[News] Manuel Zelaya - A Letter to the Presidents of the Hemisphere

[Anti-Imperialist News]

“Legalizing Coups d’Etat by Means of Spurious 
Electoral Processes Divides the Unity of the Nations of América”



A Letter to the Presidents of the Hemisphere



By Manuel Zelaya Rosales
President of Honduras

http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3950.html

November 22, 2009

Honorable Presidents
Nations of América

Dear Presidents,

I write you in my role as President of Honduras, 
valuing the excellent relations between our 
countries and in defense of the democracy 
violated in Honduras as consequence of the 
Military Coup d’Etat perpetrated June 28 of this 
year, when soldiers invaded my home and at 
gunpoint kidnapped and took me to Costa Rica.

The National Congress forged my resignation 
letter and, abusing its power, emitted an illegal 
decree which “separated me from the charge of 
Constitutional President” without Constitutional 
backing to do so. The same was the case for the 
arrest order that the Court had emitted without 
having received any legal complain and without my 
having been cited to appear before any tribunal 
or trial. It has been condemned and described by 
all the countries of the world as a violent and 
surprising rupture of democratic order, a Military Coup d’Etat.

At this moment in Honduras we are in a de facto 
State. There is no Constitution. Nor are there 
Constitutional powers because they have been 
destroyed by force by the military Coup d’Etat on 
that ominous day of June 28, 2009.

The Constitution of the Republic establishes in 
Article 3: “No one owes obedience to an usurper 
government, nor to those who occupy public 
positions or jobs by the force of weapons or 
using means or procedures that bankrupt or fail 
to recognize what the Constitution and the law 
establishes. Those actions by so-called 
authorities are null and void. The people have 
the right to insurrection to defend the Constitutional order.”

In reading that article, you can understand that 
the Honduran people are legally empowered to act 
using all means, styles and forms that they 
consider necessary to restore democracy. We have 
consciously taken the path of peaceful 
resistance, with the goal of establishing 
noncooperation and nonviolence like methods of 
civil disobedience and twenty-first century 
popular struggle against the rise of military force.

We thank the entire international community for 
your support for our labor to reconstruct the 
State of Law, that being the last effort of the 
poorly reached Tegucigalpa-San José Accord, 
backed by the OAS and the US Department of State. 
Its letter and spirit has as its proposal the 
“return of the title the executive branch to what 
it was prior to June 28.” And it was openly 
violated by the de facto regime which in which 
Mr. Micheletti pretends to head a government of 
reconciliation, refusing to convene the National 
Congress, in definitive noncompliance of the timeline and text.

Now, unilaterally, he seeks to utilize the 
aborted accord by convening the National Congress 
on December 2, a date upon which the political 
actors of the accord will have been substantially 
modified, in the sense that by then they will 
have already been submitted to the opinion of the 
voters without having restored Constitutional order.

The elections of November 29 and their use of 
public funds under a de facto regime, without 
having previously restored democracy and the 
State of Law as OAS and UN resolutions demand, 
without even having installed the government of 
unity and reconciliation, are illegal, 
illegitimate, and constitute a criminal act.

At the moment that the de facto regime with its 
soldiers convenes a spurious electoral process 
under repression, without legal guarantees, and 
without a political agreement, in which the 
military dictatorship is the guarantor of the 
law, it only strengthens its actions of force and impunity.

Precisely today, Channel 36, property of 
journalist Esdras Amado López, the only 
television chain that has opposed the regime, has 
had its signal blocked and taken off the air by the dictatorship.

The de facto regime has frontally disregarded the 
resolutions of the OAS, the UN and the European 
Union. It has also violated the Democratic 
Charter of the OAS and its resolutions while some 
of Honduras’ friends among countries demonstrate 
ambiguity and support for the electoral process 
without having restored democratic order and 
without political dialogue. That permits the de 
facto regime to impose its will by force.

As President of Honduras, I communicate with you 
to say that below these conditions I will not 
back the electoral process and will proceed to 
challenge it legally in the name of the men and 
women of my country and of hundreds of community 
leaders that suffer the loss of democracy, the 
repression, the unfair circumstances and the suppression of freedom.

These elections have to be annulled and 
rescheduled to when the sovereign will of the people is respected.

In these difficult moments for our brother 
countries of América, we ask for your solidarity with Honduras.
    * That you accompany us based on the facts 
that you know, reiterating the position of not 
supporting a unilateral intent to give validity 
to an accord that was quickly rescinded by the 
violations consummated by the dictatorship.
    * Reaffirming the condemnation of the coup 
d’etat of the military State and not supporting a 
de facto regime whose existence today shames all 
the peoples of Latin América Latina, that after 
all the attempts by the international community 
to reverse the coup d’etat have ended in a total failure for everyone.
    * Appealing to maintain your firmness in the 
execution of the resolutions passed by the OAS 
and the UN and not adopting ambiguous and 
imprecise positions like those displayed today by 
the government of the United States of America, 
with whose final posture has weakened the process 
of reversing the coup d’etat, demonstrating 
division in the international community. By 
feeding this coup d’etat the democratic security 
in the hemisphere and the stability of the 
Presidents of América is put at risk, with the 
resurgence of military castes over civil 
authority. Legitimizing coups d’etat by means of 
spurious electoral processes divides and does not 
contribute to the unity of the nations of América.
    * I ask for your cooperation so that this 
Military Coup d’Etat its bloody violations of 
human rights do not go unpunished. Already, the 
International Criminal Court has received 
complaints and allowed them to proceed to trial 
to obtain justice for our people and apply the 
corresponding sanctions to those who committed 
treason to the Nation and crimes against humanity in Honduras.
    * We voice our energetic rejection of those 
who support the maneuvers to launder the coup 
d’etat, covering up for the golpistas to leave their crimes protected.
    * With our full attention, we invite all the 
nations to recognize our government and that they 
abstain from supporting the actions of the 
illegal regime that usurped power by force of weapons.
    * We cordially demand and exhort your 
representatives to the OAS and the UN to continue 
defending and supporting the rights of the people 
and of the legitimately elected governments, 
since when one of our nations suffers an assault 
it is an affront to all América; and, each time a 
government elected by the peoples of América is 
toppled, violence and terrorism win and Democracy suffers a defeat.

In wait of your response, I appreciate the 
invaluable support demonstrated until now for 
these principles and I send you greetings 
reiterating my esteem and my highest consideration.

JOSE MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES
President of the Republic of Honduras

cc: Sr. José Miguel Insulza, Secretario General de la OEA
Sr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretario General de la ONU
Sr. José Barroso, Comisión Unión Europea
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