If I sound a bit cynical about this country it's because I was in the Peace Corps there in the late 1980s, during the height of US intervention. Twenty years on, the country is STILL in the top 3 poorest in Latin America, and all I saw different in my trip there last month was a bigger gap between the rich and the poor, as reflected in an increase in the number of US-based transnational companies, including gas stations and fast food joints, and more local ones catering to a better off population, such as the popular "Power Chicken" (yes, in English). Uh, thanks, er, NAFTA. Here's the immediate problem, which goes by the name of "La Cuarta Urna," or the Fourth Urn. The first three urns are used to vote for officials at the national, local and municipal levels. The fourth urn would be to vote to create an assembly that would change Honduras' constitution, potentially giving President Zelaya another term. Since Honduras has a terrible education system, most Hondurans don't learn much about their constitution, so the whole process open to manipulation. The initiative does not have popular origins either; it originates in the President's office. Zelaya has allied himself with leftist governments in Latin America, such as those of Venezuela and Bolivia. However, he is also one of the country's largest landowners, so, for me, this is just another version of the same old strongman government.
Honduras RPCV Jackie Brown Otter writes: So, now is Honduras finally finding its own way, or is it just experiencing another form of traditional strongman government from a different part of the political spectrum?
Attempted Coup in Honduras?
by betson08
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Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 03:15:02 PM PDT
With all the things going on everywere these days, it might seem insignificant that this little country is now on the brink of unprecedented civil unrest. But it IS significant. Throughout the 1980s, when neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua were undergoing civil wars, the country had no guerilla movements.
Since Honduras is the original banana republic (seriously, folks) by definition its government is maleable and weak. The US took advantage of this from the 1970s to the end of the Cold War and totally compromised the country's sovereignty by making it a base for covert and overt Cold War-related operations, including military training of young Salvadoran men who were forcibly recruited to the army, and housing and training thousands of Nicaraguan Contra fighters in camps along its border with Nicaragua.
* betson08's diary :: ::
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Here's how the BBC News site describes Honduras:
Military rule, corruption, a huge wealth gap, crime and natural disasters have rendered Honduras one of the least developed and least secure countries in Central America.
So, now is Honduras finally finding its own way, or is it just experiencing another form of traditional strongman government from a different part of the political spectrum? If I sound a bit cynical about this country it's because I was in the Peace Corps there in the late 1980s, during the height of US intervention. Twenty years on, the country is STILL in the top 3 poorest in Latin America, and all I saw different in my trip there last month was a bigger gap between the rich and the poor, as reflected in an increase in the number of US-based transnational companies, including gas stations and fast food joints, and more local ones catering to a better off population, such as the popular "Power Chicken" (yes, in English). Uh, thanks, er, NAFTA.
Here's the immediate problem, which goes by the name of "La Cuarta Urna," or the Fourth Urn. The first three urns are used to vote for officials at the national, local and municipal levels. The fourth urn would be to vote to create an assembly that would change Honduras' constitution, potentially giving President Zelaya another term. Since Honduras has a terrible education system, most Hondurans don't learn much about their constitution, so the whole process open to manipulation. The initiative does not have popular origins either; it originates in the President's office.
Zelaya has allied himself with leftist governments in Latin America, such as those of Venezuela and Bolivia. However, he is also one of the country's largest landowners, so, for me, this is just another version of the same old strongman government.
From CNN
The referendum at the center of the storm asks voters to place a measure on November's ballot that would allow the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation's charter to allow the president to run for another term.
Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January 2010, cannot run for re-election.
The Hondurans Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal, and Congress and the top military brass agreed, but Zelaya remained steadfast.
"Sunday's referendum will not be stopped," Zelaya said at the entrance of the military base where boxes of ballots were removed from storage and put into trucks to be taken to the presidential palace. Moving the ballots prevented them from being voided or destroyed to comply with the court's ruling of the illegality of the vote.
The country is having a little meltdown over this.
Here's Senator Kerry's Statement (from his website):
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry (D-MA) today expressed concern about the growing tension in Honduras over an unofficial vote, scheduled for Sunday, intended to build public support for rewriting the Honduran Constitution.
"America values its longstanding partnership with Honduras, but a push to rewrite the constitution over the objections of Honduras's top court, legislature, attorney general, and military is deeply disturbing," said Chairman Kerry. "The people of Honduras deserve a democratic process that is legal, fair and transparent. I applaud the Organization of American States (OAS), consistent with its commitment to fully respect members' sovereignty, for calling an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras."
Here's the Statement from the President of the UN General Assembly:
General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann today strongly condemned the attempted coup against the democratically-elected Government of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, calling it a serious threat to democratic rule there, according to a statement delivered late today at a Headquarters press conference.
Through the text read out by the President's Spokesman, Enrique Yeves, Mr. d'Escoto expressed his deep concern and hope that the rule of law was respected. He appealed to the different parties to resolve their differences through peaceful dialogue.
Also according to the statement, the Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations, Jorge Arturo Reina Idiaquez, had reported to President d'Escoto that the coup was an attempt to circumvent a plebiscite aimed at enhancing the right to free elections. The Assembly President was closely following the developments and hoped that the constitutional democratic rule prevailed.
In further remarks to correspondents, Mr. d'Escoto expressed his deep concern about "what seems to be transpiring in Central America". He added: "We were hopeful in Latin America in general, and in Central America in particular, that those ugly days of military coups and these kinds of things and interruption of democratic processes would be something left in the past." He hoped that the situation would be resolved soon for the good of the people of Honduras and of the whole region.
Mr. Reina Idiaquez, reading a statement on behalf of the "Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América", denounced the coup against the constitutionally-elected Government in his country and called on the international community to reject "this attempt to break constitutional democratic order".
It looks to me that the U.S. is coming down on the side of the different branches of the Honduran government that are trying to reverse Zelaya's decision to continue with the Cuarta Urna, while the UN is considering those efforts to be a coup.
Basically, the President is trying to force this referendum through, and distributed ballots. Then, realizing that the other branches of the government were going to invalidate them, Zelaya then had them all scooped up and taken back to the Presidential Palace. Hundreds of people gathered in the capital, Tegucigalpa, to voice their support of the President.
So, what to think of this. Well, my friend, Celeo Alvarez Casildo, who has a development organization in the coastal city, La Ceiba, aimed at the Garifuna populationcalled ODECO(and who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize this year for his efforts to organize the entire Central American Afro-descendent community), held a workshop on the constitution and the "Cuarta Urna" a couple of weeks ago. They concluded it was unnecessary and kind of stupid. Since the Honduran government has never really been trustworthy, the motives behind this are suspect.
Here's what Celeo concluded after the workshop (I'm putting in the link, but this is my translation from the Spanish)
1. The Constiution isn't at fault for the major problems and needs of the Honduran people.
2. The different sectors of the country, workers, peasants, indigenous people, Afrodescendents, women and youth are tired of the lies and cheapness of the political and economic class, who have historically governed the country without responding to the needs of the majority, accumulating a stain on the socioeconomic development of the country and the application of justice.
3. Honduran society in general terms does not know the reasons for or the purpose of a popular vote to install a CUARTA URNA, which eventually could result in the promulgation of a new Honduran Constution. This raises the quesion of why the government has waited more than 3 years for the vote. The immense majority of the Honduran people aren't familiar with the actual Constitution, so how can it responsibly vote for something it's not even familiar with? The poll should be a permanent exercise between civil society and those who run different branches of the government, with the purpose of deepening democracy and promoting the strenghtening of the Rule of Law.
4. The majority of the panelists expressed their concern for the possible installation of a CUARTA URNA because it is not attached to legally established procedures, not withstanding the unanimous opinion about the need to overcome political traps and ideological content in the current Constitution, which until now has impeded the exercise of citizenship.
5. Honduran society should decide between reform or strengthening of teh current Rule of Law, or by breaking it, for the establishment of a National Constituent Assembly and the promulgation of a new Constitution. Are the people informed, organized and ready to review it, and to assume the responsabilities that would derive from a new constitution?
Is the current constitution responsible for insecurity, galloping corruption, problems with health, education, and support for production, for the delivery of national sovereignty, for the invisibility, exclusion, impoverishment, and the dispossession of indigenous and Afrodescendent people from their lands?
..snip....talks about how good the meeting was....
7. The Congress will not have any obligation regarding the results of the poll, since it has been promoted by the President. The results won't be related to legally-established procedures or supervised by the Supreme Electoral Court.
So, which side is committing the coup? I think this meeting did a good job of discussing the problems with the 4th Urn.
I hope this helps somewhat if you see this in the news. Honduras has really not been this tense since I first visited in 1988. It's a big deal for a country of 7 million, where poverty and hopelessness drive a lot of people to take on a risky journey to the U.S. in the hopes of a better life.
