After her husband was abducted for the second time and never heard from again almost 18 years ago, Nora Lopez could not figure out why her life had been spared by Government officials - until she realised that Amnesty International had been lobbying for her family's safety without her knowledge.

"The Honduran Government didn't want any negative attention," she told The Royal Gazette yesterday after she spoke at the weekly Hamilton Lions luncheon.

Mrs. Lopez is in Bermuda lobbying for residents to become members of the world renowned human rights organisation.

"When I was growing up, I was raised in a sheltered environment and didn't look outside of it," she said. "I was a little bit naive and ignorant of the political situation in the country."

However, said the mother of five, her husband Eduardo, was more aware of what was happening in Honduras and often wrote letters to newspapers questioning issues such as illiteracy and child starvation.

"The Government saw my husband as an enemy because he spoke out," she said.

One day in August 1981, Mrs. Lopez said her husband did not return home from work. After being told by a neighbour that he had been arrested by the Police she questioned the authorities, who denied he was being detained.

But after catching a glimpse of him at the Police station she threatened to go on a hunger strike if they did not release him.

He was eventually set free, but Mrs. Lopez said she was not prepared to see the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his captors.

"His whole body was bruised all over. He told me how he had been hung by his feet and hit with the butt of a gun repeatedly.

"He said they had also hung a bucket off his testicles and added little rocks to it a little at a time. They turned a boom box up to the highest volume so that his screams would not be heard."

Mrs. Lopez said the image still remains in her mind.

Shortly after, her husband became the first vice-president of the Committee for Human Rights in northern Honduras, Mrs. Lopez said he received information that his name was on a Government hit list, so he fled to Miami.

"But when he applied for refugee status through the Canadian consulate, he was turned down," she said.

Within months of returning to Honduras, Eduardo Lopez was abducted again and never heard from since. He was 38 years old.

Soon after her husband's abduction, Mrs. Lopez said she was told by someone influential in the country that she and her family should flee the country, if not she "was going to have an accident".

In 1985, Mrs. Lopez and her three children moved to Canada after she was granted refugee status.

"I could not figure out why I was not killed since I was an easy target," she said. "But what I didn't know was that Amnesty International had started a letter campaign. If it wasn't for them I may not have been alive."

Mrs. Lopez said she has only returned to Honduras once since her escape, but she travelled under her new last name.

And while she said she knew she was safe in Canada, Mrs. Lopez said for the first two years of living there she was very cautious and hoped that her husband would return.

"Every time the doorbell rang, my children would run to the door thinking it was their daddy. I was hoping it was him too, but deep down inside I knew he was dead," she said. "But I always looked outside first because I was afraid of who it might be."

She implored residents to join the organisation, which has an annual membership fee of $30.

"Amnesty International defends and promotes human rights. They are working to help people."