Honduras Special: Resist the coup and demand a Constituent Assembly

Repression and persecution of people who speak out openly against the dictatorial government.  “We have an empowered de facto government that owns the country more than ever, making arbitrary decisions and calling on people to discriminate against those of us who are resisting”, tells Lidice Ortega from the Center for Women’s Studies of Honduras and the Feminists in Resistance collective that composes part of the National Front of Resistance to the Coup.  

At the time of the meeting of the Americas, 46 days had already passed since the coup, and 46 days of heroic resistance.  The Front demands a clear position from the international solidarity movement, particularly in the European Union and the United States, who are Honduras’ most important economic partners, to blockade those who carried out the coup and oppose new elections to legitimize those who are committing grave violations of human rights,

At the meeting, Lidice, who is a member of the WMW in Honduras, described the situation the people are living since the coup on June 28 when the military removed the constitutionally elected president Manuel Zelaya and installed the businessman and president of the National Assembly, Roberto Micheletti, in his place.  The coup had been planned by a group of actors composed of military men, businessmen, political parties, and churches.  

Since then, ongoing peaceful protests, such as marches, roadblocks, strikes, and vigils on front of strategic places like the UN and the OAS and various governmental institutions, have been used by the resistance to denounce the authors of the coup.  All the manifestations have been violently repressed by the army and the police.  At the same time, those who carried out the coup are organizing pro-coup manifestations in the streets, dressed in white, and are obligating or paying workers to participate.  

Coup supporters control almost all the media, enabling them to generate broader terrorism against the resistance.  “Those involved in the coup are calling on people to remain silent, to not give their opinions, telling them to forget about it, that it is a question that has already been resolved, that things are as they are.  And that it is better not to say anything, because those in the resistance are very violent and attempting to kill people who have contrary opinions”, says Lidice.  She adds that the media strategy polarizes the country and that there are no options for speaking out through the media.  There is persecution of leaders and those media that have given voice to the movements opposed to the coup.  “They are killing so many people, people are disappearing, and that is why we worry about the strength of the de facto government”.

Lidice warns that the dialogue and the letter from San José, brokered by the United States and mediated by Costa Rica, is not the solution to the coup:  “We do not believe in this.  We are completely opposed. In a way, they are asking Zelaya to renounce the National Constituent Assembly. They are asking him to forge a deal between the coup government and Zelaya’s cabinet, which is impossible. It is not possible to leave anyone who was named by the de facto government in place; they are part of an illegal government that they have usurped”.  

For this reason, the Honduran resistance is requesting drastic measures from organizations such as the OAS, the UN, the UNDP, and all international human rights organizations:  “At this moment, they are saying that there is a blockade, that there is no support for Honduras, but we know that they have installed people supporting the electoral process.  There is still a lot of money being received from them to organise elections; elections that no one knows what framework they will take place in.  Half-measures are inacceptable at this point.  Half-measures only serve to strengthen the coup participants”.  Lidice emphasized that “at this point, it is not known whether Zelaya will return or not.  At this point, the scenarios are still uncertain, and we are so afraid, because at some point they will not think twice about repressing people, because the same people in this country are already in total conflict; differences exist even within families”.

Many participants in the meeting reported that the media in their countries have simply ignored the coup d’état in Honduras, or discredited Zelaya and the resistance by treating the coup as a “crisis”, guaranteeing the dissemination of justifications for the coup (which have already been responded to in practice by jurists and activists of the national and international movement), hiding the protests against the coup, and giving visibility to those who support it, and finally, pressing for “dialogue” as outlined in the San José Accord.  This demonstrates that the strategy of the coup reaches across national borders.  

Lidice finished by saying, “We are making a call to everyone to show solidarity with the resistance in Honduras, because this time it is us, and it is the country of Honduras, that have suffered a military coup, but we do not know if another coup is being planned elsewhere, and above all, we do not know if we are prepared to resist it.  So this can become a good exercise in resistance and good preparation for what lies ahead, which is a toughening of the right”.

The current situation

Despite all the international condemnation of the coup, at the time of the close of this issue of the newsletter (September), the U.S. government had not formally recognized that there had been a coup in Honduras (which would result in the suspension of any type of economic support).  Seventy days after the coup, at the beginning of September, measures were announced to apply pressure, such as the suspension of entry visas to members and promoters of the coup, as well as a “broad range of assistance to the Honduran government” (without specifying the amount and which aid).  Such measures are belated:  the de facto government has already created conditions that will make it difficult to return to the political-institutional, economic, and social situation existing prior to the coupe, and has begun the electoral process even in the face of threats from various countries in the region that they will not recognize the election results.  

The U.S. continues to insist that the only solution is to ratify the San José Accord, ignoring the position of the resistance Front, which demands the end to militarization in the country and the installation of a Constituent Assembly.  The E.U. continues to negotiate economic association treaties with the countries in the region, and on August 28, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave the Central Bank of Honduras its quota of its Special Drawing Rights, resources that are now at the disposal of an illegitimate government.  

The Significance of the coup

In the discussion during the Meeting, it was pointed out that the coup goes against an entire political process of change - with its conflicts and contradictions, deeper in some countries than in others – that has been occurring in the south of the continent and reached Central America.  In Guatemala and Honduras, governments that are considered moderate have shown interest in participating in these change processes, more specifically in the Bolivian Alternative of the Americas (Alternativa Bolivariana de las Américas - ALBA).  This is also the case with El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Such change processes point to a path for defeating the neoliberal model.  The government of Zelaya cannot be considered leftist, but has nonetheless promoted public policies in support of the people, including increases in the minimum wage (from 3000 to 5000 lempiras), the guarantee of free schooling for girls and boys, school lunch, assistance plans for the poor, and has also stopped the process of privatization of public assets, such as electrical energy, bridges, and the health care system.  

Zelaya also began a process of taking back control of the police and the army, structures that have historical links with drug trafficking and support of military dictatorships in the region (with the organization of armed groups that acted to destabilize processes in countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua).  His strongest action was promoting a consultation that was to take place on June 28, a process that would have encouraged citizen and social participation of the population in political decisions.  It would have represented the beginning of a more aggressive process of change in the face of oligarchic powers.  

The coup is also seen as a warning to government leaders in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and particularly in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, regarding how market interests prevail over governments, even when the latter has been endorsed by voters.  It points to possible reactions to any initiative to block markets and distance countries from their traditional subordination to the policies of the U.S.  For example, the Alba accord included an agreement to purchase medications from Cuba, which would significantly lower dependence on multinational pharmaceutical monopolies (which operate in all countries of Central America) and, consequently, reduce their sales.  The same would happen with foods and other products.  There are also obvious economic interests with respect to control of oil reserves in the region  

Continue resisting and providing information

The National Front Against the Coup continues to gather strength with the support of social movements and people from around the world.  An International Meeting in Solidarity with Honduras is being planned for the beginning of October.  

The World March of Women denounced the coup immediately after it occurred. We have promoted the organization of acts of protest against the coup in the various countries and sent delegates (one from Brazil and another from Mexico) to the International Mission for Solidarity, Accompaniment, and Observation in Honduras.  We also organized a manifestation at the end of the meeting of the Americas.

It is important that we continue to mobilize and take advantage of all possible opportunities to expose the discourse of the coup leaders and reinforce the Honduran resistance, supported by daily coverage provided by alternative media in Latin America.  

Recommended reading:  

América Latina en Movimiento – ¿Golpe de Estado en Honduras? Laboratorio de dictaduras siglo XXI? – various articles are available (in Spanish) at http://alainet.org/publica/447.phtml. The complete interview with Lidice Ortega was published by the magazine and is available (also in Spanish only) at the link:
http://www.marchemondiale.org/structure/cn-groupes/ameriques/honduras/golpe092806/entrevista-LO/es

ALAI - http://alainet.org/active/view_docs.php3?serializado=1&pos=0&idioma=esp&OrderBy=dinfo_key&overview=paises&sub=Honduras (most of the articles are in Spanish, but there are also many texts in English, French, and Portuguese).  

Minga:  Informativo de los movimientos sociales - http://movimientos.org/honduras.php