Honduras: Interview with Juan Barahona, leader of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup
Juan Barahona. Photo: Telesur.
By Pedro Fuentes, Tegucigalpa
October 1, 2009 -- “We will
not stop. We will continue to be against the coup until the last day they are
in power,” Juan Barahona said in an interview at the headquarters of STYBIS,
the beverage workers’ trade union. Barahona is the principal leader of the
resistance, together with Carlos Reyes, president of the trade union, a close
comrade of Barahona and an independent candidate for the next presidential
election. Reyes is injured and cannot participate, which makes Juan appear to
be most visible face of the resistance.
Barahona
is 55 years’ old and began his activism in 1975 in the student movement. In
1977 he joined the Communist Party of Honduras. He was active in the party
until it was dissolved. It is worth recalling that the party dissolved itself following
the fall of the Berlin Wall. But this did not stop Barahona being active. A
large chunk of the cadres and activists of the Honduran CP were left without an
organisation until they formed the Tendencia Revolucionaria (Revolutionary
Tendency, TR) in 1995. TR formed following a meeting with El Salvadoran
activists involved with the Tendencia Revolucionaria that was part of the
Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front, FMLN) in El Salvador. The Tendencia Revolucionaria later left
the FMLN as [TR claimed it] began to shift towards electoralism and opportunism.
Juan
Barahona never rests. He was able to take time out for this interview in the
offices of STYBIS, which is part of the Federation of Honduran Workers (FUT). Barahona is president of FUT and also president of SINTRAINA, the union
organised in the National Agrarian Institute, which was occupied by its workers two days ago.
`What
we lost in the 1990s, we regained
in 2000’
Barahona began the interview talking about this history
and that of the Bloque Popular (Popular Bloc, BP), which was formed in 2000 and
today is a decisive element in the resistance. The Bloque Popular represented
the coming together of peasant unions in the FUT, and left parties and organisations,
including the TR. The BP was the motor force behind the mobilisations that
dominated the since 2000.
“In
the 1990s, the struggle was extremely defensive. In the case of our union,
SINTRAINA, in charge of relations between the government and the peasants, we
were fired in 1993. We held a hunger strike in front of the gringo [US] embassy
for 10 days, which we halted after negotiations in which we were promised that
we would be rehired. But they fired us again, which forced us to return to our
hunger strike 20 days later, and there we won, they were forced to rehire us.
“Beginning
in 2000, the situation changed. Since then the struggle has been against the
neoliberal model and the system. Beginning that year, the FUT organised the
Bloque Popular, together with peasant organisations, teachers and community
activists, and since then the Bloque has been on the streets.”
These
organisation was behind a number of big battles. They held road blockades and
strikes. Last year they initiated a strike against corruption, “an exemplary
movement which ended with road blockades across the whole country and which
basically paralysed the country”. There was another general strike in August
and October 2009, behind a 12-point platform that was presented to the government
and negotiated with Mel [President Manuel Zelaya].”
“The
National Resistance Front is a coalition between the Bloque Popular, UD
(Unificación Democrática, Democratic Unification), union confederations and the
popular sector of the Liberal Party that defends Mel. Here, we unite the
majority of the people”, Juan Barahona explained.
“Honduras
changed completely, and all of this will leave a very positive result; an
organisation and a great experience. During these days of struggle [since the
June 28, 2009, coup], the level of consciousness has greatly risen, much more
than would in 100 days of classes about class struggle. There has been a
parting of waters. This is a struggle between classes: on one side the exploited
people, and on the other the capitalists, the large capitalists that dominate
this country. Even the Liberal Party supporters that are part of the resistance
understand it as such. It is very easy to explain this as a struggle of the
poor against the rich, to put them all into the same group.”
The current situation
“We
are faced with a complicated scenario. As the repression continues, now they
are talking about negotiations. We, as the resistance, are in favour of
participation in negotiations; we have not closed ourselves off to dialogue. We
see that there are fissures in the regime. The visit by the deputies [MPs] from
Brazil is important in supporting the presence of Zelaya in Brazil’s embassy.
That the Organization of American States and the UN come as well is good. Until
now they have done nothing because they are on the side of imperialism. We hope
that they will now show some commitment. We are in favour of participating in
negotiations, but at the same time we say to the coup regime that we will not
stop, we will continue to be against the coup until the last day they are in
power.
“Carlos
Reyes is an independent [presidential] candidate of the resistance and the
popular movement. If we participate or not (in the elections) is a question of [the
coup regime] accepting certain conditions and with Zelaya [returned to] power.
Depending on the situation we will study what we do. The future is ours,
nothing will ever be the same in Honduras, the dispute for power is posed now
and will continue to be posed afterwards. The resistance has the conditions to
organise a political-social organisation to fight for power.
“We
just received good news from the US. They have informed us that the dockers
have decided to boycott the unloading of products from the maquiladoras [sweat shops] here. This is a good blow to the
business owners. If it wasn’t for the business owners and the right wing in
Latin America, there would be no coup in Honduras.
“We
are continuing to organise the resistance and continuing on the streets. Yesterday
[September 30] we were dispersed but today we were back on the streets again;
we marched to the US embassy, passing by the CORE [regional headquarters of the
police], where the peasants who were kicked out of the INA are being held and
finished up in the centre of the city.”
[Pedro Fuentes is international relations secretary, Party of
Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), Brazil.]