Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras

From: pmontes@cpresente.org

Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras

Centro Presente and the Honduran Project invite you to a Panel Discussion
on current events in Honduras with a representatives of Honduran Civil
Society and Immigrant Leaders in the U.S.

The delegation of Honduran civil society representatives is sponsored by
The National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC)

Thursday, 6 August 2009, 10:00 am
206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, Tufts University
160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA

For more information contact:
Patricia Montes- Centro Presente, Boston, MA- (617) 959 - 3108
Tito Meza - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 610 - 3784
Isabel Lopez - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 306 - 1365

Panelists will include:
Dr. Juan Almendares is an internationally known Honduran medical doctor,
human rights activist, environmental leader and alternative medicine
practitioner. He has received recognition for his outstanding and
courageous work with victims of torture in Honduras. He is the
internationally chosen recipient of the 2001 Barbara Chester Award for his
groundbreaking efforts with prisoners, victims of torture, the poor, and
indigenous populations. A torture survivor himself, Dr. Almendares has
been targeted by death squads on several occasions.

Oscar Chacón serves currently as Executive Director of the National
Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC). Until
December, 2006, Mr. Chacón served as director of Enlaces América, a
project of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human
Rights. Mr. Chacón served for most of the 1990’s as executive director of
Centro Presente, Inc, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Chacón served for
many years as president of the Salvadoran American National Network
(SANN). Mr. Chacón is a frequent lecturer in national and international
conferences, as well as a media spokesperson on Latino immigrant issues in
the U.S.

Abencio Fernández Pineda is the coordinator of the non- governmental
organization Center for the Investigation and Defense of Human Rights in
Honduras (CIPRODEH, by its Spanish initials) for the western region of
Honduras. Mr. Pineda was previously an attorney for the Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) and the Committee of the Relatives of
Disappeared Detainees of Honduras (COFADEH).

Maria Luisa Jimenez, a former police officer in Honduras, denounced the
widespread corruption in the police force and is now an activist for
transparency in government and women's rights. She is currently a
candidate for Honduran Congress with the Democratic Union party (UD).

Dr. Luther Castillo. Dr. Castillo is a young Garifuna medical doctor and
community organizer who directs the Luaga Hatuadi Waduheñu Foundation
("For the Health of our People" in Garifuna), dedicated to bringing vital
health services to isolated indigenous coastal communities. After his 2005
graduation from the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Dr. Castillo
returned to the Honduran coast, where he led the Foundation's construction
of Honduras' first Garifuna Rural Hospital, now serving some 20,000 in the
surrounding communities. The hospital opened in December 2007, a few
months after Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by
Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter.

Gerardo Torres is a young Honduran journalist who is part of the social
organization Bloque Popular, in which he is part of the national
coordination. Torres is part of the Politic Commission of the Organization
Los Necios that works permanently in the political formation of workers,
peasants, student federations, feminist organizations, and that have the
responsibility of the coordination of the communication and propaganda
matters of the Honduran Popular Movement. He is an active member of the
National Front Against the Coup de Etat in Honduras.

Patricia Montes
Executive Director
Centro Presente
17 Inner Belt Road
Somerville,MA 02143
617-629 47 31 Ext. 211