Andres Conteris, journalist for Democracy Now has been inside the Brazilian Embassy with President Zelaya since day one. A month and a half later the one hundred or so inside the Embassy is down to 30. Nevertheless, the commitment to resist the coup regime honestly and calmly is as strong as ever. President Zelaya is counting on the international community not to recognise the illegal, and heavily compromised 'elections' of November 29 to bring some kind of social equity and natural justice to the Honduran people.
Toni Solo reflects on the shocking retraction of the US' professed commitment to recognise the November 29 elections in Honduras if President Zelaya is reinstated. De facto president Micheletti signed an agreement brokered by the US to reinstate President Zelaya on October 30, but refused to convene the Honduras Congress to ratify the agreement. President Zelaya is still a virtual prisoner trapped inside the Brazilian Embassy, even though it was assumed that he could resume the Presidential seat after the November 5 deadline.
On the weekend of November 7 the US unexpectedly announced that the US would recognise the November elections, whether Zelaya was reinstated or not - thus conferring a spurious legitimacy on the regime and dividing the Organisation of American States in its original position of not recognising the elections if Zelaya was not reinstated beforehand.
Ricardo Salgado, Honduran analyst of the 'crisis' in Honduras explains the latest developments. In spite of US pressure on the coup regime to recognise the legitimacy of Zelaya as President ten days ago, the President is still trapped inside the Brazilian Embassy. The 'agreement' (designed more to save face for the US and the coup regime rather than the restoration of a democratic 'solution') has failed. The coup regime has failed to meet the one week deadline to restore Zelaya to his post as President in a reasonable amount of time to allow a 'clean' election process.
The Resistance Front (according to polls supported by over 70% of the population) has announced that they will not recognised the November 29 elections, and the single opposition candidate, Carlos Reyes, has withdrawn his candidature. If the coup regime goes ahead with the elections it could destabilise the entire region. There is a call for the international community not to recognise the legitimacy of the elections. With the US playing a reluctant role (although one of the key players) in promoting a just resolution to the crisis, the Obama administration may be deferring a small problem until it becomes a big problem.
I find the video stye of Alba TV exciting and very creative. A 'community' generated project in Venezuela , you can catch up with more from Alba here on VideoActiv
100 days since the coup detat that ousted Manuel Zelaya, Fault Lines travels to Honduras to look at polarisation and power in the Americas, and finds resistance and repression in the streets.
Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras on the withdrawal of Resistance Front Representative from the 'dialogue' between President Zelaya and the coup regime. A positive outcome is not likely, and it seems that repression of the Honduran people by the coup regime is growing proportionately. The interview was paused while Ricardo went out to investigate the sound of shooting in the streets - a sound he says, the Honduran people have become all too used to.
Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras on the withdrawal of Resistance Front Representative from the 'dialogue' between President Zelaya and the coup regime. A positive outcome is not likely, and it seems that repression of the Honduran people by the coup regime is growing proportionately. The interview was paused while Ricardo went out to investigate the sound of shooting in the streets - a sound he says, the Honduran people have become all too used to.
Emergency campaign for sign-ons to open letter to Australian government
The situation in Honduras following the military coup on June 28 remains desperate. The people continue their protest actions demanding Zelaya’s reinstatement and the convening of a constituent assembly, but to date, at least 17 people have been murdered and more than 4000 are now political prisoners.
Our solidarity is still needed and through Green Left Weekly an emergency campaign has been launched to collect signatures this week on an open letter to minister for foreign affairs Stephen Smith, calling on the Australian government to actively support the Honduran people’s demands.
The open letter (text below)has already been signed by a range of academics and activists (download copy here ). Please help by circulating it more widely and seeking signatures among other activists/academics/organisations.
Comradely,
Lisa Macdonald
An open letter to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
To: Stephen Smith
Minister for Foreign Affairs
PO Box 6022, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600
The people and nation of Honduras urgently need the support of governments around the world.
A dictatorship has been in power since June 28, when the elected government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales was overthrown in a military coup. The illegal regime is not officially recognised by any government or international institution. The Organisation of American States, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have all taken action to isolate the regime. The United Nations has refused assistance to elections scheduled for November 29 on the grounds that a poll organise by the dictatorship has no legitimacy.
The Honduran people have rejected the coup regime. Polling company COIMER & OP, legally authorised by the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal to survey the population in the lead up to the November 29 poll, found in August that only 17% of Hondurans support the coup. A majority support Zelaya’s reinstatement.
Three months after the coup, the people continue their peaceful protests demanding Zelaya’s reinstatement and the convening of a constituent assembly. The coup regime has responded with terror and repression. Reliable sources estimate that at least 4000 people have been detained and 17 killed during the three months of protests. Media outlets and journalists critical of the coup regime have been harassed or silenced, including an occupation by the military of a radio and TV station. A number of political prisoners have started an indefinite hunger strike against their illegal detention.
The demand of the Honduran people is simple: the legitimate government elected by the people should be restored. It is a fundamental human right of all peoples to determine their own government and political future, and we call on the Australian government to urgently:
• Join government’s across the world by clearly denouncing the coup and demanding Zelaya be immediately restored as President;
• Cut all diplomatic, political, cultural or economic ties that the Australian government may have with Honduras until Zelaya is reinstated;
• Join the Organisation of American States in refusing to recognise the outcome of any elections organised by the illegal coup regime;
• Demand the immediate release of all political prisoners;
• Pressure the United States administration to act on its verbal criticisms of the coup and cut all ties with the coup regime, and end its ongoing training of the Honduran military.
Signatories:
(Positions for identification purposes only): Stuart Munckton, Emma Murphy, co-editors, Green Left Weekly; Latin American Social Forum (Sydney); Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network; Bea Bleile, Margarita Windisch, Dick Nichols, national conveners, Socialist Alliance; Peace and Justice for Colombia – Australia; Tim Gooden, secretary, Geelong Trades & Labour Council; Dr Tom Griffiths, School of Education, University of Newcastle; Patrick Harrison, Social Justice officer, Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association; Dr Tom Griffiths, School of Education, University of Newcastle; Warwick Fry, radio broadcaster; Marlene Obeid, community worker and anti-war campaigner, Sydney; Dr Tim Anderson, Political Economy, Sydney University; Dr John Minns, Director, Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies, Australian National University; Zane Alcorn, Environment Collective convener-elect, Newcastle University; Susan Price, NTEU branch president, University of NSW; Jess Moore, national coordinator, Resistance youth organisation; Tim Niven, Cammeray NSW; Ash Pemberton, Wollongong, NSW; Anthony & Linda McKenzie.
Toni Solo returns to Nicaragua after a week in Honduras where he has picked up disturbing stories that someone is returning fire on the police. By most accounts the 'gangs' or 'maras' (closely involved with the narcotics trade in Central American countries) guarding their 'turf' - but in this case the police were pursuing and firing on a street demonstration that took refuge in a poor neighbourhood, or 'barrio'. But there was also another armed group defending the demonstrators who were clearly not gang members - this just a week after a report that a police station had been overrun and weapons taken.
While the demonstrations are well disciplined and strictly non violent, if the coup regime does not respond positively to the deadline offered this October 15 - after 115 days of non violent protest, some elements might be forgiven for thinking of armed struggle as an option.
While proclaiming to the international community and media that they are 'prepared to negotiate' the coup regime of Honduras has made it obvious that there is one point that they will not negotiate - that is the reinstatement of President Zelaya, who is sheltering in the Brazilian Embassy. The Micheletti coup regime set up a hydraulic lift with two snipers wearing night goggles on a level with the second story of the Embassy, in a clear attempt at further intimidate the President and his supporters inside. Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras in an exclusive interview with community radio 2NimFm.
Part 2 of Toni Solo (tortillaconsal) interview on the regional context of the Honduras crisis. In this section Toni discusses the lessons learned from CAFTA after he spent an hour with the Nicaraguan Minister for Finance.
Toni Solo travels frequently between Nicaragua and Honduras. In this in depth interview he talks about the Honduras situation, 110 days after the coup, the latest developments, President Zelaya's deadline to break the impasse with the de facto coup government, and what the implications of the Honduras crisis are for the region.
According to the film notes, the dictator Roberto Micheletti's decree suspending constitutional guarantees of civil rights and freedoms for forty-five days exposed him as a dictator. His subsequently announced repudiation of this decree has still not been published in the official newspaper "La Gaceta", which means that the state of siege continues with all of its repression. The Honduran people continue to face the threat of death from the military and police, "institutions which have been behaving like an oppressive army of occupation".
Hondurans loyal to the country's deposed president have faced severe restrictions on freedom of assembly, speech and movement since the country's de facto leaders imposed an emergency order which they said was aimed at preventing the political crisis in the country from deepening.
Two media stations loyal to Manuel Zelaya, the country's ousted leader, were shut down just hours after the decree was imposed last week. Police also moved to break-up pro-Zelaya demonstrations in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. Scores of Zelaya supporters were arrested by security forces at the height of the crackdown, with many transferred to high-security jails. Monica Villamizar visited the largest women's prison in Honduras to see how the inmates were faring.
Andres Conteris and others say that there may be a 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Elements within the military and business community that originally backed the coup are putting pressure on the Micheletti de-facto government to be less intransigent and negotiate.
The President and his supporters in the besieged Brazilian Embassy had high morale and were in good spirits, having just celebrated the birthday of the President's grandchild. He sent a gruff 'Saludos' to community radio in Australia.
But for the people of Honduras the issue now goes far further than reinstating Zelaya. They are demanding the Constitutional reform and determined to defy the suspension of Constitutional guarantees that has unleashed a wave of repression.
John Rice: For everyone, the light - for everyone, everything. For us, the rebellion of happiness. For us, nothing." Some of the lyrics to this clip - one of three; catch them all - great documents of the resistance in Honduras:
Salvadorans Demonstrate Solidarity with Honduras by Kara Newhouse and Laura Taylor
SAN SALVADOR—Fourteen buses loaded with FMLN supporters barreled out of Morazan's mountains yesterday and into the capital, where the passengers joined with others from across the country in a show of solidarity for the people of Honduras. Thousands converged on Juan Pablo II, a street normally home to government buildings, but which now displayed all the trimmings of a carnival—strings of FMLN pennants, “FUERA LOS GOLPISTAS” signs, vendors selling snacks and beer, and music ranging from the national anthems of El Salvador and Honduras to pop rock .
On stage the FMLN general coordinator responded to accusations from conservative media that the party supported Zelaya's return. “To the question everyone is asking—they are asking if we, the FMLN, are supporters of the resistance. I can only say, of course.” Party leaders maintained that they would continue to resist foreign interventions and support true democracy in Honduras. The 617 members of Morazan's delegation arrived to send the message that organized communities denounce repression and will not allow a coup to succeed, in Honduras or El Salvador, said the Secretary of Women for the National Council of the FMLN, Maria Luisa Avigil Hernandez.
Another coordinator from the women's commission, Margarita Rodriguez, said that the people of Perquin have a special relationship to injustice in Honduras because the Salvadoran resistance of the 1980s originated in Perquin. People there endured much suffering and repression during the war, and many sought refuge across the border in Honduras. This history, Rodriguez said, creates a strong sense of solidarity and consciousness about organizing: “Here the community is ready for anything.”
Hundreds of Salvadorans too young to have experienced the war also joined the demonstration, claiming a broad concern over human rights abuses in the neighboring country. Twenty-year-old Victor Chevez commented, “I hope that the feeling of support reaches those in resistance, and gives them the energy to keep fighting.”
Ricardo Salgado has just returned from the Brazilian Embassy where President Zelaya is defying three police lines and attempts by the coup regime to dislodge him and his supporters in contravention of international law. The Honduras Resistance movement is planning mass marches for tomorrow, and will attempt to retake Radio Globo that was shut down by the coup regime yesterday. Radio Globo is still broadcasting through the internet, and a network of smaller community radio stations. Will the resistance movement cause the de facto coup regime collapse under its own weight of repression sooner, or later?
Andres Conteris, journalist for "Democracy Now" is inside the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras with President Zelaya who has taken refuge there until restored to his legitimate role. The Brazilian Embassy is under siege by the Honduran armed forces who have attempted to cut food supplies, water and electricity, jam communications and set up sound boxes designed to emit high pitched, irritating high decibal noise inside the Embassy grounds.
A week later, and the coup regime has declared a suspension of all constitutional rights and put an ultimatum to the Brazilian government. International reaction to this disturbing move has been disappointingly slow, especially from the US. The toll of casualties is mounting, the latest a woman who died from the effects of the teargas assault on the Brazilian Embassy. Radio Globo is no longer transmitting, but has maintained its internet stream. The Honduran coup regime is reacting hysterically and with typical excessive force against the popular outrage that has only grown over the last three months, with hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of people out in the streets in protest on a daily basis.
I find the video stye of Alba TV exciting and very creative. A 'community' generated project in Venezuela , you can catch up with
reports from Honduras in an exclusive interview with community radio 2NimFm.
