Telesur report:
Armed Men Intimidate Electoral Companions Honduras
Original article (spanish)
Translation by La Voz de los de Abajo
This Saturday morning, six armed men entered a hotel in Tegucigalpa and intimidated international electoral accompaniers from El Salvador. Despite this incident , the accompaniers stated that they will continue to monitor the elections, with the goal that Hondurans can freely exercise their right to vote.
On Saturday, a group of six armed men stormed the Aurora Hotel in Tegucigalpa ( capital of Honduras ), in an attempt to frighten international observers that will be present this Sunday during the Honduran general elections.
The TeleSur special correspondent in Honduras, Madeleine García , reported via the social network Twitter that the incident occurred at 10H30 local time on Saturday, when ” six armed men entered the Aurora Hotel, which is near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa, the Capital ” .
“In the lobby of the hotel were mayors and deputies, who form part of the delegation of 40 international observers from El Salvador ,” said Garcia in hes account @ madeleintlSUR .
The journalist quoted Deputy Nidia Diaz, who was with the group and explained that ” When 6 armed men entered, 3 other men arrived wearing Immigration shirts”. “I approached the men from Immigration and told them that we had entered Honduras legally yesterday and with credentials ,” said the deputy.
Diaz, cited by Garcia, described the event as “an act of intimidation that cannot occur within a process of free and transparent elections.”
” What happened today is a violation of the law, because as election accompaniers, we have legal rights,” said Diaz.
In addition, she said that ” the men were at the hotel for 45 minutes and left when more people came to support us.”
Despite the incident , Diaz said ” We are going to continue in Honduras, standing by the people in this process to exercise their rights ” .
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal ( TSE) signed an agreement with major media outlets on Wednesday, in which the press has agreed not to broadcast polling results of surveys or exit polls before Sunday 19H00 local time ( 01H00 GMT Monday) .
The TSE estimates that more than three million people go to the polls, but actual registered voters equal more than five million persons older than 18.
