HONDURAS
Nidia Diaz
Nidia Diaz
ONE hundred days of heroic resistance against the coup regime’s repressive apparatus have been sufficient for the local fascists and their extreme right-wing U.S. sponsors to finally realize that the Honduran people are resolved to keep fighting until President José Manuel Zelaya is restored, as the first step in their strategic course to convene a national constituent assembly, for which they will have to sit down and find a negotiated solution to the conflict backed by the empire.
Neither the advisement of Israeli officials who arrived in Tegucigalpa to destabilize the struggle through psycho-technological means, nor the secret support of the Pentagon, nor the brutal repression in complicity with curfews, nor the declaration of a state of siege, nor the lies in favor of the fascists flooding the media, have been able to make the Honduran people and the international community — with a few, abominable exceptions — accept the de facto government or forget about the unconstitutionally deposed president or that Central American people’s present and future aspirations for a Honduras for all and for the good of all.
The National Resistance against the Coup is now a political movement to be reckoned with in these presumably final moments, in which the OAS is to attempt to get the national capo, Roberto Micheletti, to sign the San José Agreement. Despite his smiles and apparent tranquility, Micheletti knows that his days are counted.
To accompany him at this time with the aim of supporting him to obtain a solution loaded with concessions, representatives of extreme right-wing U.S. Republicans turned up in Tegucigalpa. The howls of lead hyena (Ileana Ros Lehtinen) and her followers, the Díaz- Balart hyenas (Lincoln and Mario) are aimed at giving succor and protection to the empire’s chosen ones, Roberto Micheletti and General Romeo Vázques. The latter two have run out of arguments for keeping up their farce, given that the former publicly stated that Zelaya was deposed for being "a leftist, for aligning himself with Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador," and not, as he had previously reiterated, for committing unconstitutional acts.
President Obama handed over the Honduras issue to his hawk, Hillary Clinton, and she, in the end, was also left hanging, on losing the initiative to the establishment’s more conservative and reactionary elements. It proved worthless to contract Oscar Arias, Washington’s ever-faithful servant, as messenger for the so-called mediated agreement of San José to restore President Zelaya without any powers. The coup regime ignored her and laughed at Obama.
That is the visceral quality of the hatred toward representatives of governments who are not docile as regards the empire, and with the abovementioned agreement, the deposed president would have to pay for daring to join the PETROCARIBE and ALBA blocs.
The yanki Department of State did not count on the people — imperial logic never does — becoming, from the first day of the coup, the liberation army for their president, the only one in recent Honduran history to take them into account and work honestly and transparently on their behalf during his mandate. He was the only one who took it upon himself to begin paving the road to the country’s second and definitive independence, even in the midst of heavy pressure from the local oligarchy, the same one that paid for his exile and continues to pay for the siege set up around the Brazilian embassy.
The U.S. secretary of state believed from the start that the battle within the Democratic Administration was solely against its African-American president. She also fell into the trap of the reaction, and the coup — as we said from the beginning — was likewise against the current administration.
It is evident to everyone that the de facto Honduran government could not have remained in power for more than 100 days as it has done, flagrantly violating human rights and even international law, without the support of the U.S. extreme right.
If that is not the case, why did José Miguel Insulza, the OAS secretary general, secretly meet with coup leader Micheletti at the yanki military base in Palmerola, and not in the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa?
What is the explanation for Ros Lehtinen’s demand for recognition of the de facto government, because not doing so would be to endanger U.S. "national security"? Of course, these howls are nothing but an expression of defeat in face of the courage, political maturity and unity of the Honduran resistance, which is the element that is actually forcing the coup regime to the negotiating table.
In an interview given a few days ago to the international media, President Zelaya referred to the limits of the San José Agreement:
"The person who is going to sign the Arias Plan is me, as the elected representative of the Honduran people. The Plan has two components: my restoration, in order to say ‘No!’ to coups d’état – which is what the presidents of Latin America are interested in, so that they can be assured of respect for popular sovereignty and that the will of the people is not going to be replaced by a military, economic and political elite; and the second component, which consists of social processes and reforms, and they are a question of time.
"I have promised that, before the elections, I will not take any initiative in that context, but that does not mean that the processes are going to come to a halt. I never proposed that the Constituent [Assembly] should take place during my government, but during the next one, when I will no longer be president…
"The Arias Plan is an emergency plan to solve the crisis of a de facto state, which at the same time is not going to paralyze social processes, far less deter what the determination of a sovereign people signifies."
Finally, President Zelaya reiterated: "No effort will be in vain if we obtain the desired result, and the awakening of the Honduran people now has an inestimable value as part of our history. The people have removed the veil from their eyes, and the economic elite has removed its mask. That is why we can now sit down at the table to talk about reality with all of those involved, in order to reach conciliation and come to agreements."
An heir does not steal, according to the popular refrain, and the Honduran people, heir to Morazán, have risen to the occasion of this historic moment. Once the agreements have been reached, we are convinced that in Honduras, the blood that has been shed and the sacrifice of its sons and daughters will never be past history, because nobody and nothing will be forgotten here.
Translated by Granma International
granma.cu
1 October 2009 – Strongly condemning the coup d’état in Honduras in June, the Human Rights Council today called for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in the Central American country and an immediate end to all violations of human rights. Council members, meeting in Geneva, adopted a resolution in which they expressed concern about the ongoing situation in Honduras, particularly in the wake of the return of President José Manuel Zelaya to the country on 21 September.