Honduras: Repression and urgent international action
An editorial in La Jornada (Mexico) June 30, 2009
On the first day of the attempted coup that interrupted the rule of democracy in Honduras, unequivocal and emphatic international rejection arose to the oligarchical plot against the constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya. The spurious regime appointed to succeed him has not attracted the sympathy, not even the indifference, of a single international organization, of a single government, of a single political personality in the world.
Yesterday, in the Nicaraguan capital, the ousted president received the support of his counterparts, both at the meeting of the Central American Integration System (SIC), attended on behalf of Mexico by President Felipe Calderón, and the meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), which brought together the presidents of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Zelaya himself, along with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
In the afternoon, at a meeting of the Rio Group, of which Calderón is the secretary pro tempore, presidents and representatives of 18 countries unanimously condemned the adventure of the Honduran putschists. At the three regional forums, the member countries agreed to withdraw their diplomatic representatives from Tegucigalpa; suspend all loans and money transfers to Honduras, as well as political, economic, financial, sports and cooperation relations; veto the putschists’ representatives to international gatherings; and call upon the O.A.S. and the U.N. to join the sanctions.
These two organizations, for their part, reacted yesterday with expressions of support for Zelaya’s constitutional government and a refusal to acknowledge the spurious government that attempts to install itself in Honduras. There is special relevance in the unequivocal condemnations of the Honduran barracks coup made by the government of Barack Obama and the European Union.
The slow initial reaction of the Mexican government has been fully corrected by the adoption of a consequent and firm attitude, expressed by the withdrawal from Tegucigalpa of our nation’s ambassador, Tarcisio Navarrete; by Calderón’s statements in Managua, supporting Zelaya and the democratic order unequivocally; and by the refuge given to Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, who yesterday spent several hours kidnapped by the putschists.
Comforted by that firm regional, continental and global reaction, the constitutional president of Honduras announced that he will return to his country next Thursday [July 2] and asked the people to welcome him back, in an open challenge to the authors of the barracks coup. Through the Supreme Court, which participated in the overthrow, the coup leaders warned that they will arrest the president as soon as he steps on Honduran soil.
The situations commented above provide firm support for the popular resistance that is developing, despite repressive barbarity, in the Central American country. Reports from Tegucigalpa yesterday told of continued expressions of rejection for the military coup, such as the gathering of citizens outside the presidential residence, the mobilization of groups on the streets in defiance of the curfew, and the shutdown of highways in the nation’s western region. But there were also reports of police violence by the putschist authorities against the demonstrators outside the Chief Executive’s offices, resulting in dozens of people injured and intoxicated by tear gas and about 30 people arrested.
Despite the brutal disparity of forces, various sectors of the Honduran citizenry are now waging an admirable struggle to restore the broken constitutional order, despite the show of repressive capability displayed by the armed forces and the police, who have imposed total censorship on the few independent Honduran media (most of them are in the hands of the oligarchy that promoted the coup.) There are also reports of warrants for the arrest of officials of the Zelaya administration and social and political leaders.
The start of putschist repression in the Honduran capital and the active resistance offered by many citizens are an added incentive for accurate, swift and solid action by the international community, an action that is also of vital importance to prevent the spurious regime led by Roberto Micheletti to consolidate and remain in place.
To a great degree, such action guarantees a future for Latin America’s democratic institutions, because if the de-facto government imposed in Honduras manages to consolidate, its example would spread to the oligarchical sectors of the region, to whom democracy has become an obstacle. In sum, the will of the people must be restored immediately in that unfortunate Central American nation, and that means the return of Manuel Zelaya to his homeland and the presidential post.
