On the morning of June 28, members of the Honduran military took over the residence of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. While entering Zelaya’s home, they shot and killed one of his security guards, then kidnapped the president and flew him at gunpoint to Costa Rica. The coup took place as Hondurans were set to vote on possible future changes to the country’s constitution.
The Honduran people are resisting the coup government and have protested for over 100 days the removal of their president. On September 21st, Zelaya returned to Honduras to demand his reinstatement as president and is currently in the Brazilian embassy. His supporters have defied curfews, endured police brutality, and even risked their lives for voicing their demand for Zelaya’s return to power.
According to School of the Americas Watch, the coup d’etat was led by School of the Americas graduates trained in Fort Benning, Georgia. The Obama administration has refused to legally classify Zelaya’s ouster as a coup and has continued to send U.S. military aid to the coup government. The Honduran right-wing military take over is the first in Central America in over a quarter century and has sparked protest and solidarity across the globe. People throughout the world are looking to Honduras to see what type of foreign policy Obama will have in Latin America.
Power in Honduras is in the hands of about 100 people from 25 families, while the majority of Hondurans live in poverty. In 2006 Manuel Zelaya was elected as a center-right candidate with the support of this Honduran elite. After he was elected, Zelaya moved to the left and became a populist. In March of 2009 he increased the minimum wage by 60 percent and joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which is a Latin American trade bloc organized by countries like Venezuela and Bolivia to counter the free trade agenda of the United States. The popular movement in Honduras was excited to finally have an ally in government.
When Zelaya proposed to have a referendum on whether to amend the constitution, the ruling elite were afraid they were about to lose their tight grip on governmental control. They got the Supreme Court to issue an arrest order for Zelaya, and then the military, who has long been seen as protectors of the wealthy and of multinational companies in Honduras, kidnapped Zelaya and removed him from the country.
The right-wing military coup in Honduras is very significant. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN), the former rebel army turned political party in neighboring El Salvador, won the presidency of that country last year. Salvadorans are worried that the success of the Honduran coup will send a message that winning elections is not necessary to take power. As the U.S. government’s attention has been increasingly focused on the Middle East and Central Asia, its grip on its southern neighbors had loosened. Many Latin American countries, such as Venezuela and Bolivia, have elected leftist leaders and have started to move away from the U.S. free trade agenda for the region. The role of the School of Americas alumni and Obama’s tacit support for the coup worry Latin Americans about the U.S. increasing its intervention in the region once again.
Take action!
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has received solidarity from peoples across the globe, but the Obama administration has kept its distance from Zelaya. Although Obama first called the military’s removal of Zelaya a coup, his administration has backpedaled. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya’s return to Honduras “reckless” and blamed him, instead of the coup government for the violence in Honduras. The Obama administration has not ended U.S. military aid to Honduras, even though security forces have used brutal and lethal force against pro-Zelaya protesters.
Please call the State Department at 202-647-4000 to voice your opposition to any financial support of the coup in Honduras. And call your representative and senators at 202-224-3121 to ask them to close the School of the Americas and cut off aid to Honduras. Also, watch for local demonstrations in solidarity with Honduras on the WAMM calendar and web site and other sources. For the annual SOA Watch, see the calendar in this newsletter.
Meredith Abby is an activist with the Anti-War Committee and the Colombia Action Network. She has been engaged in solidarity work with Latin America since she was a student at Macalester College.
Check out these links for further information about Honduras and Latin America:
(note: links active when posted but will not be updated)
Democracy Now: democracynow.org/features/honduras_coup
Committees in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador – cispes.org
School of the Americas Watch – soaw.org
International Action Center - iacenter.org/honduras |
