Good day, and thank you for this opportunity. It is a pleasure to be here before your committee to discuss the serious human rights situation in our country.
Work done by our organization in 2010 gives us evidence that the Honduran state is now broken. Since the June 28 coup d'état, we have not been able to rebuild our country.
Honduras must absolutely be able to re-establish its constitutional order. Violations of human rights make us believe that this is a failed state. Parts of Honduras are invaded now by criminals working hand in hand with the authorities. There have been reports of the violent deaths of 10 journalists; 10 journalists were assassinated between 2009 and 2010. Further, 16 people are being killed on a daily basis for political reasons in Honduras. These have been men and women, in the cities and in the countryside. Many of them are young, and most of the murderers have yet to be found. They remain at large with impunity. Why? Because of the fact that the state or its agents are complicit. We are defenceless, and unfortunately human rights advocates are powerless.
Statistics are conclusive. Out of 272 death threats that have been uttered, many are against human rights advocates, so it is officially a crisis. It is difficult to defend the rule of law. The rule of law there has been violated as of June 28.
Politically motivated assassinations, violations of the right to life, show that our state has failed. It has collapsed. Four hundred and sixty-three people were murdered in the year 2010, to say nothing of the political persecution reigning in Honduras today.
We do not have a security policy. In fact, we have a repression policy. Political assassination and persecution are rampant. One hundred and fifty-six individuals are currently exiled from Honduras. This did not happen on the day of the coup d'état. Fifteen days ago young people were removed from our country because of the persecution they were subjected to. Moreover, the state has taken measures against these people. The state has shown no political will to defend these young people, so today we condemn this situation, and we call on the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to take measures.
We presented 190 applications for measures to be taken for the people of Honduras. The most recent measures were presented February 22, February 24, and yesterday. Indeed, we called for two additional measures to support human rights advocates.
In all forums we are raising the issue that Honduras is currently experiencing a human rights crisis. We should take advantage of this opportunity to reiterate that the rule of law in Honduras is broken, and on the remains of this collapsed state, we have been unable to rebuild a country worthy of its name. In other words, we've been unable to create a national assembly that could be considered legitimate and worthy of the name.
Some people say that our government was freely and justly elected, but we are here to tell you that the elections that took place were not transparent. Therefore they were irregular, and the results of this are blatant. When the elections were called, these elections--which really were not elections--led to the assassination of five people in Honduras. Many people were wounded. People have been persecuted and were persecuted the day before the elections were called.
We are concerned about the right to life in Honduras. This is the most fundamental right, and there has been violation after violation in this country. In Honduras, any person who challenges the coup d'état suffers consequences. The people I'm going to refer to today have been killed, and they're flesh and blood.
In fact, my time is up, so I won't say any more, but thank you.