DAY 75, HONDURAS COUP RESISTANCE
DEMOCRACY, EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT,
ONE BARRIO AT A TIME
(By Grahame Russell, Rights Action, September 10, 2009)
Below, photos and commentary from today’s march (Day 75) of pro-democracy, anti-coup Hondurans, interspersed with news reports on various national and international issues related to the coup.
FOR INTERVIEWS FROM HONDURAS
Grahame Russell, in Honduras: 011 [504] 8865-2527, info@rightsaction.org
Karen Spring, in Honduras: 011 [504] 9507-3835, spring.kj@gmail.com
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DEMOCRACY, EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT,
ONE BARRIO AT A TIME
(Photos and text by Grahame Russell, Rights Action. All photos, September 10, 2009)
ONE MORE PERSON FEARED BY THE OLIGARCHIC-MILITARY REGIME
Juliana Vasquez is 79 years old. From the barrio of Villa Vieja, in Tegucigalpa, she has participated in every march of the National Front Against the Coup, since June 28. I met her on today’s 4 hour march that wound slowly, some 4 miles through poor neighborhoods in the south of Tegucigalpa, near the airport.
How long will you keep on marching? “Until Mel returns.”
Will you vote in presidential elections on November 29 if President Zelaya is not restored to power? “There will be no elections.”
CHRONOLOGY OF THE DAYS IN RESISTANCE
Oscar Flores is the Honduran man who walks every day, near the front of the marches, carrying this sign, adding a day, everyday to the running total of days in resistance. He refers to himself as the “el hombre de la cronica pedagogica de los dias en Resistencia”, perhaps translated as “the man who keeps an educational chronology of the days in resistance.”
A FEW MORE THAN “4 PETTY THIEVES IN THE PROTESTS”
More than the “4 petty thieves in the protests” that regime leader Roberto Micheletti disparagingly refers to, thousands marched again today – democracy, education and empowerment in the streets everyday.
OLIGARCHY OFFERING ECONOMIC INCENTIVES TO VOTE,
IN HOPES OF LEGITIMIZING THE COUP REGIME
IN NOVEMBER 29TH ELECTORAL FARSE
The so-called presidential elections, slated for November 29, are a coup-regime farse. The National Front Against the Coup has denounced the very idea of holding "democratic" elections in a country controlled by an oligarchic-military regime. They have stated: “Without the restitution of constitutional order, the general elections would be the legalization of the military violence against the state; for that reason, they are unacceptable.”
For its part, the oligarchic-military regime sees the elections as an end-game, to legitimize themselves and their coup that overthrew the government of President Zelaya on June 28.
As reported in the LaTribuna.hn newspaper, 9 Septiembre 2009, the wealthy sectors of Honduras will offer discounts to people who vote. (This is not a joke) The LaTribuna.hn interviewed Adolfo Facusse, one of the wealthiest men in Honduras, who is overtly pro-military coup regime and is president of ANDI, the National Association of Industry.
On November 29, ANDI will offer discounts to any Honduran who shows up in a shop with blue ink on their finger, proof they voted. “We are thinking of ways to enthuse the voters. So, we will offer discounts in all our businesses to all people who vote. They just have to show up with the finger died in ink, and they will get an automatic discount in any store anywhere in the country," explained Facusse.
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Again, hundreds of police and soldiers “escort” the pro-democracy, anti-coup march.
“The re-establishment of the institutional order is with MEL and only with him.”
“Artists armed with culture, against barbarity”
“When I grow up, I will not be a “golpista” (coup supporter). I love the resistance.”
5 HONDURANS JAILED, ON CHARGES OF SEDITION, AFTER BEING ATTACKED BY LIBERAL PARTY MOB ARMED BY MACHETES, ROCKS, PISTOLS
(Source: COFADEH, Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared. For more info, contact: Marvin Palacios, mpalaciosenelaire@yahoo.com)
On September 9, Dina Meza reports that pro-coup judges and state attorneys have united to keep behind bars 5 protesters who were involved in protests against a political rally held by Liberal Party presidential candidate Elvin Santos in the southern city of Choluteca.
State attorneys accused the 5 of sedition against the State, and participating in an illegal protest, because they were caught spray-painting "golpistas" (coup supporters) on the walls of the National party. Jailed are: Delmer Edgardo Castillo Fúnez, Ismael Zúniga Nieto, Juan Carlos Gómez Rivera, Julio Valencia Canales y Oscar Canales Lagos. The crimes of sedition and illegal protests carry sentences of 15-20 and 6-8 years, respectively.
The 5 were detained during a violent confrontation that began where the Liberal party Mayor of Choluteca, Quintín Soriano, arrived with 100 men to confront a peaceful protest organized by the National Front Against the Coup. Mayor Quintin Soriano himself was filmed on national TV (channel 36 news) carrying a nine-milimeter pistol as he walked with his men towards the protesters.
No charges were laid against Mayor Quintin Soriano, illegally carrying a gun, nor any of his men who – with machetes and rocks - attacked the protesters.
PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE MARCHES
The handy man with the ladder comes running, during the march …
To help an anti-coup, pro-democracy man …
“deface” a Liberal party presidential election flag. The man writes the name of “Mel” on the flag. Elvin Santos is the Liberal party’s candidate for the November 29 elections. As far as most Hondurans believe, Elvin Santos is one more “golpista” (coup supporter) and the elections are to be rejected. President “Mel” Zelaya was/ is of the same Liberal party, but the Liberal party has been broken apart.
U.S. MILITARY TO CARRY OUT MILITARY “EXERCIZES” WITH HONDURAN MILITARY (Source: La Jornada,
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/09/10/index.php?section=mundo&article=025n1m
Un)
Between September 11-22, the US war department (the Pentagon) has invited the Honduran military (that carried out the June 28 coup, and that has militarized parts of the country) to join in the “Panamex 2009” military activities. Recently, the US government had announced the suspension of military cooperation with the de facto military regime.
THE PEOPLE OPPOSING THE COUP
Here are some people the wealthy elites fear and will use violence against, simply because they publicly reject the coup regime, because they are marching peacefully for a return of their constitutional government and for a real and lasting democracy, not one the elites and turn on or off, according to their self-centered whims.
Again, the barrio dwellers came out of their homes in droves, to cheer on the marchers. This father displays a “down with the coup supporters” t-shirt.
TELL THE IMF "NO FUNDS FOR HONDURAN COUP GOVERNMENT
(Source: Quixote Center, Hyattsville, MD. Contact: Tom Louden, toml@quixote.org, 301-699-0042)
Last week the IMF (International Monetary Fund) announced it would make available $250 billion in Special Drawing Rights - essentially a line of credit - to countries around the world for confronting the global economic crisis. Included in that figure was $163 million destined for Honduras. The Honduran desk officer for the IMF in Washington and a spokesperson from the External Relations Department told us by telephone that the Special Drawing Rights are not available to the coup regime and that any release of funds would require a decision by all 186 member countries of the IMF. However the media in Honduras is reporting that the coup regime does have access to these funds.
Groups in the National Front Against the Coup, in Honduras, feel it is important to push the IMF to issue a press announcement publicly stating that the IMF has suspended funds to the coup regime, including Special Drawing Rights. The IMF External Relations representative said that if they receive an avalanche of emails, they will issue a press release.
Please help us to generate that avalanche! To help pressure the IMF, contact: Tom Louden, toml@quixote.org, 301-699-0042.
EARLY EDUCATION IN CIVIC DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITIES
What a greeting the marchers got from the students and teachers of the “Club Rotario” primary school in the barrio of Henry Meriam.
The marchers could not have been more enthused by the chanting and applauding of the children, including Rafael Alegria (“alegria” means happiness), a leader with the campesino organization Via Campesina, and a powerful voice in the National Front Against the Coup.
U.S. DEVELOPMENT AGENCY TERMINATES FUNDS TO HONDURAS OVER COUP
(Source: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=adUmocTvqPvk)
The U.S. agency that finances infrastructure development in poor countries terminated its funding to Honduras yesterday, to protest the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government's refusal to let him return to power. Chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Millennium Challenge Corp., which funds development in impoverished nations that demonstrate a commitment to democracy, will stop two transportation projects worth $11 million. It is also withholding $4 million for a road being built in Honduras with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. The commitments were part of a more than $200 million rural-development compact the agency signed in June 2005. […]
On July 2, the administration suspended $1.9 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development and $16.5 million in military funding. Humanitarian programs were largely excluded from the aid suspension. The U.S. had planned to give more than $43 million to Honduras in the current fiscal year.
Other sources of money for Honduras also have dried up. On Sept. 6, the International Monetary Fund announced that the Honduran interim government won't be allowed to draw on as much as $163 million to boost its foreign reserves until the IMF determines if it "will deal with that regime as the government of Honduras."
The European Union has cut aid and the World Bank has suspended loans to the country. The Tegucigalpa-based Central American Bank for Economic Integration, which had given $971 million in development loans in the past five years to Honduras, has also frozen operations there.
ALL THE NEWS THAT IS FIT TO PRINT
THAT THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS NOT PRINTING
During the marches, people educate themselves and barrio dwellers, often with a lot of humor, about democracy, accountability, empowerment and political participation. They read, and then pass on to others, publications such as “El Libertador”, one of the best sources of written material in Honduras (www.ellibertador.hn)
After 3 hours walking on dirt and cobblestone roads, up and down, in the barrios, the march gets back on a main artery of the capital city and heads back towards the center …
On and on the marches go. Often they chant: “Are you tired?” and the people answer: “No.”
And then some joke to themselves, or with international solidarity activists, ‘yup, I am pretty tired.’
They will be out again tomorrow … their numbers will only grow. They are winning this struggle for real democracy from below, even as they know that the oligarchic-military regime will use brutal repression against them again, sometime soon.
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SPEAKING TOURS: “RESISTANCE TO MILITARY COUPS & GOLD MINING DEVASTATION IN HONDURAS & GUATEMALA”
In October, activists with Rights Action will be on speaking tours in Ontario, Quebec and eastern Canada, and parts of north-east USA, showing slides and short documentaries and speaking about the on-going pro-democracy, anti-coup movement in Honduras and about indigenous and community resistance to Goldcorp Inc.’s open-pit, cyanide leach mines in Guatemala and Honduras. Karen Spring will be travelling in Ontario; Francois Guindon will be travelling in Quebec and eastern Canada; Grahame Russell will be in the north-east USA. For more information: info@rightsaction.org.
WHAT TO DO
1- AMERICANS & CANADIANS should contact our members of congress, senators & members of parliament every day, day after day, send copies of this information, and demand:
an immediate suspension of the release of all international funds and loans to the regime
unequivocal denunciation of the military coup and no recognition of this military coup and the regime of Roberto Micheletti
no recognition of the November 2009 elections, that candidates from the traditional Nationalist and Liberal parties are campaigning for, even as the country is militarized and repression is widespread
unconditional return of the entire constitutional government of President Zelaya
concrete and targeted economic, military and diplomatic sanctions against the coup plotters and perpetrators
application of international and national justice against the coup plotters and perpetrators
reparations to the victims for the illegal actions and rights violations committed during this illegal coup
2- TO DONATE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE FUNDS to the peaceful, people’s pro-democracy movement in Honduras, make check to “rights action” and mail to:
UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552-351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
For foundations and institutional donors, Rights Action can (upon request) provide a full proposal of which organizations and people we are channeling funds to and supporting.
Thank-you for your on-going support for our work and for this struggle.
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