In a bold move, the democratically elected president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya - ousted in a military coup in June - has returned to Tegucigalpa, entering the country in secret, traveling overland with a small group of advisers. He is currently in the Brazilian embassy, and crowds of supporters are gathering around the building to demand the restoration of Honduran democracy.
Nearly three months after being overthrown by a violent
military coup, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras.
"I am here in Tegucigalpa. I
am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue," he told
reporters. The embattled road to his return tested regional diplomacy,
challenged Washington and
galvanized Honduran social movements.
There were great hopes in Latin America when President Obama was elected. U.S. standing in the region had reached a low point under George W. Bush, and all of the left governments expressed optimism that Obama would take Washington’s policy in a new direction.
These hopes have been dashed. President Obama has continued the Bush policies and in some cases has done worse.
A white sheet covers another victim of Guatemala City's violence in District 16.
Jocelyn was shot dead while walking home. She was only 17-years-old.
Her family has no idea why she was killed. Her murder, like so many others in this country, will probably remain unpunished.
Situations like this one have become regular in Guatemala as violence against women - termed "femicide" - continues to increase.
The savage methods being used by street gangs in their fight against each other are now being used against women.
The recent events in Honduras are not isolated, but rather part of a conservative counterattack taking shape in Latin America. For some time, the right has been rebuilding in Latin America; hosting conferences, sharing experiences, refining their message, working with the media, and building ties with allies in the United States. This is not the lunatic rightwing fringe, but rather the mainstream right with powerful allies in the middle class that used to consider themselves center, but have been frightened by recent left electoral victories and the rise of social movements.
The mediation effort that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton arranged to try to resolve the crisis in Honduras,
which began when a military coup removed Honduran President Mel Zelaya
more than four weeks ago, has failed. It is now time – some would say
overdue – for the Latin American governments to play their proper role.
Powerful
special interests - energy, coal, utilities, financial, pharmaceutical
and insurance lobbies - have flexed their muscles and confronted
President Obama on the most important legislative priorities of his
domestic agenda. But this kind of politics-by-influence-peddling
doesn't stop at the water's edge. And in foreign policy, the
consequences can be more immediately violent and deadly.
The day after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed, President Barack Obama cautioned
against repeating Latin America's "dark past," decades when military
coups regularly overrode the results of democratic elections. Obama
went on to acknowledge, in his understated way, "The United States has
not always stood as it should with some of these fledgling democracies."
The
consolidation of power through brute force represents a serious step
backward for the region. How is it possible that a coup d'etat could
take place and survive in the 21st century? This is the question that
the international community faces after the coup d'etat that Honduras
suffered on June 28. On that day, the Honduran Armed Forces kidnapped
the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, and forced him
onto a flight bound for Costa Rica. The Organization of American States
(OAS), the UN General Assembly, the U.S.
When Honduran president Manuel Zelaya--who was rousted out of his bed
on Sunday morning by a detachment of armed soldiers and forced into
exile still in his pajamas--took office in early 2006, unionists,
peasant activists and reformers expected little of the center-right
politician, a rancher and member of the establishment Liberal Party.
Neither did the handful of elite Honduran families who, bankrolled by
foreign finance, control their country's media, banking, agricultural,
manufacturing and narcotics industries.
