Protests against the June 28 military coup that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya are continuing on the streets of Honduras, amid international condemnation. Zelaya, who was kidnapped and flown to Costa Rica, is refusing to accept his overthrow and announced plans to return the Honduras on July 5 with the Organisation of American States (OAS) head Jose Miguel Insulza, Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.
The coup was carried out by the Honduran elite angered by Zelaya's pro-poor policies sand attempt to re-write the constitution imposed by the military dictatorship in 1982. The elite control the military, Supreme Court and Congress.
Mass protests, blockades and a general strike have spread across the tiny Central American nation. In response, the regime has suspended civil liberties and constitutional rights. Freedom of the press has been quashed. Protesters demanding the return of the legitimate head of state have been tear gassed and shot. The death toll is unknown.
Still, the poor are on the streets and the coup regime is almost totally isolated internationally.
The coup has been condemned by all Latin American governments, the OAS, the European Union and even the United States. The World Bank has suspended loans All EU nations have withdrawn their ambassadors. In the region, only the US has not suspended diplomatic relations.
The US has suspended military aid. However, it has still not cut diplomatic ties. It is the only nation in the region not to do so.
Journalist and author Eva Golinger pointed out that the US has acknowledged it knew about the coup plans in advance, though it claims to have opposed them. Golinger said if the US had told the coup plotters US aid would be suspended, there was no way they would have gone ahead with it.
Under Zelaya, Honduras joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), the trading bloc established by Venezuela and Cuba to combat US corporate domination of the region.
In 2002, when a coup briefly overthrew Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the US rushed to support the new government. Chavez was returned two days later by mass protests, leaving the US exposed. It appears to have learned the lesson.
Its formal opposition to the coup indicates how isolated the US is in the region — it is a far cry from the previous decades when the US openly installed, funded and armed brutal dictatorships in its "backyard".
While condemning the coup, the US is pushing "negotiations" for "dialogue" and "compromise" — the legitimate president should make a compromise with forces with no moral or legal authority who have revealed their contempt for democracy and human rights.
The US seems to be prepared to accept Zelaya's return on the condition that he comes to an agreement with the pro-US Honduran oligarchy that overthrew him.
The battle for Honduras is continuing on the streets, where the poor are braving repression to fight for their president's return. Zelaya has called on the Honduran people to greet him at the airport for a massive march for his restoration. Nicaragua warned at the OAS of plans by the coup plotters for a massacre, using supposed Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan intervention as a pretext.
All over the world, there has been an outpouring of support for Zelaya and the Honduran people. Dozens of solidarity statements can be read at Greenleft.org.au.
In the article below, reprinted from Towardsfreedom.org, Ben Dangl provides the story of the coup and the mass resistance by the Honduran people.
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Worldwide condemnation has followed the coup that unseated Honduras President Manuel Zelaya on June 28. Nationwide mobilisations and a general strike demanding that Zelaya be returned to power are growing in spite of increased military repression.
One protester outside the government palace in Honduras told reporters that if Roberto Micheletti, the leader installed by the coup, wanted to enter the palace, "he had better do so by air" because if he went by land "we will stop him".
Early on the morning on June 28, around 100 soldiers entered the home of the left-leaning Zelaya, forcefully removed him and, while he was still in his pajamas, ushered him onto a plane to Costa Rica.
Besides the brutal challenges facing the Honduran people, this political crisis is a test for regional solidarity and Washington-Latin American relations.
Zelaya's left turn
When Zelaya, a member of the Liberal Party, was elected president on November 27, 2005, in a close victory, he became president of one of the poorest nations in the region, with about 70% of its population of 7.5 million living under the poverty line.
He supported the US-pushed pro-corporate Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2005. However, in recent years, Zelaya has sided with the region's left as a new member of the leftist trade bloc, Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).
Zelaya has been criticising and taking on the sweatshop and corporate media industry in his country, and increased the minimum wage by 60%. He said the increase, which angered the elite but increased his support among unions, would "force the business oligarchy to start paying what is fair".
At a meeting of regional anti-drug officials, Zelaya spoke of an unconventional way to combat the drug trafficking and related violence that has been plaguing his country: "Instead of pursuing drug traffickers, societies should invest resources in educating drug addicts and curbing their demand."
Zelaya's left-leaning policies began generating "resistance and anger among Liberal [party] leaders and lawmakers on the one hand, and attracting support from the opposition, civil society organizations and popular movements on the other", the Inter-Press Service said on June 26.
The international peasant rights' organisation Via Campesina sais in a June 28 statement: "The government of President Zelaya has been characterized by its defense of workers and campesinos [peasants], it is a defender of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), and during his administration it has promoted actions that benefit Honduran campesinos."
As his popularity rose among these sectors of society, the Honduras elite worked to undermine him.
Constitution
The key question leading up to the coup was whether to hold a referendum on June 28 — as Zelaya wanted — on organising an assembly to re-write the country's constitution.
Many major news outlets in the US said an impetus for the coup was Zelaya's plans for a vote to allow him to extend his term in office. However, the actual ballot question was to be: "Do you agree that, during the general elections of November 2009 there should be a fourth ballot to decide whether to hold a Constituent National Assembly that will approve a new political constitution?"
Nations across Latin America, including Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, have recently re-written their constitutions. These documents enshrined new rights for marginalised people and protected the nations' economies from the destabilising effects of free trade and corporate looting.
In Honduras on June 10, members of teacher, student, indigenous and union groups marched to demand that Congress back the referendum on the constitution, chanting, "The people, aware, defend the Constituent [Assembly]".
The Honduran Front of Teachers Organisations (FOM), with some 48,000 members, also supported the referendum. FOM leader Eulogio Chavez asked teachers to organise the referendum in schools, the Weekly News Update on the Americas said on June 28.
The Supreme Court ruled that the referendum violated the constitution as it was taking place during an election year. On June 24, Zelaya fired Honduran military General Romeo Vasquez after he refused to distribute ballots and take part in the preparations for the referendum.
The court called for the reinstatement of Vasquez, but Zelaya refused to recognise the reinstatement. He led a mass protest to an air force base to get the ballots and distributed them for the planned vote.
Crackdown
Vasquez, a former student at the infamous School of the Americas now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, was key leader in the June 28 coup. The SOA is a US-run school that has trained Latin American military officers responsible for gross human rights abuses.
After Zelaya was flown to Costa Rica, a falsified resignation letter was presented to Congress and former parliament leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as the new president. Micheletti immediately declared a curfew as protests and mobilisations continued nation-wide.
Since the coup, military planes and helicopters have circled the city, the electricity and internet have been cut, and only music is being played on the few radio stations that are still operating, IPS said.
Journalists reporting the conflict from Telesur, the Latin America-wide TV station initiated by Venezuela, were detained by the de facto government in Honduras. They were released due to international pressure.
The ambassadors to Honduras from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were arrested. The foreign minister in Zelaya's government, Patricia Rodas, has also been arrested. Rodas recently presided over an OAS meeting that voted to overturn the ban on Cuba's OAS membership.
The military-installed government has issued arrest warrants for leaders of the Popular Bloc Coordinating Committee, Via Campesina and the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (CCOPI).
Human rights activist Dr Juan Almendares, reporting from the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, told Democracy Now! on June 29 that due to government crackdowns and the electrical blackout, there is "not really access to information, no freedom of the press".
He said: "We have also a curfew, because after 9:00 you can be shot if you are on the streets. So we have a curfew from 9:00 to 6:00 a.m."
Via Campesina said: "We believe that these deeds are the desperate acts of the national oligarchy and the hardcore right to preserve the interests of capital, and in particular, of the large transnational corporations."
Mass protests
Members of social, indigenous and labour organisations from around the country have concentrated in the city's capital, organising barricades around the presidential palace, demanding Zelaya's return to power.
Sixty protesters have been injured and at least two have died in clashes with the coup's security forces.
"Thousands of Hondurans gathered outside the presidential palace singing the national hymn", Telesur said on June 29. "While the battalions mobilized against protesters at the Presidential House, the TV channels did not report on the tense events."
CCOPI leader Bertha Caceres said ethnic communities were ready for resistance and did not recognise the Micheletti government.
Dr Almendares said that in spite of massive repression by the military leaders, "We have almost a national strike for workers, people, students and intellectuals, and they are organized in a popular resistance-run pacific movement against this violation of the democracy …
"There are many sectors involved in this movement trying to restitute the constitutional rights, the human rights."
Rafael Alegria, a leader of Via Campesina in Honduras, told Telesur: "The resistance of the people continues and is growing, already in the western part of the country campesinos are taking over highways, and the military troops are impeding bus travel, which is why many people have decided to travel to Tegucigalpa on foot.
"The resistance continues in spite of the hostility of the military patrols."
A general strike was also organised by various social and labor sectors in the country. Alegria said it was happening across state institutions and "progressively in the private sector".
The 4th Army Battalion from the Atlantida Department in Honduras declared that it woul not respect orders from the Micheletti government, and the major highways of the country are blocked by protesters, Alegria said. There were reports the 10th army division is taking the same stance.
In a June 28 statement, the CCOPI condemned the coup, media crackdowns and repression. "[T]he Honduran people are carrying out large demonstrations, actions in their communities, in the municipalities; there are occupations of bridges, and a protest in front of the presidential residence, among others.
"From the lands of Lempira, Morazán and Visitación Padilla, we call on the Honduran people in general to demonstrate in defense of their rights and of real and direct democracy for the people, to the fascists we say that they will NOT silence us, that this cowardly act will turn back on them, with great force."
Washington responds
On the day of the coup, US President Barack Obama said: "I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya. As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."
However, on June 29, Secreatary of State Hilary Clinton said: "We haven't laid out any demands that we're insisting on, because we're working with others on behalf of our ultimate objectives."
If the White House declares that what's happening in Honduras is a coup, they would have to block aid to the rogue Honduran government. Regarding Congress funds, US law says: "None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available ... shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
Reuters said on June 29: "The State Department has requested [US]$68.2 million in aid for fiscal year 2010 [for Honduras], which begins on October 1, up from $43.2 million in the current fiscal year and $40.5 million a year earlier."
The US military has a base in Soto Cano, Honduras that is home to about 500 troops and a number of air force planes and helicopters.
Regarding US relations with the Honduran military, Latin American History professor and journalist Greg Grandin told Democracy now on June 29: "The Honduran military is effectively a subsidiary of the United States government. Honduras, as a whole, if any Latin American country is fully owned by the United States, it's Honduras.
"Its economy is wholly based on trade, foreign aid and remittances. So if the US is opposed to this coup going forward, it won't go forward. Zelaya will return ..."
Regional response
The OAS and the United Nations have condemned the coup.
Outrage at the coup has been expressed by major leaders across the globe and all over Latin America.
The presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Cuba have been outspoken in their protests against the coup. The French Foreign Ministry said: "France firmly condemns the coup that has just taken place in Honduras."
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said: "I'm deeply worried about the situation in Honduras... it reminds us of the worst years in Latin America's history."
Even Augusto Ramirez Ocampo, a former foreign minister of Colombia the June 29 New York Times: "It is a legal obligation to defend democracy in Honduras."
Zelaya has said he would return to Honduras accompanied by OAS head Jose Miguel Insulza. "I will fulfill my four year mandate [as President], whether you, the coup-plotters, like it or not", Zelaya said.
Only time will tell what the international and national support for Zelaya means for Honduras.
Regional support for Bolivian President Evo Morales during an attempted coup last year empowered his fight against right-wing destabilising forces. Popular support in the streets proved vital during the attempted coup against Chavez in 2002.
Meanwhile, Zelaya supporters continue to convene at the government palace, yelling at the armed soldiers while tanks roam the streets.
"We're defending our president", protester Umberto Guebara told the NYT. "I'm not afraid. I'd give my life for my country."