Popular movements organize in Honduras
2013Ann Montague 2013-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 8 →
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At 3 a.m. on June 28, 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and his wife Xiomara were kidnapped from their home at gunpoint by 10 hooded Honduran soldiers and put on a plane that flew directly to the U.S. military base on Honduran soil called Palmerola. From there they were eventually flown to Costa Rica, where they were dumped on the airstrip and spent 23 months in exile. This was the first successful military coup in 25 years in Latin America, and it took place five months after President Obama’s election. When Zelaya returned to Honduras, he spoke to Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!” His first words were, “This coup d’etat was made in the U.S., and was a conspiracy that needs to be investigated by the inter national community”.
Zelaya stated that the U.S. Ambassador, Charles Ford, was preparing the coup with the Southern Command. Ford had given President Zelaya the names of people the U.S. wanted him to appoint to his cabinet. He refused. At the time, Zelaya, a member of the center-right Liberal Party, was moving away from the expected neoliberal policies as he initiated literacy programs and increased services to the poor.
Honduras joined the Bolivarian Alternative For The Americas (ALBA) and developed relationships with Ven ezuela, Cuba, and Ecuador. According to Wikileaks docu 8 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 2013 ments, the CIA claimed Zelaya was threatening the security of the hemisphere. Currently, the so-called drug war is be ing used to justify sending 600 soldiers and opening three more military bases in Honduras.
Since the coup, there has been an increased number of killings specifically aimed at the campesino movement, unions, and members of the LGBT community. In response to the coup, a strong non-violent resistance movement has grown up. It has its base in the popular movements of unions, campesinos, indigenous communities, human rights groups, students, and the LGBT community. They united to form the National Front For Popular Resistance (FNRP). In November 2011 they submitted the required documenta tion, including 81,000 signatures to form a political party called Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE). At the formal ceremony presenting the signatures, Manuel Zelaya spoke: “We are entering a new era, we are opening a new era of democracy, of democratic socialism for the Honduran people, and this new era has a name—Freedom and Refoundation Party, LIBERTAD.”
The Zelayas are large landowners in the central region of Olancho. In the Libre Party primary of November 2012, Xiomara Zelaya, running unopposed, was elected to be its presidential candidate. She has been holding large rallies throughout the country. The two other major parties are the National Party, the traditional party of the oligarchy, and Zelaya’s former party, the Liberal Party. It has been reported by election observers from the Alliance For Global Justice that in the primaries the Libre Party candidates re ceived more votes than the combined total of the National and Liberal parties.
In December, I traveled to Honduras, and my friend en couraged me to meet her niece, who is a teacher and an ac tivist in her union, as well as a supporter of LIBRE. Suyapa Almenderes is a teacher and proud union member. Earlier in the month she had participated in a strike called by the teachers unions. Some 30,000 Honduran public school teachers went on strike to protest the government’s delay in paying their salaries.
The strike began on a Monday, just as thousands of public school students were coming back to class after five con secutive weeks of street protests against a new Education Law promoted by the government, which they believe will result in privatization of the public school system. Half of those who work in the public school system joined the three-day work stoppage in 298 municipalities around the country. They had not received their salaries since before August.
Suyapa explained that they are struggling against attacks on public schools teachers. In the past their jobs were se cure; they had a decent pension and health care when they retired and death benefits for their families. Currently, the government can fire any teacher for any reason. In the past they could retire at age 50, and now it has increased to age 65, and family death benefits have been eliminated. Suyapa sees her union as standing up for the dignity of teachers.