The National Front against the Coup D'etat in Honduras (FNRG) accused the United States on August 3 of engaging in two-faced politics to allow the leadership of the June 28 military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya to gain time and strengthen their position.
In an unusual public press conference before thousands of teachers and professors, the FNRG leadership said this was the background to the negotiations between Zeyala and the coup regime coordinated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
The secretary general of the United Federation of Workers (FUTH), Israel Salinas, said that since the beginning of the coup, the FNRG had been certain the US had been engaging in deceptive politics.
Many of the crowd shouted: "It's the false morality of the United States."
Salinas added that, on one hand, the US government said it would recognise only one president, Manuel Zelaya, while on the other hand refused to legally classify his overthrow as a coup.
Meanwhile, he said, the US had developed a strategy to prolong the situation and allow the coup leaders to consolidate their power.
Salinas said the FNRG insisted the government of the US adopt concrete sanctions against the coup and liberate the country from "these usurpers".
FNRG general coordinator and FUTH president Juan Barahona said that since the beginning, the popular forces resisting the coup rejected the negotiations with the coup leaders.
He said such dialogue gave legitimacy to a group of military and business leaders that took power in violation of constitutional norms and the rule of law.
He added that all of these delay mechanisms worked in favour of the coup leaders.
Barahona said it was the resistance of the people that could defeat the coup leaders. "If we don't do it, no one will."
The press conference, which took place under the scorching midday sun, followed an assembly of teachers in the capital. The teachers voted to continue striking as part of actions to reestablish the rule of law.
[Translation by Andalusia Knoll. Reprinted from Quotha.net.]