DON’T RECOGNISE HONDURAS’S FLAWED ELECTION
Leading voices in Britain call for non-recognition of Honduras coup elections.
The letter below was published in The Guardian on Friday 27 November
Latin America faces the greatest threat to its democracy in decades. The military coup that overthrew elected president Manual Zelaya and seized power in Honduras in June is now seeking to legitimise its illegal government through the international recognition of elections on 29 November. Such recognition would give a green light to opponents of democracy throughout the continent that military coups will be tolerated. Free and fair elections on November 29 are impossible. Human rights, freedom of assembly and of the press have all been under attack in Honduras. Repression under the coup regime has seen at least 20 people killed, more than 600 people injured and 3,500 people detained.
The legitimate Honduran president, Manual Zelaya, has called for supporters of democracy not to recognise the elections under the military coup regime. Nearly all of Latin America’s governments have declared that they will not do so. Worryingly the US has indicated it will recognise these illegitimate elections. We call on all governments, including the Obama administration, to not recognise the elections on 29 November under the military coup regime.
Colin Burgon MP Chair, All-party Parliamentary Group on Venezuela
Jon Cruddas MP,
Ken Livingstone,
Baroness Gibson Chair APPG on Latin America,
Brendan Barber General secretary, TUC,
Jamie Hepburn MSP (SNP),
Adam Price MP (Plaid Cymru),
Caroline Lucas MEP Leader, Green party,
Bruce Kent,
David Hare,
John Pilger,
Lowkey (Musician),
Brian Eno,
Dr J Buxton Centre for International Co-operation and Security, University of Bradford
Tony Lloyd MP Chair, Parliamentary Labour Party
Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography at the Open University
Johan Harri, commentator
Ann Cryer MP
Brian Simpson MEP
Colin Challen MP
Clare Short MP
Dave Anderson MP
David Chaytor MP
David Drew MP
David Martin MEP
David Taylor MP
Diane Abbott MP
Gordon Prentice MP
George Galloway MP
Harry Cohen MP
Hywel Williams MP
Ian Davidson MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Jean Lambert MEP
John Battle MP
John Battle MP
John Hemming MP
John McDonnell MP
Lord Nic Rea
Mark Fisher MP
Martin Caton MP
Michael Cashman MEP
Neil Gerrard MP
Nigel Griffiths MP
Paul Flynn MP
Paul Holmes MP
Rob Marris MP
Steve Pound MP
Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson Joint general secretaries, Unite the Union
GMB union
Sally Hunt General secretary, UCU
Alan Ritchie General secretary, Ucatt
Luke Crawley Assistant general secretary, Bectu
Mick Shaw President, FBU
Matt Wrack General secretary, FBU
Gerry Doherty General secretary, TSSA
Bob Crow General secretary, RMT
Steve Hart - Unite London & Eastern Regional Secretary
Chris McLaughlin Editor, Tribune
Sam Tarry National chair of Young Labour
Chris Weldon Labour party NEC
Kaveh Moussavi University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Head of the Public Interest Law Programme
Professor Keith Ewing
Professor Mary Davis
Dr Steve Ludlam Department of politics, University of Sheffield
Diana Raby Senior fellow, Latin American studies, University of Liverpool
Barry Cannon Postdoctoral fellow, school of law and government, Dublin City University
Hazel Marsh School of politics, social & international studies, University of East Anglia
Dr Michael Derham School of arts and social sciences, Northumbria University
Rod Stoneman Director of the Huston school of film & digital media
Dr Stephen Wilkinson Director, Centre for Caribbean and Latin American research and consultancy, London Metropolitan University
Professor Ernesto Laclau University of Essex
Cuba Solidarity Campaign
Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign
Venezuela Solidarity Campaign
Fine, but not the greatest threat “IN DECADES”, just since the expulsion of Aristide from Haiti in 2001.
Comment by jock mctrousers — 27 November, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
Analysis of the election by socialists in Honduras: how the Obama administration effectively backed the coup, despite its rhetoric, and tied to this, the limitations of Zelaya’s strategy winning international support.
http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/honduras-elections-after-the-coup-for-an-active-boycott/
Comment by David — 28 November, 2009 @ 12:15 am
David, two things need to be pointed out re: the article by José Luis Rojo that you’re promoting in your above post.
1) The article is full of falsehoods and distortions. It claims that President Zelaya has “capitulated”- which is blatantly untrue. Zelaya is calling for Hondurans to struggle against the coup regime and to boycott tomorrow’s election.
More rubbish from the article by José Luis Rojo:
“he [Zelaya] missed various opportunities to knock down the coup-mongerors. One of the earliest, and most important, came on Sunday 5th July when a crowd estimated at 150,000 people arrived at the international airport in Tegucigalpa in the hope that the elected president would land his plane.”
So presumably, Zelaya should have made the pilot ‘land’ the plane, despite dozens of military vehicles being parked across the runway- thus most likely causing his own death as well as the deaths of the other passengers & the crew of the plane. How exactly that would that have ‘knocked down’ the coup mongers is not explained.
Further from the article:
“it is clear that the strategies of the resistance itself failed: it never gave up on the “strategy”of protest marches alone. With anti-working class cretinism characteristic of this type of bourgeois or petty-bourgeois leadership, they never took seriously the idea that to break the coup we had to paralyse the country!”
Which is a complete lie. The resistance has NOT relied on protest marches alone. The marches have been accompanied by roadblocks and many days of strike action, organised by the trade unions as part of the resistance movement.
One wonders what the author of the article is trying to achieve by concealing this fact.
2) The main thrust of the article is to attack Manuel Zelaya, which it does in the crudest terms, for instance calling him “a shadow” and even “a dwarf”. The timing of this attack on President Zelaya’s credibility, on the eve of the event which will be used by the regime & the US State Department to legitimise the coup d’etat, is telling.
In fact, Zelaya has acted with dignity and courage throughout this struggle.
Given that most of the article by José Luis Rojo bears little relation to reality, it will probably have only a very small effect on those involved in the struggle in Honduras. But even if only a very few people are taken in by the article, the effect will be to promote division and demoralisation, and thus to assist the coupmongers.
BTW, there’s an excellent new article on the Honduran election by Calvin Tucker, published today by the Morning Star and 21st Century Socialism, here:
http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/honduras_an_election_made_in_washington_01936.html
Comment by Noah — 28 November, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
Can some of those posting here get serious and a little less self-indulgence. It is vital that the campaign continues to stop them getting away with it.
News I’m getting:
Approximately 10 people in the past few hours including well known resistant supporters Victor Coran Mejia and his son Victor Coran Alvarado have been detained in Tegucigalpa by police with no charges read yet. – reports COFADEH
San Pablo Sula- military roaming the streets in armored vehicles loaded with plenty of visible ammunition. Terrorizing people by pointing guns at them on the street in order to intimidate resistence members that are gathering for a peaceful demonstration
Police officers have been spotted in unmarked cars around Plaza Libertad. The resistencia is calling its supporters onto the streets to celebrate the defeat of the coup election, and continue to ask Hondurenos not to vote. Resistence members will gather at Mercado Dandy for a peaceful …
Pichu, the daughter of legitimate president Manuel Zelaya reports that resistance member Comrade Fausto Arrazola has been captured by the dictatorship in the El Pedregal district - “we do not know his whereabouts,” says Pichu
Comment by Howard T — 29 November, 2009 @ 7:34 pm