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July 6, 2010 - No. 127

Honduras -- First Anniversary of Coup

Long Live the People's Resistance --
All Out to Support the Honduran People's Struggle for Justice and Empowerment!


Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 28, 2010: Thousands march through the capital of Honduras in response to the decision by the National Front of Popular Resistance to commemorate the one year anniversary of the coup with a nation-wide strike.
(Honduras Indymedia, FNRP)

Long Live the People's Resistance -- All Out to Support the Honduran People's Struggle for Justice and Empowerment!
Political Manifesto of the National Front of Popular Resistance
Honduras before the Coup - National Front of Popular Resistence
SOA Graduate-Led Military Coup in Honduras - School of the Americas Watch


Honduras -- First Anniversary of Coup

Long Live the People's Resistance -- All Out to Support the Honduran People's Struggle for Justice and Empowerment!

June 28, 2010 marked the one year anniversary of the coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya. On this occasion, TML reiterates its support for the Honduran people and their National Front of Popular Resistance, established one year ago to defend the people's interests against the reaction of the coup plotters and as a further development of the people's forces to advance their long-standing and just demands.

TML denounces the oligarchs who continue to use violent suppression and retribution against the people's resistance to maintain their illegitimate authority. TML also denounces the U.S. for the plotting of the coup itself through the Palmerola airbase and since then providing it with a legitimacy it will never have.

TML also condemns the role of the Harper government and its Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) Peter Kent, who even surpassed the ignominious U.S. response with repeated statements siding with the fascist justifications of the coup-plotters, in essence supporting the coup. The Canadian people demonstrated across Canada to denounce the coup and the government's support for it.

Despite the coup, the illegitimate presidential elections of November 29 and ongoing political repression, the Honduran people's resistance has only become more organized, consolidating and expanding itself throughout the country. It continues to move steadily towards realizing the people's demand for a national constituent assembly to reform the constitution and codify the means for the people's empowerment.

On July 1, Zelaya, who is currently in exile in the Dominican Republic, accused the U.S. government of being directly behind the coup. "Today we know that what we suspected at the time has been confirmed. The United States was behind the coup d'etat," he said. He added that "everything points to the fact that the coup was planned from the Palmerola military base." The base is a U.S. installation established in 1984, 50 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa. Zelaya also cited the progressive changes he had made during his tenure as president from the beginning of 2006, such as the plan to "recover the Palmerola military base and convert it to a civil-military airport," the membership of Honduras in the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA), and the fact that "in the Organization for the American States assembly in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, we managed to revoke the expulsion of Cuba [from the OAS], that occurred in 1962" as some of the reasons behind the coup.

For his part, coup leader Roberto Micheletti continues to promulgate fascist disinformation about the coup recently threatening that "If Zelaya returns, the tribunals will be waiting for him, in order to take him to trial for the crimes he committed during his government."

Meanwhile, the present regime of Porfirio Lobo has refused to recognize the membership of Honduras in ALBA, meaning that Hondurans cannot participate in programs that provide cheap oil, low-interest credits, eye operations from the Cuban-led Mision Milagro, a national literacy campaign and many social and economic development programs.

TML calls on Canadians to vigorously support the Honduran people and their resistance which is seeking to provide a bright future for their nation.

Long Live the People's Resistance --
All Out to Support the Honduran People's Struggle for Justice and Empowerment!




Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 28, 2010: Placard reads "There can be no peace or reconciliation when those who violated demcracy roam free." Besides the mass action, there was a concert entitled "Junio Rojo" (Red June), to mark the occassion.
(Honduras Indymedia)

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Political Manifesto of the
National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP)

Comrades.

When the Honduran oligarchy undertook the military coup on June 28 last year, they never imagined that they would face one of the most important examples of values and dignity in the history of our great Latin America. The Honduran people moved from the moment they learned of the treacherous act, planned and executed by imperialism and the Honduran oligarchy, and since then have not ceased for an instant to organize and mobilize to reclaim their right to transform the present and take ownership of their future.

Today Honduras is the scene of the battle between old and new; between domination and freedom. Here the criminal hordes of international fascism, right-wing parties, the churches at the service of the oligarchs and the governments subservient to imperialism rule face-off against grassroots organizations, democratic and progressive political forces, historically oppressed social sectors and unequivocal solidarity from other brother countries.



June 26, 2010: Members of the  FNRP collect signatures in the municipality of La Esperanza, Intibuca department (western Honduras). The signatures are needed  to convoke the National Constituent Assembly and also in support of the return political exiles to Honduras. (Honduras Indymedia)

The Resistence, is the genuine expression of the combination of revolutionary forces that has caused the plans of the North American empire, the international right wing and the local oligarchy to fail; and has become a social and political entity, which confused the intelligence services and became unintelligible to an oligarchy that is not able to understand from their schemes and their neoliberal moral logic, the combination of sacrifice and hope of the people facing repression, totalitarianism and deceit, who have a vision of a future of progress and the well-being for all.

The military coup was an act of desperation by the oligarchy against the beginning of a transformational process that was being interpreted and channeled through the government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Despite having come to power within the defined scheme to preserve economic interests of the wealthy, he was able to make a turn in the economic and social policies and make a legitimate exercise of national and international sovereignty placing the State alongside the poor and in favor of transformations.

Mel Zelaya assumed the leadership of a government in the midst of a serious social crisis, a dying bipartism, a popular movement in ascendance and a new international scenario marked by deep processes of economic, social and political change in Latin America. Even in this context, President Zelaya undertook a social commitment, demonstrated great courage and boldness to confront a parasitical, corrupt and criminal oligarchy that since Francisco Morazán, had not had their system of privileges questioned. What began as an attempt of small reforms to strengthen national production and curb privatization of remaining public services and resources that the State still had, evolved into a commitment to structural transformation of the State and society, through the installation of the National Constituent Assembly.



Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 27, 2010: Walk and vigil to honour the memory of the more than 50 people killed in one year of resistance to the coup. (Honduras Indymedia)

The situation of the oligarchy is desperate, the powers of State are upon the verge of collapse beneath a sharp fiscal and financial crisis that could covert itself into total bankruptcy, neither are they able to achieve international recognition that would obtain credits to oxygenate the dire economic crisis caused by the military coup and the massive ransacking by officials who took charge of the de facto regime. The world recognizes them as violators of human rights denounced before the International Criminal Court. In summary, they are assured of failure.

The Resistence is strengthened, increasing its coordination and organizational capacities at a national level, concerning itself with ensuring mechanisms of internal democracy to maintain unity within the ideological diversity and dares to dream of a new society: just, equitable and inclusive. To achieve this the strategy of the FNRP is clearly defined, Hondurans will convene a Democratic and Popular National Constituent Assembly, with which we will re-found the State and society.

Of particular consideration is remembering and honoring the memories of our brothers and sisters killed and tortured by force of terror, the repressive apparatus of the State at the service of the oligarchy and the Pentagon. These men and women gave their lives to build a just and equitable society. We reaffirm that here no one surrenders until the aspirations of the Honduran nation are realized. For them we express our full support to the Truth Commission installed at the request of the Human Rights Platform. We are confident that with their work they will succeed in uncovering and prosecuting the intellectual perpetrators of the torture, murders, violations, repression and other humiliation that they were subject to.


Truth Commission underway in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,
June 28, 2010. (Honduras Indymedia)

We demand the return of our brothers and sisters who are in exile for political persecution by the coupist oligarchy.

In relation to this political, economic and social crisis caused by the oligarchy in order to maintain this unjust, inequitable system, we set as a route to achieve social transformation the following:

1. We must intensify the process of achieving the National Constituent Assembly, composed of constituent congressmen and congresswomen that arise from the social sectors, workers, ethnic groups, African descendants, citizens, women, campesinos (landworkers), professionals, youth, forming an authentic representation of the Honduran people. For this we need to continue strengthening the organizational aspects from the grassroots to the national structure, educating in open assemblies and promoting participatory discussion of the contents that should be the new social pact within a framework of the re-founding of a sovereign-social-secular-democratic State and committed to the progress and welfare of the Honduran people. This will inevitably happen by dismantling the oligarchic coup structure and its repressive and criminal apparatus.

2. We must rescue our natural resources and cancel illegal concessions granted under the neoliberal model in strategic sectors in the country's economic life, such as telecommunications, energy, water, forests, ports, mining and hydrocarbons, airports with the implementation of a mixed economy that allows people's participation, with an equitable distribution of wealth to meet the legitimate aspirations and demands of people for dignified living conditions. Achieving progress and improving the welfare of the Honduran people requires that national resources be used for domestic purposes. Within this context we reject the neoliberal measures taken by the oligarchic coup regime of Porfirio Lobo Sosa which attacks the Honduran people with massive tax increases, privatization, increased cost of utilities and dumping the cost of ransacking and corruption by the military coup predominantly on the middle class and popular sectors. We call upon those people to continue with a greater level of commitment in the patriotic, peaceful, democratic struggle, which is the reason for the existence of the FNRP.

3 . We encourage the Honduran people to organize themselves in the hamlets, villages, districts, neighbourhoods, municipalities and departments in fronts of resistance and social organizations, trade unions, federations, campesino businesses and professional associations to intensify the work of strengthening organization. As a result of the failure of the actions taken by the oligarchy to stop the process of social transformation through the military coup of June 28, 2009, and the illegitimate, violent and militarized elections of last November 29, the continuation of the oligarchic coup regime by Mr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, has not been able to resolve the economic, political, and social crisis. Quite the contrary, it has worsened. In desperation to maintain its privileges the coupist oligarchy is preparing a violent and criminal offense, backed by the North American and Latin American ultra right wing. In this manner they will again try to stop the process of social transformation driven by the Honduran people. With its organizational development, with clarity and strength in political lines, with the leadership of José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, whose unconditional return  we demand, the dignified people of Morazán continue to advance incorporating themselves into the FNRP until the final victory is won.

Honduras Central America June 28, 2010.

For the Memory of Our Martyrs Fallen in the Fight!
For a Just Society and the Refoundation of the State of Honduras.
For the National Constituent Assembly.
Resist and Overcome!
Long Live the FNRP.

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Honduras before the Coup

Honduras before June 28th, 2009, was already a country in distress with strong clashes between the business class and the majority working class of the country. This fact has received little attention in media and popular accounts of the coup.

The unrest that preceded the military coup was a result, on one hand, of unified actions of the social movement's struggle against the neoliberal model, seeking structural and social transformations; and on the other hand, the actions of Manuel Zelaya who as President of the Republic placed himself in opposition to the Honduran oligarchy and the imperialist intervention of the United States of America.

The Popular Movement

During the early 1990s with the imposition of the neoliberal model many of the forces of the social movement were dislocated, resulting in its subsequent weakening. The new century was greeted with the creation of the Popular Bloc/Bloque Popular (May 1st 2000) as a space for bringing together diverse social sectors with a base formed from the most combative trade unions of the Federación Unitaria de Trabajadores de Honduras (FUTH, United Federation of Honduran Workers). The Bloque, as it is commonly known, assumed the task of fighting against neoliberalism and privatization.

In 2003, virtually all regions of the country had a federation of grassroots organizations with a similar style to the Bloque. On 26th of August of that year, the March of National Dignity led to the formation of the Coordinadora Nacional de Resistencia Popular (National Popular Resistance Coordinating Committee), which became the largest umbrella organization of grassroots movements in the country, meeting on a monthly basis with all its regional organized counterparts with an unmatched, unified agenda of struggle.

The Coordinating Committee gathered the most important demands of the people. Since 2003 national mobilizations grew, challenging and weakening the policies of the government of Ricardo Maduro (2002-2006), creating a difficult scenario for the ruling elites. Throughout this process as the social movement grew, the Honduran oligarchy played an increasingly repressive role; such that within a few years the movement's focus would go beyond economic demands and advance to political positions.

Mel and the Beginning of a New Path

During his inauguration as President, Manuel Zelaya "Mel" passed the Ley de Participación Ciudadana (Law of Citizen Participation) that three years later he would use to promote the cuarta urna (fourth ballot box), a non-binding referendum to decide whether to call for a National Constituent Assembly in November 2009 elections. The coup occurred on the day of the survey. During the early months of his presidency he did not venture far from the strategic plan of the dominant class and transnational companies. However, within a short period of time he was in confrontation with them for their refusal to allow even small changes to strengthen the national productive apparatus or to permit him to put the brakes on the privatization of the last resources that still remained in the hands of the State.

In response to the intransigence of the elites, Zelaya began to radicalize government policies. The President, guided by his human sensitivity, sided with the people. More progressive measures were prompted, such as a sharp increase (40%) in the minimum wage, incentives for agricultural production, strengthening of state-owned companies and an independent foreign policy.

As Zelaya became closer to the people, he moved away from the oligarchy. Actions such as the signing of oil importation contracts with Petrocaribe, the incorporation of Honduras into ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas), his plan to convert the U.S. military base in Soto Cano into an airport, his delay in accepting the diplomatic credentials of the U.S. ambassador Hugo Llorens in protest against U.S. policy toward Bolivia boycotting Evo Morales' government. Morales' refusal to sign an IMF agreement touched the interests of U.S imperialism and questioned their total control over Honduras as a country of much geopolitical importance in the region.

The popular movement which at first had confronted the neoliberal policies with which Zelaya had begun, were by the second year of his administration introducing some of their demands to the government's agenda, to the point of working together on the most important project: setting up a National Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution.



June 28, 2010: Action by COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) to mark the one year anniversary of coup in Honduras, on the road between Otoro and La Esperanza in Intibuca department. Pictured below are people symbolically casting their votes for the cuarta urna, or fourth ballot that was to be added to last year’s presidential election before being waylaid by the coup. Placard reads "The Constituent Assembly is coming and nothing will stop it." (Honduras Indymedia)

The Business Class of Honduras

Honduras suffers from an economic dependence on the USA: 70.6% of exports go to USA, 53% of imports are from the USA and remittances from Hondurans living in the USA are 21.2% of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

During the Zelaya administration, the country registered an economic growth of approximately 5% GDP; however, the poverty rate showed only a very slight reduction with an increase in inequality and a greater concentration of wealth. The neoliberal system that Honduras is subject to has not worked for the majority, the 75% of the population that live in poverty, and has taken a huge toll on Hondurans' working conditions, has provoked environmental destruction and the sell-off of the productive sectors of the state.

An important factor in the development of the Honduran conflict has been the oligarchy that controls the means of production and shares the economic, political and media power between 10 families. It is significant to see that while the rest of Central American countries managed to establish a dominant class through coffee production, in Honduras the dominant class revolved around importation and as an agent of the foreign-controlled mining and banana enclaves. This situation led to the weakness of the national oligarchy and their submission to imperial interests.

The Honduran business class maintains its control of the means of production through corruption, manipulation and creation of laws, drug trafficking and use of police and military force against the population, using the media to validate these actions. The visible face of the business class is evident in the councils and associations of private business that has representations at all levels of government. Past presidents (1982- 2006) of the new era of "Democratic Representation" were faithful defenders of private enterprise and interests of U.S. imperialism. Transnational corporations in the oil, textile, pharmaceutical, mining, agriculture and food sales sectors represent the cowardly sale of human and natural resources by the business class to interests foreign to that of the Honduran nation.

Birth of the Resistance


"Resistance: Made in Honduras"
(Honduras Indymedia)

The week before June 28, 2009, strong rumors circulated that Manuel Zelaya was to be ousted by a military coup. Wednesday (June 25) of that week several members of the Bloque and activists working on the project of the Cuarta Urna received the call to arrive at the Presidential House to avert a coup attempt. But it was not until the early hours of June 28 that the oligarchy, composed of conservative politicians, military, religious and business sectors carried out the military coup against Manuel Zelaya. That same day on the streets surrounding the Presidential House, the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular was born.

The first actions of the people were improvised and in line with the tactics social struggles they had successfully employed for several years: direct action. The hours and days after the coup saw road blocks, marches and demonstrations. Through these acts against the violent and repressive coup the Resistence grew quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrating that the struggle was not fleeting, but was rather the maximum expression of the class struggle from which the country has not yet freed itself.

The Resistence was created around the structure of diverse popular organizations that formed the National Committee of Popular Resistance, as well as a large part of the Liberal Party that Mel, through his actions, had snatched away from the traditional and corrupt politics of the country. To the streets went citizens who previously had not been organized but who today are the Resistence, present in every corner of the country.

The new agenda of the exploited and marginalized surpassed qualitatively what existed prior to the coup. The need to achieve political power and control the State has become much clearer. With this, friends and enemies of social transformation have been uncovered.

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SOA Graduate-Led Military Coup in Honduras

Since the June 28, 2009 military coup, state forces have murdered, tortured, beaten, and disappeared activists. There have been curfews, restrictions on movement, and media blackouts. Honduran social organizations reported about 4,200 human rights violation among then more than 130 murders against members of the resistance and about 3,000 arrests.

The June 28, 2009 military coup in Honduras was carried out by the School of the Americas (SOA) graduates Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of the of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran military, and Gen. Luis Prince Suazo, the head of the Air Force. The leadership of SOA graduates in the coup follows a pattern of anti-democratic actions by graduates of the SOA (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, WHINSEC). The Pentagon claim -- that the institute instills respect for democracy and civilian leadership while teaching combat skills to Latin American soldiers -- had once again been disproved by the actions of the institute's graduates.

SOA-trained Honduran Army Attorney Col. Herberth Inestroza justified the military coup and stated in an interview with The Miami Herald "It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible.'' Inestroza also confirmed that the decision for the coup was made by the military. Another SOA graduate, retired General Daniel López Carballo, told CNN that the coup was warranted because Venezuelan President Chávez would be running Honduras by proxy if the military had not acted.

The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for a non-binding opinion poll that was supposed to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to enter into a process to modify their constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, SOA graduate General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez. The heads of all branches of the armed forces quit in solidarity with Vásquez. Vásquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vásquez remained in control of the armed forces and in March 2010, Romeo Vásquez Velásquez became the new director of the Honduran telecommunications firm HONDUTEL.

Vásquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous SOA. According to information that SOA Watch obtained from the US government through a Freedom of Information Act request, Vásquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.

The head of the Honduran Air Force, General Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996. The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran coup. When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them. Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.

Former Representative Joe Kennedy stated, "The School of the Americas...is a school that has [produced] more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."

The SOA has a long history in Honduras: In 1975, SOA graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. From 1980-1982 the dictatorial regime was headed by yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz García, who intensified repression by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in the Americas.

Honduran Gen. Humberto Regalado Hernandez, who was inducted into the SOA's Hall of Fame, was a four-time graduate. As head of the armed forces, he refused to take action against soldiers involved in the Battalion 3-16 death squad.

This is not the first time the SOA has been involved in a Latin American coup. In April 2002, the democratically elected Chávez government of Venezuela was briefly overthrown, and the SOA-trained soldiers Efrain Vasquez Velasco, ex-army commander, and Gen. Ramirez Poveda, were key players in the coup attempt.

The school graduated at least eleven Latin American dictators, among them are:

* Argentine Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri, who seized power in a bloody coup, bringing down another SOA grad, Gen. Roberto Viola, who came to power during Argentina's Dirty War.

* Guatemalan dictator Gen. Efrain Ríos Montt, who seized power in a coup in 1982 and conducted a scorched earth campaign against the Mayan Indians.

* Panamanian dictators Gen. Omar Torrijos, who overthrew a civilian government in a 1968 coup, and Gen. Manuel Noriega, a five-time SOA graduate, who ruled the country and dealt in drugs while on the CIA payroll.

* Ecuadoran dictator Gen. Guillermo Rodríguez, who overthrew the elected civilian government in 1972.

* Bolivian dictators Gen. Hugo Banzer Suarez, who seized power in a violent coup in 1971, and Gen. Guido Vildoso Calderon, who grabbed power in 1982.

* Peruvian strongman Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado, who in 1968 toppled the elected civilian government.

Since 1946, the SOA/WHINSEC has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper skills, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Human Rights groups are calling for the closure of the institute. Rep. Jim McGovern has introduced H.R. 2567 in the House of Representatives, which calls for the suspension of operation of the school and a Congressional investigation into the connection between human rights abuses in Latin America and U.S. military training.

From November 19-21, 2010, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, to call for the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) and to speak out for justice in solidarity with the people of Honduras and all of the Americas.

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