Honduras coup Photos from laprensa.hn

for immediate release
June 28, 2009
Contact: Hendrik Voss
706-593-1941, media@soaw.org

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS TRAINED GENERALS AT THE CENTER OF MILITARY COUP
IN HONDURAS

This press release is from the School of the Americas Watch, an
independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the
Americas. SOA attendees have orchestrated the countless human rights
atrocities and anti-democratic actions taken by Latin American
militaries for the past half century. SOA graduates continue to show
themselves at the forefront of opposition to democratic reform and
human rights. Today two SOA graduates who have risen to the highest
ranks of the Honduran military have again shown their willingness to
undermine the will of the people and their democratically elected
governments.

Involvement of SOA Graduates Romeo Vasquez and Luis Javier Prince
Suazo in the Overthrow of Democratically Elected President Manuel
Zelaya Follows Pattern of
Anti-Democratic Actions by Graduates of the SOA/ WHINSEC

Honduras – the military coup that took place in Honduras this morning
was led by SOA graduates Romeo Vasquez and Luis Javier Prince Suazo.
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.

SOA graduate General Vasquez, the top military chief of Honduras was
deposed by President Zelaya earlier this week after Vasquez announced
that the military would refuse to comply with a referendum that was
supposed to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to
eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.

Along with General Vasquez, another SOA graduate, Air Force General
Luis Javier Prince Suazo, was involved in this mornings coup against
the Honduran people. While serving as a Major in the Honduran Air
Force, Javier attended  the SOA and took a course from April to May
1996 in Joint Operations (Curso de Opereaciones Conjuntas) at the
school in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The Honduran state television was taken off the air following the
military coup. The electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa, as
well telephone and cellphone lines were cut. Government institutions
were taken over by the military. While the traditional political
parties, Catholic church and military have not issued any statements,
the people of Honduras are going into the streets, in spite of the
fact that the streets are militarized. From Costa Rica, President
Zelaya has called for a non-violent response from the people of
Honduras, and for international solidarity for the Honduran democracy.

"The U.S. Army School of the Americas...is a school that has run more
dictators than any other school in the history of the world."
- former Congressman Joseph Kennedy

In total, the School has produced at least eleven Latin American
dictators. Honduras is one of the countries that has first hand
experience with work of School of the Americas graduates and with SOA
trained military dictators:

In 1975, SOA Graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military
dictator of Honduras. From 1980-1982 the dictatorial Honduran regime
was headed by, yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who
intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most
feared death squads in all of Latin America (founded by Honduran SOA
graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates).