| Honduras: Agreement Made in USA Against the Aspirations of the Honduran People and Nation |
| Written by The Organizer | |
| Saturday, 07 November 2009 | |
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On Friday, October 30, negotiators for both Roberto Micheletti, head of the de-facto government that perpetrated the military coup of June 28, 2009, and Manuel Zelaya, the legitimate president of Honduras, reached an agreement known as the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Agreement. It was reached under the watchful eye of U.S. Under-Secretary of State Thomas Shannon. Some of the most important points of the agreement are the following: Point 5 of the agreement states that the National Congress of Honduras must restore the situation that existed prior to the coup of June 28, after first seeking the opinion of the Supreme Court of Justice. This is the very same Congress that "legalized" the coup by appointing Micheletti as "president," and it is the very same Supreme Court that is under the control of the Army and the oligarchy and that accused Zelaya of being a traitor to his nation simply because he tried issuing a popular referendum on whether or not the issue of a Constituent Assembly should be placed on the November 29 ballot. This provision would allow the return of Zelaya as President of the Republic until January 27, 2010. The agreement, however, stipulates no date by which time the Supreme Court must issue its opinion and the National Congress must meet to issue its decision. Point 3 of the agreement states that the parties involved must ask the international community for the repeal of sanctions issued against Honduras in the aftermath of the coup. It also calls for sending international observers to monitor the presidential elections of November 29, and it calls for the international recognition of these elections. This same point also calls for the formation of a national unity government between the junta and the Zelaya government, to be established by Thursday, November 5. Point 2 of the agreement states that the parties involved must reject the convening of a National Constituent Assembly and/or reform of the Constitution. Let us recall that the current Constitution of Honduras was drafted in 1982 under the supervision of the Reagan Administration and contains a large number of unamendable sections and clauses. This means that this Constitution is not supposed to be changed. This led Jose Maria Insulza, general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), to declare: "There are three kinds of Constitutions in the world: the flexible ones, the rigid ones, and the one in Honduras." The agreement also establishes a Truth Commission to investigate the events that took place before, during, and after the coup. The agreement calls for the transfer of military authority to the Superior Electoral Tribunal; that is to say, it removes all power from Zelaya in the event he is reinstated as president. Finally, the agreement also stipulates that the implementation of this agreement will be overseen by a Verification Commission controlled by the OAS. To date, the OAS has appointed former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, known for having preserved the continuity of the Pinochet government and its institutions in his country, and Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor of the United States. An Agreement Against the Resistance of the Honduran People This is an agreement against the aspirations of the Honduran nation and people, who rose up after June 28 in a powerful resistance movement that has continued and deepened and that resulted in the formation of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup. This agreement is the translation of the proposal made on July 7 by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, an agreement that placed on the same level Zelaya and the coup regime and that was rejected by the National Resistance Front. And yet, despite everything that is unacceptable about this agreement, there is still no guarantee that it will respected by the de-facto government. Indeed, at this writing, the National Congress is in recess because the deputies and senators are out campaigning for the November 29 election. Moreover, even though the president of the Congress, Jose Alfredo Saavedra, has said he would soon convene the members, no date has been set. Micheletti cynically declared on Saturday, October 31 that, "Congress must take a legal decision without any pressure of any kind whatsoever." This is coming from a man who immediately after the coup of June 28 submitted to Congress a fake letter of resignation from Zelaya. ... It should be noted that the Honduran National Congress was elected by fraud and that in all elections since 1982, when the current Constitution was adopted, only the two parties of the oligarchy, the Liberal and National parties, have taken turns running the country. In Honduras, voting is compulsory, but despite this fact during the 2005 elections, only 50% of the people actually participated. Massive fraud was needed to be able to declare there had been an 80% voter turnout. What legitimacy can elections have in these conditions -- and especially in a situation where all the repressive measures instituted after June 28 remain in place? The Honduran people are known for saying: "In Honduras, a mule is worth more than a member of Congress." It is obvious that the Obama administration and the U.S. State Department needed to bring Zelaya himself in tow with the Clinton-Shannon agreement to bring an air of legitimacy to these upcoming elections. But even on this front, nothing has been settled: The specter of Kabul and the tragic caricature of the election of Hamid Karzai hovers over Tegucigalpa. Quite clearly, the Supreme Court and the National Congress of Honduras have all the means at their disposal to delay any meetings or discussions about returning Zelaya to office, assuming they even agree to do this. They may choose to stall this process all the way to the very eve of the November 29 election. In any event, even if Zelaya were reinstated sooner and he were to accept implementing the agreement, he would have to renounce the struggle for the National Constituent Assembly and he would become a total hostage of the coup government. It must be said: This Tegucigalpa/San Jose Agreement, reached under the tutelage of the U.S. government, is the institutionalization of the military coup of June 28. It is the recognition that the regime of the Honduran oligarchy, reorganized in 1982 after the overt military dictatorship, is irremovable. We must also remember that since 1982, the Honduran government has been the direct instrument of the U.S. government policy in the region, beginning with its role in organizing the armed counter-insurgency of the contras against revolutionary Nicaragua. Honduras is home to the U.S. military base at Soto Cano (Palmerola) and is a cornerstone in the mechanism of U.S. domination and control throughout Central America. It was one of the first countries to sign a "free trade" treaty with the United States. This treaty strengthened the hegemony of U.S. multinationals in the agro-export industries (especially bananas with Chiquita and Dole). It dismantled local industries, especially textiles. It fomented the flagrant disregard of all existing labor laws, and it prompted the massive emigration of much of the population, mainly to the United States (more than 1 million Hondurans have migrated to the United States over the past 20 years, out of a population of 7.5 million). The agreement imposed by the U.S. administration has a continental significance, as well. It is a warning to all peoples of the region and to all the governments that are taking any, even if only limited, anti-imperialist measures, such as the nationalization or re-nationalization of strategic enterprises, in particular of oil and gas. The agreement is an incentive for the illegitimate Calderón government in Mexico to launch a frontal attack against the Mexican workers, the unions that resist privatization, and all remaining public enterprises and services. The firing of 44,000 electrical workers, all members of the combative Mexican Electrical Workers union (SME), with the recent decree to liquidate the public utility Luz y Fuerza del Centro is a case in point. The agreement is accompanied by the strengthening of the U.S. military arsenal in Latin America with the October 30 signing of a treaty with the Colombian government (a treaty that has not even been discussed in the National Congress of Colombia) for the use and expansion of a U.S. military bases in that country. This agreement also reflects all the pressures bearing down upon Obama himself, when he tries to change even a comma of the political legacy of George W. Bush. So in no way can this agreement be described as even a limited victory. But Resistance Remains Strong In Point No. 4 of Communiqué No. 32 (October 30) issued by the National Resistance Front Against the Coup, one can read the following: "We reiterate that the National Constituent Assembly is an essential aspiration of the people of Honduras that is non-negotiable. We will continue the fight in the streets for an overhaul of society and its transformation into a just, egalitarian and truly democratic society. " On Sunday, November 1, the regular assembly of the National Resistance Front took place in the hall of the Beverage Workers Union (STIBYS), as it has every Sunday since the coup. A debate opened up on the characterization of the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Agreement. The general opinion expressed at the gathering was that the National Resistance Front could not support this agreement, even if there were some positive points. According to leaders of the Front, this agreement binds the hands of Zelaya, shuts the door to the fight for the Constituent Assembly, and moves ahead with the November 29 elections in an anti-democratic framework. Moreover, nobody could say for sure that Zelaya would be restored to the presidency; there seemed to be too many loopholes. The various organizations that make up the National Resistance Front have also initiated a discussion on whether or not, in these circumstances, it is possible to go ahead and field their candidates in the November 29 elections, as they had planned to do prior to the June 28 coup. Indeed, last May, two electoral slates (with candidates for all levels of public office) were duly filed and registered. One slate was that of the Party of Democratic Unification, which is one of the components of the National Resistance Front; the other slate was that of independent presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes, leader of the STYBIS beverage workers' union. The Fourth International and its sections, since June 28, have taken an unconditional stand against the military coup, against the U.S. intervention in all tis forms, for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya, and for the convening of a Constituent Assembly. Throughout this period we have participated in and helped to organize a united front to mobilize international opposition to the coup. More than ever, it is necessary to help advance the struggles of the workers and peoples of the continent, particularly of the Honduran people, to rid themselves of the neo-colonial regimes of the oligarchies in the pay of imperialism and its multinationals, for democracy, for the Constituent Assembly, for the fulfillment of all the demands of the workers and peasants. This fight is part of the struggle for emancipation of all the workers and peoples of the region -- for a free union of free and sovereign peoples and nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, in close alliance with workers and their organizations in the United States, freed from all oppression and exploitation. |
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