Details of the persecution of Padre Fausto

In recent years, especially since his exile in Mexico from his native Honduras in the 1980s, Padre Fausto has opened centers of attention where natural medicine practices are shared with the ill. He has centers in Corquin, San Juan de Opoa, and Santa Rosa, all in the department of Copán.

Padre Fausto has been active with the Resistance since June 28, 2009, the day of the coup. He has spoken at rallies in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and other places. He was appointed a member of the Comisión de Verdad – the True Commission – the Resistance’s alternative to the government’s Comisión de la Verdad (Truth Commission). 

Padre Fausto in the Resistance's march at the end of the independence day parade in Santa Rosa, September 15, 2009.

It was a surprise to me and many others that Padre Fausto is leaving Honduras. But reading the details from an e-mail of  COFADEH (El Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras) I can see the seriousness of his situation. Here is  my edited translation:

Wednesday, June 29, 2011, Denia Mejía, Padre Fausto’s assistant, found in the e-mail of INEHSCO, a mail message sent Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 5:29:46 with this message under subject: Warning!! Warning!! Warning!! The same message was sent from a Yahoo-Mexico address of  Asesinosxxxxxx. The messages contained threats  disguised as extortion in which they gave 48 hours to make a deposit of $35,000 or they would kill Padre Fausto, fulfilling a contract to execute him.

In the last two weeks there have been phone calls from unknown parties who demand to know the routines and times for Padre Fausto’s travels; there has also been an unusual presence of police near his centers of attention to the public.

Sunday, June 9, 2011, two unknown men showed up at the Hogar de Salud (House of Health) in Corquin, and entered opening the front door without authorization. They entered the rooms where the patients were. Immediately they approached the young woman who worked there, pressuring her and harassing her with a series of questions related to the routines of Padre Fausto, including his schedule and his plans to travel to different places in the country, his contacts and their telephone numbers. They asked the patients the same questions.

These men traveled in a white car with polarized windows, much like a car the on April 13, 2011, followed Denia Mejía when she was traveling from the Hospital del Occidente (in Santa Rosa) to her house. Because the car continued to follow her, she took a taxi. To her surprise, when she got to her house she saw the car at the corner near the house. Seeing her, the car was started and left at high speed.

On June 24, Padre Fausto visited the Hogar de Salud in Corquín. When he left the Hogar headed to Santa Rosa, a woman he knows called him on the telephone to tell him that the vehicle which was following her was parked a block from the Hogar and that when they saw that Padre Fausto had they followed him.

For more information on this case, see my previous blog entries on Padre Fausto, including here.

UPDATE: The original Spanish of the COFADEH urgent action can be found here.