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TechnoratiZelaya's Midnight Ride
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. That Zelaya traveled at night, crossing "rivers and mountains," as he put it, all the while managing to evade Honduran intelligence - largely funded, trained, and provisioned by the US military - is quite a feat - and also a hint that Zelaya still commands the loyalty of some sectors of the military and police.
It's unclear what will happen next. Roberto Micheletti, the president installed by the coup, has imposed a fifteen-hour curfew -- which will undoubtedly be extended -- reminding reporters that there is a standing order for Zelaya's arrest. Yet Zelaya's return is sure to galvanize those opposed to the coup, whose protests over the last three months have prevented Micheletti from consolidating power.
It has become increasingly clear that Micheletti's strategy of trying to hold out until scheduled presidential elections in late November was not working, with a movement within Honduras for a boycott of the vote gaining steam and most Latin American nations saying they would not recognize its results. Since the prospect of holding elections with Zelaya in prison - or perhaps still rallying supporters from his Brazilian refuge -- would only underscore the illegitimacy of the coup government, it seems that it will have no choice but to negotiate directly with Zelaya his return to power.
That Zelaya chose the Brazilian embassy as where to make his stand undoubtedly with the approval of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva despite denials, is also a strategic masterstroke, for it shifts the away from Venezuela and Hugo Chavez as the Honduran plotters have tried to frame the crisis and toward Lula, everyone's favorite democratic leftist. Brazil's Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, responded to the coup government's demand that Brazil turn Zelaya over by saying that any threat to the legitimate president or the embassy would be a grave breach of international law.
Those backing the coup perhaps sense that their game is up; a communiqué issued by the National Front Against the Coup reports that some businessmen and military leaders who supported Zelaya's overthrow are leaving the country. Meanwhile, back in the US, the Washington Post has decided to actually forgo reporting on the story, instead allowing Michelletti space on its op-ed page -- in a piece probably written by one of the coup's US flaks, like Otto Reich or Lanny Davis -- to make one last pitch for the November election, which he promises will be a "constitutional expression of self-determination and a demonstration of national sovereignty." Reich or Davis -- ur, I mean Micheletti -- forgot to mention that the coup government, in effort to ensure high turnout, has threatened to throw in jail anyone who doesn't vote in that election, and has revoked the citizenship of the environmentalist Catholic priest José Andrés Tamayo, born in El Salvador but living in Honduras since 1983, for calling for a boycott of those elections.
If this is a moment of truth for Honduras, it is also one for Washington. Since his ouster, Washington has sent mixed messages, refusing to condemn the coup with the same force as the Organization of American States and the European Union, and refusing to apply as much pressure as it could - freezing the foreign bank accounts, for instance, of those behind the overthrow - that could force the restoration of democracy.
But Zelaya's dramatic return takes place on the eve of this Wednesday's meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, where he had been scheduled to speak as Honduras' legitimate leader. That the UN will probably issue a statement demanding his restoration on the eve of US president Barack Obama's inaugural address to that body will place pressure on the US to take a clear stand.
Zelaya's return, says Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, "will finally force the US to "choose sides." With the Organization of American States convening an emergency meeting in which it will undoubtedly voice strong support for Zelaya, it is, as Weisbrot notes, "pretty clear that the rest of the world will stand with Zelaya, for his return to the presidency, and for the restoration of democracy in Honduras."
And sure enough, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, acknowledging that Zelaya's gambit has indeed changed the terms of the debate, issued a statement saying that the time was "opportune" to restore Zelaya to the presidency. Better late than never.
11 Comments so far
Show AllAt last! Zelaya may have blemishes, but he was duly elected and the coup was a coup. The U.S. must demand Zelaya's restoration to finish out his term, and the November election must be heavily monitored by impartial outside observers from the UN or OAS. And, as several readers have pointed out, nothing permanent will be settled until the terrible wealth inequities and the oligarchical rule of the landed elite are somehow moderated to benefit the poor majority in Honduras.
We have a military air base 30 miles from the Honduran capitol, with intelligence about all air space, including the military flight that exiled Zelaya. We pay for almost all Honduran military expenditures, including the coup generals' pay checks. Our high level State Department officials were in Honduras the week before the coup. What part of the above says that 'no one could have foreseen' the coup, to paraphrase Condi Rice re 9/11. The conduct of Hillary, and Bill's lawyer who works for the coupsters, are despicable.
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Sorry, you are way off the topic.
No matter where Manuel Zelaya goes from here, the root causes of the coup will remain in place– unless a mobilized populace sees fit to eradicate the entrenched social and institutional position of fascism in Honduras. Clearly 'democratic' elections– closely monitored if not managed by the United States –will work surreptitiously to ensure the dominant structural continuity of the institutionalized fascist presence. Challenging the imperialist reality of an American Air Force base in Honduras is a symbolic imperative
Elections, no matter how 'democratic,' are never the answer in Latin America, as they serve only to mitigate or attempt to contain and neuter the force of a mass, spontaneous uprising demanding Socialism. In reality, only the Cuban model makes much sense, where fascist elements are either imprisoned, expropriated purged, destroyed or forced into exile.
Zero tolerance for fascism, means that fascist institutions or its local agents and collaborators have been neutralized and death squad culture eliminated. Other than best case scenarios, perhaps some kind of Neo-left 'Chavez' style system would be considered a real gain.
In no uncertain terms the American military presence must be ended, as it was in Ecuador. As long as that reality remains intact, Honduras will be considered 'occupied' under imperial hegemony. In truth ,little more than a "Banana Republic" with all the attendant stigmata of Yanqui ownership by proxy.–(Jill Bains)
this is an excerpt from Truthout today....just the first few paragraphs of an article by benjamin dangl...:
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.
During a recent beach-side interview, with tropical breezes blowing along a sandy shore in the background, Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti told a Fox News reporter, "This is a quiet country, and a happy country."[1] However, since Micheletti took over on June 28, Honduras has been anything but quiet and content.
Micheletti's de facto regime has ruled the country with an iron fist while popular movements for democracy have gained steam with nearly constant strikes, road blockades and massive street protests. The coup inspired a movement that is now seeking more than just the reinstatement of Zelaya, but the transformation of the country through a new Constitution. Micheletti says presidential elections in November will proceed as planned, though few Hondurans, governments and international institutions say they will recognize the results given the violent situation in the country.
At least 11 anti-coup activists have been killed since Zelaya was ousted.[2] Following the coup, approximately 1,500 people have been jailed for political purposes, and many Zelaya supporters have been beaten.[3] Via Campesina offices have been attacked, and the Feminists of Honduras in Resistance said that there have been 19 documented cases of rape by police officers since the coup took place.[4] The newspaper El Tiempo reported that armed groups in Colombia have been recruiting demobilized paramilitaries for mercenary work in Honduras. Honduras business leaders are hiring these paramilitaries for their own private security.[5]
Though Zelaya was a relatively moderate president, his policies challenged the elite enough to inspire a right wing coup. While in office, he passed a 60 percent increase in minimum wage, bringing income up from around $6 a day to $9.60 a day.[6] Zelaya also gave subsidies to small farmers, cut bank interest rates and reduced poverty.[7] Salvador Zuniga, a leader of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) said, "One of the things that provoked the coup d'etat was that the president accepted a petition from the feminist movement regarding the day-after pill. Opus Dei mobilized, the fundamentalist evangelical churches mobilized, along with all the reactionary groups."[8]
"Maybe he made mistakes," Honduran school teacher Hedme Castro said of Zelaya, "but he always erred on the side of the poor. That is why they will fight to the end for him." She continued, "This is not about President Zelaya. This is about my country.
I truly hope our own government won't just let Zelaya be captured and hanged.
Zelaya's entrance overland into Honduras once again is a grand gesture to the poor! Many Latinos are forced to migrate in such an 'illegal' manner throughout Central America simply because it is necessary in their search for work. Zelaya is showing them that he sides with them in having chosen this manner to continue the struggle.