Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Military Gases Brazilian Embassy

Telesur reports the miltary began throwing some kind of gas grenades into the Brazillian embassy this morning and blocking the admission of food and water. They've also cut the electricity again, and are blocking cell phone service from inside the embassy at this time.

Symptoms of the gas include bleeding from the nose, vomitting, diarhea, fainting, headaches.

Manuel Zelaya told the AFP that he had asked the Red Cross to visit, and has called on the UN to send a toxicologist to help determine the nature of the gas. He speculated that it was a gas the military use to get people to come out of buildings. He said they have evidence to present to the UN about the source and nature of the gas. Radio Globo is currently transmitting a press conference in which he is showing the press his evidence of the devices that deliver the gas.

About 25-30 people in the Brazilian embassy are affected.

All of this is a violation of the Vienna Convention but the law doesn't matter to facists like Micheletti.

In the meantime, the UN Security Council called on the de facto government to cease its relentless pursuit of the Brazilian Embassy and to resume the supply of services and access to the Brazilian embassy. They specified that the electricity, water, food, and access to continuous communications be restored.

4 comments:

PablitoSinPistola said...

According to a doctor interviewed on Radio Globo, he was able to get a sample of the gas and analyze it in a lab. He claimed it was HCN, Hydrogean Cyanide gas. See this for a description of wha this gas can do:

http://www.ihr.org/books/leuchter/toxic.html

I spoke to my source who is at work only a couple of blocks from the Brazilian Embassy. She reports that some are trying to cover up the attack by saying that the folks in the Embassy are simply reacting to an exposure to house-cleaning chemicals and that the overcrowded conditions in the Embassy made everyone more sensitive.

Anonymous said...

Just speculation, but I don't think this is tear gas. I hope they can get a pathologist's report, becaus I think the coup just committed a crime against humanity. Another bit of speculation: the gas attack against Radio Globo was a dry run for this.

--Charles

Anonymous said...

Vos has a piece saying that ammonia and hydrogen cyanide were found in the residue. Ammonia is used as pepper spray. HCN is used to kill people.

No indication of whether the HCN was there in more than trace quantities or whether they did assays for conventional agents such as CN and CS.

--Charles

felipe said...

Note sure what the Golpistas thought they could get away with/accomplish with this but, for me, I have gone from "passively documenting" to "actively recruiting" people on the anti-golpista side.