Manuel Zelaya returns to Honduras

[KingOrfeo]

Remember Manuel Zelaya? Former President of Honduras, forced out in a military coup in 2009 and sent into exile -- the Obama Admin condemned it but did nothing. (While many Litsters at the time defended the coup or, even, denied it was a coup. )

Now Zelaya and the new POH, Porfirio Lobo, have signed a deal, brokered by the Colombian and Venezuelan governments, that allows Zelaya -- and his supporters -- to return to Honduras, and also to participate in Honduran politics.

I find it very encouraging, to begin with, that Colombia and Venezuela, which have been so often at loggerheads in the past decade, can put aside their differences long enough to make peace between third parties. But, what does this portend for the future of democracy in Honduras and in LA generally?

OAS to restore Honduras' membership.

The Organization of American States may vote to restore Honduras next month as a member of the regional group after the Central American nation agreed to ensure the safe return of former President Manuel Zelaya.

The vote to restore Honduras, which was expelled by the OAS following the military ouster of Zelaya in June 2009, will take place June 1, according to a resolution passed yesterday at an OAS meeting in Washington. Only Ecuador voiced opposition to Honduras’ return to the 35-member state group.

The country’s possible reinstatement comes after Honduran President Porfirio Lobo signed an accord May 22 with Zelaya, allowing him to return from exile and help reform the country’s laws. The agreement, brokered with the help of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, also guarantees that Zelaya supporters can return safely to Honduras and form a party to participate in elections.

“Zelaya’s return will probably ratchet up tensions in the country, which has been beset by workers’ protests and rising crime and violence in recent months,” Heather Berkman, a political risk analyst at the Eurasia Group in New York, said by e-mail. Still, she added, “Zelaya’s political ambitions will probably not hamper the efforts of the Lobo administration to get the country’s economy back on track.”

Amy Goodman reports for Democracy Now!:

The deal that was brokered in Colombia, called the Cartagena Agreement, was witnessed by the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and Colombia, President [Juan Manuel] Santos. The deal was worked out between ousted president Manual Zelaya and the current president of Honduras Porfirio Lobo. They have agreed on a number of points. Among them that President Zelaya and over 200 exiles can return safely home. That there will be a constitutional assembly that will be allowed to be set up. That the party that now Manuel Zelaya heads called the Resistance will be guaranteed to be able to be a legal political party. And that a Secretariat for Justice and Human Rights will be set up to deal with the terrible human rights situation in Honduras.

 

[KingOrfeo]

And, he's home!

Zelaya arrived at Tegucigalpa’s international airport from Managua, Nicaragua, in a plane belonging to Venezuelan state-run airline Conviasa. He was accompanied by his family and a delegation of international allies, including former Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Venezuela Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

“Thanks to your efforts I’ve been able to return to my land,” he told a crowd who had come to the airport to welcome him. Many were dressed in red in a show of solidarity with Zelaya’s National Popular Resistance Front, a coalition that advocated for his return. “Your presence here this afternoon, and international support, shows that blood was not spilt in vain.”

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo signed an agreement May 22 with Zelaya, allowing him to return from exile and help change the country’s laws. The agreement, brokered with the help of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, also guarantees that Zelaya supporters can return safely to Honduras and form a party to participate in elections.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Interview with Zelaya:

AMY GOODMAN: You say that the coup was a conspiracy. And you talked about the right wing in the United States. Explain exactly what you understand. Who fomented this coup against you?

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The conspiracy began when I started to join what is ALBA, the Latin American nations with Bolivarian Alternative. So, a dirty war at the psychological level was carried out against me. Otto Reich started this. The ex-Under Secretary of State Roger Noriega, Robert Carmona, and the Arcadia Foundation, created by the CIA, they associated themselves with the right wing, with military groups, and they formed a conspiracy. They argued that I was a communist and that I was attacking the security of the hemisphere, because I’m a friend of Fidel, I’m a friend of Chávez, and I had declared my government as a government which is progressive.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, WikiLeaks released that trove of U.S. government cables, and in it was a cable from then-U.S. ambassador—the then-U.S. ambassador to Honduras to the State Department, saying that—I think it was titled "Open and Shut: The Case of the Honduran Coup," and it was saying it was illegal, it was unconstitutional. It was written by U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] Hugo Llorens cooperated in order to avoid the coup d’état. He knew everything that was happening in Honduras. And I am a witness to the effort that he made to stop the coup. But when he perceived that he could no longer stop it, then he withdrew. I don’t know if he had orders to withdraw, but he allowed everything to happen. He did help my family a great deal after the coup. And I am grateful to him now. He showed me that he is someone who believes in democracy and not in the coups d’état. But a great part of the Pentagon does not believe this, nor does the Southern Command.

AMY GOODMAN: What does the Southern Command have to do with this?

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] The link that Ambassador Ford, who was the ambassador from the United States before Llorens, he said that I could not have a friendship with Hugo Chávez. He wanted me to give political [asylum] to Posada Carriles. He wanted to name who my ministers of my cabinet of my government should be. He wanted his recommendations to become ministers of my government.

AMY GOODMAN: Posada Carriles, he wanted him to be able to take refuge in Honduras, the man who was alleged to be the mastermind behind the Cubana bombing that killed scores of people?

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] After eight days of my becoming president of the country, the ambassador, Charles Ford, asked me if I could give political asylum to Posada Carriles in Honduras. And of course, I sent him to outside. He spoke to my foreign minister, my secretary of state, about that—the same ambassador who prohibited me from becoming a member of the ALBA. And this ambassador, who just left Honduras, who left the country with a political profile of myself, the ambassador, Ford, left this letter as a profile of the president, and when you read it, you can tell that it is the precursor of the coup itself. WikiLeaks published this document. They published the profile that Ambassador Ford made of me to give to Hugo Llorens, saying that the United States needs to make decisions about what it will do the following year in order to detain me, because I am tied to narcotrafficking and to terrorism and to many, many other things. So, he prepared the ambiance, situation. And he was transferred from the embassy to the Southern Command. And that is the tie. And if you ask today, where is this Ambassador Ford? He is in the Southern Command. And so, he left here in order to prepare the coup d’état.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, the coup d’état took place under President Obama, not before.

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] We’re talking about the United States, so it’s an empire. The United States is an empire, and so Obama is the president of the United States, but he is not the chief of the empire. Even though Obama would be against the coup, the process toward the coup was already moving forward. The most that they tell a president like President Obama, that there’s a political crisis going on. But they do not talk about the details that they were involved in in terms of the conspiracy.

AMY GOODMAN: President Obama early on called it a coup. But then the administration seemed to back off, both he and Hillary Clinton.

MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] They gave themselves up before the coup itself. That is the proof, in fact, that the coup came from the north, from the U.S. So they are even able to bend the arm of the President of the United States, President Obama, and the State Department, and they impeded my restitution as president of the country.

 

[Colonel Hogan]

Found murdered on an isolated rural back road in 3, 2, 1, ......

 

[neci]

wiki.

On 24 May 2007, Zelaya ordered ten two-hour cadenas (mandatory government broadcasts) on all television and radio stations, "to counteract the misinformation of the news media."[27] The move, while legal, was fiercely criticized by the country's main journalists' union, and Zelaya was dubbed "authoritarian" by his opposition.[28]

the next time a presidential address interrupts regular programing, i am going to call it authoritarian.

going back to read more.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Found murdered on an isolated rural back road in 3, 2, 1, ......

If they meant to do that, I don't think they would have made this deal. Killing Zelaya woudn't get rid of his supporters -- the reform movement could go on without him.

 

[neci]

(While many Litsters at the time defended the coup or, even, denied it was a coup.
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19 pages of that
drinking straight from rush's cock

read through the official human rights reports since the coup
i remember
"don't cross the border"
and the maquiladoras
the lack of hospitals
the lack of tylenol

communists. don't let them organize. heaven forbid. they've already changed the subject. brushing it off. who controls the media? there and here?

 

[off2bed]

Naturally, a leftist like Orf would support a leftist like Zelaya. Nothing good for Honduras can come of this. Nothing.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Naturally, a leftist like Orf would support a leftist like Zelaya. Nothing good for Honduras can come of this. Nothing.

Jeez, you're talking like he was returning to power. He can't, he's term limited and not making an issue of his term having been cut short.

His wife -- interviewed here -- might run for president; there are rumors. Know what her name is? Xiomara Castro!

[cue music from Evita]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Nothing good for Honduras can come of this. Nothing.

Honduras has already been readmitted to the OAS. That's something.

Though it might be a mixed blessing. From The Nation:

Zelaya Returns to Honduras, But Justice Is Still Not Done
Dana Frank
June 2, 2011

When President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya finally returned to Honduras on Saturday, May 28, almost two years after he was deposed in a June 2009 military coup, the sea of people in red t-shirts greeting him at the Tegucigalpa airport and protesting the coup extended so far out into the streets that no one could really count them. It was by far the biggest demonstration in Honduran history. Even the pro-coup El Heraldo estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million people. TV Channel 11 said 900,000—or eleven percent of the entire Honduran population.

But what did Zelaya's triumphant return really mean? Certainly not that justice has been restored to Honduras, repression ended or social justice addressed. The accord with current de facto President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, offers nothing beyond dropping the trumped-up charges against Zelaya, permitting his re-entry.

Zelaya's return does have enormous popular significance. Even for those who are quite critical of him, he is the grand symbol of resistance to the military coup and of constitutional order. His return offers a brief gleam of hope and dramatically changes the political landscape in Honduras.

But supporters of the ongoing coup regime are happy, too. Up north, the US mainstream media was quick to declare that "the crisis is now over." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's been desperately seeking Zelaya's return in order to create the semblance of two-party democracy, immediately announced that Honduras could now be readmitted to the Organization of American States. The fix was in: on Wednesday, June 1, the OAS indeed readmitted Honduras, with only Ecuador dissenting.

But the pact does nothing real to address the human rights crisis in Honduras. As a statement issued by twenty prominent groups—representing Honduran judges, ministers, women, indigenous, gay people, Afro-Hondurans and human rights activists—underscored, the original conditions for readmission to the OAS, including prosecution of the coup perpetrators, have by no means been met. "Innumerable violations of human rights" were committed during the coup, they note, but the accord "doesn't record these facts; nor does it establish an effective mechanism for their investigations, sanction, and adequate reparation.”

Repression of the opposition in the past three months has in fact been worse than it was in the period immediately following the coup. Lobo's police and military now routinely use tear gas canisters as lethal weapons, threats and assassinations of opposition journalists continue (including two murders in May) and free-range paramilitaries pick off campesino activists one by one in the Aguán Valley, where four people were killed in May alone. Two days after the accord, Lobo's police used tear gas and live bullets against a group of high school students protesting their math teachers' dismissal.

The judiciary system, moreover, is largely nonfunctional. Complete impunity reigns for the over thirty-six politically-motivated assassinations and over 300 suspicious murders of opposition members since Lobo took office, according to COFADEH, the leading independent human rights group in the country. The same military officers who perpetrated the coup are in charge of the armed forces and the state-owned telephone company.

Lobo—himself elected in a fraudulent November 2009 election, controlled by the army and boycotted by the opposition and international observers— weakly promises in the accord to pay attention to human rights. But with nothing concrete in the text, it's merely the fox swearing he'll guard the chicken coop even more carefully. "Human rights are not subject to political negotiation," COFADEH emphasized, in response to the accord.

A large and growing segment of the US Congress, fortunately, isn't fooled. On May 31, eighty-seven members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary Clinton, sponsored by Representatives James McGovern, Jan Schakowsky and Sam Farr, expressing concern over the human rights situation in Honduras and demanding a suspension of US military and police aid to Honduras—up from 30 signers of a similar letter last October.

And what about the Honduran resistance, which has already paid such a terrible price?

It's pivoting to deal with the new reality of Zelaya's presence and his accord with Lobo. Internally, a ferocious debate is raging, between those who support the entrance of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) into electoral politics right now—which could translate into formal political power, but risks patronage opportunism and slippage into a revived version of the old oligarchic Liberal Party—and the social movement base within the opposition, which wants to build a horizontal base more slowly and is concerned about decision-making processes within the frente.

In this new, rapid-fire political context, the question is how to seize the moment and translate that mass of politically-engaged Hondurans in red t-shirts into fundamental social, economic and political change. As Eugenio Sosa, a prominent Honduran intellectual, queried on the radio as Zelaya's plane was about to land, "This multitude—for what?"

 

[neci]

two journalists murdered in may.

now that they are back in the OAS, they can be removed from the newspapers again. business anyone?