Democracy Now! report, September 22, 2009. Click HERE for program transcript.

[Follow the latest developments live (in Spanish) on Telesur and Radio Globo Honduras.]

Federico Fuentes, Caracas

By

September 22, 2009 — Green Left Weekly -- The dictatorship in Honduras, which overthrew the elected government of President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, has unleashed a wave of repression against the masses of people who have taken to the streets following Zelaya's dramatic return on September 21.

Zelaya, who was exiled by the military, secretly entered the country, travelled to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and sought asylum in the Brazil embassy two days ago. Masses of his poor supporters, who have waged three months of peaceful resistance against the coup, gathered outside the embassy — defying the coup regime’s imposition of a total curfew.

Dirian Pereira, a member of the international commission of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras (FNRG) told Green Left Weekly from Tegucigalpa: “The repression has extended into the neighbourhoods [of Tegucigalpa] and other parts of the country. There has been repression in La Canada, which has a high population of teachers. Similarly in Cerro del Picacho and other places. They are raiding houses and launching tear gas canisters everywhere, with is obvious affecting the population a lot.”

Pereira said “some 2000 people were being detained on the outskirts of the city”, while around 150 had been jailed in Tegucigalpa and 50 in San Pedro Sula. Images are also emerging of large numbers of protesters being rounded up and detained in a soccer stadium in Tegucigalpa.

The coup regime began its wave of repression around 4am on September 22 when the military launched a brutal attack on protesters gathered outside the Brazil embassy. They had been gathering there since the previous day to welcome Zelaya back.

The brutal repression forced protesters to leave the area. Soldiers then raided the two surrounding houses, blocked off all road access to the embassy, and cut off the embassy’s electricity and water. Tear gas has also been launched into embassy grounds and ear-piercing noise blasted into the area in an attempt to force Zelaya out.

“The fear is that they will attack the embassy ... they may even try and assassinate Mel [as Zelaya is popularly known], although this is speculation”, Pereira said.

In light of the “extreme repression, the National Resistance Front will be meeting in the next few hours to decide what position to take”, added Pereira.

The website of the FNRG posted a declaration calling on “all of the resistance” to participate in “a peaceful march tomorrow, September 23 at 8am in front of the Pedagogical University Francisco Morazan”.

Zelaya returns — the people celebrate



By Federico Fuentes, Caracas

Green Left Weekly -- September 21, 2009 — “Telgucigalpa is one big party”, said Dirian Pereira, member of the international commission of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras, speaking to Green Left Weekly over the phone from the Honduran capital. President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown by a military coup on June 28, returned to Honduras on September 21 and took refuge in Brazil's embassy in Telgucigalpa.

Thousands of people have gathered in the capital to welcome him back almost three months after the military kidnapped him at gunpoint in the early hours of the morning and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. Mass resistance on the streets from the poor majority, demanding “their” president's return, has continued unabated since. From the Brazilian embassy, Zelaya called for the Honduran people to celebrate on the streets. The coup regime responded by announcing a curfew.

The Honduran people celebrate the return of ``Mel''. Photo: Sky News.

“The people are totally ignoring the curfew”, Pereira said. “The curfew started at 4 pm, right about the time that most people are leaving work. All of this is a demonstration of the desperation of the coup regime that wants everyone to simply go home. But the people are coming out of work and are not going to their home. Many have gone to the Brazilian embassy to greet their president. It is a big party.”

Pereira said people were flooding in from all parts of the country to hold for a massive mobilisation on September 22. “The buses that are arriving from San Pedro Sula, that are arriving from many other parts of the country, are being stopped on the outskirts of Tegulcigalpa. But the people are simply stepping off the bus and marching together into the centre.”

President Manuel Zelaya greets supporters from inside Brazil's Telgucigalpa embassy. Photo: Sky News.

For the Honduran elite behind the coup, Zelaya’s crimes included increasing the minimum wage by 60% and blocking privatisations. His biggest crime, however, was to open a democratic process to change the constitution. Similar process have occurred in recent years in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador — with the poor and indigenous peoples winning many important rights for the first time.

On June 28, a non-binding referendum had been organised that asked whether the Honduran people supported the calling of a constituent assembly to discuss, debate and vote on a new constitution.

Zelaya had also developed closer relations with countries such as Venezuela and Cuba, joining the anti-imperialist Bolivarian Alternative of Our Americas (ALBA) bloc.

After almost 90 days of mass resistance and daily protests on the streets, combined with a diplomatic offensive to restore democracy headed by Zelaya and the ALBA nations, “Mel”, as he is warmly referred to by the poor sectors of Honduran society, has finally returned to Honduras.

He is calling on the people to mobilise and ensure that legitimate government is restored.

Asked what could be expected to occur in the next few hours, Pereira told GLW: “This is still to be seen, because the de facto government says that nothing is happening, that Honduras is calm and that all of this is the result of the curfew. The curfew was enacted in order to intimidate the people so that they would not go and join those from the resistance front at the embassy. They did it to create fear in the population.

“They say that they will not negotiate … but Mel has come with the intention of negotiating. We don’t know what will happen ... but we are continuing to demand a constituent assembly.”

A delegation from the Organization of American States is set to arrive in Honduras on September 22 Honduras. The OAS has been promoting Plan Arias, drawn up by mediators, which would see Zelaya restored to power, but with his hands tied and forced to accept power-sharing arrangements with those who overthrew him.

Pereira said the problem for the popular organisations and the National Resistance Front is that “the Plan Arias does not contemplate a constituent assembly. As far as we know, there is also a UN commission coming.

“We will see what happens, but regardless the organizations are here demanding a constituent assembly.”

[Green Left Weekly hopes to have ongoing coverage on the dramatic developments in the struggle for democracy and justice in Honduras in the coming days.]

National Resistance Front Against the Coup condemns repression

September 22, 2009 -- To the national and international community we denounce that at the first hours of the morning a strong contingent of police and military violently attacked the peaceful protest that was happening around the Brazillian embassy to celebrate the return of the legitimate President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

The repressive bodies made use of firearms, teargas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against people who were in the area, some of which were still sleeping. There are people injured from bullets and gravely beaten in the Hospital Escuela. The exact number of detained is unknown.

We condemn these acts of barbarity that are rooted in a state of siege that violates fundamental human rights.

To the human rights organisations and the peoples and governments of the world, we call to join in repudiation against the brutal actions of the de facto regime installed by the Honduran oligarchy.

To the Honduran people we urge you to stay alert to the next instructions emanating from the coordinators of the Resistance.

Via Campesina: The resistance does not stop and President Zelaya arrives in Honduras! In spite of the repression, the end is near for the coup regime!

By Via Campesina

September 22, 2009 -- After 86 days of struggle and resistence from the heroic people of Honduras against the military coup, this day started the fall of the coup regime with the arrival of the deposed president Manuel Zelaya to Tegucigalpa. An enormous mobilisation of masses, from all corners of the country, started to arrive to the capital city to receive president Zelaya, to demand his restitution and put an end to the coup regime led by Roberto Micheletti. Since the early morning, once the news of the return of the president got out, thousands of hondurans arrived first at the offices of the United Nations and then marched toward the Brazilian Embassy to receive Zelaya. There, president Zelaya met with a commission of the National Resisatnce Front Against the Coup. Immediately the coupsters mobilised thousands of soldiers and officials of the National Police to intimidate and try to control the uncontainable wave of Hondurans who were yelling, Yes we can! Yes we can! The aggressions and intimidations of military forces of the regime, throughout the day, did not manage to intimidate or unmotivate the pacific but militant and willing to resist, demonstration. Thus, the regime decreed a curfew starting at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and Micheletti issued a public warning of heightened enforcement against the people. But no one can detain these heroic people. Despite the machinery of repression of Micheletti’s coup regime, with deaths, injured, imprisoned and disappeared, the people, gathered in the National Resistance Front Against the Coup, the marches, the blockades, the cultural activities of prostest and the concentration of masses have not ceased, on the contrary, they have spread across the entire country in opposition to the coup. Since the beginning, the resistence identified very clearly their objectives: 1. The restoration of the legitimate presidency of Zelaya. 2. The celebration of a Constitutional Assembly. 3. Reform the constitution to construct a true popular and sovereign democracy. Now is the beginning of the construction of popular democracy which mobilised thousands of workers, peasants, women, indigenous, afrodecendents, teachers, students, human rights activists and the general population, since Sunday the 28 of June, when the military captured president Zelaya, deported him to Costa Rica, and installed a usurper as president. But also the most difficult phase of the struggle is to come, as the coup regime, cornered by the popular struggle, is capable of committing bloody repressions in an attempt to seize power. The following days will be the most difficult for the resistance struggle. Therefore, La Via Campesina makes an urgent call to its member organisations, to allied social movements and all people of the world to be on red alert and dispatch international solidarity as widely as possible to detain attempts of tragic repression against the Honduran people and its leadership, and to ensure the immediate fall of the coup. We are making a call to send international missions to accompany the Honduran people in these next days, and to demand that your goverments acts now to put an end to the coup regime and to collect funds to economically support the struggle. GLOBALISE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALISE HOPE!

Via Campesina

* La Via Campesina

International peasant movement

Movimiento campesino internacional

Mouvement paysan international secretaria operativa/operative secretariat:

Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426

Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

Seven million Hondurans under house arrest as Micheletti writes of `democracy'

September 22, 2009 at 1:52 pm