Honduras: Why the resistance will boycott the November 29 election; Zelaya on accord

November 10, 2009 – LeftClick/Latin RadicalRicardo Salgado, an Honduran analyst of the “crisis'' in Honduras, explains to Australian community radio's Warwick Fry the latest developments in Honduras and the postion of the resistance movement. In spite of pressure on the coup regime to recognise the legitimacy of Zelaya as president ten days ago, Zelaya is still trapped inside the Brazilian embassy. The “agreement'' (designed more to save face for the US and the coup regime rather than the restoration of a democratic solution) has failed. The coup regime has failed to meet the one-week deadline to restore Zelaya to his post as president in a reasonable amount of time to allow a “clean'' election process.

The National Resistance Front Against the Coup (according to polls supported by more than 70% of the population) has announced that it will not recognised the November 29 presidential election, and the only opposition candidate, Carlos Reyes, has withdrawn his candidature.

National Resistance Front Against the Coup: The elections will not be recognised, the struggle continues

November 9, 2009 – The National Resistance Front Against the Coup declares to the Honduran people and the international community:

1. Since the midnight deadline of Thursday November 5th passed without the restoration of legitimate president Manual Zelaya, we declare we will actively not recognise the electoral process of November 29 of this year.

Elections which are imposed by a de facto regime that represses and violates the human and political rights of the citizenry would only validate nationally and internationally the oligarchic dictatorship and secure the continuation of a system which marginalises and exploits popular sectors in order to guarantee the privileges of a few.

Participation in such a process would give legitimacy to the coup regime and to its successor which would be fraudulently installed on January 27, 2010.

2. The refusal to acknowledge the electoral farce will remain firm between now and the elections even if President Manuel Zelaya is reinstated. A period of 20 days is too little time to dismantle an electoral fraud conceived to ensure that one of the representatives of the coup-making oligarchy will be put in place and therefore give continuity to its repressive and anti-democratic project.

The prior statement does not mean that we have renounced our fundamental demand that constitutional order be returned to Honduras, including the return of President Zelaya to the position he was elected to fill for four years by the Honduran people.

3. Now more than ever it is clear that the exercise of participatory democracy through the installation of a Constituent Assembly is not just a non-negotiable right but also the only way to provide the Honduran people with a democratic and inclusive political system.

4. We denounce the complicit attitude of the US government, maneuvering to stall the crisis and now showing its true intention to give validity to the coup regime, thereby ensuring that the successor government will be docile in the face of the interests of transnational companies and their goal of regional control.

Therefore, we consider correct the decision made by President Zelaya to declare the failure of the Tegucigalpa Agreement, an agreement which is part of the US strategy to stall Zelaya's restoration in order to validate the electoral process.

5. We call on all organisations and candidates in the November 29 elections to act in accordance with previously stated commitments and publicly pull out of the electoral farce.

6. We call together the mobilised and as yet unorganised sectors of the population to join actions which reject the electoral farce and promote acts of civil disobedience, as supported by Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic, which gives us the right to disobedience and popular insurrection.

7. To the friendly nations and peoples of the world, we call on you to maintain political pressure to overthrow the military dictatorship imposed by oligarchy and imperialism, as well as commit to recognise neither the illegitimate elections of November 29 nor the spurious authorities who seek to pass as representatives elected by the people.

"We resist and we will win."

Tegucigalpa November 9, 2009

President Zelaya explains to Democracy Now! why the accord failed

November 9, 2009 – Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for the latest news, we now go to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. We are joined by the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who has been holed up there for weeks.

President Zelaya, is the deal dead?

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The accord has twelve points, and we had an agreement with Secretary Hillary Clinton, as well as President Obama, to move forward on that unified accord. In this sense, it is not as—it was explained by Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon and that it, the accord, goes step by step. It is an accord that needs to be seen in its entirety. We did not sign twelve accords; we signed one accord, and the main point of that is the restitution of the president of Honduras. If this reinstatement does not happen, then the accord fails.

The accord had a deadline of November the 5th for the installation of the government of reconciliation and unity. Mr. Micheletti proceeded to go ahead with the accord, installing that new government without me. And when he did this, we then declared that the accord is completely null and void. It is a dead letter.

AMY GOODMAN: President Micheletti, the coup leader, says he will form a national unity government without you. Your response, President Zelaya?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: The last part of the question, Amy, please?

AMY GOODMAN: What is your response to Micheletti saying he will form a national unity government without you, President Zelaya?

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] He can form as many governments as he wants, since that is exactly what he did on the 28th of June by force and by violence. Those governments who do that are completely illegal, and that is the basis of the coup d’état.

AMY GOODMAN: President Zelaya, what do you feel the US government, President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, should do now?

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] According to recent statements from the US government, I believe that President Obama has been weakened as a result of this process in the accord. And this government is basically very, very weakened in facing this coup d’état regime, and they are weak-kneed. The government of President Obama has been weakened in the face of the dictatorship itself here in Honduras. The people of Honduras have not been weakened, and nor have I, but the government of the United States, yes, has been weakened.

AMY GOODMAN: We have ten seconds. What would bring you, your side, back to the negotiating table?

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] After four months, I cannot go back to negotiation with the coup regime at all.

AMY GOODMAN: Five seconds. Translate?

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] This is now in the hands of the OAS, and they can file the charter of the OAS, or they can make it—[no audio]


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By Felipe Stuart

Robert White, once a prominent US diplomat, says that the collapse of the Guamuras (Tegucigalpa-San Jose) Agreement between the Honduran coup regime and President Zelaya (exiled in the Brazilian embassy) now makes it possible *to reconstruct with a fair degree of accuracy how the Obama administration turned an imminent diplomatic triumph into a negotiated defeat.*

I concur with White that the latest manoeuvre executed by Thomas Shannon on behalf of the State Department became a fiasco -- but mostly because the standoff in Tegucigalpa exposes its concerted efforts to cover up its real involvement and complicity with the coup. The intellectual authors of the coup do not live in Honduras. They are housed in Washington and work in the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. Some believe that Obama was not in on the coup from the beginning and had his arms twisted to go along. Hence the application of what Eva Golinger calls "Smart Power" -- displaying opposition to the coup in the OAS and before world opinion, while putting in motion a strategy to scuttle and delay real initiatives to force the restitution of the Constitutional government and president of the country.

This "smart" strategy has worked so far, but at enormous cost. It leaves Honduras in an enormously unstable situation, and with a weakened ruling class faced by a strengthened and more sophisticated, experience, and united popular movement -- organized in the National Resistance Front. Most importantly, the US Obama's with Honduran adventure now stands exposed and the democratic emperor, viewed from the perspective of Latin-Indo America, has come up nude. When this fiasco is added to the provocation of turnintg Colombia into a gigantic US aircraft carrier, or a South American Israel, has exposed the fraudulent nature of Obama's claim to want to make a new start in US relations with nations south of the Rio Bravo. So too has the re-affirmation and solidifying of the economic and financial blockade against Cuba.

An enormous media campaign has been unleashed up and down the continent to savage the governments of all the ALBA countries, expecially Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. In contrast to them, Brazil and Chile are painted as being "democratic left" regimes more acceptable to the oligarchic and imperialist rightwing forces. The old tactic of divide and conquer is alive and well.

White's analysis is evacuated of substance because he assumes that Obama really wanted Zelaya back in power. That was not Washington's preferred option. They procrastinated, hoping to let time erode Latin American ire, and escort Honduras through the November election campaign. But the fact that the elections have little chance of legitimacy either nationally or internationally (will Obama be caught with only Israel and a few Oceanic semi-colonies on side regarding this issue?) does make the situation a real fiasco not just for Washington but also for the Honduran ten ruling families.

The reason for the fiasco is that any scam, sooner or later, risks being exposed for what it was or is. Victims of a scam have long memories, and the scam set up by Hillary Clinton and Oscar Arias, with Obama's support, backfired. Its very success is also Washington's new headache.

Latin Americans now know two things. The claim that the age of military coups is over is sheer myth, a fake and a fraud. Second, the US arsenal moves its coup option from front to back burnder with ease, but never turns off the gas.

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Honduras Revisited

By Robert White

*- Robert White is a former United States ambassador to Paraguay and El

Salvador (1980-1981), where he was instrumental in the investigation of the

rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen by Salvadorean death squads. He is

currently the president of the **Center for International

Policy<http://www.ciponlin e.org/>
------------ --------- ---------

by Robert White


*It is now possible to reconstruct with a fair degree of accuracy how the

Obama administration turned an imminent diplomatic triumph into a negotiated

defeat.*

On October 20, Senator Jim DeMint stated that he had met with Assistant

Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and that he was pleased that the

Department of State finally understood "that it is essential that these

elections [in Honduras] go forward and are recognized." As a result, DeMint

said he was "anxious" to release the holds he had placed on the nominations

of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of state for Western

Hemisphere affairs and Thomas Shannon, the present assistant secretary, to

be ambassador to Brazil.

As Shannon well knew, this impending change of policy would give away the

principal leverage the United States could bring to bear to persuade the de

facto government to permit the prompt return of President Zelaya.

On October 28, a diplomatic delegation headed by Thomas Shannon arrived in

Tegucigalpa to jump start the negotiations between the de facto regime and

President Mel Zelaya. At a press conference, Shannon stated that the return

of Zelaya is "central" to the concerns of the United States and the

international community. Yet, he refused to say that his return was an

essential component to any deal.

It is legitimate toinfer that at this point de facto president Roberto

Micheletti knew that the State Department had made a commitment to Senator

DeMint that the United States would recognize the November 29 elections as

valid regardless of whether Zelaya had been returned to office.

Under these circumstances any journeyman diplomat would immediately

recognize that the only chance to achieve a lasting agreement would be to

inform President Zelaya of the change in U.S. policy. Armed with this

information, Zelaya could have insisted on a date certain for his return.

With the backing of the U.S. delegation, there would have been a fighting

chance that Micheletti would have agreed because time was running out.

It was, of course, possible, even probable, that negotiations would have

failed, but that result would have been infinitely preferable to the charade

where Zelaya signed an agreement under the illusion the United States would

ensure his prompt reinstatement to power.

The result of this cynical and amateurish diplomacy could hardly have been

worse.

The secretary of state triumphantly announces a breakthrough in Honduras.

Micheletti responds that he has not yet agreed to the restitution of the

elected president, and a deceived Zelaya states the agreement is dead. The

diplomatic fiasco is complete.

There is still room for diplomatic maneuvering. For example, at the OAS, the

United States could state that while it will recognize the outcome of the

elections, it will support an OAS decision not to send hemispheric observers

to certify the elections. This would almost surely result in the immediate

return of Zelaya, for the United States would have restated its resolve not

to be separated from its hemispheric partners.

Unless the Obama administration acts quickly to rescue this bungled outcome,

Zelaya will take the only road open to him and call for his supporters to

boycott the elections.

Most nations of the hemisphere will support him by refusing to recognize the

elections and the crisis will drag on.

It is sad to contemplate how the Obama administration has botched a

challenge in which it had the support of the entire hemisphere. No wonder

President Lula of Brazil has accused President Obama of going back on his

promise of a new relationship with Latin America.

*- Robert White is a former United States ambassador to Paraguay and El

Salvador (1980-1981), where he was instrumental in the investigation of the

rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen by Salvadorean death squads. He is

currently the president of the **Center for International

Policy<http://www.ciponlin e.org/>

**.*

* *

Source:

http://americas. irc-online. org/am/6565? utm_source= streamsend& utm_medium= email&utm_ content=7184061& utm_campaign=[Americas%20Updater]%20Special% 20Updater% 20on%20Honduras


http://alainet. org/active/ 34355

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Berta Oliva (COFADEH) Gives Testimony at Congressional Briefing sponsored by Rep. Grijalva D-AZ

From http://quixote.org/video/berta-oliva-cofadeh-gives-testimony-congressional-briefing-sponsored-rep-grijalva-d-az

See video
See video

Berta Oliva, coordinator of COFADEH (Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras) speaks about the purpose of COFADEH and its history of involvement in the search for the disappeared. She speaks about how the torturers from the dark period of the 1980's, who used to hide in the shadows to murder, now have the protection of the military coup government to challenge, through their rapes and illegal detentions, the very framework of human rights in Honduras and the world. 

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Honduras: dictatorship recruiting right-wing extremists as "observers"
Jean-Guy Allard

IN order to cover up the invalidity of the upcoming November 29 elections, the usurping regime of Roberto Micheletti is heavily recruiting—via an association of pro-coup businesspeople — "observers" from right-wing extremist organizations.

"Between 300 and 500 observers have now been confirmed," was the headline on the daily La Prensa, owned by the local magnate, Jorge "Pepsi" Canahuati, while the author of an article inside the paper claimed, with pro-coup fervor, that "about 600" of these "international observers from Northern, South and Central America" will be present at the elections.

Finding such observers when all international agencies devoted to this activity have refused to cooperate has been entrusted by the military/business junta in Tegucigalpa to one of its most active partners, Amilcar Bulnes, president of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP).

Bulnes told the daily La Prensa — owned by his friend Canahuati — that the election process "is central to providing a better investment climate," which should be based on "social stability." This opinion is shared by the hierarchies of the army, police and death squads run by Billy Joya.

"They will come from the United States, Europe, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Central America," Bulnes specified, revealing that two of them are among the most "eminent" representatives of the continent’s extreme right-wing forces: the former presidents of Guatemala, Alvaro Arzú, and of El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani.

It has already been announced that the coup regime’s elections will feature representatives — also described as "observers" — from the neo-Nazi group UnoAmérica; the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Liberty, an appendage of the Liberty Foundation financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED); and the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies, run by the former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar.

The organization UnoAmérica, tied to the CIA and financed by the NED, was involved earlier this year in a plot to assassinate President Evo Morales of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Honduras: la dictadura recluta como “observadores” a ultraderechistas

JEAN-GUY ALLARD

Para enmascarar la invalidez de los comicios del 29 de noviembre, el régimen usurpador de Roberto Micheletti está reclutando por dondequiera, a través de una asociación de empresarios golpistas, a "observadores" procedentes de organizaciones ultraderechistas.

Pese a todas las maniobras, el pueblo rechaza las elecciones bajo el régimen golpista y sigue resistiendo para restituir el orden constitucional.

"Ya confirmaron entre 300 y 500 observadores", afirma la portada del diario La Prensa, propiedad del magnate local Jorge "Pepsi" Canahuati, mientras el autor de un artículo en páginas interiores valora, en su fiebre golpista, en "unos 600" los "observadores internacionales procedentes del Norte, Centro y Sudamérica" que asistirán a estas elecciones.

Para encontrar estos observadores cuando todos los organismos internacionales que se dedican a esta actividad se han negado a colaborar, la junta militar-empresarial de Tegucigalpa confía en uno de sus socios más activos, Amílcar Bulnes, el presidente del Consejo Hondureño de la Empresa Privada (COHEP).

Bulnes expresó al diario La Prensa de su amigo Canahuati, que el proceso electoral "es protagónico para propiciar un mejor clima de inversión", que debe basarse "en la estabilidad social", una opinión compartida por la jerarquía del ejército, de la policía y de los escuadrones de la muerte de Billy Joya.

"Vendrán de Estados Unidos, Europa, Chile, Argentina, Colombia y de Centroamérica", precisa Bulnes, al revelar que dos de los más "eminentes" representantes de la ultraderecha continental, los ex presidentes de Guatemala, Álvaro Arzú y de El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani, "vendrán".

Ya se había anunciado anteriormente que los comicios del régimen golpista dispondrán —también a título de "observadores"— de enviados del grupo neonazi UnoAmérica y de la Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe para la Libertad, un apéndice de la Fundación Libertad, financiada por la NED, y de la Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales (FAES), del ex mandatario español José María Aznar.

La organización UnoAmérica, vinculada a la CIA y financiada por la Fundación Nacional para la Democracia (NED, por sus siglas en inglés), está relacionada con el intento de asesinato este año contra el presidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Evo Morales.

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TEGUCIGALPA, November 16.— The National Front against the Coup in Honduras has reiterated its call to abstain from voting in the November 29 elections, because it considers them an attempt to legitimize the coup regime dictatorship.

According to Prensa Latina, members of the Resistance once again carried out a sit-in in Plaza La Merced, adjacent to the Legislative Palace, to demand the restoration of constitutional order and of the legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya.

Juan Barahona, the Front’s general coordinator, insisted that the elections, organized by those who have usurped power via arms, are illegal and fraudulent.

Barahona affirmed that street mobilizations will continue until democratic order is restored, Zelaya is returned to power, and a national constituent assembly has been convened.

Since early November, members of the Front’s popular and political forces have been organizing daily demonstrations in front of Congress, the power responsible for deciding whether or not to restore Zelaya, and they are condemning the complicity of congress members with the military coup and its attempts to validate the break with constitutional order via the illegal November 29 elections.

Barahona reaffirmed that not one member of the Resistance will go to the polls that day, because they do not have any candidates in those elections.