Protest at Palmerola Air Base Marks 2nd Anniversary of Military Takeover in Honduras

On the morning of June 28th, around 200 people gathered a few miles away from the entrance to Palmerola Air Base, which is located in Honduras but used by the United States Air Force. The marchers proceeded towards the main gate to denounce the US military base due to the US's military presence and its role in the overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected government on June 28th, 2009. The plane that sent Honduras' president Manuel Zelaya into exile on that day flew from the capital Tegucigalpa to Palmerola Air Base before continuing in the opposite direction to Costa Rica.

The protest was organized by COPINH, the Civic Counsel of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, which works to oppose multinational mining, agricultural, tourism, and hydroelectric energy projects. These projects, which have been fast-tracked under the post-coup government, work the current system to cheat Lenca, Garifuna, and other Honduran people out of their farms and land.

Also attending the march were about 25 citizens of the United States, who were present to monitor police behavior, to support COPINH's anti-exploitation struggle, and to protest the waste of taxpayer money on militarization in Honduras.

Traffic on the highway was blocked for over an hour. At one point, a young Honduran activist got too close to the wall of the air base, bearing a large stencil and a can of spraypaint, and a police officer (dressed in military garb) pulled him to the ground in a stranglehold, while others threw a few baton hits to the protesters. As other marchers, including an elderly Lenca woman, approached the scene, the police pointed rifles at them menacingly. Without warning, at least 2 tear gas canisters were fired and the marchers fled down a nearby street, then promptly continued the march. No one was detained or severely injured, although some emerged with bruises and cuts sustained from the batons.

Upon reaching Palmerola's main gate, there was a rally in the driveway in which the people chanted, “Yankee trash out of Honduras!” and “More food, zero weapons!” The crowd also remembered the more than 200 activists that were shot and killed by the police during marches in the 2 years since the coup, chanting, “Present with us today, tomorrow, and always, they keep on living through our struggle!”