Zelaya’s Message for Obama

The collapse of democracy in Honduras is putting the security of the United States and Europe at risk, warned the overthrown president, Manuel Zelaya, yesterday in Mexico. Zelaya assured that “the coup would be over in five seconds” if Barack Obama’s administration closed its fists around the Honduran dictatorship that overthrew him with arms.

Before the Mexican press, Zelaya sent a clear message to Washington and the rest of the governments in the hemisphere: If the blow from the right is not contained, there will be a rebirth of Latin American guerrillas from the left.

“America today is hit. The coup d’état was not against me, rather against the presidents of the Americas. They have already overthrown me. Now they are overthrowing presidents of the Americas that cannot recover from a coup,” he said yesterday morning in an act that inspired the Mexico City government to designate him a distinguished guest.

The day before, Zelaya presented before the ambassadors of the Latin America and Caribbean Group in Mexico and stated, “if violence is born in the right, it will cause a rebirth of the violence of the social groups that dropped their arms after the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

“The guerrillas in Central America were told to put down their arms and they did so. The Sandinista Front and the Farabundo Marti Front are examples. They put down their arms for ballot boxes and votes. But now, if they were told that ballots and votes were not necessary, and weapons appear in the hands of the right wing, [the right is] opening a very serious case for the entire region. We should all oppose.”

Throughout his visit to Mexico, on President Felipe Calderon’s invitation, Zelaya has underscored the role of diplomacy in resolving the Honduran crisis, which has moved the rest of the continent. “If blows from right wing groups in America begins to emerge, villages are also going to have the right to choose the path of self defense,” he reiterated.

Nevertheless, he signaled that they are exhibiting the “weaknesses” of democracy: “Rapid and effective mechanisms do not really exist to face the pro-coup terrorism, as we are noting,” he revealed.

Zelaya also spoke about the role that President Barack Obama of the United States and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela play.

The president of Honduras dismissed the Obama administration’s promotion of the coup against him, but he is assured that there are right wing voices in the United States that support it, identified as “affluent sectors that oppose social processes.”

“I believe Obama is trying to be strong; he is conquering the space, but he has to be given time,” he said, although he also snuck in that “the time that the coup lasts hurts the image of the government [of the United States] that speaks of democracy.”

Regarding the White House’s delay in putting pressure on the insurgents, Zelaya smiled, extended his arm and tightened his fist: “The United States only does this with its hand, and the coup would be over in five minutes.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the United States has adopted measures against the insurgents. However, he qualified them as insufficient and argued that “these actions should be further strengthened, which is what the other countries of America should do.”

Regarding Hugo Chavez, with whom his detractors compare him, Zelaya said that the president of Venezuela “is the one of the people who has helped Honduras the most in the last 10 years without asking for absolutely anything in return.” He maintained that the new dictator of his country used the controversial figure of Chavez “as a pretext to execute the coup.”

Questioned by the Mexican press about his closeness with Venezuela, Zelaya responded that he has never taken a trip to Caracas: “I do not know where the question comes from,” he protested.

Indeed, on Tuesday the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez emphasized the “dignified attitude of the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, to receive Honduras as a peer, as he has to receive a head of state, who represents the nation of Honduras in a legitimate and dignified manner.”

In effect, the Mexican government has always recognized Zelaya as the legitimate president of Honduras and even received Honduran public officials who were pursued by the dictatorship in the first hours of the coup in his country, including Chancellor Patricia Rodas; Minister of Finance Rebeca Santos; Minister of Culture, Arts and Sports Robert Pastor and Minister of Education Marlon Breve Reyes.

The Calderon administration even facilitated Ambassador Rosalinda Bueso to recooperate her diplomatic seat after July 22, when public officials related to Roberto Micheletti’s dictatorship had security guards impede her access. Almost immediately, the Mexican Chancellor emitted an announcement clarifying that she only knew Bueso as ambassador, who returned to her embassy the following day, accompanied by various diplomats of the Ambassadors Group of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In closing this edition, Zelaya held a meeting with the Permanent Commission of Congress to the Union, in the Republic Senate’s seat. Much later, he met with non-governmental organizations, accompanied by Senator Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, president of Eureka, a group that has fought for more than 30 years for the Mexican government to track information about thousands of people who disappeared during the dirty war.

The end of Zelaya’s Latin American tour is Brazil where he will meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.