Stand up for Honduran Journalist Gilda Silvestrucchi

URGENT ACTION: Honduran Journalist in Danger – Contact the U.S. embassy in Honduras NOW to demand immediate protection and to condemn the repression against journalists in Honduras.

Since the coup d’état in 2009 human rights violations have been rampant. Journalists are among those groups who have suffered severe repression. According to the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) since 2009, 18 journalists have been murdered, 25 have received death threats, 14 have suffered illegal detentions, 4 have been kidnapped and tortured and 37 other attacks and aggressions on journalists have been recorded.

As the repression worsens and impunity continues the United States supports militarization providing training and arms to the Honduran military and police. Since the coup d’état, the United States has given over $16.5 million in arms and training to the police and military and plans to give over $8 million more this year. U.S. backed militarization has not quelled the grave human rights situation for journalists or for anyone else.

Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi is an independent journalist and Director of the radio program “In the Plaza.” She and her children have been the victims of numerous acts of intimidation and death threats throughout January, the most recent of which happened on January 23rd after holding an interview on her radio program on issues relating to the pending Honduran Mining law.

COFADEH has called for immediate action in this case. Please stand in solidarity with those struggling for their rights in Honduras. Contact the U.S. Honduran Embassy and the U.S. State Department and demand an end to impunity and an end to the repression of journalists. Demand protection for Gilda and her children.

Click below to send a letter to the human rights official in the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, Nathan Anderson.

Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear Mr. Nathan Anderson,

I am writing to you to express my concern over the case of a Honduran journalist, Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi.

Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi is an independent journalist and the director of the radio program “In the Plaza.”  She and her children have been the victims of numerous acts of intimidation and death threats throughout January, the most recent of which happened on January 23rd after holding an interview on her radio program on issues relating to the pending Honduran Mining law.

Former Ambassador Hugo Llorens stated on Honduran Journalist’s Day last year:

“We share your deep concern about threats against media workers.  All those who explain to the people what they believe to be happening in the world deserve respect and protection from violence and intimidation, as well as the right to speak and write without censorship.”

I agree with Mr. Llorens remarks and would like to see Ms. Silvestrucchi’s life and right to expression upheld.

Along with COFADEH (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras), I am calling for the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa to:
 
•    Publicly condemn the intimidation of journalists and demand that the state of Honduras commit to the protection of members of this profession;  
•    Request immediate action to provide all protection necessary for Gilda Carolina Silvestrucci and her family, particularly her young children in the manner that she requests;
•    Request an urgent, exhaustive and impartial investigation into the acts that place the life of Gilda Silvestrucchi at risk and that the murders of 18 journalists as well as threats against other journalists be investigated. The results of these investigations should be made public and those responsible tried. 
•    Demand that protective orders issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for journalists at risk be applied.

Thank you,

Nathan Anderson

United States Embassy in Honduras