Honduras: The First Real Victory for Barack Obama

One year after his election, the president of the United States disappointed those who had placed their hopes in him. Promises vanished, giving way to an already long list of failures and turnabouts. However, Barack Obama can declare a first victory: the ousting of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, which was completely eclipsed by the Haitian tragedy.

Elected president in 2005, Manuel Zelaya had committed one too many faux pas by proposing a referendum on the constitution’s limiting the presidency to a single term, which was reversed in a coup d’etat on June 28.

Increasingly appreciated by peasants and the working poor, which comprises the vast majority of the Honduran population, President Zelaya became a threat to the neoliberal bourgeoisie of his country and to the interests of the United States. Since his election, he has based his policies on social questions, increasing the minimum wage by 60 percent and fighting against illiteracy.

Subsequently, Honduras rejoined the PetroCaribe alliance, an initiative of the Venezuelan government that was very unfavorable to North American petroleum interests.

The first Honduran head of state to go to Cuba since 1959, he apologized to Fidel Castro, since his country had for a long time served as an action base for the United States.

He belonged to ALBA, the organization that unites several leftist governments, such as Bolivia (E. Morales), Venezuela (H. Chavez) and, of course, Cuba (R. Castro), breaking with the liberal economy promoted by the United States and opposed to North American interference.

And M. Zelaya, when he was in the process of organizing a rapprochement with D. Ortega’s Nicaragua, finally declared at the United Nations that “capitalism is in the process of devouring human beings.” He concluded the same day as the coup, “What is happening here is a conspiracy to prevent the people from organizing themselves and demanding rights…the rich do not give a cent; the rich give none of their money: they want everything for themselves alone…but they must understand that poverty will not end as long as the poor do not make the laws.”

Of course, Barack Obama immediately condemned the coup d’etat. But at the same time, his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had proposed a behind-the-scenes mediation favorable to the coup elements; namely, the creation of a national union government, which would have guaranteed the return of M. Zelaya to the presidency, but on condition that he no longer exercise any real power. Furthermore, slightly before the coup, the United States ambassador to Honduras had been replaced by Hugo Llorens, already in charge of Andean affairs in 2002, which is to say, at the time of the coup d’etat against Hugo Chavez. The signs could not be mistaken.

Thus, time passed. And President Zelaya’s term ended on January 27.

To reverse a democracy and ruin the hopes of an entire people: Yes he can!

Pierre Piccinin is Professor of History and Political Science (Ecole européenne de Bruxelles-I) and maître de stages (Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB).