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Dear
CODEPINKer,
 It's past time for Manuel Zelaya to come home and get back to the job he was elected to do: president of Honduras. Enough is enough. It has been three weeks since the military rousted the president from his bed at gunpoint and whisked him away--in his pajamas--to Costa Rica. It has been almost a week since Costa Rican President Arias came up with a compromise that was rejected by the coup leaders. Please join us, as we did yesterday in Washington DC (see photos here) in demanding that the Obama administration take a tougher stand and support Zelaya's immediate return! No more mediation. No more delays.
 Contact the State Department today by clicking here!
 Every day since the coup, thousands upon thousands of Hondurans have taken the streets. They have been risking their lives confronting the military and powerful elite who have derailed their democracy. I went down to Tegucigalpa to join them, as I have been involved with the social movements in Honduras since the 1980s, when I wrote a book about a poor Honduran woman called Don't Be Afraid, Gringo. I also recently wrote on press censorship in Honduras, which is being denied by the new government.
All the activists I met had a similar plea: Please urge your government to take a stronger stand. "The Obama administration has condemned the coup and cut off military aid, but that's not enough," women's rights leader Sara Elisa Rosales told me. "The U.S. should recall its ambassador, freeze the assets of the coup leaders and deny them U.S. visas, and cut all financial aid. It should go even further by imposing a trade embargo. If the U.S. cut commercial ties with Honduras, the coup would fall in a day."
How long will we coddle these thugs who have taken over the Presidential Palace at gunpoint? Will we allow Honduras to sink back to the dark days of the 1980s, when the military ran death squads that targeted young students, union leaders, campesino activists?
Contact the State Department today and tell them we need action--NOW. Stop the repression against social movements and the censorship of the media. Cut all ties with coup leaders. Help President Zelaya return home immediately. Make it clear that in the 21st century, the world will not tolerate coup d'etats.
In solidarity with our Honduran sisters and brothers,
Medea Benjamin & CODEPINK
P.S. Join the wave of global citizen activism in solidarity with the people of Iran on July 25. Participate in an event in one of more than 80 cities around the world. Find out more at www.united4iran.org
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