The premise of the new front-page NYT piece by embedded reporter Thom Shanker, D.E.A.’s Agents Join Counternarcotics Efforts in Honduras, is that the DEA massacre of four indigenous people in the Moskitia last week (including two pregnant women) was still a success, because they intercepted drugs. Thumbs up! The accompanying photo assures us. It's unfortunate, of course, that innocents had to die, but

The horrible death (so rarely is there any other kind in Honduras) of journalist Ángel Alfredo Villatoro finally, finally provoked an individualized response from the ambassador:

I know the answer before I ask it, yet the question of why "our" bodies are worth more than theirs must continue to be asked. Over, and over, and over again. Until it is no longer true.

Below are the English translations, by Vicki Cervantes, of the communiques today from Via Campesina and COPINH

Wednesday May 16, 2012 12:42 pm
Mabel Marquez of Via Campesina

Approximately 2 hours ago today, Wednesday May 16, 2012 we are informed that another campesino has been assassinated in Lower Aguan. The name of murdered campesino is Juan Jose Peralta, approximately 60 years old, the names of another two campesinos who were wounded are unknown; they were transferred to the hospital in Tocoa, Colon.

TAKE ACTION HERE: Tell the State Department: Accountability needed for DEA's involvement in killings

For article source click below title:
US agents on deadly Honduran military operation

By MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said Wednesday that their agents were working with Honduran military forces aboard a helicopter during an anti-drug operation in which several people were reportedly slain.

Human rights organizations and Honduran news media say at least four people were killed and several more were wounded when forces aboard the helicopter fired on a boat Friday night in eastern Honduras.

Click title for original in Guernica magazine:
Belén Fernández: Honduras’ Illegitimate President and His Cheering Squad
May 14, 2012

Honduran President Pepe Lobo received an International Leadership Award last week from the U.S. Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute. But why?

Image from Flickr via Fellowship of the Rich

In this article, it states six people were killed, versus the four that El Tiempo claims. Click headline for original in Defensores en Linea; translation by Sofia Jarrin:

Consequences of the military occupation

Although we have not read the official reaction of the U.S. Embassy about the tragic military actions of the Drug Enforcement Agency in detriment of the civilian population of the municipality of Ahuas in La Mosquitia, we can draw three preliminary conclusions.

Click headline for original in El Tiempo; my translation below:
Dead in the Moskitia were not drug traffickers, according to authorities
Monday, May 14, 2012 21:23

The police action resulted in the capture of more than 400 kilos of cocaine.

TEGUCIGALPA.- The four people who died and four wounded in the anti-drug raid were not drug traffickers, but rather were honest, humble citizens, stated the Congressman from Gracias a Dios, Wood Grawell Maylo; and the mayor of the town of Ahuas, Lucio Baquedano.

Articles from AFP and EFE highlight the kidnapping of another journalist and the Honduran government's reaction in the wake of Erick Martinez's murder, and the killing of Choloma LIBRE leader Edilberto Zolano.

Embedded journalists, State Department client think tank articles, and a full-on campaign in the New York Times to counteract the voices from within Honduras and within Congress—louder every day—calling for a stop to military and police aid and training to Honduras as long as those institutions continue to daily carry out human rights violations including torture, arbitrary detention, and murder.

Articles, in order of appearance online (not date officially listed):