Report on Honduras

LeiLani Dowell
WW photo: Scott Scheffer

Los Angeles — A gathering of activists, organizers in the Honduran community and leaders in progressive organizations fighting U.S. imperialism participated in an exciting reportback at the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice in Los Angeles. LeiLani Dowell was the featured speaker, along with Ramón Sánchez, a representative of the Libre Party, which ran a progressive candidate in the recent Honduran ­elections.

Dowell, representing the International Action Center at the Dec. 15 meeting, was one of the seven human rights observers sent by the IAC to Honduras. Sanchez gave the perspective of the Libre Party in terms of the result of the elections, future goals for the party and the struggle for self-determination of the Honduran people.

Dowell highlighted the fightback spirit of various sectors of the Honduran communities, including women and the lesbian-gay-bi-trans communities, giving examples of tremendous courage amidst U.S.-sponsored and U.S.-encouraged terror by paramilitary groupings and police. She also gave evidence proving that the Honduran elections were fraudulent, with payoffs both blatant and subtle. This fraud denied the people’s candidate, the Libre Party’s Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, a fair election, in spite of her overwhelming popularity, as witnessed by Dowell in Honduras.

Inspired by Dowell, one of the Honduran activists offered to organize a film showing about Honduras at the Harriet Tubman Center in the hopes of building greater solidarity in Los Angeles. To get more information about that film showing, contact 323-306-6240.