AFTER having been hunted down along with her family, the first lady of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, yesterday headed a mass march in Tegucigalpa for democracy, against the coup d’état and for the restoration of the Honduran constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya.

In her speech to the population engaged in non-violent resistance, Xiomara affirmed her solidarity with the Honduran people and the families of the victims of the dictatorial coup regime installed in that country after the coup d’état.

At the same time, she called on the people to go on fighting, not to be afraid, "because what we are doing is right. We have to continue expressing ourselves, because we are all equal before a small group that is imposing force."

"I want to demonstrate my solidarity with the people who, in one way or another, have been abused by our country’s armed forces, as well as with the families of those who have lost their children, who were killed not as delinquents, but because they were fighting for the return of constitutional order and democracy in the country," she stated.

She affirmed that it is the people who have given her strength, "that this blood that ran on this land is not in vain, that it has meaning and will serve to achieve the return of democracy, the rights of our people and of peace in our country."

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya confirmed that, from this Tuesday, she will constantly accompany "all the efforts made for peace, to allow the people to be consulted, to be able to express themselves."

The wife of the country’s constitutional president was underground until Monday for her personal security. However, in her words to the crowds gathered in support of her husband, she stated that she could not remain in hiding because her life was in danger, while "there are men and women who are giving their hearts and their lives to this cause… I couldn’t keep quiet in this struggle, far less, because I believe in it."

"President Zelaya raised this banner, which is not his, but that of the people, but not those people joining marches with women who have just come out of the beauty salons or wearing expensive sunglasses, but the real people that we are seeing here, the majority in our country, campesinos, workers and other sectors," she emphasized.

She condemned the fact that the coup perpetrators have trampled on the constitutional rights of all the people, on human rights and justice. "Today, there is no security for anybody; today they can freely enter people’s homes; today they can kill; today they can take people prisoner, and so we have to keep speaking out against all this."

Xiomara Castro criticized the media blockade being maintained in Honduras, although the coup faction insists that there is freedom of expression, and the continuing persecution of the people and of journalists.

The night before, Zelaya’s wife attended a meeting of leaders of trade unions, campesino, student, youth and other organizations, who have committed themselves to redoubling their peaceful demonstrations to achieve the restoration of constitutional order in the country. (SE)