[Peace-discuss] Fw: [socialistdiscussion] CRISIS IN HONDURAS: Democracy in the Balance

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "farooq tariq " <farooqtariq at hotmail.com>
To: "Socialist Discussion " <socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com>; 
"socialist pakistan " <socialist_pakistan_news at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 8:43 PM
Subject: [socialistdiscussion] CRISIS IN HONDURAS: Democracy in the Balance


CRISIS IN HONDURAS: Democracy in the Balance

The Honduran Armed Forces are in the street, as thousands of citizens 
mobilize peacefully to defend democracy and the presidency. Repression is 
feared.

 WHAT HAPPENS IN HONDURAS TODAY WILL HAVE AN IMPORTANT IMPACT ON THE FUTURE 
OF THE COUNTRY, AND CENTRAL AMERICA

 Democratic rule is on the line, a military coup is feared, but tens of 
thousands of Hondurans rushed to the defense of the President, filling and 
surrounding the presidential palace. The crisis is a tipping point in a 
political transformation of the country that has taken shape during Manuel 
Zelaya's presidency.
 Months ago, "Mel", as Hondurans refer to their president, proposed that 
this Sunday, June 28, a national referendum be held to present Hondurans 
with the question whether a ballot box (the Cuarta Urna) should be 
established during the November 29, 2009 national elections in which 
Hondurans could vote whether or not to convoke a Constituent National 
Assembly (CNA) to write a new constitution in Honduras.

Here are more details

1. Coup fears in Honduras
2. A quick note about Honduras
3. Hondurans Back Zelaya's Referendum
4. ALBA members condemn coup vs. Honduran President Zelaya

NARCO NEWS: June 26, 2009

Coup fears in Honduras
Voters in Honduras, heading to the polls on Sunday, were scheduled to vote 
on whether November's presidential election would include a referendum on 
reforming the nation's constitution. But eleventh hour maneuverings in the 
courts and the legislature have sought to deny the Honduran people that 
vote, and the country's military literally kidnapped the ballots, while 
surrounding the presidential palace and the capital city airport.

President Manuel Zalaya - who favors the referendum - led more than 25,000 
Hondurans on a car caravan to the military base where the ballots were being 
sequestered, entered the base, and freed the ballots for use in Sunday's 
election.

Bricker reports:

"Civil society organizations and UN General Assembly President Miguel 
D'Escoto have warned of a possible coup attempt by the Honduran military. 
D'Escoto's spokesperson said that the Assembly President 'clearly and 
strongly condemns the attempted coup d'etat that is currently unfolding 
against the democratically elected Government of President Manuel Zelaya of 
Honduras.' Fears of a coup stem from a military deployment around the 
Presidential Palace and the Toncontín airport on Thursday.

".President Zelaya has called for mass mobilizations in the Honduran capital 
of Tegucigalpa 'to make decisions in favor of Honduran democracy and 
development.'

"Peasant leader Rafael Alegría told TeleSUR that peasants, indigenous 
people, and workers from around the country have set out from around the 
country towards the capital to support the president, and that some have 
already arrived."

Read Bricker's article in its entirety, among other news from América, 
online at Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

>From somewhere in a country called América,

David B. Briones
Webmaster

The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
webmaster at narconews.com

A quick note about Honduras
A classic "dual power" situation in Honduras; a pre-revolutionary or
counter-revolutionary situation.

The counter-revolutionary forces have more resources at their command. 
President Zelaya has moved to the left but he does not have his Liberal 
party behind him. The working classes are not sufficiently organized. The 
right wing controls the military, the Congress, the courts, the mass media 
[there is no left newspaper in the country], the Catholic church, the 
economy. Honduras is also the headquarters of the right wing Cuban exiles; 
former home
of Posada Carriles.
-WALTER LIPPMANN, CUBA NEWS

GRANMA
June 26, 2009

Hondurans Back Zelaya's Referendum

"Nobody is going to stop Sunday's referendum," affirmed Honduran President 
Manuel Zelaya at the start of a popular convoy led by Zelaya to the 
headquarters of the Air Force to "rescue" the ballot boxes and slips for a 
referendum scheduled for this Sunday and seized by the Public Ministry.
According to EFE, an emotional Zelaya arrived as it was raining.

"They don't want the people to be consulted, to speak, to have opinions, to 
have participation, nor do they want democracy in Honduras," the leader 
noted.
AFP reported that the head of state and hundreds of his followers broke down 
the gates to enter the Acosta Mejía Air Base on one side of the capital's 
Toncontín airport and that the president himself picked up the boxes 
containing the material to carry them to waiting trucks. Zelaya had stated 
that from there, they were returning to the Presidential Palace to prepare 
for the referendum.

In response to the president's call, thousands of defenders of his 
government had arrived from various points to meet up at midday at the 
Presidential Palace, giving their support in a demonstration whose combative 
nature could be seen on television footage. They then left on what Zelaya 
described as "a mission to guarantee the state of law": the recovery of the 
ballot boxes and slips.

A little earlier and defying the president, the Supreme Court of Justice had 
decided to reinstate General Romeo Vázquez, chief of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, less than 24 hours after he was dismissed by Zelaya, who took that 
step because of the Armed Forces' reticence to distribute materials for the 
referendum, which is to consult Hondurans on installing a Constituent 
Assembly to reform the Constitution. According to AFP, the Congress likewise 
rejected the presidential measure.

"We want to legitimize the authority of the executive power.. The (Supreme) 
Court has allied itself with groups of power against the people," Zelaya 
affirmed to his supporters at the Palace.

During the brief demonstration, where he called on the crowd to sing the 
national anthem, the president also urged them not to let "democracy 
continue to be that of the few. We must fight untiringly to attain the 
superior democracy that we have proposed," he stated.
The Honduran Constitution dates back to 1982 and contains six articles "cast 
in stone" that cannot be reformed, such as those related to the form of 
government, territory and presidential terms, PL notes.

In Zelaya's opinion, the current Constitution makes it impossible to 
undertake profound changes to eradicate poverty and inequality in the 
country, where seven out of every 10 people are living in conditions of 
poverty or extreme poverty. The referendum planned for Sunday would 
determine the installation of a fourth ballot in the November general 
elections, to allow the electorate to vote for the Constituent Assembly.

Since Wednesday night, observers and representatives of indigenous, 
campesino and trade union sectors and other social strata in Honduras have 
been exposing the danger of a coup d'état, given that Vázquez' dismissal was 
followed by the resignation "in solidarity" of the chiefs of the navy, air 
force and army, as well as Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana.

In a communiqué, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations 
of Honduras (COPINH) condemned the coup attempt and described the events as 
"a desperate reaction on the part of the right and its allies to deter the 
popular will to seek democratic ways to achieve a national transformation."

The rebellion came three days after the convening of the referendum, 
supported by popular leaders, campesinos, intellectuals and the political 
left, but rejected by the oligarchy, the business sector and religious 
organizations, PL reports. According to other observers, the Electoral 
Supreme Court, the General Attorney's Office, and the Supreme Court of 
Justice and Parliament, institutions whose links with the power and 
oligarchic sectors have been exposed by Zelaya, also want to prevent the 
referendum from taking place.
Honduras has asked the OAS to urgently discuss the situation, which is to be 
reviewed this Friday in an extraordinary meeting of its Permanent Council, 
EFE stated.

GRANMA
June 26, 2009

ALBA members condemn coup vs. Honduran President Zelaya
Statement from the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples 
of Our America condemning the coup d'état underway against the President of 
the Republic of Honduras, José Manuel Zelaya

The member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America 
represented at the United Nations, profoundly concerned about the events 
under way in the Republic of Honduras, express the following:

. We denounce before the international community a coup d'état underway 
against compañero José Manuel Zelaya, the constitutionally elected president 
of the Republic of Honduras.

. We emphasize that this coup d'état underway is aimed at blocking the 
realization of a democratic popular referendum called to define whether the 
people agree with convening a Constituent Assembly.

. We condemn this coup action against the genuine aspirations of the 
Honduran citizenry, which id demanding to be taken into account via 
processes of consultation and forms of democratic expression.

. We call on the international community to reject the abovementioned 
attempt to break with the democratic constitutional order, as well as any 
acts of violence or destabilization against the Honduran people and 
government.

. We express our unconditional solidarity with compañero President José 
Manuel Zelaya and the sister people of Honduras.

. We reiterate our firm support for the Statement backing the popular 
referendum process in Honduras, adopted by the ALBA Summit Meeting 
yesterday, June 24, in the city of Maracay, Bolivarian Republic of 
Venezuela.

-- Antigua and Barbuda, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, 
Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the 
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
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