coup

Honduran newspaper photoshops blood from crackdown victim

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:22:51 +0200

Left, photo published in La Prensa, right, original photo.

These photos seem to prove that a pro-coup newspaper digitally removed bloodstains from the image of a protester shot dead by soldiers.

Isis Obeth Murillo, 19, a young anti-coup protestor from ousted President Manuel Zelaya's home state of Olancho, died after being shot in the head at the airport during Zelaya's unsuccessful attempt to return to Tegucigalpa on Sunday. The image of his friends carrying him has become an iconic image for anti-coup protestors, who say that the army is enforcing a brutal crackdown in the country, largely covered up by the media.

Highlighted by Cuban website CubaDebate, these two images seem to prove the protesters right. The original image, on the right, shows the youth bleeding from the head and covered in blood, while in the same photo which appeared in La Prensa (on the left), the blood has all but disappeared. Not surprisingly, the newspaper in question is a right leaning anti-Zelaya publication...

Protestor crushed by military, caught on amateur video

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:10:11 +0200

Violent clashes continue in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup on Sunday. This amateur video, filmed on Monday, appears to show a presidential supporter run over by a military vehicle.

The coup took place the day Zelaya had arranged an unofficial referendum to ask the country's citizens whether he could stand for a second term in office - something which the constitution does not allow. Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti was voted in by Cogress later that afternoon, while ousted President Zelaya remained in Costa Rica, where he had been hastily sent into exile, while still in his pyjamas.

Protestors supporting Zelaya took to the streets the same day and were met with riot police, leading to violent clashes. Media reports of events however were scarce and contradictory after a media blackout was enforced by interim President Micheletti. The following amateur video was posted by a citizen media website called Habla Honduras, which says that the man hit by the vehicle is 30-year-old Rosel Ulises Peña, a state telecommunications worker.

Guinea 'indifferent' to president's death

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:24:02 +0100

The death of Guinean President Lansana Conté has left the country in a state of utter confusion. In power since 1984, the authoritarian ruler leaves behind a financially devastated country, despite its wealth of minerals.

Just hours after the former French army sergeant died, the Guinean Army suspended the constitution and parliament and set up a committee for national recovery - news announced to the country's population of 10 million over state radio.

Nouakchott’s bloodless coup seen by an expat

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:19:34 +0200

Not even a year and a half since he came into power, the first ever democratically elected president since Mauritania's independence in 1960 was ousted in a coup on Wednesday. Our Observer in Nouakchott tells us about her experiences of the day.

Not one drop of blood was shed when the former leader of the presidential guard arrested the Mauritanian head of state, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. Though considered a "model of democracy" by a majority of Mauritanians, the ousted president appears to have been unsuccessful in his attempts to stabilise the country. The junta that overturned him said yesterday that a "free and fair" election will be held "as soon as possible".