ONE hundred days of heroic resistance against the
coup regime’s repressive apparatus have been
sufficient for the local fascists and their extreme
right-wing U.S. sponsors to finally realize that the
Honduran people are resolved to keep fighting until
President José Manuel Zelaya is restored, as the
first step in their strategic course to convene a
national constituent assembly, for which they will
have to sit down and find a negotiated solution to
the conflict backed by the empire.
Neither the advisement of Israeli officials who
arrived in Tegucigalpa to destabilize the struggle
through psycho-technological means, nor the secret
support of the Pentagon, nor the brutal repression
in complicity with curfews, nor the declaration of a
state of siege, nor the lies in favor of the
fascists flooding the media, have been able to make
the Honduran people and the international community
— with a few, abominable exceptions — accept the de
facto government or forget about the
unconstitutionally deposed president or that Central
American people’s present and future aspirations for
a Honduras for all and for the good of all.
The National Resistance against the Coup is now a
political movement to be reckoned with in these
presumably final moments, in which the OAS is to
attempt to get the national capo, Roberto Micheletti,
to sign the San José Agreement. Despite his smiles
and apparent tranquility, Micheletti knows that his
days are counted.
To accompany him at this time with the aim of
supporting him to obtain a solution loaded with
concessions, representatives of extreme right-wing
U.S. Republicans turned up in Tegucigalpa. The howls
of lead hyena (Ileana Ros Lehtinen) and her
followers, the Díaz- Balart hyenas (Lincoln and
Mario) are aimed at giving succor and protection to
the empire’s chosen ones, Roberto Micheletti and
General Romeo Vázques. The latter two have run out
of arguments for keeping up their farce, given that
the former publicly stated that Zelaya was deposed
for being "a leftist, for aligning himself with
Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador," and not, as he had
previously reiterated, for committing
unconstitutional acts.
President Obama handed over the Honduras issue to
his hawk, Hillary Clinton, and she, in the end, was
also left hanging, on losing the initiative to the
establishment’s more conservative and reactionary
elements. It proved worthless to contract Oscar
Arias, Washington’s ever-faithful servant, as
messenger for the so-called mediated agreement of
San José to restore President Zelaya without any
powers. The coup regime ignored her and laughed at
Obama.
That is the visceral quality of the hatred toward
representatives of governments who are not docile as
regards the empire, and with the abovementioned
agreement, the deposed president would have to pay
for daring to join the PETROCARIBE and ALBA blocs.
The yanki Department of State did not count on
the people — imperial logic never does — becoming,
from the first day of the coup, the liberation army
for their president, the only one in recent Honduran
history to take them into account and work honestly
and transparently on their behalf during his mandate.
He was the only one who took it upon himself to
begin paving the road to the country’s second and
definitive independence, even in the midst of heavy
pressure from the local oligarchy, the same one that
paid for his exile and continues to pay for the
siege set up around the Brazilian embassy.
The U.S. secretary of state believed from the
start that the battle within the Democratic
Administration was solely against its African-American
president. She also fell into the trap of the
reaction, and the coup — as we said from the
beginning — was likewise against the current
administration.
It is evident to everyone that the de facto
Honduran government could not have remained in power
for more than 100 days as it has done, flagrantly
violating human rights and even international law,
without the support of the U.S. extreme right.
If that is not the case, why did José Miguel
Insulza, the OAS secretary general, secretly meet
with coup leader Micheletti at the yanki military
base in Palmerola, and not in the U.S. embassy in
Tegucigalpa?
What is the explanation for Ros Lehtinen’s demand
for recognition of the de facto government, because
not doing so would be to endanger U.S. "national
security"? Of course, these howls are nothing but an
expression of defeat in face of the courage,
political maturity and unity of the Honduran
resistance, which is the element that is actually
forcing the coup regime to the negotiating table.
In an interview given a few days ago to the
international media, President Zelaya referred to
the limits of the San José Agreement:
"The person who is going to sign the Arias Plan
is me, as the elected representative of the Honduran
people. The Plan has two components: my restoration,
in order to say ‘No!’ to coups d’état – which is
what the presidents of Latin America are interested
in, so that they can be assured of respect for
popular sovereignty and that the will of the people
is not going to be replaced by a military, economic
and political elite; and the second component, which
consists of social processes and reforms, and they
are a question of time.
"I have promised that, before the elections, I
will not take any initiative in that context, but
that does not mean that the processes are going to
come to a halt. I never proposed that the
Constituent [Assembly] should take place during my
government, but during the next one, when I will no
longer be president…
"The Arias Plan is an emergency plan to solve the
crisis of a de facto state, which at the same time
is not going to paralyze social processes, far less
deter what the determination of a sovereign people
signifies."
Finally, President Zelaya reiterated: "No effort
will be in vain if we obtain the desired result, and
the awakening of the Honduran people now has an
inestimable value as part of our history. The people
have removed the veil from their eyes, and the
economic elite has removed its mask. That is why we
can now sit down at the table to talk about reality
with all of those involved, in order to reach
conciliation and come to agreements."
An heir does not steal, according to the popular
refrain, and the Honduran people, heir to Morazán,
have risen to the occasion of this historic moment.
Once the agreements have been reached, we are
convinced that in Honduras, the blood that has been
shed and the sacrifice of its sons and daughters
will never be past history, because nobody and
nothing will be forgotten here.