but President Zelaya's Letter is even more relevant. Preceding
the Letter are a few short excerpts from today's NY Times.
Shame on the Obama administration. Imperialism?, you bet.
Ed
"Washington shifted position this month and broke with Latin America when it
said that it was likely to recognize the election results despite the
failure to restore Mr. Zelaya before the vote. Only Costa Rica and Panama
have followed suit."
"Brazil and much of South America have refused to accept the election."
"There was a visible police and military presence around the capital,
Tegucigalpa, on Sunday. News outlets, largely controlled by business groups
that backed the coup, suggested that Mr. Zelaya's supporters could try to
disrupt the voting."
"But human rights groups denounced the patrols as part of a campaign of
intimidation. Witnesses reported that the police fired tear gas and water
cannons at a resistance demonstration in the second largest city, San Pedro
Sula."
"The de facto government — whose leader, Roberto Micheletti, also is in the
Liberal Party — tried to convince Hondurans and the international community
that the election was legitimate. But the Organization of American States,
the Carter Center and the European Union did not send observers. The United
Nations withheld election support."
***
----- Original Message -----
From: "RICHARD MENEC" <menecraj@shaw.ca>
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:48 AM
original in Spanish:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/articulo3950.html
============
A Letter to the Presidents of the Hemisphere
By Manuel Zelaya Rosales
President of Honduras
November 22, 2009
Honorable Presidents
Nations of América
Dear Presidents,
I write you in my role as President of Honduras, valuing the excellent
relations between our countries and in defense of the democracy violated in
Honduras as consequence of the Military Coup d'Etat perpetrated June 28 of
this year, when soldiers invaded my home and at gunpoint kidnapped and took
me to Costa Rica.
The National Congress forged my resignation letter and, abusing its power,
emitted an illegal decree which "separated me from the charge of
Constitutional President" without Constitutional backing to do so. The same
was the case for the arrest order that the Court had emitted without having
received any legal complain and without my having been cited to appear
before any tribunal or trial. It has been condemned and described by all the
countries of the world as a violent and surprising rupture of democratic
order, a Military Coup d'Etat.
At this moment in Honduras we are in a de facto State. There is no
Constitution. Nor are there Constitutional powers because they have been
destroyed by force by the military Coup d'Etat on that ominous day of June
28, 2009.
The Constitution of the Republic establishes in Article 3: "No one owes
obedience to an usurper government, nor to those who occupy public positions
or jobs by the force of weapons or using means or procedures that bankrupt
or fail to recognize what the Constitution and the law establishes. Those
actions by so-called authorities are null and void. The people have the
right to insurrection to defend the Constitutional order."
In reading that article, you can understand that the Honduran people are
legally empowered to act using all means, styles and forms that they
consider necessary to restore democracy. We have consciously taken the path
of peaceful resistance, with the goal of establishing noncooperation and
nonviolence like methods of civil disobedience and twenty-first century
popular struggle against the rise of military force.
We thank the entire international community for your support for our labor
to reconstruct the State of Law, that being the last effort of the poorly
reached Tegucigalpa-San José Accord, backed by the OAS and the US Department
of State. Its letter and spirit has as its proposal the "return of the title
the executive branch to what it was prior to June 28." And it was openly
violated by the de facto regime which in which Mr. Micheletti pretends to
head a government of reconciliation, refusing to convene the National
Congress, in definitive noncompliance of the timeline and text.
Now, unilaterally, he seeks to utilize the aborted accord by convening the
National Congress on December 2, a date upon which the political actors of
the accord will have been substantially modified, in the sense that by then
they will have already been submitted to the opinion ofthe voters without
having restored Constitutional order.
The elections of November 29 and their use of public funds under a de facto
regime, without having previously restored democracy and the State of Law as
OAS and UN resolutions demand, without even having installed the government
of unity and reconciliation, are illegal, illegitimate, and constitute a
criminal act.
At the moment that the de facto regime with its soldiers convenes a spurious
electoral process under repression, without legal guarantees, and without a
political agreement, in which the military dictatorship is the guarantor of
the law, it only strengthens its actions of force and impunity.
Precisely today, Channel 36, property of journalist Esdras Amado López, the
only television chain that has opposed the regime, has had its signal
blocked and taken off the air by the dictatorship.
The de facto regime has frontally disregarded the resolutions of the OAS,
the UN and the European Union. It has also violated the Democratic Charter
of the OAS and its resolutions while some of Honduras' friends among
countries demonstrate ambiguity and support for the electoral process
without having restored democratic order and without political dialogue.
That permits the de facto regime to impose its will by force.
As President of Honduras, I communicate with you to say that below these
conditions I will not back the electoral process and will proceed to
challenge it legally in the name of the men and women of my country and of
hundreds of community leaders that suffer the loss of democracy, the
repression, the unfair circumstances and the suppression of freedom.
These elections have to be annulled and rescheduled to when the sovereign
will of the people is respected.
In these difficult moments for our brother countries of América, we ask for
your solidarity with Honduras.
- That you accompany us based on the facts that you know, reiterating the
position of not supporting a unilateral intent to give validity to an accord
that was quickly rescinded by the violations consummated by the
dictatorship.
- Reaffirming the condemnation of the coup d'etat of the military State and
not supporting a de facto regime whose existence today shames all the
peoples of Latin América Latina, that after all the attempts by the
international community to reverse the coup d'etat have ended in a total
failure for everyone.
- Appealing to maintain your firmness in the execution of the resolutions
passed by the OAS and the UN and not adopting ambiguous and imprecise
positions like those displayed today by the government of the United States
of America, with whose final posture has weakened the process of reversing
the coup d'etat, demonstrating division in the international community. By
feeding this coup d'etat the democratic security in the hemisphere and the
stability of the Presidents of América is put at risk, with the resurgence
of military castes over civil authority. Legitimizing coups d'etat by means
of spurious electoral processes divides and does not contribute to the unity
of the nations of América.
- I ask for your cooperation so that this Military Coup d'Etat its bloody
violations of human rights do not go unpunished. Already, the International
Criminal Court has received complaints and allowed them to proceed to trial
to obtain justice for our people and apply the corresponding sanctions to
those who committed treason to the Nation and crimes against humanity in
Honduras.
- We voice our energetic rejection of those who support the maneuvers to
launder the coup d'etat, covering up for the golpistas to leave their crimes
protected.
- With our full attention, we invite all the nations to recognize our
government and that they abstain from supporting the actions of the illegal
regime that usurped power by force of weapons.
- We cordially demand and exhort your representatives to the OAS and the UN
to continue defending and supporting the rights of the people and of the
legitimately elected governments, since when one of our nations suffers an
assault it is an affront to all América; and, each time a government elected
by the peoples of América is toppled, violence and terrorism win and
Democracy suffers a defeat.
In wait of your response, I appreciate the invaluable support demonstrated
until now for these principles and I send you greetings reiterating my
esteem and my highest consideration.
JOSE MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES
President of the Republic of Honduras
cc:
Sr. José Miguel Insulza, Secretario General de la OEA
Sr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretario General de la ONU
Sr. José Barroso, Comisión Unión Europea
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