Saturday, July 18, 2009

Generacion por Cambio Comunique

Generación por Cambio (Generation for Change) is a politically independent organization comprised of young adults who are deeply concerned about the political ambivalence and growing instability in Honduras. Generación por Cambio was established with the primary objective of defending the Honduras Constitution and the rule of law against the administration of Manuel Zelaya Rosales and his Executive Branch of Government who have blatantly and repeatedly disregarded the rule of law, and violated the Honduras Constitution in his quest for hyper-presidency. With a firm commitment to create change, Generación por Cambio has organized creative and powerful events to protest against and denounce Zelaya’s attempts to consolidate power at the Executive Branch of Government and perpetuate himself in the position of President indefinitely. Unfortunately, our actions have generated attention to the point where some of our members where violently attacked outside the presidential palace by pro-Zelaya agents, a clear indication of the polarization, lack of tolerance, and overall tension that the Zelaya administration had generated in Honduras prior to his constitutional removal from office on June 28th, 2009. Furthermore, over the past couple weeks, in harmony with other pro-democratic groups and organizations, we have successfully managed to rally hundreds of thousands of Honduran youths and young adults throughout the country in an attempt to show the world that we are a united in our cause for freedom.
Generación por Cambio declares the following position statement to our friends and allies throughout the free world:

  1. We adamantly and unequivocally reject the return of Mr. Manuel Zelaya to Honduras unless he is willing to face the charges he is accused of including treason. Furthermore, we urge you not to support the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya under any circumstances. We strongly believe that if reinstatement is mediated, even under the strictest of conditions, we would still be under the influence of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and our nation’s democracy as we know it would never survive.
  2. We denounce the actions and partiality of international media and international organizations like the OAS that consistently ignored the Honduran people’s cries for help prior to Mr. Manuel Zelaya’s constitutional deposition.
  3. We firmly reject any and all threats, insults and interference by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Honduran affairs and towards Honduran civil society.
    We will not tolerate impositions by foreign organizations or governments in matters that are of concern only to Honduras.
  4. We support the mediation efforts by Mr. Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica and we are grateful for his knowledge, wisdom and expertise. We hope this mediation will be successful. We are grateful for the solidarity of intellectuals, politicians, independent media and several international democratic organizations that have shown the world what has happened in Honduras in an objective and intelligent manner, and ask for their continued support.
  5. We appeal for your assistance for an honest and transparent dialogue, in search of accords in favor of the strengthening of our democracy through the realization of transparent and fair elections on November 29, 2009.
  6. To the people of the United States of America and the free world, with which we have collaborated throughout our history, we plea that you help us defend and ultimately sustain the same freedoms of which your country prides itself. And we beg that before aligning your nation with regional tyrants, yielding the liberty of seven million Hondurans to an uncertain destiny, that you should consider the very principles on which America stands, and if the great men of your past would have allowed a sister nation to lose the precious gifts of democracy and democracy.
  7. Finally, we call upon the international community, to respect the self determination and sovereignty of nations as the basis of peaceful coexistence in the world

Comunicado - Generación X Cambio

Nosotras y nosotros, Generación por el Cambio, somos un grupo de jóvenes preocupados por el clima de incertidumbre e inestabilidad que vive nuestra Honduras. Deseamos dejar constancia pública de nuestra posición y con entusiasmo y energía contribuir a la construcción de la nueva nación que todas y todos aspiramos.

Generación por el Cambio expresa su voluntad firme y continua por defender la Constitución y las leyes, independientemente de quienes ostenten los cargos públicos. Es por ellos que deseamos manifestar a la comunidad internacional lo siguiente:

  1. Rechazamos en forma rotunda, el regreso del Sr. Manuel Zelaya Rosales a nuestro país, a menos sea para enfrentar la justicia por los cargos que se le imputan.
  2. Repudiamos las amenazas, insultos o injerencias del Sr. Hugo Chávez Frías hacia nuestro país y sus ciudadanos;
  3. Exigimos un dialogo transparente y honesto, apuntando siempre al logro de acuerdos a favor de la profundización de nuestra democracia mediante la realización de elecciones el próximo 29 de noviembre.
  4. Queremos dejar plena constancia de que no admitiremos imposiciones de ninguna nación extranjera u organismo internacional en asuntos que son de nuestra absoluta competencia.
  5. Apoyamos las gestiones de mediación realizadas por el presidente de la hermana república de Costa Rica, Señor Oscar Arias y hacemos votos por el éxito en su labor. Asimismo, agradecemos la solidaridad mostrada por intelectuales, políticos, prensa independiente y otras organizaciones democráticas internacionales, ya que con objetividad e inteligencia han mostrado al mundo la realidad de los hechos ocurridos en nuestro país.
  6. Finalmente, hacemos un llamado a la comunidad internacional, en especial a organismos y países amigos, que respeten la autodeterminación y soberanía de los pueblos, ya que esto es la base de la pacífica en el mundo.

Informes Revelan que Hugo Chávez quiere una Masacre en el País

Hugo Chávez ha sido denunciado por centenares de muertos en operaciones militares y golpistas.
Informes a los que tuvo acceso EL HERALDO revelan que en el país está en marcha una conspiración gestada desde Caracas por el presidente y ex militar golpista Hugo Chávez.
La conspiración pretende desestabilizar el país mediante acciones armadas de grupos irregulares, ligados al narcotráfico o provenientes de Nicaragua, según estos informes.
Como parte del plan chavista, se pretende la toma del aeropuerto Toncontín, bloqueo de las principales carreteras, paralizar instituciones públicas y hospitales y fabricar una masacre durante enfrentamientos inducidos contra policías y militares.
La orden, que habría sido girada por militares infiltrados chavistas y sandinistas en el país, es atentar contra negocios, destruir medios de comunicación, quemar vehículos y cometer actos de vandalismo, obligando así al uso de la fuerza militar y policial.
Un capitán naval venezolano de apellido Rodríguez (demás nombres se mantienen en reserva), es quien coordina la rebelión para los días viernes y sábado. La operación militar intervencionista terminaría con la toma de Toncontín, según confesó a EL HERALDO una fuente de entero crédito.
El “plan Chávez” contempla que sean miembros de pandillas, a quienes se pagó entre 300 y 500 lempiras, los que encabecen las manifestaciones.
Su misión será sublevarse a la autoridad hasta la provocación de disparos.
Una vez surjan los primeros disparos, los grupos irregulares infiltrados dispararán contra los mismos manifestantes, con el fin de fabricar una masacre que desestabilice y provoque una anarquía en el país.
Magnicidio
Pero la conspiración, según fuentes a las que tuvo acceso EL HERALDO, va más allá.
Se ha confirmado que en Colón, Gracias a Dios y Olancho se han conformado células armadas que intentarán ingresar a Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Se ha definido como un punto probable La Mosquitia hondureña, por ser una zona inhóspita, con poco control policial y dominada por los carteles de la droga. Una banda que domina el mercado de la droga en Colón y otros sectores del litoral estarían colaborando en la operación.
Efectivos inmiscuidos en labores de inteligencia y contrainteligencia afirman que el plan es que Zelaya entre al país custodiado por grupos irregulares.
Sin embargo, advierten que no hay garantías de que Zelaya, al pasar de objetivo político a militar, sea víctima de una conspiración.
Ayer se confirmó que en Cilín, Colón, se ha detectado la presencia de al menos 100 hombres armados.
Las declaraciones de Zelaya, en el sentido de llamar a la insurrección al pueblo serían parte del “plan Chávez”, aunque Zelaya podría desconocer los alcances de toda la operación subversiva planeada en Caracas y que se podría ejecutar desde Nicaragua.
Chávez ya hizo el primer intento por fabricar una masacre el pasado 5 de julio, cuando ordenó a miles de manifestantes a invadir la pista.
Ese día, Chávez confesó que dirigía la operación militar y que estuvo en contacto con los manifestantes durante todo el recorrido hasta llegar a Toncontín.
Zelaya sobrevoló la pista, sin embargo, no pudo aterrizar por los obstáculos que puso la Fuerza Armada hondureña.
El presidente depuesto no hizo intentos por aterrizar en otras pistas del país, donde no había manifestantes. Desde el avión, pidió a la población invadir la pista, lo que indujo los enfrentamientos con militares y policías. El saldo: un muerto.
Finalmente, la operación militar denominada “enjambre de abejas” fracasó, ya que según el mensaje escrito en la pizarra de la oficina que ocupaba Chávez, el objetivo era provocar muertos, heridos y desesperación en las personas.
* Objetivos:
- Masacre. Chávez buscará, desde hoy hasta el sábado, una masacre de manifestantes.
- Vandalismo. Pandilleros han sido contratados para delinquir.
- Toncontín. Se pretende la toma del aeropuerto.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Zelaya's Point of No Return

Zelaya's Point of No Return
The world community is right to have second thoughts about restoring the ousted Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras
Michael Lisman
Tuesday July 7 2009


As Honduras enters its second week of political crisis, the international community is beginning to take a second look at the murky circumstances under which the Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was removed from office and exiled from the country on June 28.

Until last weekend, world leaders were unanimous in their condemnation of the so-called military coup. But having been forced to watch the spectacle continue for a second straight week, the world has now become painfully aware of two things they had not anticipated.

The first is how ardent, unanimous, and organized the interim government in Honduras is against any sort of reprieve for Zelaya, much less his reinstatement.

The second is how erratic and unfit for leadership Zelaya has become. Both realisations have caused diplomats to rethink their strategies in the push for Zelaya's immediate and unrestricted return to power. As the standoff continues this week, the international community would be wise to bite its tongue and instead, push for what world leaders initially called a "Honduran solution" ? even if it's not the one they had in mind.

Last week's stance was simple: whether or not Zelaya's ouster is deemed a coup or not, removal of a democratically elected president by military force cannot be endorsed. With little further understanding of the contemporary politics of Honduras, this was the starting point with which the international community reacted. Initially, it appeared highly unlikely that the interim government assembled last week would be able to resist the mounting international pressure and growing isolation to reinstate Zelaya. Central American neighbours temporarily closed their borders to Honduras, donor agencies suspended aid, and some governments even threatened military intervention. As of last week, not a single country had agreed to recognise Roberto Micheletti as the new head of state. For one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, economic and political isolation in the name of liberty is simply not tenable, so the reasoning went.

Over the weekend, that reasoning changed. On Sunday, Zelaya's triumphant return was stymied by a determined Honduran military, and bolstered by popular support for the interim government. Zelaya's premature and embarrassing return attempt may well prove to be the turning point in this high-stakes drama. As the clock ticks on Zelaya's comeback, the option of moving up November's elections to September becomes an increasingly appealing resolution for the international community.

Widely reviled by the political class in Honduras (including the leaders of his own Honduran Liberal Party), Zelaya is now known not only as the hapless president ousted at gunpoint in his pajamas, but also by his atrocious governance record and erratic behaviour ? which includes nearly doubling the minimum wage to the severe detriment of his country's economy, repeatedly refusing to submit a 2009 budget to congress, and ultimately disavowing both legislative and judicial checks on his power. Some countries, such as Canada, Taiwan and Israel are beginning to hedge their initial tacit support for Zelaya's return. Others that were only last week pushing for Zelaya's reinstatement are starting to realise that the bloodshed and turmoil that his return would inevitably cause may simply not be worth the trouble.

With the standoff as it is, key international leaders and organisations should take the following steps ? some of which they may already be doing behind closed doors - to help Honduras move forward.

First, someone in Micheletti's circle needs to help his interim government understand the necessity of managing its international public relations to help position itself for the coming negotiations. Loyalist partisans now serving as spokespeople for the government have failed miserably in persuading anyone outside of Tegucigalpa that the Honduran constitution ? which has no single mention of a provision for the removal of a president from office ? provides a legal basis for their actions. Blind intransigence worked to create the impasse thus far, but it will undercut their position as they seek to regain the confidence and repeal the sanctions of their allies, as well to placate a confused and increasingly indignant Honduran population.

Second, outsiders must ratchet down the rhetoric on "the future of Hemispheric democracy," the pressure to cut out aid for the poor, and the impending loss of OAS membership. They should focus less on pure democratic principles ? which have clearly failed Hondurans in one way or another over the past several months ? and more on pragmatic solutions that take into account both the precarious conditions on the ground and alternative resolutions that don't necessarily include Zelaya's full restoration.

Third, as Zelaya returns this week to Washington DC for meetings, key players like Hillary Clinton and Jose Miguel Insulza should take the opportunity to privately remind Zelaya and his entourage that without widespread international support, he would quickly join the lonely ranks of other regional coup victims such as Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Ecuador's Jamil Mahuad ? inept and corrupt heads of state that were also removed from office, but with less than fierce global support for their respective reinstatements (both men live quite comfortably in exile today).

This might temper Zelaya's sense of entitlement and help him see the merit of scenarios that entail him standing down for the good and safety of his country. If some world leaders ? perhaps Brazil's Lula ? can shake some sense into Zelaya by threatening to temper international support, Zelaya could be forced to acquiesce to a brokered deal of immunity in return for a voluntary resignation. If he refuses, his only other option would be taking shelter within the Latin American left led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a bloc which would make him a political martyr but likely be ineffective in retuning him to power, especially as the Honduran interim government seeks to run out the clock on Zelaya's remaining term in office.

We now know that a deal must be brokered, and that cooler heads must prevail. In order to curtail increased suffering and possible bloodshed, swift action towards a peaceful resolution is called for. Swift action this week, however, as opposed to last week, will now need to be coupled with more nuanced consideration of the problems and a focus on pragmatic solutions.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2009

Aguanten Hermanos Hondureños



La noticia de la deposición de Manuel Zelaya, alias “Mel”, nos tomó a los centroamericanos por sorpresa, no porque se tratara de un presidente digno y respetable… sino que porque en nuestra región el desfile de corruptos y apátridas que hemos tenido, terminan felices y animosos su gestión, sin que nuestros apáticos pueblos digan esta boca es mía. Se trataba del derrocamiento de un hombre que llegó con un traje de conservadurismo ideológico a la presidencia, para pronto involucionar, convirtiéndose en un fan del aprendiz de fascista Hugo Chávez, quien a su vez, ha sabido –con malévola destreza- retorcer la ley, quebrar la institucionalidad y burlarse de la constitución venezolana… para perpetuarse en el poder, al mejor estilo de otros dictadores de la historia contemporánea.

“Mel” Zelaya, adoptó –sin más- la receta de la “dictadura democrática” que fue diseñada y propuesta por Chávez y quiso – a ultranza y contra derecho- hacer su soberbia voluntad, importándole un comino, lo que opinara el Organismo Judicial de su país, ignorando la seriedad del mandamás de su ejército, al oponerse a obedecer al presidente en perpetrar una ilegalidad y burlando la opinión de la autoridad electoral y del propio congreso hondureño. La reacción, no se hizo esperar y los amantes de la libertad y la democracia hondureña, fraguaron un plan –desde su perspectiva legal- que partió de una orden de captura que el ejército hondureño simplemente ejecutó ¿Debían las fuerzas armadas acaso, negarse a cumplir con una orden judicial?

Simultáneamente, el congreso hizo lo propio y por abrumadora mayoría acudió a nombrar como presidente, a quien su propia legislación manda… es decir –al no haber vicepresidente- al presidente del Congreso. Cabe indicar que se trata de un correligionario de Zelaya que contó con el respaldo de casi todos los congresistas… e indudablemente el Congreso es el poder más representativo de cualquier democracia. Un error se dio en la estrategia por deponer al potencial dictador Zelaya quien fraguaba –a todas luces- perpetuarse en el poder. El detalle erróneo fue no encarcelar al infractor flagrante de la ley, Manuel Zelaya o al menos confirmarlo a arresto domiciliario.

Lejos de eso, resolvieron, dejaron en Costa Rica, en pijama y con ello, lo convirtieron de victimario a víctima… de pronto el mañoso presidente depuesto, era visto por el mundo como héroe de la democracia o como un rey sin corona.

Justamente así se sentía –previo a su destitución- “Mel”, como un rey… como un señor feudal, dueño de vidas y hacienda que –desde su perspectiva miope y distorsionada- no debía sujetarse a nada… ni a la constitución. Pensó “Mel” que era soberano y que su palabra era la ley que podía atropellar instituciones, destituir a quien le diera la gana y burlarse de los pesos y contrapesos que proponen los sistemas democráticos, justamente para evitar los abusos. Ignoró “Mel” que la alternabilidad en el poder, es uno de los fundamentos básicos de la democracia, es decir, no se le puede llamar democracia a una nación que tiene un dictador “electo” periódicamente, al estilo de Fidel Castro… quien “heredara democráticamente” su dictadura a su hermanito Raúl. Paradójicamente son Raúl Castro y Hugo Chávez, dos antidemocráticos consumados, quienes hoy alegan respeto a la democracia ¡Por favor!

Perpetrada la corrección a los abusos de “Mel” y siendo ya éste, “una víctima” favorecida por los neo socialistas y neo dictadores “democráticos” de Latinoamérica, liderados por el obtuso y abominable golpista Hugo Chávez… las cartas estaban echadas. De allí en adelante, era cosa de ponerle los hilos a la marioneta de apellido Insulza, para que primero Centroamérica y luego la OEA en pleno, condenaran el “derrocamiento por golpe de estado del democrático Zelaya”… que realmente no es tal cosa. Así ocurrió y sin ápice de sentido común o criterio propio, los otros presidentes centroamericanos mordieron el anzuelo, se sumó al rechazo Felipe Calderón de México y hasta el otrora sensato Álvaro Uribe.

Ahora ya “no importa” que Zelaya esté acusado de corrupto o que haya querido perpetuarse –a la fuerza- en el poder, propiciando mediante sus argucias un golpe de estado técnico… lo “único que importa” desde la perspectiva burocrática de altos vuelos, aglutinada en la OEA, es que los hermanos catrachos, reciban con los brazos abiertos al traidor “Mel” cuyo destino debiera ser –no la presidencia- sino los tribunales y luego la cárcel. Honduras se ve sitiada por malos vecinos (oficiales), es incomprendida en su esfuerzo plausible por autodeterminar su camino; los hondureños ven amenazadas sus ilusiones y hasta su abastecimiento, porque un mundo hipócrita y una institución hipócrita como la OEA, se rasgó las vestiduras, ante la deposición de un mal presidente pero ve para otro lado, cuando Chávez, Correa, Morales, Ortega y demás tipejos con aspiraciones dictatoriales, someten y asfixian la democracia… la OEA se convierte –entonces- en un organismo facilitador del fascismo y consentidor de lo deplorable. Planteo por último una pregunta ¿Se habrá percatado la OEA y los presidentes latinoamericanos que condenan –ideológicamente- al actual gobierno hondureño, que su defensa oficiosa de “Mel” implica cuestionar al congreso hondureño y su Corte Suprema de Justicia? ¡Piénselo!

Viva la Libertad

Viewpoint: Viva la libertad
BY ROBERT SOAVE
ON JULY 5TH, 2009
It’s appropriate that in the same week our country celebrates the anniversary of its independence, there are several shining examples of corrupt tyrants being expelled from power all over the world.

One of these examples is remarkably close to home. Just one week ago, Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers resigned from office and now faces a five-year jail sentence for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for her vote. Conyers’s resignation comes just a few months after Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick plead guilty to felonies and resigned from office.

The city of Detroit has suffered for years under the regimes of wickedly corrupt officials like Conyers and Kilpatrick. But the fact that these powerful politicians were finally overthrown is a testament to the enduring strength of the people of Detroit, as well as the strength of the state’s courts, prosecutors and media.

And yet, Detroit’s revolutionary achievement is not the only one in the news this week. On June 28, a day before Conyers resigned from office, the nation of Honduras exiled its president, Manuel Zelaya, in what has been labeled as a coup d’etat by the international community.

A coup isn’t usually thought of as a good thing. Indeed, Latin America has seen its fair share of right-wing coups that replace one tyrant with someone worse. But what happened in Honduras on June 28 wasn’t a coup. Zelaya violated the Honduran constitution by pushing for a ballot referendum that called for the constitution to be rewritten. His reason for this referendum is obvious — Honduras’s constitution prohibits any president from serving multiple terms. In fact, it goes as far as to prohibit the constitution from ever being changed to allow a president to serve a subsequent term.

As Octavio Sanchez, Honduras’s former minister of culture, explained in a July 2 article in The Christian Science Monitor, the constitution clearly states that “whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any office for a period of 10 years” (A ‘coup’ in Honduras? Nonsense., 07/02/2009). This means that the supposed coup d’etat — technically speaking — didn’t take place. According to Sanchez, “soldiers arrested a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.”

This view of Zelaya’s actions is widely agreed upon within the Honduran government. As Alvaro Vargas Llosa, director for the Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute, observed in a July 1 article in The Washington Post, “Every legal body in Honduras — the electoral tribunal, the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the human rights ombudsman — declared the referendum unconstitutional” (Honduras coup is President Zelaya’s fault, 07/01/2009). Zelaya had defied the Supreme Court by ordering the military to prepare for an unconstitutional referendum. The head of the military refused to comply with Zelaya’s orders, was fired, and then reinstated by the Supreme Court. Zelaya’s abuse of power was flagrant, maniacal and unconstitutional.

And yet the world has reacted to Zelaya’s overthrow with universal condemnation. President Barack Obama said, “we believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there.” Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez — who got rid of his country’s term limits via referendum last year — has all but declared war on the new president, Robert Micheletti.

The world needs to wake up to the reality of the situation in Honduras. Zelaya has no more right to remain in power than Conyers. In a June 27 editorial, The Detroit News wrote that Conyers’s corruption “violates the public trust, breaks her fiduciary duty to taxpayers and is overwhelming grounds for her removal from office” (Monica Conyers should resign seat, 06/27/2009). The same thing could have been written about Zelaya. Just as the workings of the legal system of Michigan and Detroit eventually defeated Conyers, so too has Honduras’s legal system triumphed over Zelaya’s attempt to grab more power for himself. It should be celebrated — not condemned — that Honduras, whose democratic tradition only extends back a quarter of a century, can expel a corrupt tyrant just as easily as the United States, where democracy has largely flourished for two hundred years.

Thomas Jefferson famously said, “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” At least this Fourth of July week, only the tyrants are hurting.

Robert Soave is the summer managing editor.

Comunicado del Partido Arena de El Salvador

As OAS Stumbles on Honduras, Give Diplomacy a Chance

Commentary
As OAS Stumbles on Honduras, Give Diplomacy a Chance
Manuel Zelaya's replacement Roberto Micheletti promises to lead until the next election..
By Roger Noriega, 07.06.09, 3:11 PM ET


On Sunday, July 5, Honduran authorities rejected the ultimatum issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) to reinstate ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Shortly after, the defiant government was suspended from the regional body. This impasse does not reflect a failure of diplomacy, but exposes a lack of it.
In the past week, most objective observers conceded that Zelaya's aggression against Honduran Congress and Courts coupled with his willful violations of the Honduran constitution spawned this crisis. An international chorus questions the legality of Zelaya's ouster. Since I am unschooled in Honduran law, I am forced to rely on the unanimous decisions of the independent Supreme Court blessing Zelaya's replacement.
Common sense is useful here too: If a traffic cop roughs up a drunk driver at the scene of an injury accident, I doubt anyone would argue the importance of getting the drunk back behind the wheel as the best way to chastise the policeman.
The international community is so fixated on the car wreck that they have failed to notice that Hondurans have put their own legal house in order. Although the duty fell to the military to enforce a court order against Zelaya, no soldier ever held power. The duly constituted Congress--about half of whose members are from Zelaya's own Liberal Party--reviewed Zelaya's crimes and voted almost unanimously to remove him from office. Respecting the constitutional order of succession, the Congress elected its own president, Liberal Roberto Micheletti, as Zelaya's replacement. Micheletti has pledged to turn over power next January to a successor chosen in this November's regularly scheduled elections--a pledge that the democratic paragon Zelaya was unwilling to make.
While Honduran authorities have opened an inquiry into Zelaya's treatment, the Supreme Court has held its position that the military acted properly. Zelaya has been indicted on many crimes--including treason--and some of his associates with ties to corruption and drug trafficking are finally facing justice.
Hondurans are convinced that Chavez's puppetry at the OAS abetted Zelaya's illegal campaign for re-election and is now driving the rush to judgment and calls for Zelaya's return. Chavez's media outlets are whipping up internal mobs, and he has even threatened military action against Honduras to back up his demands. Astonishingly, neither the U.S. nor the OAS has called upon the Venezuelan bully to temper his rhetoric. In any case, his comments have merely served to stiffen Honduran resistance to Zelaya's return.
The credibility of the OAS and of its Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, is shot. The organization's refusal over the last few months to review Zelaya's provocative actions is a failure to use the graduated approach dictated by the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which was designed precisely to defuse crises. By contrast, its zealous rush to judgment after Zelaya's ouster bypassed the process of study and reflection called for under the Democratic Charter.
But Honduras is hardly an isolated example of the OAS's abject failure. For months, it has ignored Chavez's aggressive maneuvers to deny Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma the ability to assume the office he won last November; this weekend, Ledezma began a hunger strike in the OAS office in Venezuela to dramatize the group's hypocrisy. Insulza and the OAS have done nothing to confront the stealing of dozens of mayoral races in Nicaragua (including in the capital city of Managua) last fall. And the OAS has turned a blind eye to the aggressive measures deployed by Chavez himself as well as his allies in Bolivia and Ecuador running roughshod over government institutions, media critics and political opponents.
Insulza's unyielding defense of Zelaya and his lethargy where political rights are being trampled in a half a dozen other countries have only one thing in common: That's the way Chavez wants it.
With the OAS's leadership so thoroughly disgraced, individual governments must step forward to forge a diplomatic approach to protect the rights and freedoms of all Hondurans. A "Friends of Honduras" group could support a national dialogue or help accompany a review of Zelaya's alleged crimes and subsequent ouster. Presidential elections held in November or earlier could be monitored by the U.N. or by other independent observers. Individual nations must be counseled to cease their threats against Honduras and to stop meddling in its internal affairs.
Canada's foreign minister, Peter Kent, has been willing to speak good sense in this case, and his country is one of the few in the region that has the independence and heft to do what is right for Honduran democracy and not necessarily what Hugo Chavez dictates.
Roger Noriega was a senior official in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001-2005. He is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and founder of Vision Americas LLC, which advocates for U.S. and foreign clients.


Ambassador Roger F. Noriega
VisionAmericas
1150 K St NW, Suite 1411
Washington, DC 20005
202-885-9621
www.visionamericas.com

The Audacity of Honduras

The Audacity Of Honduras
Roger Noriega, 07.06.09, 03:11 PM EDT
As the OAS stumbles, give diplomacy a chance.

On Sunday, July 5, Honduran authorities rejected the ultimatum issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) to reinstate ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Shortly after, the defiant government was suspended from the regional body. This impasse does not reflect a failure of diplomacy, but exposes a lack of it.

In the past week, most objective observers conceded that Zelaya's aggression against Honduran Congress and Courts coupled with his willful violations of the Honduran constitution spawned this crisis. An international chorus questions the legality of Zelaya's ouster. Since I am unschooled in Honduran law, I am forced to rely on the unanimous decisions of the independent Supreme Court blessing Zelaya's replacement.

Common sense is useful here too: If a traffic cop roughs up a drunk driver at the scene of an injury accident, I doubt anyone would argue the importance of getting the drunk back behind the wheel as the best way to chastise the policeman.

The international community is so fixated on the car wreck that they have failed to notice that Hondurans have put their own legal house in order. Although the duty fell to the military to enforce a court order against Zelaya, no soldier ever held power. The duly constituted Congress--about half of whose members are from Zelaya's own Liberal Party--reviewed Zelaya's crimes and voted almost unanimously to remove him from office. Respecting the constitutional order of succession, the Congress elected its own president, Liberal Roberto Micheletti, as Zelaya's replacement. Micheletti has pledged to turn over power next January to a successor chosen in this November's regularly scheduled elections--a pledge that the democratic paragon Zelaya was unwilling to make.

While Honduran authorities have opened an inquiry into Zelaya's treatment, the Supreme Court has held its position that the military acted properly. Zelaya has been indicted on many crimes--including treason--and some of his associates with ties to corruption and drug trafficking are finally facing justice.

Hondurans are convinced that Chavez's puppetry at the OAS abetted Zelaya's illegal campaign for re-election and is now driving the rush to judgment and calls for Zelaya's return. Chavez's media outlets are whipping up internal mobs, and he has even threatened military action against Honduras to back up his demands. Astonishingly, neither the U.S. nor the OAS has called upon the Venezuelan bully to temper his rhetoric. In any case, his comments have merely served to stiffen Honduran resistance to Zelaya's return.

The credibility of the OAS and of its Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, is shot. The organization's refusal over the last few months to review Zelaya's provocative actions is a failure to use the graduated approach dictated by the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which was designed precisely to defuse crises. By contrast, its zealous rush to judgment after Zelaya's ouster bypassed the process of study and reflection called for under the Democratic Charter.

But Honduras is hardly an isolated example of the OAS's abject failure. For months, it has ignored Chavez's aggressive maneuvers to deny Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma the ability to assume the office he won last November; this weekend, Ledezma began a hunger strike in the OAS office in Venezuela to dramatize the group's hypocrisy. Insulza and the OAS have done nothing to confront the stealing of dozens of mayoral races in Nicaragua (including in the capital city of Managua) last fall. And the OAS has turned a blind eye to the aggressive measures deployed by Chavez himself as well as his allies in Bolivia and Ecuador running roughshod over government institutions, media critics and political opponents.

Insulza's unyielding defense of Zelaya and his lethargy where political rights are being trampled in a half a dozen other countries have only one thing in common: That's the way Chavez wants it.

With the OAS's leadership so thoroughly disgraced, individual governments must step forward to forge a diplomatic approach to protect the rights and freedoms of all Hondurans. A "Friends of Honduras" group could support a national dialogue or help accompany a review of Zelaya's alleged crimes and subsequent ouster. Presidential elections held in November or earlier could be monitored by the U.N. or by other independent observers. Individual nations must be counseled to cease their threats against Honduras and to stop meddling in its internal affairs.

Canada's foreign minister, Peter Kent, has been willing to speak good sense in this case, and his country is one of the few in the region that has the independence and heft to do what is right for Honduran democracy and not necessarily what Hugo Chavez dictates.

Roger Noriega was a senior official in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001-2005. He is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and founder of Vision Americas LLC, which advocates for U.S. and foreign clients.

Everyone's Wrong About Honduras

By Dan Rosenheck

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and President Barack Obama make for strange bedfellows, but the two men have found an unlikely common cause in Manuel Zelaya. A mustachioed rancher with a signature Stetson hat, Zelaya was toppled from Honduras' presidency on June 28 in Latin America's first successful military coup since the Cold War. His ouster has prompted a virtually unprecedented outbreak of consensus in the hemisphere, with every leader in the Americas demanding Zelaya's immediate reinstatement. There's just one problem with this uncharacteristic eruption of regional harmony: It's likely to move Honduras even further away from the re-establishment of constitutional order that the international community claims to desire.
While the army's ultimate decision to whisk Zelaya out of the country was indeed an illegal coup, the deposed president bears full responsibility for plunging Honduras into the constitutional crisis that led to his extrajudicial removal from office. In the 2005 election, he ran as a centrist law-and-order candidate and won a runoff vote by just four percentage points. To solidify his relatively weak mandate, he handed out generous salary increases to teachers and raised the minimum wage. This blew a hole in the budget; scared off the International Monetary Fund, which had previously made loans to Honduras; and forced Zelaya to turn to Hugo Chávez, Latin America's pre-eminent sugar daddy, for financing.
Chávez's price was that Honduras join his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (recently rechristened the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas), an anti-U.S. political trade bloc. The move stunned Honduras, a fiercely conservative nation that has traditionally been a staunch U.S. ally. Zelaya, whose term ends in January 2010, further alienated voters by floating plans for a constituent assembly, a new constitutional convention that would enable him to remove the country's inconvenient ban on presidential re-election. The current Honduran Constitution makes no provision for such a mechanism and explicitly states that its one-term limit can never be amended.
Zelaya's call for a poll asking Hondurans whether a formal vote should be held on staging a constituent assembly was ruled illegal by the nation's supreme court. The president went ahead anyway, ordering the army to distribute ballots. When Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of the Honduran military, refused, Zelaya fired him; the supreme court then reinstated Gen. Vásquez and ordered the ballots confiscated. Finally, Zelaya himself led a group of supporters to an air force base to recover the ballots. This blatant disregard of judicial orders led the supreme court to issue a warrant for his arrest.
In virtually every other country in the world, Zelaya would have been removed from office. But, peculiarly, the Honduran Constitution does not include an impeachment procedure—Congress is entitled to name a new president only in the absence of the current one. So, rather than bringing Zelaya before a judge to be tried for his criminal misbehavior, the army rousted him out of bed and flew him off to Costa Rica in his pajamas. The legislature then voted to replace him with Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress, who was next in the line of succession.
There is no doubt that this last move should not be allowed to stand. But the international community's single-minded insistence that Zelaya be reinstated as soon as possible—ignoring his own campaign to undermine constitutional order—is likely to backfire. Zelaya's behavior has left him every bit as isolated within his country as Micheletti is outside of it. The entire Honduran political establishment, including virtually every member of Congress, the courts, the military, and the business community, is dead-set against his return. And while the opinion of the population as a whole is tougher to measure—no one has taken a poll in the last week—the deck seems stacked against him. His approval rating was a mere 30 percent even before this episode began, and the demonstrations against him have been larger and more numerous than those in favor (although a strong military presence has surely caused many Zelaya supporters to stay home).
The region's leaders, who seem blind to these realities, have not budged from their campaign to shove Zelaya back down Honduras' throat. In fact, José Miguel Insulza, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, along with the left-leaning presidents of Ecuador and Argentina, has volunteered to personally accompany Zelaya on his return to Honduras, as a "diplomatic shield" against his (entirely legitimate) arrest.
This has prompted a dangerous surge of reactionary, jingoistic nationalism in Honduras. The media are awash with accusations of "infiltration" by "Communist" agents from Nicaragua and Venezuela, and Micheletti's backers feel the country's sovereignty is being trampled on. "Neither Chávez nor Obama should interfere with our country," said Rosario del Carmen, a government employee at an anti-Zelaya rally in Tegucigalpa's central square. "We already had a dictatorship in the '80s, and Zelaya was making another one."
By backing the Micheletti administration into a corner, the region's leaders are forcing it to take a defiant posture. Rather than allowing itself to be kicked out of the OAS, the new government pre-emptively withdrew from the organization on Saturday. The OAS "is a political organization, not a court," Micheletti wrote in a letter to Insulza, "and it can't judge us." The harder the international community pushes for Zelaya's reinstatement, the more determined plucky Hondurans will be to prevent it—and to make it impossible for him to govern if he does return to office.
None of this means foreign governments should accept the coup and recognize Micheletti as president. But rather than framing the issue as a contest of wills, Insulza needs to recognize that Zelaya had sacrificed most of his political support and legitimacy in the weeks leading up to the coup and aim to engineer a negotiated solution. That means talking to Micheletti (which he refused to do on a visit to Tegucigalpa), offering Zelaya the option either to resign or to stand trial in Honduras, and probably a call for swift new elections. The generals who gave the order to deport Zelaya should also be tried.
Finally, to make sure this situation never happens again, any deal should also include the introduction of an impeachment mechanism into the Honduran political system. Zelaya was right that the country needed constitutional change—just not the one he was advocating.

Obama Is in Russia, but Honduras Is Where the Action Is

By Dennis Prager

The importance of the summit meeting in Moscow between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pales in comparison to the events taking place in Honduras.

Whether or not the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear arsenals is ultimately meaningless. But whether Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro are victorious in Honduras or whether the movement toward left-wing authoritarianism is finally defeated in a Latin American country is extremely significant.

The courage of the pro-liberty forces in Honduras is almost miraculous. It is almost too good to be true, given Honduras' consequent isolation in the world.

Even if you know little or nothing about the crisis in Honduras, nearly all you need to know in order to ascertain which side is morally right is this: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Cuba's Castro brothers, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States are all lined up against Honduras.

And what troubles these good people? They claim that there was a military coup in Honduras that renders the present government illegal.

Here, in brief, are the facts. You decide.

The president of Honduras, Jose Manuel Zelaya, a protege of Hugo Chavez, decided that he wanted to be able to be president for more than his one term that ends this coming January -- perhaps for life. However, because the histories of Honduras and Latin America are replete with authoritarians and dictators, Honduras's constitution absolutely forbids anyone from governing that country for more than one term.

So, Zelaya decided to follow Chavez's example and find a way to change his country's constitution. He decided to do this on his own through a referendum, without the congressional authorization demanded by Honduras's constitution. He even had the ballots printed in Venezuela.

As Mary Anastasia O'Grady, who writes The Americas column in the Wall Street Journal, explains: "A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress. But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chavez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela."

The Honduras Supreme Court ruled Zelaya's nonbinding referendum unconstitutional, and then instructed the military not to implement the vote as it normally does. When the head of the armed forces obeyed the legal authority, the Honduran Supreme Court, rather than President Zelaya, the president fired him and personally led a mob to storm the military base where the Venezuela-made ballots were being safeguarded.

As Jorge Hernandez Alcerro, former Honduran ambassador to the United States, wrote, "Mr. Zelaya and small segments of the population tried to write a new constitution, change the democratic system and seek his re-election, which is prohibited by the constitution."

In order to stop this attempt to subvert the Honduran constitution, while keeping Honduras under the rule of law and preventing a Chavez-like dictatorship from developing in its country, the Honduran Supreme Court ordered the military to arrest Zelaya. They did so and expelled him to neighboring Costa Rica to prevent certain violence.

Was this a "military coup" as we understand the term? Columnist Mona Charen answered this best: "There was an attempted coup in Honduras, but it was Zelaya who initiated it, not his opponents."

Or, to put in another way: When did a military coup ever take place that was ordered by that country's supreme court, that was supported by the political party of the president who was overthrown, in which not one person was injured, let alone killed, and which replaced the ousted the president with the president of the country's congress, a member of the same party as the ousted president?

But none of this matters to the United Nations, which never met a left-wing tyrant it didn't find appealing. That is why the president of the U.N. General Assembly, a former Sandinista foreign minister, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, accompanied Zelaya in the airplane on Zelaya's first attempt to return to Honduras on July 5. (Brockmann, among his other radical moral positions, is so virulently anti-Israel that the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations threatened not to attend the U.N. Holocaust Memorial Day event if Brockmann showed up.)

And none of this matters to the OAS, which just lifted its ban on Cuba's membership and which says nothing about Chavez's shutting down of Venezuela's opposition radio and television stations.

And none of this matters to the world's left-wing media. Thus, on July 1, a writer for the United Kingdom newspaper The Guardian penned this insight: "There is no excuse for this coup. The battle between Zelaya and his opponents pits a reform president who is supported by labor unions and social organizations against a Mafia-like, drug-ridden, corrupt political elite." To the Guardian writer, Zelaya was a "reform president."
Lenin's useful idiots never die out.

And the Los Angeles Times editorial page wrote: "Even though the Honduran Congress and military may believe they are defending the country against a would-be dictator, the ends don't justify the means."

Quite a great deal of foolishness in one sentence. That the Los Angeles Times does not believe that Zelaya is a would-be dictator is mind-numbing. As for the cliche that "the ends don't justify the means," in fact they quite often do. That is one of the ways in which we measure means. One assumes that while the Los Angeles Times believes that Americans should be law-abiding, it agrees with Rosa Parks having broken the law. The ends (fighting segregation) justified the means (breaking the law).

If Honduras is hung out to dry, if America suspends trade and economic aid, the forces arrayed against liberty in Latin America will have won a major victory. On the other hand, if Honduras is not abandoned now, those Iran-supporting, America-hating, liberty-loathing forces will have suffered a major defeat.

Even members of the Obama administration recognize this. As quoted in the Washington Post, Jeffrey Davidow, a retired U.S. ambassador who served as President Obama's special adviser for the recent Summit of the Americas, said:

"The threats against democracy in Latin America are not those coming from military coups, but rather from governments which are ignoring checks and balances, overriding other elements of government."

Let your representatives in Congress know that America needs to stand with liberty, not with Castro, Ortega, Zelaya, Chavez, the OAS, and the U.N. And buy Honduran goods. I am smoking a terrific Honduran cigar as I write these words: God bless Honduras.

A Coup in Honduras? Nonsense.

by Octavio Sánchez

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS - Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d'état.

That is nonsense.

In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.

To understand recent events, you have to know a bit about Honduras's constitutional history. In 1982, my country adopted a new Constitution that enabled our orderly return to democracy after years of military rule. After more than a dozen previous constitutions, the current Constitution, at 27 years old, has endured the longest.

It has endured because it responds and adapts to changing political conditions: Of its original 379 articles, seven have been completely or partially repealed, 18 have been interpreted, and 121 have been reformed.

It also includes seven articles that cannot be repealed or amended because they address issues that are critical for us. Those unchangeable articles include the form of government; the extent of our borders; the number of years of the presidential term; two prohibitions – one with respect to reelection of presidents, the other concerning eligibility for the presidency; and one article that penalizes the abrogation of the Constitution.

During these 27 years, Honduras has dealt with its problems within the rule of law. Every successful democratic country has lived through similar periods of trial and error until they were able to forge legal frameworks that adapt to their reality. France crafted more than a dozen constitutions between 1789 and the adoption of the current one in 1958. The US Constitution has been amended 27 times since 1789. And the British – pragmatic as they are – in 900 years have made so many changes that they have never bothered to compile their Constitution into a single body of law.

Under our Constitution, what happened in Honduras this past Sunday? Soldiers arrested and sent out of the country a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.

These are the facts: On June 26, President Zelaya issued a decree ordering all government employees to take part in the "Public Opinion Poll to convene a National Constitutional Assembly." In doing so, Zelaya triggered a constitutional provision that automatically removed him from office.

Constitutional assemblies are convened to write new constitutions. When Zelaya published that decree to initiate an "opinion poll" about the possibility of convening a national assembly, he contravened the unchangeable articles of the Constitution that deal with the prohibition of reelecting a president and of extending his term. His actions showed intent.

Our Constitution takes such intent seriously. According to Article 239: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years."

Notice that the article speaks about intent and that it also says "immediately" – as in "instant," as in "no trial required," as in "no impeachment needed."

Continuismo – the tendency of heads of state to extend their rule indefinitely – has been the lifeblood of Latin America's authoritarian tradition. The Constitution's provision of instant sanction might sound draconian, but every Latin American democrat knows how much of a threat to our fragile democracies continuismo presents. In Latin America, chiefs of state have often been above the law. The instant sanction of the supreme law has successfully prevented the possibility of a new Honduran continuismo.

The Supreme Court and the attorney general ordered Zelaya's arrest for disobeying several court orders compelling him to obey the Constitution. He was detained and taken to Costa Rica. Why? Congress needed time to convene and remove him from office. With him inside the country that would have been impossible. This decision was taken by the 123 (of the 128) members of Congress present that day.

Don't believe the coup myth. The Honduran military acted entirely within the bounds of the Constitution. The military gained nothing but the respect of the nation by its actions.

I am extremely proud of my compatriots. Finally, we have decided to stand up and become a country of laws, not men. From now on, here in Honduras, no one will be above the law.

Octavio Sánchez, a lawyer, is a former presidential adviser (2002-05) and minister of culture (2005-06) of the Republic of Honduras.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Carta a Periodistas

Señores periodistas:

La realidad sobre la crisis que actualmente vivimos en Honduras está siendo tergiversada y hace ver al Ex-Presidente Zelaya como un abanderado de la democracia, la legalidad y los pobres. Nada más alejado de la verdad.

Yo soy un hondureño, viudo y de la tercera edad, y ya poco me importa lo que me pueda pasar a mí en lo personal. Pero tengo hijos y nietos a quienes adoro y para quienes deseo una vida en paz, democracia y libertad y, de hacerse realidad el deseo expresado por algunos Jefes de Estado de imponernos nuevamente a Mel Zelaya como Presidente, pasaría lo que sucedió en Venezuela, en donde, en nombre de la democracia, forzaron el retorno de Chávez al poder y se ha eternizado en él, con las consecuencias que ya todos conocemos. Pero en Honduras lo tenemos bien claro: No hay “Mel” que dure cien años ni pueblo que lo resista.

Lo que sucedió en Honduras no fue un golpe de Estado, sino la culminación de un proceso iniciado por la sociedad civil: iglesias, gremios, estudiantes, mujeres organizadas, periodistas y todo un pueblo, sin distinción de clases, que en su inmensa mayoría, clamó para poner fin a las arbitrariedades y al irrespeto de la Constitución y de las leyes por el Gobierno de Zelaya. Zelaya hizo caso omiso de la ley y desconociendo los fallos de los tribunales de la República, quizo hacernos ir a una "encuesta", violando la ley y con un procedimiento que no tenía garantía alguna para evitar un fraude. De hecho, los empleados públicos fueron forzados a firmar el voto afirmativo so pena de ser destituidos y la gente pobre no era atendida en los hospitales públicos si no firmaban su apoyo a la encuesta. De manera que esa encuesta, además de ilegal, era fraudulenta y abusiva.

Señores periodistas:

La realidad sobre la crisis que actualmente vivimos en Honduras está siendo tergiversada y hace ver al Ex-Presidente Zelaya como un abanderado de la democracia, la legalidad y los pobres. Nada más alejado de la verdad.

Yo soy un hondureño, viudo y de la tercera edad, y ya poco me importa lo que me pueda pasar a mí en lo personal. Pero tengo hijos y nietos a quienes adoro y para quienes deseo una vida en paz, democracia y libertad y, de hacerse realidad el deseo expresado por algunos Jefes de Estado de imponernos nuevamente a Mel Zelaya como Presidente, pasaría lo que sucedió en Venezuela, en donde, en nombre de la democracia, forzaron el retorno de Chávez al poder y se ha eternizado en él, con las consecuencias que ya todos conocemos. Pero en Honduras lo tenemos bien claro: No hay “Mel” que dure cien años ni pueblo que lo resista.

Lo que sucedió en Honduras no fue un golpe de Estado, sino la culminación de un proceso iniciado por la sociedad civil: iglesias, gremios, estudiantes, mujeres organizadas, periodistas y todo un pueblo, sin distinción de clases, que en su inmensa mayoría, clamó para poner fin a las arbitrariedades y al irrespeto de la Constitución y de las leyes por el Gobierno de Zelaya. Zelaya hizo caso omiso de la ley y desconociendo los fallos de los tribunales de la República, quizo hacernos ir a una "encuesta", violando la ley y con un procedimiento que no tenía garantía alguna para evitar un fraude. De hecho, los empleados públicos fueron forzados a firmar el voto afirmativo so pena de ser destituidos y la gente pobre no era atendida en los hospitales públicos si no firmaban su apoyo a la encuesta. De manera que esa encuesta, además de ilegal, era fraudulenta y abusiva.

Al declarar el Tribunal de lo Contencioso Administrativo la ilegalidad de la acción de Mel, este insistió, ordenando a las Fuerzas Armadas que participaran en la encuesta, a lo que estas se negaron, dado que había un fallo del citado tribunal y del Tribunal de alzada declarando ilegal ese acto y prohibiéndoles participar en ella. Eso desencadenó el proceso que logró la destitución de Zelaya, con la votación unánime de todos los diputados del Congreso de la República presentes en la sesión del día de ayer, atendiendo al fallo de la Corte Suprema de Justicia y a los dictámenes de la Fiscalía General, la Procuraduría (abogada del Estado), el Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos y ewl Tribunal Supremo Electoral. Las Fuerzas Armadas solo cumplieron con la orden que les fue dada, en el respeto de nuestras leyes, para evitar que al día siguiente, se disolvieran los poderes del Estado y el Ejecutivo gobernara por decreto, tal como lo amenazó Zelaya EN PRESENCIA DEL EMBAJADOR AMERICANO, HUGO LORENZ, cuando quiso imponer al Congreso Nacional sus candidatos para ocupar los cargos de Magistrados de la Corte, hace apenas unos meses. En esa ocasión, gracias igualmente a la firmeza de los Diputados y al apoyo de la Sociedad Civil, logramos que se nombrara una Corte que ha demostrado su independencia y su respeto a la ley.

Señores periodistas: Para la inmensa mayoría de los hondureños, el Gobierno de Manuel Zelaya ha sido una desgracia: despilfarró todos los recursos de la Estrategia para la Reducción de la Pobreza,. de los cuales apenas un 3% llegó a los más necesitados; usó de los recursos nacionales como si fueran de su propio peculio; corrompió al país e hizo todo lo posible por deslegitimar nuestras instituciones: dividió y enfrentó a la nación hondureña e inclusive convirtió a nuestro país en una gran pista de aterrizaje para el tráfico de drogas. Solo en lo que va del año, dieciseis (16) aviones con bandera venezolana han sido encontrados estrellados o quemados, después de dejar su cargamento de drogas en el territorio nacional. El contenido de los mismos era demasiado grande para que lo pudiera aspirar el Presidente Zelaya y sus amigos en sus francachelas, por lo que no cabe duda cual era el destino de esa droga (Toda esta información puede ser corroborada en la prensa nacional) De paso, nos preguntamos cuántos aviones cargados de cocaína habrán enviado desde Venezuela a Honduras durante el Gobierno de Zelaya? .

Es curioso que cuando se destituyó a los Presidentes Assad Bucaram, de Ecuador, Collor de Melo, de Brasil y Jorge Serrano Elías, de Guatemala, e inclusive al Presidente Nixon, de los Estados Unidos de América, no se hiciera lo que se nos está queriendo hacer a nosotros. Sería quizás porque no eran amigos del grupo de Chávez y los hermanos Castro?






Pues en nuestro país, hemos destituído, por la vía legal, sin derramar sangre, a quien quería seguir los pasos de su paradigma, Hugo Chávez. y el golpe no fue dado para que los militares asumieran el poder, sino para preservar el orden constitucional y legar a nuestros hijos un país en paz y democracia.

Yo les ruego, señores, estudien bien la situación de nuestro país, vengan a Honduras sin prejuicios, informen con responsabilidad y apegados a la verdad y no se conviertan en cómplices inocentes de sátrapas como Chávez y Castro y, sobre todo, estén vigilantes para que no nos suceda lo que a nuestros hermanos venezolanos.

Para finalizar, quiero decirles que los hondureños no permitiremos que se nos imponga desde el exterior una tiranía. Resistiremos hasta cuando sea necesario y haremos que el Presidente Micheletti finalice el período de Zelaya y garantice, como estamos seguros de que lo hará, la celebración de las elecciones fijadas para el último domingo de noviembre del año en curso, para que en enero asuma el Presidente a quien elijamos libremente los hondureños.

Atentamente,

Jaime Güell

Señores periodistas: Para la inmensa mayoría de los hondureños, el Gobierno de Manuel Zelaya ha sido una desgracia: despilfarró todos los recursos de la Estrategia para la Reducción de la Pobreza,. de los cuales apenas un 3% llegó a los más necesitados; usó de los recursos nacionales como si fueran de su propio peculio; corrompió al país e hizo todo lo posible por deslegitimar nuestras instituciones: dividió y enfrentó a la nación hondureña e inclusive convirtió a nuestro país en una gran pista de aterrizaje para el tráfico de drogas. Solo en lo que va del año, dieciseis (16) aviones con bandera venezolana han sido encontrados estrellados o quemados, después de dejar su cargamento de drogas en el territorio nacional. El contenido de los mismos era demasiado grande para que lo pudiera aspirar el Presidente Zelaya y sus amigos en sus francachelas, por lo que no cabe duda cual era el destino de esa droga (Toda esta información puede ser corroborada en la prensa nacional) De paso, nos preguntamos cuántos aviones cargados de cocaína habrán enviado desde Venezuela a Honduras durante el Gobierno de Zelaya? .

Es curioso que cuando se destituyó a los Presidentes Assad Bucaram, de Ecuador, Collor de Melo, de Brasil y Jorge Serrano Elías, de Guatemala, e inclusive al Presidente Nixon, de los Estados Unidos de América, no se hiciera lo que se nos está queriendo hacer a nosotros. Sería quizás porque no eran amigos del grupo de Chávez y los hermanos Castro?

Pues en nuestro país, hemos destituído, por la vía legal, sin derramar sangre, a quien quería seguir los pasos de su paradigma, Hugo Chávez. y el golpe no fue dado para que los militares asumieran el poder, sino para preservar el orden constitucional y legar a nuestros hijos un país en paz y democracia.

Yo les ruego, señores, estudien bien la situación de nuestro país, vengan a Honduras sin prejuicios, informen con responsabilidad y apegados a la verdad y no se conviertan en cómplices inocentes de sátrapas como Chávez y Castro y, sobre todo, estén vigilantes para que no nos suceda lo que a nuestros hermanos venezolanos.

Para finalizar, quiero decirles que los hondureños no permitiremos que se nos imponga desde el exterior una tiranía. Resistiremos hasta cuando sea necesario y haremos que el Presidente Micheletti finalice el período de Zelaya y garantice, como estamos seguros de que lo hará, la celebración de las elecciones fijadas para el último domingo de noviembre del año en curso, para que en enero asuma el Presidente a quien elijamos libremente los hondureños.

Atentamente,

Jaime Güell

Las Infecciones de Chávez

por Hernán Felipe Errázuriz

Ni en sus delirios soñó Chávez el apoyo que recibirían sus intervenciones a favor de sus aliados. Decían que era un payaso; luego, los pragmáticos lo ignoraron, para no potenciarlo. Logró facilidades para que Cuba retorne a la OEA. Ahora, pretende reponer sin condiciones al destituido Presidente de Honduras. Hasta recién, sólo Venezuela, Cuba y Bolivia formaban el ALBA. Ahora son nueve. Todos para perpetuarse y controlar todas las instituciones públicas. "Son la economía y las instituciones, estúpido", es la clave de Chávez para extenderse en la región.

Se cree que estamos blindados de los males externos, incluso de las infecciones de Chávez: él tiene sus adelantados, los financiará y goza de alguna acogida en nuestras autoridades. Nos vanagloriábamos de nuestro patrimonio sanitario, pero somos de los más infectados del planeta: plantas, bosques, porcinos, bovinos, abejas, salmones y lo que nos corresponde del Arca de Noé -ahora, hasta los humanos- están azotados por plagas importadas. Chávez también nos puede salpicar.

En Honduras, Chávez apoyó al díscolo Zelaya. Una vez que lo enganchó, lo instó a reelegirse, le proporcionó fondos y urnas para un plebiscito declarado inconstitucional. Zelaya insistió y destituyó al jefe militar, desobediente de imponer el referéndum. A la sentencia de restituir al uniformado y al enjuiciamiento por abuso del poder, Zelaya respondió con desacato. Fue destituido por el Congreso. Creía que bastaba con ser elegido para ser demócrata, como Hitler, Chávez y tantos otros. En la vacancia, asumió temporalmente el presidente del Congreso. Casos similares de gobiernos civiles de transición se han sucedido sin reparos en la región. La OEA decidió intervenir, pero erró al sumarse sin más al ultimátum chavista.

Los hondureños en aprietos, y la comunidad internacional, expuesta al ridículo. Atizados por América Latina, con rapidez inusual, Obama y la ONU, aún indecisos sobre Corea del Norte e Irán, se unieron a Chávez en las condenas al segundo país más pobre de la región. Lo mismo hizo la Unión Europea, que tardó meses y un genocidio para intervenir en los Balcanes. Hasta Cristina Kirchner, derrotada y en emergencia sanitaria, pretendió viajar a Honduras para reponer a Zelaya. El ultimátum no resultó. El supuesto golpe no es claro; ahora tendrán que negociar, elegir un nuevo gobierno y rechazar las aspiraciones eternas de Zelaya. Igual, todos se declararán vencedores. Así parece entenderlo finalmente Estados Unidos, que no puede compartir fórmulas de hecho, a favor o en contra del chavismo.

Si un marciano viera este espectáculo, retornaría a Marte.