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I totally agree. He should be restored--and the elections postponed--for the length of time that the people of Honduras were denied his leadership. Negotiators should never have permitted the golpistas to shrink Zelaya's term like this. That is extremely unfair and unjust. They've been playing this for time. That is very clear. And if they had a beef against Zelaya, they had plenty of institutions in their control to bring charges and try him while he remained in the office he was elected to, in fair circumstances in which he could defend himself. Instead, they forced him out of the country at gunpoint, and invented these trumped up charges in absentia, even forging his signature on a letter of resignation. They had no case. They just wanted him gone. That, truly, is tyranny.
One of the charges against him was that he wanted the people to vote on lifting his term limit. A strange provision of the Honduran Constitution (which was written by Reagan's henchmen in the 1980s) is that no one can even talk about lifting the term limit on the president--a provision that should long ago have been declared unconstitutional, since it directly contradicts guarantees of free speech. The likely reason that the Reaganites gave the president only ONE four year term, and forbade talk of more, was to have a president who could not accumulate the political power within government to challenge the rule of the "ten families" and US corporate domination, as well as the US military presence in Honduras.
Well, even the worst of Constitutions (and Oscar Arias has called Honduras' Constitution "the worst in the world") cannot outlaw someone merely WANTING something. Zelaya may have wanted his term limit lifted, but he never said any such thing--nor did any of the union leaders, community organizers, religious advocates of the poor and numerous people and groups across Honduras on whose behalf Zelaya proposed an advisory vote yes or no, do you want to convene a Constituent Assembly to discuss and rewrite the Honduran Constitution? This was a call for fundamental reform of Honduras' rancid political system and very bad Constitution, which would have involved all segments of Honduran society, and would have been a good thing. It was no rushed vote on term limits or anything else. It involved all issues, and it was to be an advisory vote--just to get a discussion of change and reform started.
It's important for Zelaya supporters to know this. Zelaya did not break ANY law--not even the strange law against discussing term limits. He did not call for lifting his term limit. The vote he called for could not have done so. He knew that his term would be up in six months. He proposed this vote of the people to begin a general reform discussion in Honduras because he agreed with grass roots groups that one was badly needed.
Zelaya is a reformist--a progressive and an advocate of the poor. He raised the minimum wage in one of the poorest countries in Latin America against the wishes of US corps operating in Honduras, and instituted other such reforms to help the poor majority. And he ran up against the Honduran oligarchy (of which he was a born member until they violently threw him out of the country) and against the rancid rightwing Bushwhacks in this country, with the Obama administration evidently of a mind to toady to the far rightwing on Latin American issues.
Obama at first said the right thing--that Zelaya is "the only president of Honduras" and must be restored to office immediately--but then his envoys caved to the rightwing junta, after making the 'mistake' (if it was a mistake and not deliberate) of permitting this illegal junta to set the conditions for Zelaya's return. It looks very like the Obama administration stabbed Zelaya in the back--but whether that is the case or not, that is how it is being perceived throughout Latin America, and that is a victory for the foaming-at-the-mouth Bushwhacks like Jim DeMint (Puke-SC). Obama's stated policy of peace, respect and cooperation has been successfully sabotaged by the Bushwhacks (whether willingly or not, by Obama, I can't say).
Another factor in this situation--and probably the most important of all--is that Zelaya proposed converting the US military base in Honduras to a commercial airport. The US military is hated throughout Latin America. Its presence is generally considered an assault on the country's sovereignty. And Honduras is in need of a bigger international airport. To most of Latin America, this was a reasonable proposal--but not to the Pentagon which is still working on a Rumsfeld war plan for stealing Latin American oil (in Venezuela and probably Ecuador). Honduras is a strategic war asset in that plan, with a US military base and port facilities on the Caribbean, and a long bloody history of being used as a "stepping stool" for US war in the region. The Pentagon (through the Bush-appointed ambassador to Colombia--a really bad guy) just negotiated basically a South Vietnam-like invasion of Colombia--seven new US military bases there, with 600 US soldiers and 600 US 'contractors' (to start with) all immunized against Colombian laws. Colombia--a country with one of the worst human rights records on earth--is already the recipient of $6 BILLION in US taxpayer-funded military booty.
The seven bases agreement has to come to Congress now, for approval--and this is likely THE most important element in everything that has occurred in the political scene here with regard to Honduras----including the Bushwhacks' blockade of Obama's Latin American appointments. It's all about the war plan and war profiteering.
Honduras is just a "pawn" on the Pentagon's big war game table. The Honduran people want something more--a real country, a real democracy. Zelaya tried to help them with that, with no immediate gain possible for himself, and, as it turned out, at great risk and danger.
One more thought, on the imminent so-called 'elections.' The Junta now has total control of the voting system, and has purged any and all "rule of law" types from government service. They have been brutally suppressing the Honduran people with martial law, suspension of all civil rights, shutdown of opposition media, arbitrary arrests and home invasions, military road blockades, beatings, rapes, torture and murders. At least 26 people have died for Honduran democracy. One political candidate for president had his arm broken by the Honduran police. The two main candidates, from the Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum parties (just like here), both support the junta, and they have gotten all the TV/radio air time, and are also likely among the recipients of John McCain's US taxpayer funded largesse (through the "International Republican Institute"/USAID--$43 million to rightwing gorups in Honduras).
These are the reasons why the Resistance in Honduras, Zelaya himself and his government-in-exile, and all of Latin America (and also the EU) consider these elections to be a farce. The nomination process needs to be re-done, to give the left (which represents the majority--Zelaya has a 67% approval rating in Honduras!) a chance to recover from the brutal repression, and to unify the opposition to the Junta behind one candidate. The Honduran people would mostly likely prefer to have a better choice than T-dee and T-dum, but they have not been given a chance to vet the existing alternative candidates, nor has the left had a chance to address the election in view of the Junta. There might well be another unifying figure besides Mel Zelaya. Mrs. Zelaya comes to mind--a great and brave woman who has marched at the head of protests after her husband was violently torn from her side--but there are many other potential candidates for president among the Resistance leaders--the union leaders and others who have shown such fantastic organizing skills in the midst of martial law. Also, I believe other offices are up for election as well--seats in the national assembly, etc. The left needs a chance to nominate candidates and to campaign for all offices.
So this would be a program for fair elections:
1. Postpone the elections for six months, and restart the nomination process.
2. Zelaya is restored to his rightful office, with full presidential powers, during that period.
3. The election is conducted entirely by the OAS, with no participation by the Honduran military.
4. And, of course, all civil rights fully restored, starting now.
There should also be a vote on the Constituent Assembly. The people of Honduras overwhelmingly favor this fundamental reform process. Oscar Arias (who acted as a US agent in this affair) said that if Honduras cannot hold a fair election, the "only solution" is a Constituent Assembly. But if Honduras can hold a fair election--as per the above--the Constituent Assembly issue may arise naturally as part of the campaign, if campaign conditions are fair. The issue of reform SHOULD arise naturally out of a campaign process, in a country that is so badly in need of reform.
What are the chances of these things happening? Pretty much nil, since Obama abandoned Zelaya. The Junta has found that the Bushwhacks here are the real powers on US Latin American policy. They thus will never permit fair elections in Honduras. The real powers in the US--US-based global corporate predators and war profiteers, and their Bushwhack political lackeys--do not want fair elections in Honduras, so they will not happen--not in the immediate future anyway. I think they will happen eventually, if Latin America maintains solidarity on this matter (which they seem to be doing), but probably not without considerable cost to the Honduran people, in continued resistance and continued and worsening poverty.
Latin Americans have been moved by a passion for real democracy, and woe betide anyone who attempts to blockade people with that particular passion in their souls. It is an unstoppable historic movement, much like our own initial revolution.
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