Julie Webb-Pullman: Honduras - Democracy Take Two

President Manuel Zelaya will again try to restore democratic rule to Honduras this weekend.

He plans to return to his country to re-establish his legitimate government regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s negotiations in Costa Rica mediated by Nobel Laureate and President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias.

At least Arias is singing from the same songbook as the Organisation of American States, the United Nations, and the majority of the Honduran people and the international community, in continuinng the chorus that Zelaya’s return to serve out his term is non-negotiable.

Micheletti’s offer to stand down, to be replaced by the Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera, would – and should - be as unacceptable as any proposal that excludes Zelaya from his elected position.

Micheletti and coup on thin ice

Micheletti and co. have fast lost credibility even within their own ranks – on Tuesday 14 July, Micheletti’s own Liberal Party kicked him out, weighing in behind their other member, Zelaya. Having waited two weeks for top party authorities, the ‘Board’, to condemn the coup, base members finally gave up and held a General Assembly, at the end of which they:

• categorically condemned the coup d'état perpetrated by the Honduran Armed Forces jointly with the National Congress, the Supreme Court and the Public Ministry,
• demanded the immediate return of President Manuel Zelaya,
• demanded the expulsion of Micheletti and presidential candidate Elvin Santos from the party due to his participation in the military coup and because Santos has not yet taken a public position against the rupture of constitutional order in Honduras,
• agreed to continue with resistance on the streets, in coordination with the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'État,
• called for a General Convention to legalize the definitive expulsion of Micheletti, the congress representatives that took part in the coup, and all Liberals who have accepted staff roles in the dictatorial governmental.

National Coordinator of the Liberal Party to Tegucigalpa, Carlos Eduardo Reina, said the base of the party had no option but to make their own statement, as the Board is led by Micheletti and Santos, who led the coup and support the dictator government.

De Facto Foreign Minister resigns over racist remarks

Also on Tuesday, the first de facto Foreign Minister, Enrique Ortez Colindres, was forced to fall on his sword after calling Barack Obama a “little black man” in one interview, then following it up in another with "I have negotiated with queers, prostitutes, leftists, blacks, whites. This is my job, I studied for it. I am not racially prejudiced. I like the little black sugar plantation worker who is president of the United States." This wasn’t even bad enough for Micheletti to sack him – he merely moved him sideways to be the de facto Minster of Justice, indicating the standard to be expected from a judicial system under this illegitimate government. Ortez Colindres finally bit the bullet and resigned following strong condemnation by U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, who conveyed his “... deep outrage about the unfortunate, disrespectful and racially insensitive comments by Mr. Enrique Ortez Colindres about President Barack Obama.”

No legal basis for Zelaya’s abduction and exile
Since the coup there have been several damning admissions from within the putsch itself, acknowledging that there was no legal basis for Zelaya’s removal. Herrera Hernández , a lawyer for the Attorney General’s office, admitted that the arrest order for Zelaya was in fact issued a day after he had been kidnapped and flown into exile, rendering his detention illegal, and the Honduran army’s top lawyer Colonel Herberth Bayardo Inestroza Membreño told the Miami Herald that ''at the time we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, was a crime."

Herrera also said that contrary to coup propaganda, Zelaya never sought to extend his term in office, and even if the survey had been held, changing the constitution would have required action by the legislature.

“Whatever legal argument the coup leaders had against Zelaya, it fell apart when they flew him into exile rather than prosecuting him...The legal system has broken down, for if this can happen to the president, who can't it happen to?” asked Herrera.

That question can only be answered by the immediate return of Zelaya - thus democracy - to Honduras, followed by the bringing to justice of all of those who enabled and perpetrated the coup.

First in line should be the graduates of the School of the Americas, such as General Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez, who ordered Zelaya’s abduction, and General Luis Javier Prince Suazo, the head of the Honduran air force, who arranged to have Zelaya flown into exile in Costa Rica. Hot on their heels should be all in the U.S. Pentagon, Southern Command and State Department with their fingers still sticky from the blood of this particularly unpalatable pie, if Eva Golinger’s evidence is substantiated. http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/washington-coup-in-honduras-here-is.html

It seems Zelaya will not be the only one trying to forge an honest, transparent, and accountable administration in the coming months.

Julie Webb-Pullman (click to view previous articles) is a New Zealand based freelance writer who has reported about - and on occasion from - Central America for Scoop since 2003. Send Feedback to julie@scoop.co.nz

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