Wendy Avila: Killed by Tear Gas & Policies Made in the USA

Wendy's grave stone: "October 24, 1984 to September 26, 2009. Let your spilled blood be the light that illuminates the path to people's liberation. As long as you live in the minds and hearts of our people, you will never be dead."

Seven years ago today, Wendy Elizabeth Avila died in a hospital in Tegucigalpa from respiratory problems. Suffering from severe asthma, Wendy's lungs were unable to withstand the excessive amounts of tear gas that Honduran security forces fired at the Honduran resistance on September 23rd, a few days after overthrown President Manuel Zelaya turned up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Thousands of people including Wendy gathered to welcome Zelaya back into the country.

Wendy was killed in the context of multiple efforts at "negotiations" between Zelaya and the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti, that by intended design, failed miserable. Prevented from returning to Honduras after the June 28, 2009 coup, Zelaya attempted to return to the country via the Nicaraguan-Honduran border in July 2009. The U.S., led by Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, called this move "reckless" on Zelaya's part. Clinton made no mention of the reckless and intentional strategies of the coup regime that imposed days of military curfews and were responsible for multiple cases of illegal detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings as Hondurans fled to the Nicaraguan border to meet their overthrown President. Wendy included.

What was being discussed and managed on an international diplomatic level after the coup was like night-and-day from what was happening on the ground in Honduras. Clinton's office promoted the false and unfair "negotiation" process that did not reflect in any way the national reality for the Hondurans in the streets. Hundreds of deaths immediately after the coup, including Wendy's, are reminders of just how bloody US policy in Honduras really is.