Honduras at the Crossroads
By Esteban Diaz
In the Cuban press, I have been attentively following the events that have occurred in Honduras since the June 28 coup d’état, when soldiers burst into the residence of Manuel Zelaya – the constitutionally elected president – and transferred him by force to Costa Rica.
More than a month has now passed in which the Honduran ultra-right, with the complicit support of imperial forces, have tried to subjugate the people, who over the passing days have been strengthening and organizing renewed plans for struggle.
Day after day Honduran workers continue to fortify themselves, and they are not swallowing the crude lies formulated by the United States, which wants them to buy the story that the coup forces are not receiving their support.
This was the response from the general coordinator of the Front against the coup d’état in Honduras and the president of the Federación Unitaria de Trabajadores (Unitary Federation of Workers / FUTH), Juan Barahona, who said, “This confirms the double standard of the empire.”
“On the one hand, they openly condemn the coup and recognize Zelaya as the president, while very discreetly they supply assistance to the junta,” said Barahona. He added, “In this country, there’s been a rehearsal conducted by the American ultra-right, together with those of the rest of the hemisphere, to be applied later against the progressive governments of South and Central America.” (Orbe-Prensa Latina-year 11, No. 9, page 4).
This provides an example of the understanding attained by the leadership of the Front and FUTH concerning the processes that are emerging in Honduras and their connection with international forces.
Without a doubt it has been a substantial error by the right-wingers and their global supporters to affect this assault against the Honduran working people; today more than 80 percent of the Honduran population is rising up to overthrow this fascist state. Days pass and the people are becoming increasingly organized, expressing their absolute rejection of the regime imposed on them, and rejecting dialogue with the junta. This is reflected in the significant fact that “for 33 days in a row more than 200 takeovers of highways and public places were recorded.” (Granma, #184, p. 4)
How are the fascists responding to these actions? In the only way that they know how: repressing and murdering all of the workers’ leaders. This demonstrates the fear they have of the organized working class, as well as of all other workers and social groups.
They are now making preparations to eliminate workers’ leaders. As heads of the Front reported, “We have knowledge that paramilitary groups are reorganizing the Battalion 3-16 death squads, which in the 1980s were behind the forced disappearances in a dirty war called Operation Tundra.” (Granma, #183, page 4)
The military high-command justifies itself saying that this was a coup “to halt communism and chauvinism” (Granma, #184, p. 4) This indicates the magnitude of revolutionary development in Latin America and of the world. To stop social revolution, the bourgeoisie is using its instrument of last resort: fascism.
This is not only a coup against the Honduran people; it is against all workers of the world. The best way to support Honduras is to carry out marches worldwide in support of the Honduran workers, to prepare social revolution with the aim of socialism, to destabilize the world’s bourgeoisie, and – when the moment comes – to rise up in arms against the repression that will undoubtedly come.
Today the most advanced sections of the Honduran working class must begin to win over officers, noncommissioned officers, soldiers and honest police officers of the repressive state forces; they must organize workers’ militias that defend the people from fascist attacks, which will increasingly be shown in the bloodshed of workers.
Only with the guidance of workers and farmers at the head of the movement will there be success in forging real change in Honduran society. This is the moment to destroy the bourgeois state, and the workers of the world – especially those of Latin America – cannot be indifferent to their class siblings.
Long live the Honduran workers!
Long live the dictatorship of the proletariat!
Workers of the world unite!
Oh James so you justify the wrong actions of some countries with the objection to the word democracy. There’s not perfect active democracy and probably there would never be one because it is implemented by imperfect human beings that have personal desires and selfish aspirations. At the same time the laws are made to be followed and if you don’t agree with them then you should start a movement to change them but never violate them. In any case a neoliberal economic might not be the right solution but what Zelaya illegally wanted to do is not either. I Know because I have the mark of the so call revolution that revolutionized the term repression on my heart.
“In the Cuban press, I have been attentively following the events that have occurred in Honduras ”
Oh boy, you are too easy. Good luck on your travels around the world.
democracy is a keep busy touch word used by ultra capitalist media facets aimed at dumbing the excess consumer/wage laborer population. the united states democracy the supposed epitome of free elections is laden with lobbyist corruption by those with favoroable socioeconomic predispositons. the template of ‘democracy’ and neoliberal economic agenda supported by global corporatocracy is, with the successful coup/ousting of zelaya as well as the potential return of micheletti and or other pro democracy free trade businessmen, will successfully drain honduras of its natural resources and farther entrench the workers in debt to global fiscal jugernauts like the world bank, usaid, as well as private lending institutions.
adios to indigenous culture, subsistance ways of living, and equal treatment in the modern world.
in with debt, cheap labor wages and conditions, pollution, lobbying, mcdonalds, bigbrother, etc
I also want to mention that I am in favor of any way of democracy so if the Honduras workers don’t agree with the new government, because it is impossible that everybody agree with a government, they can organize their forces and propose a candidate for the next elections.
(cont) I forgive you because you seems to be indoctrinated by now and you probably don’t know better than what the Granma wants to tell you. In your article you try to be so internationally that you end it up being so wrong. I can only wish that one day you regret these actions, and apologizes to the Cuban workers that are the ones that are really paying for your career with their misery and for your international ignorance. Dictatorships even when they claim to be of the proletariat are wrong because the power in the long term corrupts the human being.
(Cont) You are the perfect exponent of gratitude to a government that is paying for your studies and manipulating your ideas. If you like to travel so much and you think is a good way to get to know other cultures why don’t you fight for the Cuban people that have limited rights to travel outside the country. What is the reason that the Cuban government have to restrict the Cuban citizens to travel? I’m not going to make you do another research through the Granma. The real reason is that information is a dangerous power that can work against their government so they prefer to feed their brain and your with their own version of the story.
I’m Lizzevora from Havana, Cuba currently enjoying the beauty of the liberty and feeling dire for those that I had to leave behind in an island that it is like an Alcatraz Jail. You are the only “substantial error” that I can see after I was done reading your subjective article. You claim that those who were forced to remove Zelaya of power are the “right-wingers” probably because you are expressing your opinion base on subjective information not in objectives facts. The truth is that they only made use of the Honduran constitution that was established by the Honduran citizens way before Zelaya times. (Cont).
Since you get your information from the communist Cuban press; I will like to inform you that Mr. Zelaya was holding a referendum which was “against” Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution.
ARTICULO 239.- El ciudadano que haya desempeñado la titularidad del Poder Ejecutivo no podrá ser Presidente o Vicepresidente de la República. El que quebrante esta disposición o proponga su reforma, así como aquellos que lo apoyen directa o indirectamente, cesarán de inmediato en el desempeño de sus respectivos cargos y quedarán inhabilitados por diez (10) años para el ejercicio de toda función pública.
Leftist communist protest that he was remove unconstitutionally, but yet they don’t protest that Mr. Zelaya’s actions themselves were unconstitutional. He was not removed unconstitutionally he “violated” the Honduran Constitution and thus was removed per the Honduran Constitution.
How lucky you are to travel, but yet Cuban workers are not allowed to travel to learn…
I support the new government led by Micheletti. Zelaya is a moron and he was attempting to abuse his power. Hondurans For Democracy. Say No To Zelaya. Say No To Chavez.