The Marxist-Leninist Daily

September 21, 2009: Thousands of Hondurans surround the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa in support of constitutional president Manuel Zelaya who returned to the country on Monday. The coup leaders have responded to Zelaya's return by laying siege to the embassy and with increased repression against the people, while the demand for rule of law and restoration of Zelaya as the president continues to intensify throughout Latin America and around the world.

Long Live the Honduran People
and Their Resistance!

TML salutes the heroic resistance of the Honduran people which has now won another victory with the return of their constitutional president Manuel Zelaya, 86 days after being forced out of the country in a military coup.

We denounce the repression of the resistance and the nefarious role of the reactionary forces in the U.S. and Canada in support of the coup and call on Canadians to go all out to support the struggle of the Honduran people to defeat the coup once and for all and establish new arrangements which will permit them to exercise control over their own affairs, including defending the peoples of the region from foreign inteference.

From the first day of the coup, the coup plotters underestimated the scope, intensity and organization of the resistance to their nefarious scheming, as well as the determination of the international community to uphold the rule of law. Thus, on September 21, the coup forces were caught off guard with the reappearance of President Zelaya in Honduras at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Now, after three months of being unable to present an argument to legitimize their regime in the eyes of the international community nor overcome the people's rejection of their illegitimate authority, the coup forces are taking revenge on the people, trying to outlaw resistance through use of military force and indefinite curfews, while recklessly laying siege to the Brazilian embassy, surrounding it with heavily armed forces and cutting off the water and electricity. It must not pass! The peoples of Latin American have a great collective experience of fighting against such reactionary arrangements of foreign intervention, military coups and rule by exception and will never permit them to take hold again.

At the same time as the coup plotters are trying to impose anti-democratic arrangements, so too are reactionary U.S. forces and the government of Canada trying to establish a new definition of what constitutes democracy and rule of law by trying to give legitimacy to the actions of the gang which carried out the coup. The Honduran military forces in service of the coup have already killed two people outside the Brazilian embassy and coup president Robert Micheletti continues to refuse any meaningful dialogue. Yet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Canada's Minister of State for the Americas Peter Kent continue making statements about how "both sides" must stop the violence and the necessity for "dialogue." According to them, there is already a natural order and democracy in place: rule by the Honduran oligarchs. Zelaya and his recognition of the people's need to be empowered through a constituent assembly would have upset this natural order where those unfit to govern, i.e., those who reject the primacy of domestic and foreign monopolies over the people's needs, might have elected someone who would represent their own interests. Thus, according to such forces, corrective measures such as the coup and the subsequent repression were a necessary evil, and while it may not have been quite right for the coup plotters to remove Zelaya, the action was both understandable and justifiable. It is in this context that the San José Accord, which seeks to legitimize the coup by making Zelaya's restoration contingent on limiting his mandate, continues to be promoted by Kent and Clinton, even though coup leader Micheletti has never accepted it and Zelaya has repudiated it. These attempts to dictate what is democratic or undemocratic, constitutional or unconstitutional based on circumscribing the people's participation in decision-making or trying to suggest that a benevolent dictatorship of the oligarchs is actually democracy will not wash!

Stand Up for Democracy in Honduras Now!

TML is posting below an open letter from the Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association addressed to Minister of State for the Americas Peter Kent, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, Prime Minister Harper and MP for London West Ed Holder.

***

There is a humanitarian and political crisis unfolding before our eyes in Honduras. The oligarcomilitary regime of Micheletti is responding to the return of legitimate President Zelaya the only way it has responded so far: with repression and brutal force.

In the last two days, the country has been completely militarized under a State of Siege. At least 2 people have been killed, including one child, presumably of asphyxiation due to tear gas. Hundreds have been wounded and arrested. Concentration camps have been set up in the Capital to detain the members of the Resistance. All the airports have been closed to impede the arrival of Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS. The Brazilian Embassy is under siege, its power cut off and no food is allowed to come in. The 300 people, including President Zelaya, who have taken refuge inside the diplomatic mission are in danger.

This illegal criminal regime is completely isolated on the international scene. The UN, the EU, the OAS, UNASUR, and the United States have all condemned the Coup and are applying economic sanctions against the regime and the Coup perpetrators.

Canada's lack of action amounts to complicity. In the name of the vast majority of Latin Americans who live in this country and in the name of all decent Canadians, who believe in democracy and human rights, we urge you to please take the following measures immediately:

- Publicly and loudly condemn the Coup regime for its egregious violation of Human Rights and demand that they stop repressing their own people immediately;

- Apply economic, diplomatic and political sanctions against the illegal and criminal regime, i.e. suspend all economic aid as the IMF and the EU have already done; suspend visas to all the members of the regime and their supporters (as the U.S. have already done); suspend diplomatic ties;

- Use your influence at the UN, which is now in session, to condemn the regime, and ask for the intervention of UN forces to protect President Zelaya and his supporters.

If you do not act now, Canada will be the only country in the Americas to have given its tacit support to this Coup regime. Our reputation in the region will be irrevocably damaged.

Marie-France Arismendi
for the Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association (LACASA)
London, Ontario
lacasa_london@yahoo.ca

Declaration about the Situation in Honduras by
ALBA Member Countries in the OAS

Meeting in Washington DC, as representatives to the Organisation of American States (OAS) from member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Americas (ALBA), we express our condemnation of the massive violation of human rights of the people of Honduras, who, throughout that country are showing their support for the constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras, Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and his return to Tegucigalpa.

The continued aggression and harassment begun this morning against the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where President Zelaya is being protected, is a brutal violation of International Rights norms and of all the conventions that regulate and guarantee civilised respect of diplomatic relations between countries, including the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.

We add our voice to the regional, national, and world organisations and institutions that have expressed their rejection of these barbaric acts that the coup leaders and supporters have committed in Honduras. We demand an end to the repression, a definite suspension of the curfew, respect of the inviolability of the Brazilian diplomatic headquarters, and the immediate and unconditional restitution of President Zelaya to his functions as Constitutional and Democratic President of Honduras.

Statement from Cuban Parliament
on Situation in Honduras

Given the gravity of events that are still occurring in the sister Republic of Honduras, the National Assembly of People's Power of the Republic of Cuba affirms its profound concern over the flagrant violation of the most elemental human rights of the people of that country as a consequence of their determined and constant resistance and rejection of the coup d'état and the dismantling of the constitutional and democratic regime of the government of President Manuel Zelaya.

We join the universal repudiation and condemnation of the military regime imposed on that nation and call for the implementation of more energetic and profound measures on the part of the international community in order to achieve a return to normality and the restoration of the Honduran president, democratically and popularly elected, as a manifestation of the will of his people.

Zelaya's presence in Tegucigalpa constitutes a gesture of courage and is based on his legitimate right as the constitutional president of Honduras. His physical integrity and that of his family, of the diplomatic personnel and other employees in the Brazilian embassy, as well as that of the group of Hondurans present there must be respected and guaranteed by the coup perpetrators. The barbaric repression of demonstrations by the people in support of the democracy that they are defending and which they deserve must likewise be ended.

Latin American Leaders

Latin American leaders at the proceedings of UN General Assembly's annual high-level debate on September 23 called for a return to power of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, stressing that political will is vital to confronting and overcoming threats against peace, development and democracy.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez and Carlos Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, used their addresses to express their concern about the ongoing political situation in Honduras.

"Unless there is political will, we will see more coups like the one that toppled the constitutional President of Honduras," da Silva said.

"The international community demands that Mr. Zelaya immediately return to the presidency of his country and must be alert to ensure the inviolability of Brazil's diplomatic mission in the capital of Honduras," he added.

In his address Mr. Funes said the "de facto government [in Tegucigalpa] has not heeded the clamour of the international community that Honduras return in the shortest time possible to constitutional order."

Meanwhile, any elections organized by the de facto authorities will lack the necessary legitimacy and transparency to ensure credible results that can contribute to resolving the crisis, he stressed.

"We must close all possibility of returning to the era of authoritarianism or military or civil-military dictatorships. We must not let the coup in Honduras become a precedent that would endanger the gains made with regard to stability and regional institutional democracy."

Dr. Vázquez said Uruguay rejects "the breakdown of institutions in the Republic of Honduras and we demand the immediate restoration of constitutional order, restoring to their posts the authorities, democratically elected by the Honduran people."

He also called for perseverance in efforts to integrate the Americas "without exclusions, or exceptions, or embargoes -- such as the one imposed on Cuba. We are all Americans. And equals."

Resolution to Condemn the Coup D'état in Honduras and to Show Solidarity with the Honduran People and Progressive and Left-wing Political Parties

The 15th Meeting of the São Paulo Forum, which was held on August 21, 22 and 23, 2009 in Mexico City with the participation of 520 delegates, 63 left-wing political parties and organizations of 32 countries in response to the events that have developed since 28 June of this year in the Republic of Honduras:

- Strongly condemns the coup d'état against Honduras' constitutional President Manuel Zelaya, which constitutes a stab in the back of democratic freedoms, and joins forces with the international community in denouncing the coup d'état.

- Denounces the involvement of the United States in this coup d'état through the intermediation of Costa Rica , the U.S. implementation of a new form of coups d'état and U.S. interventions in the domestic affairs, in the Latin-American and Caribbean nations, undermining sovereignty of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

- Denounces the violation of the Honduran people's human rights to freedom of speech, organization, and mobilization, and to political freedom.

- That the constitutional order in Honduras be immediately re-established by unconditionally reinstating President Manuel Zelaya and other democratically elected government officials, including and mayors.

- That the human rights of the Honduran people be unconditionally respected and the political prisoners be immediately released.

- To show its complete and unconditional solidarity with the Honduran people's resistance struggle, and to give its political support to re-establish democratic freedoms.

- To praise the strength of the mobilization of social organizations in defence of the democratic freedoms and civil, political and social rights of the Honduran people.

- To maintain observation and "accompaniment" missions to provide support to the people of Honduras, particularly to social organizations, the Democratic Unity Party, member of the São Paulo Forum, and other progressive parties.

- To urge the Latin-American and Caribbean governments, and international organizations to intensify their actions so as not allow this new type of coup d'état to happen again.

- That the demonstrations against the coup be supported by the São Paulo Forum, starting with the mobilizations and demonstrations that will take place on August 28, 2009.

Canada Calls for Restraint and a
Negotiated Solution in Honduras

The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), today issued the following statement regarding President Zelaya's return to Honduras:

"Canada is concerned with the violence that erupted in the aftermath of President Zelaya's sudden return to Honduras. Once again, we are calling on all parties to show restraint, to refrain from any actions that could lead to further violence, and to respect the right of Hondurans to peace and security.

"Despite mounting tensions, we remain hopeful that a peaceful, negotiated solution can be reached and call on all parties to act in good faith. We continue to be supportive of the San José Accord. We would also welcome a renewed role for the Organization of American States and Secretary General José Miguel Insulza in the coming days, drawing on the San José Accord as the most viable solution to the political crisis."

The San José Accord is a 12-point roadmap that Costa Rican President Oscar Arias proposed on July 24 in his capacity as chief mediator. The Accord includes proposals on the conditions for a transition unity government and early elections.

"We will continue to closely follow developments on the ground and stand ready to assist in any way we can," said Minister Kent.

Minister Kent, who is currently in New York attending meetings at the United Nations General Assembly, has been in direct contact with Secretary General Insulza as well as Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

Update on Unfolding Events

Honduran President Zelaya on Thursday announced from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa dialogue had begun with the de facto government to seek a peaceful end to the country's political crisis. Coup leader Roberto Micheletti has agreed to reopen dialogue, according to candidates for the country's November presidential elections. The presidential candidates met first with Micheletti then visited Zelaya at the embassy.

"We've obtained the commitment of Mr Micheletti to restart dialogue with this reference point (a first peace plan proposed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias) or any other," said Elvin Santos, a presidential candidate from the Liberal Party, speaking for the four candidates.

"At this time I can say that the dialogue has begun with the forces of the nation," Zelaya said on Radio Globo after meeting with the auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa, Juan Jose Pineda.

Zelaya said he had met Wednesday night with "a representative of the de facto government" whom he would not identify.

"We have not advanced at all from the inflexible position that they [the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti] have," Zelaya said, but he described the meeting as "positive."

The announcements of talks came after the UN Security Council agreed to a request from Brazil for emergency talks on the three-month crisis today.

Earlier on Thursday in a brief interview with CNN, when asked whether he was returning to the country to reclaim the presidency, Zelaya said "I never lost that title" and added that he would stay in the embassy "as long as it takes to end the coup d'etat."

Brazilian Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff defended Thursday Brazil's decision on giving shelter to Zelaya.

"The embassy is Brazilian territory," she said. "I cannot believe that any civilized person propose that you hand over someone who asked for asylum."

Brazil's Foreign Relations Minister Celso Amorim said the Brazilian government did not know about Zelaya's return beforehand. "This opportunity, of course, involves risks. But it is an opportunity for dialogue, which is what we are trying to provide," he said. News agencies report some 70 people including President Zelaya remain confined in the embassy.

News agencies also report that borders are being reopened, presumably because Zelaya is now inside Honduras. Curfews during the day have been lifted, however the nighttime ones remain in place.

In related news, the Organization of American States (OAS) will send a new mediation mission to Honduras on the weekend, including ambassadors withdrawn after the June 28 coup.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund after consulting with its membership, on Thursday said it would still recognize Zelaya as head of state of Honduras. The IMF's sister institution, the World Bank, suspended aid to Honduras, as did the United States and the European Union, after the coup.

In related news on September 23, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the temporary suspension of United Nations technical assistance to the electoral authority in Honduras, saying current conditions are not conducive to the holding of credible polls.

Ban "does not believe conditions are currently in place for the holding of credible elections that would advance peace and stability," his spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the UN is concerned about the current situation and allegations of human rights violations.

"The Secretary-General is convinced that an end to the crisis in Honduras requires a consensual agreement and supports regional mediation efforts to that end.

"He joins the Organization of American States (OAS) and regional leaders in calling for an agreement and urges all political actors to redouble efforts to find common ground through peaceful dialogue," the statement added.

The United Nations system in Honduras has also voiced its concern about the current situation, stating that it is the responsibility of the State to guarantee the life, freedom and security of all of its citizens in conformity with the international human rights treaties ratified by Honduras, the Constitution of the Republic and national legislation.

"The use of force, in any form, by agents of the authorities, applied without regard to the criteria of need and proportionality, violates the right to life and integrity," said a statement issued yesterday in the capital.

Neither Zelaya nor Micheletti are standing for election but the coup government is hoping to stay in office until the vote to keep Zelaya out.

Meanwhile, with the coup regime threatening to storm the Brazilian embassy by force, Radio Globo reported on Thursday morning that the military completely cleared the houses around the Brazilian embassy overnight. All of the residents in the area have been cleared from their houses and the military has occupied some of them, Radio Globo reports.

Radio Globo also identified several boxes attached to the power lines that jam radio signals (such as cell phones and radios) in the area around the embassy.

The military was interfering with Radio Globo's internet signal, sending end-of-stream packets to clients trying to connect, while Channel 36's internet broadcast was also unavailable Thursday morning.

The blog Honduras Resists reports that from September 22-23 at least four people died in the confrontations that took place in Tegucigalpa.

The peasant leader who directs the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat in Honduras, Rafael Alegría, confirmed to Radio Globo the death of two people poisoned by teargas used by the military and police to disperse the protesters around the Brazillian embassy. At the same time, Alegría confirmed that a union leader of the National Agrarian Institute died from a bullet wound.

Zelaya spokesperson Omar Palacios confirmed to the Nicaraguan newspaper Nuevo Diario the death of an eight year old child who was living next to the Brazillian embassy. The child died from being asphyxiated by the tear gas used.

"They attacked the house with bombs and didn't give them the opportunity to leave. There was no humanitarian consideration even to take out their remains," added Palacios.

According to information from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, four people have been killed during acts of protest against the Micheletti government since June 28. "Mass beatings and detentions have proliferated" against the opposition to the coup regime says the organization. Amnesty International (AI) denounced an increase in police beatings, massive arrests of protesters against the de facto government and the intimidation of human rights activists in Honduras since the coup in June.

For his part, Zelaya indicated in statements made by telephone to the media that he has "information of more than ten people killed yesterday."

A Revolution Is Being Born There

On July 16, I stated textually that the coup d'état in Honduras "was conceived of and organized by unscrupulous individuals on the extreme right, dependable officials of George W. Bush and promoted by him."

I quoted the names of Hugo Llorens, Robert Blau, Stephen McFarland and Robert Callahan, yanki ambassadors in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, appointed by Bush in the months of July and August of 2008, the four of them following the line of John Negroponte and Otto Reich, both of a shady history.

I indicated the yanki base of Soto Cano [Palmerola] as a central support point for the coup d'état and that "the idea of the a peace initiative from Costa Rica was transmitted to the president of that country from the State Department when Obama was in Moscow and stated, in a Russian university, that the only president of Honduras was Manuel Zelaya." I added that "the Costa Rica meeting called into question the authority of the UN, the OAS and other institutions which had committed their support to the people of Honduras and that the only correct thing to do was to demand that the United States should end its intervention in Honduras and withdraw the Joint Task Force from that country."

The response of the United States in the wake of the coup d'état in that Central American country has been to draw up an agreement with the government of Colombia for the creation of seven military bases, like the one in Soto Cano in that sister country, which are a threat to Venezuela, Brazil and all the other nations of South America.

At a critical moment, when the tragedy of climate change and the international economic crisis is being discussed in a summit meeting of heads of state of the United Nations, the coup perpetrators in Honduras are threatening to violate the immunity of the Brazilian embassy, where President Manuel Zelaya, his family and a group of his followers who were forced to take shelter in that building are to be found.

It has been confirmed that the government of Brazil had nothing whatsoever to do with the situation that has been created there.

It is therefore inadmissible, moreover inconceivable, that the Brazilian embassy should be assaulted by the fascist government, unless that government is attempting to be the instrument of its own suicide by dragging the country into a direct invasion by foreign forces, as was the case in Haiti, which would signify a direct invasion of yanki troops under the flag of the United Nations. Honduras is not a distant and isolated country in the Caribbean. An intervention by foreign forces in Honduras would unleash a conflict in Central America and create political chaos in all of Latin America.

The heroic struggle of the Honduran people after almost 90 days of incessant battling has placed in crisis the fascist and pro-yanki government that is repressing unarmed men and women.

We have seen a new awareness emerge in the Honduran people. An entire legion of social fighters has been hardened in that battle. Zelaya fulfilled his promise to return. He has the right to be reestablished in government and to preside over the elections. New and admirable cadres are standing out among the combative social movements, capable of leading that nation along the difficult roads that await the peoples of Our America. A revolution is being born there.

The UN Assembly could be a historic one, depending on its correct decisions or errors.

World leaders have expounded issues of great interest and complexity. They reflect the magnitude of the tasks that humanity has ahead of it and how scant the time available is.

Coming Events

Vancouver
Picket to Oppose the Coup in Honduras
Monday, September 28 -- 1:00 pm
U.S. Consulate 1075 W. Pender at Thurlow

Calgary
Latin Fiesta for Cuba
Saturday, October 3 -- 7:30 pm
The Unitarian Church (Upstairs Hall), 1703 1st St. NW
Admission: $10.00
Latin American Cuisine: $5.00
Beer & Wine: the usual prices
Entertainment: local group performances -- dancing, singing, and short speeches
Organized by: Canada-Cuba Friendship Association-Calgary

Aside from gathering supporters of Cuba and the Cuban revolution together for a celebratory evening of fun and festivity, this Fiesta is intended to raise some cash for the local Cuba-Canada Friendship Association so it can continue to pursue its solidarity activities with Cuba, work to end the blockade, and support the Cuban Five.

Halifax
Transformation: Latin America on the Move!
Symposium on Social and Political Change in Latin America
October 2-3
Saint Mary's University
Registration (includes refreshments & lunch): $40 Canadian; $15 for students and unwaged.
To register: transformationla@gmail.com
Draft program: http://transformationlatinamerica.blogspot.com
Sponsors include: International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University; Canadian Network On Cuba and Nova Scotia Cuba Association.

Long Live the Honduran People and Their Resistance!

Long Live the Honduran People and Their Resistance!

Stand Up for Democracy in Honduras Now!

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Declaration about the Situation in Honduras by ALBA Member Countries in the OAS

Statement from Cuban Parliament on Situation in Honduras

Latin American Leaders

Resolution to Condemn the Coup D'état in Honduras and to Show Solidarity with the Honduran People and Progressive and Left-wing Political Parties

Canada Calls for Restraint and a Negotiated Solution in Honduras

Update on Unfolding Events

A Revolution Is Being Born There

Coming Events

Long Live the Honduran People
and Their Resistance!

Long Live the Honduran People
and Their Resistance!

Declaration about the Situation in Honduras by
ALBA Member Countries in the OAS

Statement from Cuban Parliament
on Situation in Honduras

Canada Calls for Restraint and a
Negotiated Solution in Honduras