Thu 26 Aug, 2010
CRLN Luncheon on Thursday, Nov 4, with Honduras Jesuit Leader
Please mark your calendar for 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm Thursday, November 4, 2010, for CRLN’s annual membership luncheon, closing CRLN’s 20th Anniversary year.
CRLN has invited Father Ismael “Melo” Moreno (Padre Melo) – a human rights defender under threat in Honduras – as its luncheon speaker this year. Born (1958) and ordained (1989) in El Progreso, Honduras, Padre Melo did his concluding theological studies under Fr. Ignacio Ellacuría, rector of the Jesuit’s Universidad Centro Americana in El Salvador who was among the six Jesuit priests assassinated by the Salvadoran military.
Padre Melo is the director of Radio Progreso, a Jesuit-run radio station in El Progreso, Honduras which reaches 12 of Honduras’ 18 departments. Since illegal coup d’état in Honduras last year, the coup regime has repeatedly shut down Radio Progreso, one of the few independent news sources in Honduras denouncing the coup and the widespread human rights abuses accompanying the coup. Padre Melo also directs the Jesuit think tank Equipo de Reflexión, Información y Comunicación (ERIC), which engages the public to analyze and discuss contemporary issues.
Since January 2010, when President Lobo was installed after militarized elections carried out under the coup regime, Fr. Melo has received systematic and serious death threats. In response to these threats, the Central America Jesuit Province has issued a declaration in support of Fr. Melo and called for an investigation. Despite going into hiding for a time, the threats remain.
Honduras is perhaps the most important U.S. policy concern in Latin America at this time. While President Obama initially condemned the coup as “not legal”, the State Department has consistently accommodated the coup regime and its successor government. Inexplicably, the Obama Administration has publicly remained silent about the flood of continuing human rights violations: assassinations, torture, rapes, unlawful incarcerations, death threats, and intimidation.
Since the coup, two CRLN staffers and three CRLN board members have traveled to Honduras and human rights observers and to accompany those resisting the coup.
Background – Reporters W/O Borders: Journalists Under Threat in Honduras 04 June 2010
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-300-soldiers-and-police-storm-04-06-2010,37673.html
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
4750 N. Sheridan Road #429, Chicago, IL 60640 – USA
Tel: 773.293.2964
