Madrid - Several Honduran and international human rights groups Friday alleged major human rights violations in the Central American country following the June 28 coup. The alleged abuses included thousands of arrests, torture, killings of journalists, and reactivation of former death squads.
The allegations were included in a report presented by the Copenhagen Initiative for Central America and Mexico (CIFCA) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) in Madrid.
Enrique Santiago, a representative of both organizations, said the report was based on information gathered by international human rights activists in Honduras by the end of August.
More than 4,000 people had been detained without a solid reason, including 156 children, investigator Reina Rivera said.
Human rights activists working in Honduras were being pressured by the authorities and threatened by former death squad members, according to Santiago.
Journalists' right to report objectively was also being violated, and some of them had been killed.
Nicaraguan and Venezuelan citizens were being detained because they were regarded as a threat to Honduras' national security, investigators quoted police sources saying.
Others targeted by the authorities included members of the leftist party Unificacion Democratica and teachers' trade unions.
Detainees could be subjected to torture, according to the report.
