The Silent Majority of Honduras Speaks

We would like to thank you for portraying the political truth of Honduras as it is today. We appreciate the righteousness in your newscast or article, since it is not biased and lacks the blasphemies portrayed in other journals and news channels.

Honduras has a strong and fair constitution; it is NOT dead, as President Zelaya claimed at the start of this problem. It is the longest lasting Constitution Honduras has had and the current presidency, the seventh consecutively elected government sets a record of peaceful presidential change. It is generally believed that one of the main reasons for this stability has been the unchangeable nature of the constitutional laws that establish the presidential period and the non re-eligibility of the President.

The Presidential survey (it is not a referendum) this Sunday seeks to establish a National Constituent Assembly with ample powers to discard the current constitution. President Zelaya has expressed on the government TV that he should have the right to be re-elected like other government officials. Thus it is clear that this is one of his objectives. In foreign interviews he says he will hand government over on January 27, but locally he adds “unless the people (his people) ask him to stay”.

If our country is flawed, it is due to the lack of ability and honesty of our leaders, such as Zelaya. During his term he has killed the Poverty Reduction Strategy, blocked projects to construct water power plants and promoted Carbon power plant projects for unknown reasons, protected corrupt officials of his government, he has increased our foreign debt to historical heights (after it had been condoned) and increased internal debt almost breaking retirement funds in the country, aside from a series of other problems. Currently, the government works without a budget because he has failed to present it to Congress since September 2008. There are serious problems the country has to solve such as the H1N1 pandemic, the consequences of the recent earthquakes, especially with levy protection against flooding (like New Orleans) now that the hurricane season is starting. Instead he is spending government funds in his re-election strategy.

President Zelaya talks of a new, better kind of Democracy where the representatives in Congress will be chosen by social organizations, such as worker unions, peasant unions, teacher unions and other social organizations, in other words, a new version of Lenin’s Proletarian Dictatorship. This model of the 60s, 70s and 80s has been tried and failed because it limits representation to a few. Yet he ironically claims that the other branches of the government and the “Oligarchies” are the ones who want to keep power in the hands of a few.

Thus, with the survey and fourth ballot, President Zelaya seeks to break the constitutional order, to defeat the constitution and change the rules of representation. That is why the majority of the Honduran people oppose this survey. That is why Congress opposes it. That is why the Supreme Court and the judicial system oppose it. That is why the Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, opposes it. That is why the churches oppose it. That is why the Honduran Bar Association opposes it. That is why the military oppose it. That is why we, the people oppose it.

Article 64 of our valid constitution protects itself from the passing of laws that contradict any other article in it, specially the seven non-amendable articles. There is also an article that states that no referendums or surveys can be held within 180 days before the general elections. Mel’s survey would therefore involve going against each of these articles, and ultimately assault the constitution as a whole. Our legislative and judicial institutions are aware of this, declaring it an illegal action. Our armed forces have rejected the commands from the president, because they refuse to participate in an illegality, causing further discourse. The news channels and newspapers have encountered themselves with people who have been offered money in exchange for their vote, and a woman was even denied service at a public hospital because she refused to sign in favor of the ballot.

The judicial courts and Public Ministry (attorney general’s office) ordered all the material to be removed and stored in the Air Force base, at which point, Zelaya proceeded to march there with a group of about 2,000 followers suspected of being bought, brought down the gates, and retrieved the boxes of material which were then taken to the presidential palace.

International organizations like the OAS have responded. However, they are listening to the ambassador of Honduras who is appointed by the executive power, and so the people feel ignored. As a reaction, the capital city organized a peaceful march this morning, of between 10 to 15 thousand people dressed in white to promote peace, liberty, and democracy, following the example of a similar protest earlier this week with over 100,000 participants in the industrial capital. These people have a voice too, and internationally nobody is fighting for them. They asked that something be done to stop the instability that is destroying our democracy.

At the same time, reports were filed about irregular, increased movements of people crossing the border from Nicaragua. This stirred powerful reactions from many, who wonder why international organizations are allowing other countries to meddle with our internal affairs. This reaction became even more powerful, when Chavez told the world that he “would not keep his arms crossed” if Mel Zelaya was removed from office.

At this point, let us clarify that we, the authors do not seek the intervention of other governments, but given that the president’s side is involving foreign powers such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, we feel that international pressure should be brought upon these countries so they DO NOT interfere. We would also like to clarify that we do not support the breaking of constitutional order. We hope the president can finish his term in office normally, in peace on January 27th 2010, as is established by the law.

The populist movements surging in Latin America today are of great concern to many citizens in our country, especially now that ambition and a lust for power have taken over our president and his comrades. With the support of Chavez, the illicit drug industry, and other leftist parties from abroad, our country is now in immense danger.

They want to obscure us and shut our voices down. Our purpose today is to let it be known that we appreciate your perspective on the issue and that there are people fighting against Zelaya! Our system of government is far from perfect, but we have seen how the alternative has cost people their voice, their freedoms, their sense of security and even their lives in other nations. We, among the many who stood up to use our freedom of speech have decided to fight for our democracy. We welcome a voice of support that comes from outside. The silent majority of Honduras offers you our support and personal testimonies. We are here to defend our democracy and constitution, and will help the international community in anything that may be needed to provide them with authentic facts and eventualities. We will be silent no more.

Sincerely,

AA and LG

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Contact us at: hondurans4democracy@gmail.com