not have badges and they cover their faces.391 In his view the army is trying to control the country, just as it would in a state of war.392 Indeed, according to writer Claudia Sánchez, the creation of the unit was part of the militarization of the Honduran National Police, and part of a strategy to suppress expression, thought and the diffusion of ideas.393 IN FOCUS: THE REPRESSION OF COMMUNITY RADIO Communicators working for community radio stations in Honduras face many of the same risks as other journalists, including attacks, threats and harassment. However, a 2009 report by Article 19 noted that they face additional challenges due to a “lack of recognition in Honduran legislation” and “the fact that many of them are located outside the capital,” in areas which tend to have a higher incidence of abuses of power.394 According to Reporters Without Borders, “community media that dare to report human rights violations or rural land conflicts are exposed to serious reprisals, with the direct complicity of the police and the armed forces.”395 La Voz de Zacate Grande is a community radio station located in southern Honduras. The communities in the Zacate Grande peninsula use the radio station as a means of sharing information about their struggles to defend their land from what they see as its illegal possession by palm oil magnate Miguel Facussé Barjum.396 They have repeatedly been the target of persecution for their support of local Campesino (rural workers) groups.397 In July 2010, members of the Honduran Armed Forces and the National Police arrived at the station, informed the operators that it was a crime for them to continue broadcasting and briefly closed the station.398 In March 2011, the president of the board which oversees the station was shot in the leg by two clearly identified assailants.399 The only action taken by police and judicial authorities was to call the radio station to ask staff “not to make a fuss.”400 Radio Guarajambala and La Voz Lenca are two of three community radio stations in La Esperanza, Intibucá, associated with the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Consejo de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras – copinh), an organization dedicated to the protection of Lenca rights including those related to land.401 Radio broadcasters with these stations host programs that focus on issues associated with copinh, women’s rights, youth rights and activities, the defence of land, food security and other topics.402 Several efforts have been made to silence their broadcasts. In January 2011, employees of Honduran Electric Measurement Services (Servicios de Medición Eléctrica de Honduras) entered the facilities of La Voz Lenca, and Radio Guarajambala, interfering with their transmitters in order to prevent the community radio programs from broadcasting.403 According to copinh, this was politically-motivated interference: Arturo Corrales, then Foreign Minister of Honduras, was a shareholder in the electricity company.404 copinh reported that the electrical company’s employees threatened to kill copinh’s members and also physically attacked one of them.405 In November 2012, on the basis of a complaint dating back to 2007, the National Telecommunications Commission of Honduras (Comisión Nacional de Telecommunicaciones de Honduras – conatel) ordered Radio Guarajambala to reduce the strength of its broadcasts or pay a fine of at least one million Lempiras (approx. US$48,850).406 Broadcasters with the station have also been shot at, once in 2012 by two individuals on a motorcycle who had followed them to a meeting, and previously, when buses in which they were travelling were fired upon.407
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