only to later be reinstated by the Congress and Supreme Court.