Honduras: Analysis and Perspectives

Special from Rel-UITA

HAVANA TIMES, Dec. 3 (Rel-UITA) – While the Honduran people and the international community still await the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) to provide concrete data on the November 29 elections, the resistance celebrated the victory of abstentionism.  They again took over the capital’s streets with an unprecedented number of vehicles forming a caravan.  Up to now, all that is known on the election is that a first count took place after the cell telephone transmission system broke down.

The spacious hall of the headquarters of the Beverage and Affiliated Industries Workers Union (STIBYS) was too small to accommodate the thousands of people who poured out to celebrate the victory of abstentionism in the November 29 electoral farce.

Before national and international media and a multitude who often raised their unstained little fingers and showed their hands to demonstrate their non-participation in the vote, the leadership of the National Front Against the Coup d’état read an official statement.

They again denounced “the total failure of the electoral farce staged by the oligarchy on November 29 under conditions of dictatorship,” confirming their position of declaring the elections and its outcome as illegal and illegitimate, and in this way ignoring the “regime that will be installed on January 27, 2010.”  The National Front Against the Coup also asked that the regime be ignored by “governments and democratic and honest social movements around the world.”

In addition, the resistance considers null “all acts that the current de facto regime and its successor carry out,” rejecting at the same time “any amnesty for human rights violators.”

Finally, they explained that “the installation of a national constituent assembly represents the alternative for channeling the demands for political participation of all of the Honduran people, and we will continue struggling for it.”

Concluding the press conference, and shortly before starting the assembly of the resistance, Rel-UITA spoke with Carlos H. Reyes (the STIBYS president, and a member of the World Executive Committee of UITA and a leader of the National Front Against the Coup d’état) to discuss the post-election situation.

What Really Occurred Was Mass Absenteeism

“Everyone could see how participation in these elections was insignificant and how the national media, through the television networks, and the presidential candidates themselves tried to convince people to turn out to vote.

“When I heard the TSE magistrates say that people had come out to the polls in mass and then began giving the preliminary figures, I found myself astonished in the face of such an enormous capacity for lying.”

“However,” Reyes continued, “the reality is what triumphed was abstentionism. They know that it did, but the objective of this farce was not who won the elections, but to achieve a participation rate of over 60 percent in order to show the world and to ensure that the process was recognized.

“We don’t forget that the coup forces seized power to stay and not to hand it over this coming January 27.  These people have been willing to repress, kill and commit any type of atrocity against people of the resistance.  We have no other alternative than to continue struggling, at any price,” said the union leader and former independent presidential candidate.

Carlos H. Reyes said the resistance is not interested in entering into discussions over the results announced by the TSE because the electoral process was corrupt from its beginning, since constitutional order was never restored in the country.

“What interests us now is to continue with the struggle to return constitutional order and to move toward a constituent national assembly.

“This initiative is not something that one does overnight; rather, it implies strategies and tactics in the face of power.  We will begin to not only ignore the coup-backed regime, but also the regime they’re seeking to install with these elections

“In this sense, we’re also going to see how we can give an electoral arm to the resistance, either through an independent party or candidacy; this is a necessary condition to continue moving forward,” Reyes explained.

With regard to the behavior of the international community, this leading member of the National Front Against the Coup d’état considered that it will be difficult to maintain the unity initially demonstrated.  However, there exists the real hope that a large majority of the world’s countries understand that “this is nothing more than another form of disregarding the will of the Honduran people, which has expressed itself as being against this electoral process and the coup d’état,” he concluded.

The Caravan of the “No Vote”

Upon the conclusion of the assembly, thousands of people gathered in the vicinity of the Autonomous National University of Honduras (UNAH), where they initiated a gigantic caravan of vehicles as never before seen.  They drove through the main arteries of the capital, greeted by hundreds of people who came out of their houses with flags and banners or simply to show their un-inked little fingers, which these days means not being a part of the attempt to legitimize the bloody June 28 coup.

The caravan concluded a few blocks from the Brazilian embassy, where for more than two months President Manuel Zelaya has been given refuge. From the cars came a large group of people who assembled a few yards from the military and police post, dancing, singing, chanting their slogans and celebrating their victory.