Honduras update – July 1, 2009

President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a military coup over the weekend, said he will return to Honduras tomorrow, with the support of the United Nations and the OAS. In the meantime, the Weekly News Update on the Americas provides ongoing reporting of events on the ground, with international press and individuals reporting protests against the coup around the country, with protest marches toward the capital being stopped by military roadblocks. Reporting and communication remained difficult as the military shut down media outlets. Weekly News Update described the background of President Zelaya:

Zelaya is a business owner who was elected president in November 2005 as the candidate of the centrist Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH), which along with the National Party of Honduras (PNH) has led the coup against him. Despite his conservative background, “[t]he grassroots movement has been Zelaya’s fundamental ally and has remained firm in its rejection of the coup,” members of the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) told the Brazil-based Adital grassroots news service.

“You have to understand that Honduras’ political class is extremely backwards,” Rafael Alegría, the local leader of the international
group Vía Campesina (“Campesino Way”) explained to La Jornada on June 29. “What Zelaya has done has just been little reforms. He isn’t a socialist or a revolutionary, but these reforms, which didn’t harm the oligarchy at all, have been enough for them to attack him furiously.” Another reason for grassroots opposition to the coup, according to the OFRANEH members, is “a tremendous aversion to the armed forces in Honduras. Not many people forget that 20 years ago the soldiers controlled things from cement factories to food production to their own bank. For many, their return to power implies an historic step back that will have incalculable consequences for the country.”

The immediate impetus for the coup was the prevention of a non-binding referendum on whether to have a vote in November to elect delegates for a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution at an unspecified future date. A new president will be elected in November, along with three vice presidents, 128 legislative deputies and 298 municipal governments — regardless of whether there is a vote on a future Constituent Assembly.

NACLA reports that the army is not solidly behind the coup:

Reports are coming in that several batalions–specifically the Fourth and Tenth–have rebelled against coup leadership. Both Zelaya and his supporters have been very conscious that within the armed forces there are fractures. Instead of insulting the army, outside the heavily guarded presidential residence many protesters chant, “Soldiers, you are part of the people.”