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HONDURAS: Coup
Opponents Announce New Stage of Protests
By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) - The sectors opposed to the
regime that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
on Jun. 28 announced a new stage of resistance,
while Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is planning
a second round of talks, as peace broker.
Arias, winner of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts to end civil wars raging at the time in
several Central American countries, told the press
over the weekend that within the next week a new
round of talks should be held by the representatives
of Zelaya and the de facto regime headed by Roberto
Micheletti.
The two sides now have a week to "reflect" before
sitting down to dialogue "more calmly," said Arias.
The first round of talks, held Jul. 9-10 in the
Costa Rican capital, produced no results. Zelaya and
Micheletti refused to get together face-to-face,
each meeting separately instead with Arias, who said
afterwards that "miracles" don't happen overnight
and that things would take longer than expected.
Former chief justice of the Honduran Supreme Court
Vilma Morales, who formed part of Micheletti's
delegation, told IPS that "we are optimistic about
the next meeting, because we are all Hondurans and
we should look for solutions to the conflict among
ourselves, in the framework of our laws, our
constitution and the rule of law."
Morales said the next meeting would take place on
Saturday, Jul.18.
Rafael Leiva, an analyst who specialises in
international law, said Arias "cannot afford to let
the mediation fail; he will find a way to overcome
the obstacles that emerge, in order to reach a
solution. This problem must be resolved by Hondurans
themselves, with the support of the rest of Central
America."
In his conversation with IPS, Leiva pointed to
Arias' ability to "unblock disagreements with his
wisdom and insight" during the Central American
peace processes that culminated in peace accords in
the 1980s and early 1990s.
"We believe he will not allow this situation to get
out of hand. He also has the approval of Washington,
which has confidence in his peace brokering skills,"
he said.
Meanwhile, the so-called Resistance Front Against
the Coup d'Etat announced a new, more radical phase
of protests this week aimed at securing Zelaya's
return.
Congressman Marvin Ponce of the leftist Democratic
Unification (UD) party said he believes the talks in
San José are merely aimed at "buying time, while the
Micheletti regime gets established, and we won't let
that happen. We think they are only trying to drag
this situation out, when things here are clear:
there was a coup d'etat and Manuel Zelaya should be
reinstated.
"As of this week we are going to take more radical
action," he told IPS. "We are calling all of the
organisations that make up the Resistance Front to
an assembly Tuesday where we are going to propose a
nationwide general strike as well as more radical
actions. If what it takes is civil war, then that's
what we'll do.
"The people owe Honduras a revolution, and if the
legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya, is not
reinstated, there will be a confrontation between
social classes. What I can say is that the days of
peaceful resistance, like we have had until now, are
numbered," said Ponce, visibly exhausted from the
last two weeks of protests.
There have been media reports and footage of harsh
crackdowns on pro-Zelaya demonstrators, and two
protesters were reportedly killed in a clash with
security forces at the airport in Tegucigalpa when
the leader's attempt to return to Honduras was
thwarted by the military on Jul. 5.
In addition, two of Ponce's fellow UD politicians
have been murdered in murky circumstances: Roger
Bados was killed over the weekend at his home in
Rivera Hernández, a violent slum in the northern
city of San Pedro Sula, while Ramón García was
murdered while riding in a bus to the capital from
the western city of Santa Bárbara.
The deaths of the two UD social activists have not
been expressly linked to the crisis triggered two
weeks ago, when at least 200 military troops
surrounded Zelaya's residence early in the morning
on Sunday, Jun. 28, pulled him out of bed at
gunpoint and put him on a plane to Costa Rica.
The situation surrounding the two murders is
"strange and hazy. We need more information before
we can comment on" the deaths, said Ponce.
In the view of Erasto Reyes, a leader of the Bloque
Popular that forms part of the Resistance Front in
San Pedro Sula, the murders "have increased the fear
and sense of insecurity in this tense context in
which social activists move. But we are not going to
let down our guard, regardless," he told IPS.
On Sunday, the Micheletti government lifted the
nighttime curfew in place since the coup, an attempt
to show the international community that things were
returning to normal in Honduras, in the wake of wide
condemnation of the suspension of constitutional
guarantees.
Labour and business activity began to return to
normal last week, while marches by pro- and anti-Zelaya
demonstrators have continued since Jun. 28.
The most affected sector has been education. On
Monday, one faction of the teachers' unions called
for a return to the classroom, while the rest
decided in an assembly to continue the strike.
Lina Pineda, leader of one of the five factions that
agreed to continue the strike, told IPS that
"besides suspending classes, we are going to block
roads, because the resistance will continue. We are
completely united, and we are not going to stop
until the coup-mongers leave."
In statements from the Dominican Republic, Zelaya
announced that he would return to the country this
week, in line with remarks by his ally, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez, who said Sunday that the
Honduran leader would reenter his country at a point
"where he is least expected."
Chávez made his comments after a team of journalists
from the Caracas-based regional television network
Telesur, which belongs to several Latin American
countries, were detained and held for several hours
by the Honduran police, accused of driving a stolen
vehicle.
The Telesur reporters said that although they were
not physically mistreated by the police, they were
the target of verbal abuse. Several of them left
Honduras Sunday because their visas had expired, the
local press reported.
The Venezuelan Embassy said it was considering
lodging a formal complaint over the journalists'
arrest.
No government has recognised the regime in Honduras,
which is facing total isolation. The coup was
condemned by the United Nations General Assembly and
the Organisation of American States, both of which
called for Zelaya's immediate return to power.
The Non-Aligned Movement, to which Honduras belongs,
is preparing to do the same on Thursday.
But within Honduras, influential voices continue to
deny that what happened was a coup. In an interview
with an Argentine newspaper, Catholic cardinal Óscar
Andrés Rodríguez complained that the international
community "has eyes and does not see, has ears and
does not hear, has a tongue and does not speak."
Rodríguez insists that Zelaya was removed in
accordance with the steps outlined by the
constitution. "If you see the steps taken, they are
the ones established by the constitution. It would
have been a coup if the head of state and the
ministers were military officers and Congress or the
Supreme Court had been dissolved. Some of the
previous government's ministers are even still in
the cabinet. What the army did was enforce a judge's
order." |
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