Co-written by Bill Quigley and Laura Raymond. Bill and Laura work at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
One year ago, on June 28, 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was awakened by gunfire. A coup was carried out by US-trained military officers, including graduates of the infamous US Army School of the Americas (WHINSEC) in Georgia. President Zelaya was illegally taken to Costa Rica.
Democracy in Honduras ended as a de facto government of the rich and powerful seized control. A sham election backed by the US confirmed the leadership of the coup powers. The US and powerful lobbyists continue to roam the hemisphere trying to convince other Latin American countries to normalize relations with the coup government.
The media has ignored the revival of US hard power in the Americas and the widespread resistance which challenges it.
A pro-democracy movement, the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) formed in the coup's aftermath. Despite horrendous repression, it has organized the anger and passion of a multitude of mass-based popular movements -- landless workers, farmers, women, LGBTQ folks, unions, youth and others -- and spread a palpable energy of possibility and hope throughout the country.
These forces of democracy have been subjected to police killings, arbitrary detentions, beatings, rape and other sexual abuse of women and girls, torture and harassment of journalists, judges and activists. Prominent LGBTQ activists, labor organizers, campesinos and youth working with the resistance have been assassinated. Leaders have been driven into exile.
Four judges, including the president of Honduran Judges for Democracy, were fired in May 2010 for criticizing the illegality of the coup. Two of them went on a widely-supported hunger strike in the nation's capital. Judges who participated in public demonstrations in favor of the de facto government remain in power.
In 2010 alone, seven journalists have been murdered. Many others have been threatened. Reporters without Borders calls Honduras the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.
Why was there a coup? Honduras was planning to hold a June 28 poll on whether or not a referendum for forming a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution should be on the November ballot. Many among the poor correctly view the current constitution as favoring corporations and wealthy landowners. As a result of the constitutional preference for the rich and powerful, Honduras has one of the largest wealth gaps between the rich and poor in Latin America.
Washington and the Honduran elite were also angered that President Zelaya signed an agreement to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). ALBA is a regional trade agreement that provides an alternative to the free-trade agreements, such as CAFTA, that have been pushed by Washington yet opposed by many popular movements through the Americas.
Zelaya's proposal to transform Soto Cano Air Base, historically important to the US military, into a much-needed civilian airport, was unpopular in Washington, as was his lack of support for the privatization of the telecommunications industry.
Forces in the US provided critical support for the coup. As members of the resistance have explained, coups do not happen in Latin America without the support of those with power in the US. Right wing ideologues and shell NGOs based out of Washington played a critical role in the coup and since. A leadership vacuum in the Obama administration regarding Honduras has led to extreme right-wing ideologues directing US policy there. These people are hell bent on stopping the growing populist movements throughout Latin America from gaining more influence and power. Some, such as Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, have moved from positions in the State Department and United Nations into private lobbying firms or conservative think tanks. Others, such as Robert Carmona-Borjas, who was granted asylum in the US after his involvement in the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez, are working for so-called NGOs that use vague missions such as "anti-corruption" to mask the foreign policy work they do.
In the past year, the business elite in Honduras have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Washington-based lobbying and PR firms to get the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties in line. For example, the Asociacion Hondurena de Maquiladoras (Honduran Association of Maquiladoras) hired the Cormac Group to lobby the US government regarding "foreign relations" just days after the coup. Close Clinton confidant Lanny Davis lobbied for the coup powers in DC. A delegation of Republican Senators traveled to Honduras in the fall to support the coup government and organized for wider congressional support upon their return.
Despite initially condemning the coup, the Obama administration has completely shifted its position. It provided critical, life-giving approval to the widely denounced elections that were boycotted by much of the Honduran population. The military that was killing people in the streets was also guarding the ballot boxes. Major candidates such as Carlos H. Reyes, now a leader of the resistance, refused to run. The Carter Center, the United Nations, and other respected election observers refused to observe. The FNRP called on people to stay home.
The Organization of American States suspended Honduras and has continued to resist efforts of Secretary of State Clinton to pressure them into readmitting Honduras. However, the US pushed for and was able to secure the formation of a high-level OAS panel to "study" the re-entry of Honduras at its recent meeting in Peru. We may well start to see the international community beginning to normalize relations with this illegitimate government.
As it stands, now the coup government of Honduras' biggest ally is the United States.
A year after the coup, US activists and pro-democracy supporters need to increase their knowledge about what is going on with our neighbors in Honduras and stand in solidarity with the resistance. For democracy to mean anything, it has to mean that plans for a national referendum to rewrite a Constitution to better serve a nation's people should not be met with a US-supported military coup.
Once again, the US is on the wrong side in Latin America.
Once again, the US government is undermining democracy and actively supporting a government that is murdering its own people.
Once again, the US has sided with anti-democracy forces and is trying to bully the world into rubber-stamp approval of our mistakes.
Moving forward from this unfortunate anniversary, one thing is certain -- the people's movement in Honduras is only growing. The resistance has gone ahead with organizing for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. Today there will be massive demonstrations throughout Honduras. We must stand with this dramatic and powerful social movement and challenge our own government to support the forces of democracy, not destroy them.
CCR will be hosting the NYC premiere of a film about the Resistance on July 7, 7pm at Tribeca Cinemas in lower Manhattan. It will also premiere in DC and Berkeley.
For more information about the Honduran resistance, please see their website (and click on the "English" tab): http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/
You can contact Bill at quigley77@gmail.com and Laura at lauraraymond21@gmail.com
We condemned it (wrongly, I might add), remember? Suspended aid, remember? Tried to negotiate a solution, remember?
It's incredible how some folks rewrite history to fit their ideology, and invent conspiracy theories out of thin air.
Zelaya broke the constitution by trying to establish another term which is strongly forbidden. So what do you do when a president tries to become a dictator? Arrest him. The only problem with that is the police are strongly loyal to him so he had to be removed by the military. This isn't a coup. There is nothing illegal about it. It is ridiculous how you spin this story, never mind that numerous Michiletti supporters have been assassinated along with members of his family.
And speaking of foreign influences, how about all the millions that Chavez donated to Zelaya's campaign to keep him in power? How about all the violent supporters of Zelaya on the Venezuelan payroll. Does it not shock you that a dictator who provides heavy arms and support to ultra brutal terrorist groups in attempts to destabilize a neighbor MIGHT have something to do with the problems in Honduras especially after he proclaims support of Zelaya??
The Neocons would like to turn back the clock, but let us hope this does NOT happen. If anything, their despicable agenda is only hastening the demise of American imperial influence, & not just in Latin America. Nations everywhere are making bilateral, trilateral, multi-lateral agreements with each other to the exclusion of the USA & other major powers.
Ultimately, the American people (as well as those of other nations) must work together to make certain the Neocon agenda does not prevail over better, saner, more humane & just policies. Today the rights of the Honduran people have been compromised; who knows whose rights might be compromised or even eliminated completely tomorrow? It could be any of us. I hope that the Honduran populist movement prevails over any nefarious plots, machinations to thwart it. Thanks Bill Quigley for writing this piece.
In one case, an election is seen as legitimising a regime that attacks its citizens, while in the other, the election is portrayed as delegitimising another.
All the publicity, the calls for support of the people, the outrage, the sanctions are all strangely missing when it comes to a country that US actions could have a marked effect on. (especially when you consider that in the case where the US has taken no action, the polls had the majority of the citizens of the country involved regarding their government as unrepresentative of them, and the election to be rigged, while the US has take action against the country where the polls show the majority regarding the government to be representative of them, and the election to have been fair)
Doesn't the US claim to be 'promoting democracy'?
But when Hillary's close friends and allies Lanny Davis and Bennett Ratcliff emerged as PAID lobbyists for the "military-installed regime," Clinton did an about face, embracing the results of a widely condemned fall election The Carter Center, UN and other respected election monitors refused to observe
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/obama-vs-clinton-on-hondu_b_231168.html
http://www.progressive.org/wx030510.html
Most shocking, Clinton proclaimed in March 2010 that "the Honduras crisis has been managed to a successful conclusion," adding that "it was done without violence." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/hillary-clintons-damage-c_b_487802.html
Quigley and Raymond report that In 2010 alone, seven journalists have been murdered. Many others have been threatened. Reporters without Borders calls Honduras the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. ...These forces of democracy have been subjected to police killings, arbitrary detentions, beatings, rape and other sexual abuse of women and girls, torture and harassment of journalists, judges and activists. Prominent LGBTQ activists, labor organizers, campesinos and youth working with the resistance have been assassinated."
We need a Secretary of State we can TRUST.
Your grip on reality seems a little loose.
Adding to the distress was President Obama's denunciation of the coup, making it seem we weren't responsible for it -- but now the authors here have traced down and documented the not-so-surprising facts: The facts that we support big business and the military vs. the farmers, the people, or a fair democracy.
As the line goes: "Don't ask for whom the bell tolls...the bell tolls for you/us." -- maybe our better USA media and PR camouflages much better but our own government more and more dominated by Big Business and the Military.
We no longer declare wars; somehow we just happen to be in (admitted) 177 foreign nations. Cash-lobbying IS bribery and now corporations have no limits: Thus they will buy the votes they need and elect the people they want.
Our country is a nice place to live; we can have good lives here, but this domination of our politics by the military and money is disgraceful -- and it is no different in Iraq, Afghanistan, our motives to make war in Iran, we wave the flag of freedom and democracy but the cruel carousel keeps spinning around and around, the hard knocks keep coming, we are enemies of what we proclaim as good.
Pray tell, Richard--how do you know more about Honduran law than Hondurans?
You must be thinking of Venezuela, where Hugo's judges bend, twist, break and distort every law in the book at every one of his whims.
You know--the guy you idolize.
Oh, and in Venezuela, the elections are monitored by independant foreign observers (who've pronounced them free and fair), and three quarters of the population turns out to vote, even though opinion polls had shown that it was going to be an easy win for Chavez.
I know that, because Chavez does not bow and scrape to the US, the American media makes him out to be a dictator, but you might want to learn the facts before you make your comments.