In 2009, Honduras suffered a coup against President Mel Zelaya, a message to the rest of the region that the barbarism of the 70’s and 80’s had not ended.

Eight years later, the effects of the coup continue unabated, and have now deepened with the latest violation of the will of the Honduran people, that was expressed at the polls last November 26, in which the majorities said no to the illegality and corruption of Juan Orlando Hernández and the National Party.

A week ago, the people elected Salvador Nasralla as the new president of Honduras, leading the Alliance of Opposition against the Dictatorship, as a way to put an end to the coup of 2009.

Faced with this clear victory of the Honduran people, the State, led by Juan Orlando Hernandez, launched a wave of violence against the civilian population who had demanded transparency in the election results in a peaceful manner, distorted by a clearly rigged Electoral Tribunal.

The Alliance of Opposition against the Dictatorship is the result of large citizen mobilizations against the coup and collective resistance in defense of democracy, which brought together the demands of social justice and popular democracy of the majorities and was expressed in the massive vote of the population in their favor.

The international community has been silent about the violence exercised by the illegitimate president Juan Orlando Hernández, violence that has killed more than 13 people, including minors, multiple people injured and detained, and the suspension of constitutional guarantees, all with the aim of stopping the multitudinous citizen mobilizations that demand making their true votes count and denounce huge anomalies in the processes, and the interference of the United States embassy in the internal affairs of the country. Apparently for the international community, democracy is democracy as long as it serves the interests of the ruling classes, but not when the people take control of their future.

In view of this situation:

We reaffirm our support for the Honduran people, and we support their struggles in defense of their self-determination, and the peasant organizations that are filling the streets of the country, demanding the end of corruption and the end of the 2009 coup; We demand that the coup government of Juan Orlando Hernández immediately cease the repression and recognize of the will of the Honduran people; We demand that the international community act in the face of electoral fraud and the increasingly violent acts of the Honduran Right towards the peaceful and unarmed citizenship; We recognize the Alliance of Opposition Against the Dictatorship and its candidate Salvador Nasralla as the legitimate victors of the presidential elections.

LA VIA CAMPESINA

Cover Photo by Gustavo Amador/EPA