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<h1><font size=4><b>“Legalizing Coups d’Etat by Means of Spurious
Electoral Processes Divides the Unity of the Nations of América”<br><br>
</b></font></h1><h2><b>A Letter to the Presidents of the
Hemisphere<br><br>
</b></h2><h3><b>By Manuel Zelaya Rosales<br>
President of
Honduras</b></h3><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3950.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3950.html<br><br>
</a><b><i>November 22, 2009<br><br>
Honorable Presidents<br>
Nations of América<br><br>
</i></b>Dear Presidents,<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
The Constitution of the Republic establishes in Article 3: “<b>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</b>.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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 of the
voters without having restored Constitutional order.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
These elections have to be annulled and rescheduled to when the sovereign
will of the people is respected.<br><br>
In these difficult moments for our brother countries of América, we ask
for your solidarity with Honduras.
<ul>
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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. <b>Legitimizing coups d’etat by means of spurious electoral
processes divides and does not contribute to the unity of the nations of
América</b>.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
</ul><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>JOSE MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES<br>
President of the Republic of Honduras<br><br>
</b>cc: Sr. José Miguel Insulza, Secretario General de la OEA<br>
Sr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretario General de la ONU<br>
Sr. José Barroso, Comisión Unión Europea<br>
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