| Canada and the Honduran dictators | | Print | |
| Written by CASC | |||
| Tuesday, 08 September 2009 00:00 | |||
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Canada not doing enough to rebuke Honduran dictatorship[See letter] Hon. Lawrence Cannon, MP, Minister of Foreign AffairsHouse of Commons, Ottawa, ON. K1A 0A6 Dear Mr. Cannon,I am writing to you on behalf of the Victoria Central America Support Committee, a volunteer citizens' group that has worked for 25 years in solidarity with the peoples of Central America and their struggles for peace and social justice. We have long-standing contacts in Central America through visits from social movement activists there and our members' involvement in many projectsin Central America. We are profoundly disturbed by the military coup in Honduras and the overthrow and exile of the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. We are further concerned about the treatment of Hondurans who support the return of democracy and oppose the actions of the military regime. We know that some democracy advocates have been killed and other beaten and jailed. Canada originally condemned the military coup. CASC would like to know what specific actions Canada has taken to restore democracy in Honduras. Has Canada stopped all aid to the illegal government of Honduras, in particular, military and security aid? Is Canada actively assisting the legitimate government in exile? The USA government has stated it will end aid to Honduras and not support the military coup. What is Canada's policy? We have been informed that the International Monetary Fund has just made a substantial loan to the military government. Canada is a member of the IMF; did Canada support this action or did Canada speak out and vote against it? Canada is a democracy and has gone to war to defend democracy. We are not suggesting war against Honduras but we would like to see Canada take significant diplomatic and economic steps to help democracy return to Honduras. We call on our government to withdraw visas and deny entry to Canada to the illegal Honduran government and its officials. We believe that Canada should sever all diplomatic, political, military and economic relations with this Honduran government. We would further ask Canada to publicly state that we will not recognize the legitimacy of any planned Presidential elections unless President Zelaya is re-instated immediately.We look forward to your reply, Yours truly, Cc: Peter Kent, MPMichael Ignatieff, MPBob Rae, MPPeter Julian, MP Denise Savoie, MP
We are writing to you concerning the recent events in Honduras as reported on the T.C. We are Canadian citizens in a variety of groups who have traveled, studied and educated others about Central America for the past three decades. While the democratic world rejoices in this celebrated new era of "Democracy", a military force in Honduras kidnapped the president of their country and took him in his pajamas to Costa Rica. This action reminds us of the past decades of dictatorships and military rule in Latin America where thousands of innocent lives were disappeared, murdered and tortured. For all of us, this coup set off of chilling memories of the bloody past, and the resulting destruction of Latin American societies. So it is beyond reason that Canada made such a lukewarm public statement in response to the coup,while, in contrast, Europe, Latin America and the United States condemned the coup and insisted on the reinstatement of President Zelaya. We have called on our government to cease all programs, business relationships, and any export of military materials to Honduras until Zelaya is back in the Honduran National Congress. Deirdre Kelly on behalf of the Central America Support Committee
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