How Much Shooting At Civilians Went On at Toncontín Airport? A Lot, According To These Videos.
6 July 2009, 2:49 PM. By Cindy Casares
There’s been some question about how much shooting of civilians went on at Toncontín Airport in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa yesterday when ousted president Manuel Zelaya called on his supporters to attend his attempted return unarmed. Well, here’s the video proof. It was a barrage. In the below footage, soldiers open fire on hundreds of civilians attempting to scale a fence dividing them from the runway while Zelaya flies overhead, attempting to land. Along with the sound of dozens of rounds of ammunition being fired, are the voices of civilians shouting for the soldiers to stop shooting because there are children present. Later, one civilian says, “They killed one. Those dogs.” And another civilian answers back, “They killed two.” Strangely, the American press is only reporting one murder while an Al Jazeera cameraman reports witnessing the murder of two civilians during the struggle; one nineteen year-old young man named Isis Obed Murillo, whose death was recorded on video, and the other an, as-yet, unnamed ten year-old boy. As one commenter pointed out earlier, Zelaya should have known this sort of violence would happen. It seems he is playing with his supporters’ lives in a bid for international sympathy. Which he is getting.
Here’s a different angle of the same scene that we found on BBC News. It shows the enormous crowd of supporters into which the army just opened fire.
Click on the image below for more pictures of the shooting victims.
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Here in Honduras we are getting confirmation of only 1 death, but yesterday some networks spoke of 2 dead. I truly hope there are no more deaths because of this mess!
@Cindy - Are you arguing that Isis Murillo is somehow at fault for his own death? Because if Zelaya should have known that attempting to land would cause soldiers to shoot at the crowd, then Murillo should have known the same thing. I think you come perilously close to blaming the victim here.
Hardly. Anyone who was there knew there was some risk involved, but I hardly think I am taking the tone of blaming Murillo. On the contrary, I think I paint him as an idealistic innocent who was but a pawn in Zelaya’s game.
My view is more simple. The greatest measure of responsibility lies with the soldiers who fired unnecessarily on unarmed demonstrators. There was nothing in either video to excuse the use of deadly force. Next in line for blame comes whoever sent soldiers with live amunition to that airport. If they did not intend for shots to be fired they should have sent someone else - police with truncheons and watercannon perhaps. If I were a prosecutor and this incident had happened in the US I would be reasonably confident of my ability to make charges stick against those who had actually fired and somewhat less confident of being able to hang some kind of willful disregard or conspiracy charge on those who sent the soldiers. The notion that Zelaya is in fact guilty of a concrete criminal act is simply risible - whatever moral burden he bears here.
Don’t take my word for it - ask a lawyer you trust. You will see that I am right
I didn’t say I could succeed in convicting him in a court of law. As you say, it’s a moral issue.