[News] National Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat Boycotts Honduras Elections

[Anti-Imperialist News]

National Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat 
Announces Boycott of November 29 Honduras Elections



Coup Regime’s Noncompliance with the October 30 
Accord Renders Last Week’s Agreement Moot



By Tamar Sharibi
Reporting from Tegucigalpa

http://www.narconews.com/Issue61/article3917.html

November 6, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, NOVEMBER 6, 2009: Hundreds 
of people have congregated daily outside the 
Honduran National Congress to pressure its 
members (known as ‘Diputados,’ or Deputies) to 
finally reinstate President Manuel Zelaya. The 
new wave of hope came after the US State 
Department’s visit that many interpret as a 
tactic to guarantee the November 29 elections. 
While US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 
proclaimed a “breakthrough in negotiations in 
Honduras,” things on the ground still seemed to 
be at a stalemate as of Thursday afternoon, 
November 5, the date that, according to the 
accord signed last week, should have brought – 
but didn’t bring – the end of the coup regime.

In response to the never-ending and not so 
genuine negotiations, the National Resistance 
Front Against the Coup d’Etat published this statement:

The National Resistance Front against the Coup 
d’Etat announces to the Honduran population and the international community:

Whereas:

1.That during 131 consecutive days of the 
struggle, we have pressured for a peaceful 
resolution to the political crisis that our 
country has lived resulting from the coup d’état 
perpetrated by the Honduran Oligarchy. In this 
period we have supported the initiatives that 
have been driven by various national and 
international sectors, maintaining three 
fundamental demands: a) the return of 
institutional order with the restitution of the 
legitimate president Manuel Zelaya Rosales, b) 
respect for our sovereign right to install a 
National Constituent Assembly that brings 
together the country and c) punishment for the violators of human rights.

2.That the call of the agreement Tegucigalpa-San 
Jose contains the priority element the return of 
constitutional order and literally states its 
purpose as “to bring back the title of the 
Executive Power to the state previous to the that 
of June 28 until the conclusion of the actual 
governing period, January 27, 2010”

3.That the National Congress, coauthor of the 
breaking of constitutional order on the June 28, 
is using delaying tactics, in not wanting to 
convene the complete assembly in order to repeal 
the decree that installed the de facto regime.

4.That the OEA and the government of the United 
States, who we consider accomplice of the 
military coup d’état, do not represent our 
interests in the definitive exit of the people 
involved in the coup d’état out of power.

So we resolve:

1.If today, Thursday, November 5, no later than 
midnight President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales is 
not reinstated to his position, the National 
Resistance Front against the Coup d’Etat will not 
recognize the electoral process and its results.

2.We alert all the organizations in the 
resistance on a national level so that in case 
President Zelaya is not reinstated in the 
established period to be ready to execute the 
actions of negating the farse elections.

3.We call on the international community to 
maintain the position that the de facto regime 
and the elections of November 29 are illegitimate.

We resist and we will be victorious!
Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. 5 of November 2009

Many resistance members have commented that the 
same Congress that invented the President’s 
resignation letter last June is now being trusted to clean up the mess.

US officials have given mixed signals about 
whether they will recognize the 29 elections 
regardless of whether President Zelaya is 
restored. 
<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/nov/131346.htm>On 
Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly 
danced around reporters’ questions that sought more specificity:

QUESTION: It appears as though, as long as the 
congress agrees on something, you’re willing to 
accept it even it falls short of Zelaya being restored before the election.

MR. KELLY: I think what we’re saying is that we want the two parties to agree.

Despite last week’s US Delegation and the accord 
that resulted, police and military repression 
continue. On Thursday Oct 29, Day 124 of the 
resistance, a peaceful march organized by the 
resistance movement and the UD, the Democratic 
Unification Party, the only national political 
party to oppose the coup from the beginning, came 
under physical attack from coup security forces. 
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE, in its 
Spanish initials) had granted the UD party a 
permit to hold the march. Interestingly enough, 
the October 29 was also the first day that 
control over the military was transferred to the 
TSE purportedly to guarantee the ‘safety’ of the elections.

All the major news agencies were covering the 
official press conference being held at the 
American Embassy when the action broke out. The 
repression on this day was different because 
there was almost no warning on the attack. The 
march was making its way through a neighborhood 
called El Prado, passing by the main offices of 
TSE. As a few protestors ripped down election 
material, military trucks arrived and started beating anyone in sight.

After canisters of tear gas were shot into the 
crowd, people dispersed in all directions. 
Approximately 300 reassembled within the hour 
near the Marriot Hotel, two blocks away from the 
Presidential Palace. Once again, the military 
regrouped and attacked the crowd. Soldiers 
followed people into the bathrooms of local 
businesses to pull them out and either beat them or temporarily detain them.

Andres Pavón, director of CODEH, the Committee of 
Human Rights in Honduras, reported 12 people 
receiving medical attention with severe lesions. 
Since soldiers and police have arrested people 
from the public hospital in Tegucigalpa, Hospital 
Escuela, it is likely more people were in need of 
medical attention but too frightened to present 
themselves. Many people who are victims of last 
Thursday’s police repression prefered to take 
refuge in CPTRT, Center for the Prevention, 
Treatment and Rehabilitation for Victims of Torture and their Families.

So what conclusions can we draw from the US State 
Department visit? Considering the 
<http://honduras.usembassy.gov/links_media.html>US 
Embassy’s media contacts list or following the 
mainstream media, one might be lead to believe 
that the State Department delegation truly was as 
historic as Secretary Clinton claimed it was. The 
walls of Tegucigalpa, though, shout a different 
message: “Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo,” (Only 
the people save the people). On the ground, most 
people never really trusted any of the diplomatic visits in the first place.

As of midnight last night, the National 
Resistance Front against the Coup d’Etat will 
begin its process of delegitimizing the electoral 
process. In a statement issued by President 
Zelaya, from the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa 
where he has taken refuge the past 46 days and 
nights, he said that the coup regime was plotting 
“a giant political-electoral fraud” through 
“constant violations of human rights, the 
cancellation of public liberties, the shutdown 
and confiscation of media like Channel 36 and 
Radio Globo, and the situation of having the 
President who was elected by the people 
surrounded by military soldiers in the diplomatic 
seat and the overall political persecution.” Zelaya added:

“We announce our total non-recognition of this 
electoral process and its results. Due to the 
above mentioned violations, elections under a 
dictatorship are a fraud to the people.”

The de facto government on the other hand, went 
about interpreting the Tegucigalpa/San Jose 
Accord as it pleased, supposedly naming its 
reconciliatory government while maintaining coup 
“president” Roberto Micheletti in power. The US 
will now have to answer to the international 
community – including the Organization of 
American States (OAS) – as the only government 
that says it might recognize the Nov 29 elections in Honduras.




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