Claudia Larisa Brizuela Rodriguez, a supporter of the National People's Resistance Front (FNRP) was gunned down in her home in San Pedro Sula on February 24, CISPES.org said the following day. "Her two young children, ages 2 and 8, witnessed their mother's murder."
CISPES.org said: "Claudia was the daughter of high-profile Resistance leader and Radio Uno host, Pedro Brizuela. It is believed that Claudia's cowardly assassination is meant to intimidate not only the FNRP, but also the independent media.
"Radio Uno hosts, including Pedro Brizuela, have consistently denounced the abuses and corruption of the post-coup governments, and therefore have become a consistent target of threats. Yesterday those threats became violent action once again."
Such killings have so far failed to stop the population from taking part in the mass resistance to the regime established by the June 28, 2009 military coup.
When President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo ("elected" in a fraudulent poll boycotted by most voters) was inaugurated on January 27, an estimated quarter of a million people took to the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa in protest.
However, assassinations of resistance activists under the coup regime that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya in June last year is continuing. .
Honduran human rights organisation the Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) has confirmed the assassination of at least 43 people since the June 28 coup, Quixote.org said on February 26.
The killings, listed in COFADEH's third report on human rights abuses since the coup, included only those that COFADEH staff have "directly investigated and confirmed as related to the resistance movement and the coup".
"It is widely understood in Honduras that the number of politically motivated killings is much higher than those listed here, but there are many factors which contribute to a reporting of fewer deaths."
Factors limiting the number of killings confirmed by COFADEH included: families asking the organisation not to publish the names and facts of politically motivated killings; the fact that family or friends of those killed have not come forward with information, making further investigation and confirmation impossible; and the fact that politically motivated killings are often not reported due to of fear of further repression.
Quixote.org said: "The purpose of the selective assassinations, as a tactic of State repression which continues in Honduras, is to instil fear in anyone who dares to stand up against the coup or who continues to resist the false 'restoration of normalcy' which is the position and argument of the Pepe Lobo government and the military regime ...
"Often family members and friends who denounce acts of repression or an assassination become targets for further repression themselves, such as the father of Isis Obed Murillo who faced charges and spent time in jail for speaking out about his son's death.
"Other deaths that occurred since June 28, 2009, that are not included in COFADEH's list, are cases wherein an individual, not directly involved in the resistance movement, was murdered by the military and police, or assassinated on the street during a military curfew imposed by the regime.
"As a result, the actual number of people killed by the regime and death squads since the coup is certainly higher than the 43 cases reported."
Quixote.org concluded: "Unfortunately, this list will continue to grow as the regime continues to target, capture and torture resistance movement members.
"'Normalcy' has not been achieved in Honduras despite what the Pepe Lobo government — supported by the U.S. and Canadian governments — wants the international community to believe."