Honduras did not experience civil war in the 1980s, but its geography (bordering El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua) made it a key location for US military operations: training Salvadoran soldiers, a base for Nicaraguan contras, military exercises for US troops. The notorious Honduran death squad Battalion 316 was created, funded and trained by the US. The state-sponsored terror resulted in the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of approximately 200 people during the 1980s. Many more were abducted and tortured. The 2009 military coup d’etat spawned a resurgence of state repression against the civilian population that continues today.
armed attack on Jesús Flores Satuye (shot in the head and arm), a member of the Afro-descendant Garífuna community of Nueva Armenia in Atlántida Department, and concurrent attack on the offices of La Via Campesina in Tegucigalpa.
murder of environmental and indigenous rights defender Juan Francisco Martinez, a member of the Independent Indigenous Lenca Movement of La Paz (MILPAH).