The arrest and exile of President Zelaya in Honduras takes on all the classic appurtenances of a latin american coup – pro-Zelaya media has been off the air for days now, pro-Zelaya journalists on TV stations have been replaced without explanation, the army is shooting at protestors. Journalists with Telesur, the Venezuelan-based TV channel, have been arrested at gunpoint, according to Counterpunch and CNN en espanol remains off the air.
Indymedia Honduras reports – in items filed in midday today – that large pro-Zelaya marches have taken place once again in the capital Tegucigalpa and second city Comayaguela large marches occupying the centre of the city have once again taken place, and there a major demonstration is planned for Saturday, 4 July, when President Zelaya plans to return to the country accompanied by accompanied by Argentine President Cristina Fernández, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza, and United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, as well as other foreign observers.
Most central American countries have suspended trade with Honduras, the US Southern Command has suspended joint operations with the military and all Latin American countries have withdrawn their ambassadors, as have EU countries, though the US is yet to do so.
Chiapas Indymedia also reports that the new leadership of the country issued a decree on Wednesday (it is now Thursday in the Western Hemisphere) banning freedom of assembly, extending a nighttime curfew for another week, and declaring Zelaya guilty of treason and subject to arrest if he returns to the country.
Debate continues about the legality of Zelaya’s actions, even within the narrow confines of the Reagan-era drafted 1982 Constitution, with the Wall Street Journal‘s opinion-page shil (free access) Mary Anastassia O’Grady arguing that it was a legal removal from power, while an analysis by Alberto Valiente Thoresen for Rebel Reports claims it to be illegal, as Zelaya was conducting a nonbinding referendum under a 2006 act of the Honduran Congress.
However, even if Zelaya’s actions were subject to dispute within the confines of the Honduran system, the coup’s extension to full civil repression has made it clearly illegal, which is why so many of its initial Western supporters have gone silent. Indeed, much of the propagandistic value of the Iranian protests to the Western right has been lost, since the Honduran resistance to the coup has unfolded in similar fashion – and in a more determined manner, with a far greater chance of success. Furthermore the leverage open to other states in terms of refusing to recognise the new government is greater since the Honduran coup leaders – unlike Iran – desperately need outside legitimation for their seizure of power to be viable.
Nevertheless there are signs that, as Honduran resistance grows, key external resistance may be weakening. The BBC reports that the Honduran government has rejected the OAS 72 hour deadline to reinstate Zelaya, and that the OAS is now talking of reaching a diplomatic solution to the crisis – which may involve elections brought forward yet run with the new de facto leadership in place, allowing for the election to be blatantly stolen and for continued press restrictions to stay in place.
More speculatively, Venezuelan media suggests that the coup was a ‘dry run’ tacitly supported by both the US and Mossad (which has been a key player in central America in the past) to see what sort of reactions a new wave of repression in Latin America would take. Contrary to some reports BBC vox pops in the capital found support and opposition to Zelaya more evenly divided than has been suggested.
But it will all come to a head when Zelaya returns in two days’ time.
Sourced entirely from Central American news-sites, online political dailies (Counterpunch), regional expert blogs and websites, and public media (except for WSJ citation).
For what happened in Honduras two days ago, buy a copy of the Australian and read a wire report researched 36 hours ago, written 24 hours ago, and selected by a section editor yesterday afternoon, whose salary is dependent on Rupert Murdoch’s continued approval.
Thanks Guy. This is more like it.
Intriguing too, is the choice of the Costa Rican President to act as ‘mediator’ in what the US is calling ‘negotiations’ between the coupsters, and what the Latin press claims, provides ‘an option for the coupsters to back off’. (I’d have preferred to see the discussions taking place in Managua, or San Salvador with someone like Miguel D’Escoto as the mediator).
Telesur is doing the best media coverage on this – with an interview today with an Honduran woman involved in the ‘social movements’ to discuss the effects of the general strike and the isolation of Honduras on the lives of the less privileged (90%) people.
The street action is absolutely unprecedented in Honduras. When one or two hundred thousand people people come out, day by day for over a week, in a country with a population of seven million (a good percentage of which is outside the country) you are looking at a massive uprising. The ‘coupsters’ have a shrinking useby date, unless, unless, the issue is obfuscated, confused and swept under the carpet and the facts disguised.
I might have some differences with Guy, but at least he is one of the few in Australia who has noticed Honduras and the coup.
It is the first step in recognising historical events and changes in latin america on a scale that approaches the Russian Revolution of the last century. Not the same, but on the same richter scale. Latin America seems to have vanished from the map, as far as Australia and the Australian media are concerned. That tells us a lot about ourselves.