Tegucigalpa, May 24 (RHC)-- Patricia Villegas, Colombian journalist and director of the TeleSUR network, received on Wednesday one of the "Mártires de la Resistencia" journalism awards from the hands of the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro.

During the gala, Villegas received the "Wendy Ávila" award, in honor of the young woman who dedicated herself to the struggle against the coup d'état against Manuel Zelaya and died defying the coup perpetrators.

The award ceremony was held at the Government House to eight social communicators, of which five are Hondurans and three are foreigners.  In addition, equal recognitions were given to the communicators Rony Espinoza, representative of Channel 8, who will be honored with the "Héctor González" (Jerónimo) award and Mario René Morazán Rodríguez, from HRN, winner of the "Emo Sadlo" award.

Also among the honorees were journalists Rony Jonathan Martínez Chávez, of UNE TV, with the "Isy Obeb Murillo" award, Jhony José Lagos Henríquez, of the newspaper El Libertador, who received the "Pedro Magdiel" award, and Orlando Sierra, of the AFP press agency, who was given the "Erick Martínez" award.

The same distinctions were awarded to the Swedish Dick Emanuelsson, independent journalist, who received the "Roger Vallejo" award, and the Argentinean Juan Manuel Karg, political scientist at the University of Buenos Aires, who works for "Kaos en la Red" and received the "José Manuel López" award.

It is important to recognize that the names of each of the awards are in recognition of some of the martyrs of the struggle that the Honduran people, in resistance, lived during the last twelve years.  In this way, although they are no longer physically present, they are still present.