Honduras: `The election was a farce, new regime will not be recognised' -- National Resistance Front


More at The Real News
Real News Network report, December 3, 2009: “An election validated by blood and repression''. The Honduran coup government continued its repressive tactics on election day (report from San Pedro Sula by Jesse Freeston).

By the National Resistance Front against the Coup d'etat

Communiqué number 41

November 30, 2009 – The National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'etat, to the Honduran people and the international community communicates:

1. The complete failure of the electoral farce set up by the oligarchy on November 29, 2009, in dictatorial conditions confirms our proposal of declaring the elections and their results illegal and illegitimate, in addition to reinforcing our position of not recognising the regime to be installed on January 27, 2010.

2. We call on the democratic and honest governments and social movements of the world to reject the electoral farce and not recognise the would-be government to be installed in January.

3. Having carried out an electoral process that lacks all legitimacy and legality and that attempts to guarantee the power of a minority of the population, the installation of a National Constitutional Assembly represents the alternative to channel the demands of political participation of all of the Honduran people. We will continue struggle for this.

4. We reiterate that all of the acts that the current de facto regime and its successor carry out will not be recognised by the people. We especially emphasise our rejection of any amnesty for violators of human rights.

5. We take this moment to recognise the work of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, which today completes 27 years of vigilance for truth, justice and the construction of a society where human rights are guaranteed to all.

WE RESIST AND WE WILL WIN!

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

We denounce the electoral farce

By the National Resistance Front against the Coup d'etat

Communiqué number 40

November 29, 2009 – With complete satisfaction we announce to the Honduran people and the international community that the electoral farce set up by the dictatorship regime has been absolutely defeated due to the low turn-out of voters at the poll sites, to the extent that the Supreme Electoral Tribune had to prolong the poll another hour until 5 p.m.

You don't need glasses to see what is in front of your eyes. Nationwide monitoring by our organisation proved that the level of abstention during the process is at least of 60-75%, which is the highest in our national history, and implies that only a maximum of 30-35% of registered voters voted. This is the way that the Honduran people are punishing the pro-coup candidates and the dictatorship, whom now are having problems demonstrating to international public opinion a level of turnout that never existed.

To make it appear that way they have resorted to fraudulent maneuvres like bringing in El Salvadorans from the ARENA Party into our country, as was denounced by the farmers in the municipality of Magdalena, Intibucá. And we expect that they will try to increase the turnout numbers by means of electronic manipulation.

In desperation the de facto regime has brutally repressed the peaceful march that took place in the city of San Pedro Sula, in which several brothers and sisters were hurt, beaten and detained; and one person is reported missing.

Amongst the wounded is a Reuters reporter, the detained include two nuns from the Latin American Council of Churches who were there as human rights observers.

Considering that this result represents a great victory of the Honduran people, the National Resistance Front invites all the Honduran people in resistance to celebrate the defeat of the dictatorship.

On Monday, November 30, 12pm we convoke in Tegucigalpa a great assembly in the STIBYS union headquarters and then will have the great Caravan of Victory against the Electoral Farce.

We resist and we will win!

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Honduran MPs debate Zelaya's future

December 2, 2009 – Morning Star – Honduran MPs have begun debating constitutional President Manuel Zelaya's future under pressure from much of the region to reinstate him or face more isolation.

Many Latin American governments warn that they will not restore ties with the incoming administration of right-wing rancher Porfirio Lobo unless Mr Zelaya is allowed to finish his own term, which ends on January 27.

Mr Lobo of the conservative National Party won last week's presidential vote.

Honduras's coup leaders insist that the election shows that their country's democracy is intact, despite the fact that the ballot was conducted by the forces that deposed Mr Zelaya on June 28.

And most Latin American countries, especially left-wing governments, observe that recognising the election would amount to legitimising Central America's first coup in 20 years.

Before leaving the Ibero-American summit in Portugal yesterday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said: "We can't pretend nothing happened. If this state of affairs is allowed to remain, democracy will be at serious risk in Latin and central America."

US President Barack Obama's administration is calling for Mr Zelaya's reinstatement, but has stopped short of making it a condition for recognising Mr Lobo's government.

Costa Rica, Peru, Panama and Colombia share the US stance.

Mr Zelaya's reinstatement is not required by a US-brokered pact designed to end the impasse, which was signed by both the deposed leader and coup chief Roberto Micheletti.

The pact requires only that a unity government be created for the remainder of Mr Zelaya's term, while the decision on restoring him to office was left to congress.

Honduran MPs vote for the coup

December 3, 2009 – Morning Star – Honduran legislators have voted to uphold central America's first military-led coup in 20 years. Some 111 members of the 128-member congress rejected the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, with only 14 members voting in favour following a seven-hour debate.

Right-wing MPs argued that they were right the first time when they voted to oust Mr Zelaya.

They maintained that he had ignored a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum on whether to convene a constituent assembly to consider modernising the country's constitution.

That vote was held hours after soldiers had stormed into Mr Zelaya's residence in June and flew him into exile in his pyjamas.

Progressive MPs expressed outrage after Wednesday's vote.

Democratic Unification Party (DUP) MP Cesar Ham asked: "How can we call this a constitutional succession when the president's residence was shot at and he was taken from his home in pyjamas?

"This is embarrassing. He was assaulted, kidnapped and ousted by force of arms from the presidency," Mr Ham observed.

Fellow DUP MP Marvin Ponce warned that there was no chance of ending the constitutional crisis triggered by the coup unless Mr Zelaya was reinstated, saying that, until then, "we will be talking about a fictitious reconciliation."

While legislators debated, hundreds of Mr Zelaya's supporters protested behind police lines outside Congress.

The country's constitutional premier, who listened to the proceedings from his refuge in the Brazilian embassy, said even before the vote that he wouldn't return for a token two months if asked.

Mr Zelaya observed that he should have been reinstated before Sunday's presidential election and urged governments not to restore ties with the incoming administration of right-wing rancher Porfirio Lobo.

"Today, the MPs at the service of the dominant classes ratified the coup d'etat in Honduras," he declared.

"MPs with inadequate international backing are condemning Honduras to exist outside the rule of law, to keep afflicting the large impoverished majority," he warned.

Most countries in the Americas have indicated that they will not recognise Mr Lobo's new government and insist on Mr Zelaya's immediate restoration to the presidency.

But the US, Canada, Peru, Costa Rica, and Panama have decided to recognise the outcome of the election.

Honduras: Australia should not recognise the fraudulent elections or the military regime

A second letter to Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith

To: Stephen Smith
Minister for Foreign Affairs
PO Box 6022, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600
Tel: 02-6277 7500 Fax: 02-6273 4112 Email: Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au

Cc: Electorate office
953A Beaufort St, Inglewood WA 6932
Tel: 08-9272 3411 Fax: 08-9272 3477

Dear Mr Smith,

On November 29, the Honduran dictatorship that overthrew the legitimate President Manuel Zelaya held farcical elections in an attempt to give the brutal regime a “democratic” and “civilian” face. We are writing to you to urge the Australian government to take a public stand of not recognising these elections or the current Honduran regime.

The elections took place under conditions of extreme repression. Anti-regime media was harassed or shut down. Opponents of the regime organising peaceful protests were attacked by the military or police. Some anti-regime activists have disappeared or been killed in the lead up to the vote. This follows the military’s brutal repression of pro-democracy activists since the June 28 coup, in which dozens have been killed or disappeared, and thousands detained.

An August poll by a Honduran polling company revealed that the majority of Hondurans rejected the coup and that support for the regime it established was extremely low (only 17%).

Zelaya and the broad pro-democracy united front in Honduras, the National Resistance Front Against the Coup (FNRG), argued that no free vote could possibly occur under these circumstances and called for a boycott of the elections.

The dictatorship has officially claimed a high turn-out, with the Supreme Electoral Commission (TSE) stating that, with 98% of the vote counted, abstention was only 38.14%. However, Congressperson Elvia Argentina Valle released a statement in which, based on the actual number of votes compared to the number of registered voters, the real abstention rate was revealed as 62%.

The TSE was forced to admit it had erred and that only 56% of the vote had been counted when it announced the winner and the participation rates; a further sign of the utterly farcical nature of this poll.

Calling on the international community to not recognise the elections, the FRNG announced on November 29: “You don't need glasses to see what is in front of your eyes. Nation-wide monitoring by our organisation proved that the level of abstention during the process is at least of 60-75% percent, which is the highest in our national history.”

We draw your attention to the open letter Green Left Weekly initiated and sent to you following the June 28 coup, which has been signed by a range of academics, trade unionists, social justice activists and concerned citizens (please see http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/820/41847). After this fraudulent vote, the requests made to your government are more relevant than ever. Those were to:

  • join governments across the world by clearly denouncing the coup and demanding Zelaya be immediately restored as president;
  • cut all diplomatic, political, cultural or economic ties that the Australian government may have with Honduras until Zelaya is reinstated;
  • join the Organisation of American States in refusing to recognise the outcome of any elections organised by the illegal coup regime;
  • demand the immediate release of all political prisoners; and
  • pressure the United States administration to act on its verbal criticisms of the coup and cut all ties with the coup regime, and end its ongoing training of the Honduran military.

We would like to reiterate these demands. In particular, we would like to emphasise the importance of taking the lead from the OAS and the United Nations and refusing to recognise the November 29 poll as a legitimate, free vote. As such, the government formed on the basis of these fraudulent elections should not be recognised.

Yours for democracy,
Stuart Munckton and Emma Murphy, Green Left Weekly editors

Permalink

Items from Diana Barahon´s excellent blog (see http://dianabarahona.blogspot.com/ )

1) Torn between two models, Funes follows Obama

2) United States officially recognizes Honduran elections: AP

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Monday, November 30, 2009


Torn between two models, Funes follows Obama


by Diana Barahona

Nov. 30, 2009


Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, who was carried to power by the FMLN this past March but quickly jettisoned the party from his government, has obliquely recognized the results of yesterday's electoral farce in neighboring Honduras.

During his presidential campaign Funes rejected any affinity for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and instead insisted that his modelswere Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva and Barack Obama. But those models are bitterly split over Obama's support for the June 28 coup in Honduras and its subsequent legitimation by sham elections carried out yesterday. The United States followed up on its commitment to recognize the elections no matter what, but Lula has resisted pressure to do the same.

Upon their arrival yesterday at the Iberoamerican Summit in Estoril, Portugal, Funes and Lula expressed strongly divergent opinions about the electoral farce being held in Honduras. The Brazilian president said that his country "has nothing to reconsider" regarding its pledge to not recognize the elections. His position is shared by most countries in Latin America and the world, the United States being the most notorious exception.

But the Salvadoran president opted to toe the U.S. line, stating in a communique that its was only the outgoing government of Roberto Micheletti that El Salvador didn't recognize, not the new government of conservative landowner "Pepe" Lobo.

In a rephrasing of the State Department position, Funes added: "The Salvadoran government hopes that the virtual winner of the electoral event will express his willingness to initiate a political dialogue that permits a national agreement that puts an end to the crisis and leads to a government of unity, the reestablishment of the constitutional order and reconciliation in the brother country."

Posted by Diana Barahona at 10:16 PM 0 comments 

Labels: Funes Honduras elections U.S. Brazil Lula

United States officially recognizes Honduran elections: AP

Nov. 30, 2009

Arturo Valenzuela, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said the election was fair and transparent but that Honduras must make further efforts to restore democracy after President Manuel Zelaya was expelled in June. . . .

Many Western Hemisphere countries refuse to recognize Honduras' newly elected President Porfirio Lobo because of the coup, and Valenzuela was pressed by reporters on whether the United States recognizes Lobo's election.

"He will be the next president of Honduras," he said. "We recognize those results, and we commend Mr. Lobo for having won these elections."

Posted by Diana Barahona at 6:46 PM 0 comments