Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Frente Nacional de Resistencia and the Guaymuras dialogue

In a press release posted on Vos el Soberano, the Frente de Resistencia today has rejected the attempt to portray the replacement of Juan Barahona as a breakdown of popular support for President Zelaya as he continues to work on reaching an agreement that would allow some degree of normalcy to resume in Honduras before the November elections are irretrievably tarnished. This communique recalls comments made by Oscar in his latest post on Adrienne Pine's blog, where he says
The coup media continues broadcasting news in which they falsify interviews with leaders of the resistance front who, according to the media's claims, inform the population that the actions of the resistance have ended, that they have split apart due to differences with Manuel Zelaya.
The propaganda effort is to portray the insistence by the national Resistance on its agenda, which will continue, as a weakening of support for the restoration of the constitutional President.

So, here in translation is the actual position of the Resistance on the replacement of Juan Barahona and the difficult negotiation underway in Honduras:
The Frente Nacional de Resistencia against the Coup d'Etat, in light of the latest events in the dialogue started at the urging of the OAS, communicates the following:

That we withdrew our comrade Juan Barahoma from the so-called Guaymuras dialogue. Our comrade Barahona was acting as the representative of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia against the Coup d'Etat in the delegation of President Zelaya in the said dialogue.

The delegation of the coup regime, in a typical act of intransigence to hinder the advance of the negotiation, tried to paralyze the dialogue by refusing to accept that our representative would sign accord No. 3 referring to the installation of the National Constitutional Assembly with reservations, since we wished in that reservation to record that our Frente does not renounce nor will it renounce the struggle for this demand, which is the demand of the Honduran People. Conscious of the fact that this dealt with a manouevre to cause a failure of the dialogue using any pretext, since signing with reservations was suggested by them in an earlier session, we decided not to lend ourselves to this and therefore we took this decision, leaving President Zelaya at liberty to substitute another representative with his trust. In that sense the lawyer Rodil Rivera Rodil was delegated as part of the commision of President Zelaya in substitution for our representative.

The preceding signifies that the Frente Nacional de Resistencia against the Coup d'Etat left the Guaymuras dialogue and that we will keep fighting in the street for the demands that we have raised since the 28th of June; the return of constitutional order, the restitution of President Zelaya to his office, and the convening of a Constitutional Assembly.

We declare that we respect the decision of our president if he decides to sign the San Jose Accord, even with all its conditions, and we declare that we are in full harmony with him in regard to the demand that the golpistas sign an accord by which they will abandon power and the office of President of the Republic will be returned to him.

We caution the golpistas that if they do not arrive at the signing of an accord that returns the presidency to its legitimate officeholder by the 15th of October, the Resistance will initiate actions on a national level to disown the electoral farce that they intend to carry out the 29th of November.

We make a call to the popular sectors to redouble efforts to overthrow the business-military dictatorship demanding the cessation of repression, the rescinding of the decrees that restrict constitutional guarantees, the liberty of political prisoners, and the reopening and the end of censure against Radio Globo, Canal 36, and other independent media and journalists.


4 comments:

is said...

I've been reading on several Honduran news outlets some insane information about a new UN report that says the coup was legal. This cannot be right, this isn't in line with any of other actions/comments of the UN. Does anybody know how this happened? It is all over La Tribuna, El Heraldo, La Prensa. They claim their source is Hondudiario. yet there is nothing about this report on the UN's official page.

RAJ said...

We are seeking any information about this. No legal analysis by any expert in Europe, the US, or Honduras has reached such a conclusion. The deeply flawed US Law Library of Library of Congress proposed an original theory to make a similar claim, but it has been widely discredited by these same legal authorities. If we find any source of this claim we will post here about it.

Cal Blue said...

Does anyone else think it's just a coincidence that the demoralized Honduran seleccion lost it's 8 game home win streak under the golpistas?

RAJ said...

First, see our blog post with the UN Secretary General's rejection of the Honduran press reports.

On the issue of soccer, which is of great importance nationally in Honduras: one can only imagine how it feels to be a member of a national team operating under the pressure of knowing your country is in turmoil. Whatever your political position, you would need to be very unusual not to have that affect your performance.

I remember the last time Honduras was a serious World Cup contender. During fieldwork, we listened to matches on the radio, and it brough everyone together. This feeling of national pride is yet another casualty of a regime that has seized the country and distorted everyday life. May it not last much longer.