16 years since devastating US & Canadian-back coup in Honduras in 2009

Statement by Honduras Solidarity Network

Vicious criminalization of forced migrants in the U.S.

The nightmare of violent, racist roundups, jailings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of forced migrants worsens. Democracy Now reports this week, July 1-3, how the Trump administration Budget Bill, if passed by Congress, will drastically worsen poverty, racism and this vicious criminalization of migrant families and communities.

Harvest of Empire

Between the 2009 U.S. and Canadian-back coup and 2022, more people were forced to flee Honduras than any other country, per capita. The U.S. is worsening is the demonization and criminalization of some of the very people the U.S. and Canada forced to flee by supporting 13 years of the military-backed, narco regime, referring to it, the entire time, as a “democratic allie”.

June 28, 2025

We still say: Hands Off Honduras!
16 Years Since the Coup: New Challenges as General Elections Approach

Sixteen years ago, a U.S. and Canadian-backed military coup in Honduras brought down an elected government and provoked a social, economic and political crisis. This crisis, with the stamp of approval from our North American governments, remains omni-present in Honduras today, despite the election of a reform-minded anti-coup government headed by President Xiomara Castro. 

For years, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the coup, the political situation was characterized by violent state-led repression, the expansion of corruption in all three branches of government, the breakdown of the rule of law, and a crisis that is still forcing migration and tearing families apart.

Although state-led repression is less now, the network of coup proponents, corrupt actors and organized crime continue to have influence and to act, even violently, against the peoples’ movements. Those that defend land and indigenous, ancestral territories face violence including forced disappearances and murder. 

The U.S. and Canada supported and helped to sustain the coup regimes for 13 years including supporting the 9-year narco-dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez – now in prison in the U.S. for narcotics trafficking and weapons-related crimes.

Today, the U.S. continues to partner with Honduran actors that include those involved in promoting and legitimizing the coup. The State Department, some U.S. congress representatives and U.S. and Canadian businesses – such as U.S.-based “charter city” companies that form part of Grupo Prospera, mining corporations, etc. - openly oppose any real reforms, such as outlawing charter cities and cancelling concessions.

This is occurring while the U.S. continues to provoke an additional crisis for Hondurans with deportations, while pressuring the government of President Xiomara Castro to not criticize U.S. policies. Trump has also proposed a tax on the money or remittances sent by Hondurans in the U.S. to their families in Honduras, an essential pillar of the Honduran economy. Additionally, Trump has threatened tariffs which would negatively affect the economic situation of Honduran households and in response, compel more Hondurans to flee their country.

While the U.S. continues to impose its interests on Honduras, parallels can be drawn between what is unfolding on U.S. streets with post-coup Honduras. In the U.S., masked, armed police and unidentified, paramilitary-style forces are pointing their weapons at people, exercising extreme powers, and kidnapping and disappearing people from the streets and courtrooms with no due process. We are reminded that those are the same scenes we witnessed in Honduras and in so many Latin American countries where U.S. governments have created coups and crises for centuries.

While the situation in the world remains dire, in less than five months, general elections will take place in Honduras and political campaigning is in full swing. Chaos and violence is feared, particularly given the polarization of the country. The same forces that came to power after the 2009 U.S. and Canadian-backed coup are orchestrating a campaign to undermine any result of the election in November 2025, which ultimately seeks to weaken and delegitimize an important political process to the detriment of all.

As this election process unfolds, the situation remains complicated and dangerous for the campesino, indigenous, Afro-Indigenous Garifuna and other movements, and for the Honduran people as a whole. Sectors of Honduran society that challenge the neoliberal economic model involved in recovering land, protecting natural resources, and confronting local to global transnational economic interests express frustration with the sometimes conflicting and contradictory actions of the LIBRE government and the politicking of the election campaign in the face of urgent demands and crises affecting some of the most marginalized sectors of the population.

Sixteen years since the HSN formed and began accompanying the Honduran people, we remain inspired by the peoples’ resistance, their social movements and community-based organizations, not just in Honduras, but the world. In times like these, we are reminded that popular movements and resistance are what drive us forward and create the inspiration, proposals and conditions for a better world, a better Honduras and a relationship based on mutual respect between the U.S., Canada and the Central American region.

We will continue to support those movements and to oppose and denounce all the harmful policies of U.S. and Canadian imperialism in Honduras and the region. 

Honduras Solidarity Network
Facebook + Twitter: @hondurassol + Bluesky: @honduras solidarity.bsky.social 

Photo: Honduras Coup Resistance movement