[News] Venezuelan Solidarity Convoy Bound for Honduras Detained in Colombia

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Venezuelan Solidarity Convoy Bound for Honduras Detained in Colombia

July 7th 2009, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4596

June 7, 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - A 
solidarity convoy of sixty people bound for 
Honduras was detained in Maicao, Colombia, by 
military forces, Venezuelan public television 
channel VTV reported on Monday. The convoy, which 
included nineteen Honduran doctors, was initiated 
by grassroots organisations, workers 
representatives and students in Venezuela and 
aimed to show solidarity with the Honduran people 
in the aftermath of the military coup that ousted 
the democratically elected president of that 
country, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28.

Miguel Mora, a member of the United Socialist 
Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and a participant in 
the convoy, denounced via telephone, that 
immediately after Colombian customs had allowed 
the convoy to cross the border, they were 
detained by the Administrative Security 
Department (DAS) of Colombia, who alleged they 
had committed crimes, such as carrying political material.

"First they allowed us to pass, but when we had 
crossed the border towards the interior of 
Colombia and we were going in buses with logos of 
President Hugo Chavez that said ‘Solidarity with 
the Honduran people',  the DAS immediately 
detained us alleging that we were committing a 
crime that in their country is not allowed, of 
carrying political material, of carrying images 
of President Chavez and material in solidarity 
with the Honduran people," Mora explained.

The convoy, which departed on Saturday from Simon 
Bolivar House, Caracas, had planned to pass 
through Colombia, Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, 
and arrive a few days later in Honduras via land.

Mora said the forty Venezuelans, nineteen 
Honduran doctors and one Cuban participating in 
the convoy remained detained; their passports had 
been taken from them and the place where they 
were located, cordoned off. Mora indicated that 
he had managed to slip away with a telephone and, 
through this, communicate with VTV.

  "They detained us simply for carrying pictures 
of Chavez and a solidarity banner with the Honduran people," he said.




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