DownloadAug. 10, 2009 issue
No good side in this coup
By Kathleen Kern Christian Peacemaker TeamsAs I write, the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya from Honduras is now a month old. Its origins lie in an attempt by the Zelaya government to set in process a referendum that would change the Honduran constitution to allow presidential candidates to run for more than one term.
Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
When the head of the army, Romeo Vazquez, refused to cooperate with the referendum, Zelaya fired him. The Honduran Supreme court ordered Vazquez reinstated. Zelaya refused to do so, and on June 28 soldiers seized Zelaya and forced him on a plane bound for Costa Rica.
Most nations have condemned the coup. The European Union and several Latin American countries have withdrawn their ambassadors. After acting president Roberto Micheletti rejected the call by the Organization of American States for a return to democracy, the OAS expelled Honduras on July 4.
Since then, Hondurans have taken to the streets both to support and to protest the coup. Zelaya has made several unsuccessful attempts to return, and Nobel Prize laureate Oscar Arias has proposed a seven-point plan that would let Zelaya serve out the final months of his term, provided he renounce his plan to change the constitution. Micheletti rejected any possibility of Zelaya’s return.
I did some searching to see what Mennonite workers in Honduras are saying about the coup. Mennonite Central Committee worker Caleb Yoder writes: “The Honduran media is very slanted toward Micheletti’s government, with articles and stories denouncing Zelaya and justifying his ousting, which the new government doesn’t consider a coup.”
Matthew Keiser of Eastern Mennonite Missions writes: “I’m sorry, but I can barely hold my contempt for Zelaya or his rabble any longer — they’re violent, myopic and have lost touch with reality. What’s more infuriating is the international community’s blind and knee-jerk support for such a corrupt, anti-democratic, [Venezeuelan President Hugo] Chavez crony like Zelaya… . He has openly talked about fomenting violent insurrection in the streets of Honduras… . What kind of man wants to start a bloody civil war just so that he can complete the final six months of his presidency?”
MCCer Amanda Lind in her blog and a Sojourners article notes: “The country is clearly divided, and Hondurans supporting the ousted president are being silenced in scary ways… . Several people from home have written us wanting to know who the ‘good guys’ are… . Zelaya is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good guy. He made a lot of empty promises in order to gain the support of the poor. Micheletti is no better. I think this is a case of wealthy people and career politicians doing their best to retain power and wealth. The ones who will lose in this political clash … will continue to be the poor.”
The Honduran Mennonite church has called on church leaders to avoid polarizing Honduran society and on the governing authorities to respect the human rights of all Hondurans, including President Zelaya and his family. It has asked the Honduran people to “live together in diversity of thought and political ideology, seeking the true meaning of democracy, where everyone can live in harmony and respect each other, turning the conflict into an opportunity to … create a more just society with equal opportunities.”
As for myself, I know of no military overthrow of a democratically elected government that has turned out well.
Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
Comments
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Thank you to Kathleen Kern and the MWR for this informative article.
It's true that many supporters of the coup say that the root of the conflict was "an attempt by the Zelaya government to set in process a referendum that would change the Honduran constitution to allow presidential candidates to run for more than one term." But the actual referendum that was supposed to take place the day of the coup was merely a non-binding, advisory referendum on reforming the constitution - a longstanding demand of social movements in Honduras. There was no mention of term limits in the nonbinding poll question. It should also be noted that there was no conceivable way that the referendum could have affected Zelaya's own term in office, since at most it might have produced a binding referendum on a constitutional convention on the same November ballot that would have elected Zelaya's successor - a ballot on which Zelaya's name would not have appeared.
MCCer Amanda Lind says Zelaya "made a lot of empty promises in order to gain the support of the poor." Perhaps - but it seems to be the promises Zelaya kept, such as raising the minimum wage and cracking down on illegal logging that outraged Honduras' elite. Note that teachers and nurses went on strike to demand Zelaya's return. I don't think increasing the minimum wage 60% was "empty" for anyone making the minimum wage - it certainly wasn't "empty" for many Honduran business leaders who vigorously objected. (If 60% seems like a lot, note that the last increase in the minimum wage in the U.S. was 40%, and that the majority of the Honduran population lives in poverty.)
The headline "No good side in this coup" could be taken to suggest, perhaps, a "plague on both your houses" washing of the hands. But regardless of what you think of President Zelaya, there is a just "side" here: the restoration of democracy, which means the restoration of President Zelaya, as even the State Department says is its policy. (Reasonable people can dispute how vigorously that policy is being implemented, with the State Department so far refusing even to suspend the visas of coup leaders, although it is clear from U.S. press reports that it is the intransigence of the coup leaders, in their opposition to the restoration of President Zelaya under any conditions, which has blocked the success of the Costa Rican mediation sponsored by the U.S.)
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