Press TV has conducted an interview with Gloria La Riva, with the ANSWER Coalition from San Francisco, to ask for his insight on a protest rally against corrupt Honduran officials and the US interference in internal affairs of the Central American country.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What is going on in Honduras from your perspective?
La Riva: What’s taking place in Honduras is really a continuation of the popular movement that began before the US-backed military coup in 2009. It’s very amazing to see that despite great repression in these last six years, the people are fighting and the movement has resumed. The immediate reason for this protest is a reporter, David Romero, who is facing 41 charges for having exposed massive corruption by the president, Juan Orlando Hernández, and others inside by using millions and millions of dollars worth of money from the social security system. And yesterday you saw and today for 9 days in a row there’s been protests on behalf of Romero and demanding the resignation of the president.
Press TV: Washington’s actually saying that basically they support this campaign against corruption. what do you make of that?
La Riva: They have to say that because there is such a large movement in the country, they can’t ignore it, they can exactly say it for corruption, but in fact, the US has a role in the military coup that took place in 2009. And for many many years, decades really, Honduras has been a strategic point of intervention in El Salvador, Guatemala by the United States in those was that the US also financed. Honduras, the US does not want to have a progressive government and that is why Orlando Hernández has been a favorite of the United States. But it maybe they want…him substituted for someone else, who is just as compliant.