The following statement was hastily translated and provided by Carlos Marentes, a US citizen and member of Via Campesina, who is in Honduras to accompany the Honduran people as they resist the military coup.

TESTIMONY OF WENDY CRUZ OF THE HONDURAN PEASANT MOVEMENT

Sisters and brothers of the World,

I write this testimony with my eyes full of tears and a sadden heart after an intensive day of struggle with my sisters and brothers of Honduras.

I am a woman from a humble family. I am a peasant. I have gained my militancy and class consciousness along with the peasants who work every day under the hot sun, and who see no future for their sons and daughters who have to migrate to other countries seeking better living conditions because in our country, Honduras, the bipartisan political system (Liberals and Nationalists have shared the power for more than 100 years) the majority live in extreme poverty, neglected, without access to health, to a dignified home, without access to a piece of land because the national oligarchy owns the whole country and have pushed 90 per cent of the population into extreme poverty and social exclusion.

Today, Sunday July 5, we have completed eight days of peaceful resistance. Today we marched, more than 500 thousand persons in the city of Tegucigalpa towards the airport of Toncontín, with the expectation of welcoming president Manuel Zelaya Rosales. While us where waiting the arrival of our president, the army started to shoot us with tear gases and real bullets. Three Honduran were killed only because they were demanding peace and the right to live in a country with real civic participation, and not the false democracy we have been living for 100 years. The dead persons included 21 year old, Isis Oveth, from the village "Alde de Santa Cruz", Guayape, municipality of Olancho and another young man, Alexis Zavala is among the many persons who were badly injured by the army’ repression.

Alter the violent attack I was afraid to be arrested by the police because we have a curfew and by the time we escaped the repression it was already night, past the curfew hours. But despite the repression, my spirit is stronger, because I have the dream that one day my son (15 years old) and my daughter (10 years old) and all the future generations will enjoy a country with equality, equity and more than that, a day when all of us will be the actors of our destiny.

I would like to tell all the men and women of the World who have expressed solidarity with our struggle, that all of us in Honduras are determined to achieve VICTORY and to restore the legitimate government of our president Manuel Zelaya in the memory of the martyrs of this Sunday July 5, 2009.

Long live the martyrs for the defense of our rights to be actors of our own destiny!

Long live ISIS OVETH and all the brothers killed today!

WE ARE HONDURAN PEOPLE AND WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN PEACE IN A TRUE DEMOCRACY!

GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE!

THANKS TO THE WORLD FOR THEIR GREAT SOLIDARITY... THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES BECAUSE AS EMILIANO ZAPATA SAID: "IT’S BETTER TO DIE ON YOUR FEET THAN TO LIVE ON YOUR KNEES!"

Tegucigalpa, MDC. Honduras, C.A., July 5, 2009.