Roadblock

[Downwinder]

The chaos of information surrounding the trip Manuel Zelaya planned to take to Mexico has settled, and the story is now fairly clear. It is true that Mexico offered, and both Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government of Honduras initially accepted, that Zelaya would leave the Brazilian embassy with a safe conduct (solicited by Mexico, not Zelaya) and then reside in Mexico as an honored guest for some period of time.

Why it fell apart is instructive. It fell apart because Zelaya would not sign a declaration authored by the de facto government. Carlos Lopez Contreras, the de facto Foreign Minister, said

"There was an understanding that Zelaya would subscribe to a declaration...that he respected the Guaymuras pact, and respected in a like manner, the decision of the National Congress in the sense that it confirmed the end of his mandate."

They want Manuel Zelaya to recognize their authority and give up his claims to authority, to give them legitimacy. He shouldn't, and he won't. As he said last night,

"I could be here 10 years, I have my guitar."

Indeed, he played his guitar for those listening to Radio Globo last evening.

Why is this a roadblock? Porfirio Lobo was given homework by Oscar Arias and Ricardo Martinelli on Tuesday, which included getting Roberto Micheletti to step aside, since it will be fatal to Lobo's case for international recognition for Micheletti to be the one handing over power. Micheletti has more than once said he won't resign until and unless Zelaya also renounces as president. Stalemate.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/2009/12/roadblock.html

Check the comments.

[Peace Patriot]

1. RAJ makes the best comment. This is not just a conflict of two men.

At stake is the future of the democracy movement in Honduras--which is the work of the labor unions, human rights activists, religious advocates of the poor and many grass roots groups. That is who Zelaya was responding to, when he raised the minimum wage, for instance, and most importantly, when he proposed fundamental political reform of Honduras' putrid system through the referendum process. If the "ten families" oligarchy, the Pentagon and the State Department can just throw out a president, and rob him and the country of six months of the only term that the Honduran constitution allows him (a constitution that Oscar Arias said is "the worst in the world"), then democracy is OVER in Honduras. The rule of law does not exist. The "will of the people" does not exist. I think that is what Zelaya is fighting for in refusing any conditions on his exile that would muzzle him and in any way "signing away" the office that they robbed him of. He was illegally removed, kidnapped and exiled, and a wholly illegitimate coup government installed using martial law and brutal repression to enforce it--and the U.S., in the end, endorsed this brutal rule, and very possibly colluded in it from the beginning.