According to reports received by Front Line, on 14 July 2009, the family home of human rights defender, Jari Dixon Herrera, was attacked, his family assaulted and his brother arrested. This happened shortly after he had given an interview to international media in Washington D.C. in which he denounced the military coup of 28 June 2009 in Honduras.

Further Information

Jari Dixon is a lawyer with the Honduran Attorney Generals office and the Vice President of the Asocacion Hondureño de Fiscales (Association of Honduran Government Attorneys). In 2008 he coordinated a hunger strike by lawyers who work for the Attorney Generals office to protest against corruption within the Honduran legal system.

Following the military coup,Jari Dixon travelled to Washington DC as part of a delegation of Hondurans that has been meeting with members of Congress, representatives of the World Bank, the State Department and human rights organisations to discuss the rights abuses committed by the Honduran de facto authorities.

On 14 July 2009, Jari Dixon gave an interview to CNN en Español and other international media in which he criticised the recent military coup in Honduras. After the interview was aired by CNN en Espanol in Honduras, police agents using automatic weapons shot repeatedly at the front door of the home of his mother in the town of Talanga.The agents then broke down the door of the house and entered the residence, threatening Jari's Dixon's family, "Te llego tu hora" ["Your time has come"]. The police squad then assaulted Dixon’s mother and sisters and arrested his brother.

Front Line believes that the police attack on Jari Dixon's family is directly related to his legitimate work in defense of human rights and democracy in Honduras.

Front Line is deeply concerned that this latest attack comes as part of an increasingly hostile environment that human rights defenders in Honduras are facing which has included the repression of peaceful demonstrations, the arbitrary arrest of hundreds of nonviolent protesters, the closure of radio and TV outlets and the intimidation of journalists who have criticised the coup. Front Line is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Jari Dixon, his family and all human rights defenders in Honduras.