Honduras election is a sham – don’t legitimise it
After the leaders of the military-backed coup in Honduras ripped up an agreement with the elected President of the country, Manuel Zelaya, opponents of the coup demanded that forthcoming elections in the country could not be supported. Honduras first needs to be restored to normality so that a democratic election can take place, not a charade. No fair or democratic election can take place in the circumstances that prevail in Honduras at present.
But the elections are being steamrollered through regardless. The US seems likely to accept the outcome of the vote, legitimising the actions of the coup leaders. It is a powerful negative step by the USA, which if it had joined with other governments in rejecting any legitimacy for the coup and its actions would have pulled the rug from under the plotters. By failing to take this step the United States risks causing instability across Latin America by giving a green light to others who want to subvert elected governments in the region. This is very dangerous given the long history of coups, dictatorship and bloodshed that has been visited on Latin America.
The Guardian has published a letter from leading voices today setting out the situation in Honduras and why the election cannot be recognised.
I’ve reproduced the letter in full below. The Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras also has the full list of signatories.
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Latin America faces the greatest threat to its democracy in decades. The military coup that overthrew elected president Manual Zelaya and seized power in Honduras in June is now seeking to legitimise its illegal government through the international recognition of elections on 29 November. Such recognition would give a green light to opponents of democracy throughout the continent that military coups will be tolerated. Free and fair elections on November 29 are impossible. Human rights, freedom of assembly and of the press have all been under attack in Honduras. Repression under the coup regime has seen at least 20 people killed, more than 600 people injured and 3,500 people detained.
The legitimate Honduran president, Manual Zelaya, has called for supporters of democracy not to recognise the elections under the military coup regime. Nearly all of Latin America’s governments have declared that they will not do so. Worryingly the US has indicated it will recognise these illegitimate elections. We call on all governments, including the Obama administration, to not recognise the elections on 29 November under the military coup regime.
- Colin Burgon MP Chair, All-party Parliamentary Group on Venezuela
- Jon Cruddas MP,
- Ken Livingstone,
- Baroness Gibson Chair APPG on Latin America,
- Brendan Barber General secretary, TUC,
- Jamie Hepburn MSP (SNP),
- Adam Price MP (Plaid Cymru),
- Caroline Lucas MEP Leader, Green party,
- Bruce Kent,
- David Hare,
- John Pilger,
- Lowkey (Musician),
- Brian Eno,
- Dr J Buxton Centre for International Co-operation and Security, University of Bradford
- Tony Lloyd MP Chair, Parliamentary Labour Party
- Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography at the Open University
- Johan Harri, commentator
- Ann Cryer MP
- Brian Simpson MEP
- Colin Challen MP
- Clare Short MP
- Dave Anderson MP
- David Chaytor MP
- David Drew MP
- David Martin MEP
- David Taylor MP
- Diane Abbott MP
- Gordon Prentice MP
- George Galloway MP
- Harry Cohen MP
- Hywel Williams MP
- Ian Davidson MP
- Jeremy Corbyn MP
- Jean Lambert MEP
- John Battle MP
- John Battle MP
- John Hemming MP
- John McDonnell MP
- Lord Nic Rea
- Mark Fisher MP
- Martin Caton MP
- Michael Cashman MEP
- Neil Gerrard MP
- Nigel Griffiths MP
- Paul Flynn MP
- Paul Holmes MP
- Rob Marris MP
- Steve Pound MP
- Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson Joint general secretaries, Unite the Union
- Sally Hunt General secretary, UCU
- GMB union
- Alan Ritchie General secretary, Ucatt
- Luke Crawley Assistant general secretary, Bectu
- Mick Shaw President, FBU
- Matt Wrack General secretary, FBU
- Gerry Doherty General secretary, TSSA
- Bob Crow General secretary, RMT
- Steve Hart – Unite London & Eastern Regional Secretary
- Chris McLaughlin Editor, Tribune
- Sam Tarry National chair of Young Labour
- Chris Weldon Labour party NEC
- Kaveh Moussavi University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Head of the Public Interest Law Programme
- Professor Keith Ewing
- Professor Mary Davis
- Dr Steve Ludlam Department of politics, University of Sheffield
- Diana Raby Senior fellow, Latin American studies, University of Liverpool
- Barry Cannon Postdoctoral fellow, school of law and government, Dublin City University
- Hazel Marsh School of politics, social & international studies, University of East Anglia
- Dr Michael Derham School of arts and social sciences, Northumbria University
- Rod Stoneman Director of the Huston school of film & digital media
- Dr Stephen Wilkinson Director, Centre for Caribbean and Latin American research and consultancy, London Metropolitan University
- Professor Ernesto Laclau University of Essex
- Cuba Solidarity Campaign
- Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign
- Venezuela Solidarity Campaign
Hondurans are going to vote. A new president is going to be in place. The UD group and Resistance need to start acting like political parties if they want to advance their cause. A couple of unions with no presence in government, especially if they boycott the elections and lose the few positions they held, are not going to help anybody and are just fooling their supporters.
Under Zelaya, if all these people that signed this list were Hondurans, they would have had help promote and then vote for his ‘non-binding’ referendum. This was the situation here last year and right up to the day of the the proposed voting this past June. Teachers, Doctors and anybody else in a pubic run institution had to toe the line or leave. Zelaya often said he favored the perfect democracy, where each issue is put out for vote by the people. And he demonstrated his true intentions by spending large amounts of non-budgeted government funds to promote the outcome he desired, on his selected issue, showing that a president can rule as he well pleases. Tying the future of Honduras to the whims of one man is not in the interest of our children.
The revolution was already called and it brought down Zelaya. Far from giving a green light to military coups, the actions taken by the government of Honduras show that countries with institutions in place that are to protect the balance of power and have the backing of the citizens are able to take the steps necessary to defend their constitution and the ideals of democracy.
Pat says: “Hondurans are going to vote. A new president is going to be in place.”
No mention that tens of thousands of soldiers and police have been deployed to distribute electoral material and oversee the polls. Nor that officially – and not just in practice – Honduras is under a State of Emergency. (Law Decree PCM-30-2009 declares a national state of emergency for all activities related to the election in Honduras.)
Amnesty International has tonight expressed fears that the Honduran de facto regime would use excessive force to clamp down on opposition to post-coup polls. An Amnesty International delegation in Tegucigalpa said it had learned that the de facto regime had stockpiled 10,000 tear gas cans and other crowd control equipment, and was concerned about the risk of a heavy-handed crackdown during the elections. “The past misuse of tear gas and other crowd control equipment, together with the lack of guarantees that the purchased equipment will not be used to attack demonstrators… paints an extremely worrying picture of what might happen over the next few days,” said Javier Zuniga, head of Amnesty’s Honduras delegation. He decried what he called “an environment of fear and intimidation” in the impoverished Central American nation. The rights group denounced the interim regime’s increased threats and intimidation against activists and journalists criticizing the government.
In a similar vein a Guardian article explains today: “Thousands of soldiers have been deployed across Honduras to oversee a controversial election which will cement the overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya. The de facto government has militarised the capital, Tegucigalpa, and other cities to deter pro-Zelaya protests and ensure that Central America’s first coup since the end of the cold war prevails. The authorities blanketed media with patriotic footage of army manouevres and football matches – Honduras recently qualified for the World Cup – to try to stir passion for what it termed an “electoral fiesta”.”
The CNN websites states “Honduran police and soldiers are out in force Thursday in El Durazno near Tegucigalpa ahead of this weekend’s election”.
An editorial in a leading Honduran newspaper, El Tiempo, last week noted the electoral process will be controlled by the coup regime: “12,000 troops, 14,000 police and 5,000 reservists are fully in direct control of the polling,” it notes, opining that free and fair elections are impossible due to the current, ongoing human rights abuses. “Until now, the atmosphere is totally contrary to a democratic electoral process, and what prevails is a climate of political oppression,” the editorial states.
These elections are not free. They certainly can’t be fair. They should be opposed. A coup d’etat can not be glossed over.