Leader of teachers’ union abandons country following murder attempt.
Jaime Rodríguez, former president of the Union of Secondary Teachers (Copemh) and social activist, abandoned the country after surviving an assassination attempt. del Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media de Honduras (Copemh)
On October 28th of last year, Jaime Rodríguez was kidnapped by unknown actors as he was waiting to board public transportation in Tegucigalpa. That was the beginning of a Calvary experience that lasted over 24 hours.
“It was almost 8 at night when two armed individuals approached me. One of them hit me in the head with his gun and they put me in a vehicle. They took me to a house, blindfolded my eyes removed all of my belongings and tied me to a chair.
-You are always doing shit.
Now we are going to show you some real shit!
“Then they began to beat me saying that they were going to kill me,” remembers the teachers’ union leader.
Rodríguez, who has actively participated in the resistance to the 2009 coup and in the social struggles of this last decade, said that his henchmen threw ice water on him throughout the night to keep him awake.
“When it was almost dawn, two other people came. They picked me up, tied my hands behind my back and took me to the edge of the Choluteca river.
“I only felt that they cut my throat and that a stream of blood was coming out. They waited until I bled out and they threw me into the river”, he said with wet eyes.
He tried to stay afloat, broke free of the rope that tied his hands and reached the bank of the river. He hid in the brush and waited for it to get dark again. Then he fainted.
Jaime Rodríguez was lucky and he didn’t die. Hours later, people found him and took him to the hospital where they gave him 22 stitches.
A deformation of the jugular vein saved his life. The knife was not able to reach it to cut it. The surgeon who did the reconstructive work confirmed that the intent was to slit his throat
State Terrorism
“This was not a coincidence, common crime nor organized crime. It was an operation that mobilized a team including surveillance, logistics and weapons. The only actor that has this type of logistics is the State and it is the State that carries out violence against the people using the security forces,” stated Rodríguez.
The union leader regretted that this situation requires him to leave the country and thanked Cofadeh for all of the support he has received.
“My family has suffered due to this situation. We had to change our routines and now I have to leave. This is what hurts the most.
It is temporary because I don’t want to abandon my country. I will never leave the struggle and I don’t want my voice to be silenced,” he assured.
“I will return to the struggle so that there is real change in the country and an end to this dictatorship,” he concluded.
Source: Rel-UITA
Giorgio Trucchi
2/14/2020
