CUAUHYOTL ABYA YALA
The West is a Guest
In 1848, the same year as the
signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the war between the United
States and the Republic of Mexico, an experiment in techniques of colonization
of the Indigenous Peoples and territories was initiated among the Donahguh
(Seneca), one of the member nations of Huadenosaunee Six Nation Iroquois
Confederacy. Traditionally known
as the People of the Longhouse, the Six Nations are the aboriginal sovereignty
of the territories that came to be identified by the geography of the European
colonizers as first New Amsterdam and then later, New York.
The experiment was spearheaded by the Christian religious group known as the Society of Friends (Quakers), who had been successful in converting some of the Senecas to their belief system. These converted Christianized Indians were to serve as representatives of the Seneca Nation to the governments of New York and the United States under a new regime to be implemented under a tribal council established through an elective system. In essence a political coup, displacing from the decision making power over Seneca resources, membership and policy the traditional clan system of the Longhouse that had served the Haudenosaunee for generations, the establishment of elective systems with Tribal Council identities controlled by Washington began in 1848 with the Seneca and served as the model for federal control of native lands, populations, and identity for the next century. While these programs of colonization continue today in advanced form among the federally recognized tribes under United States jurisdiction, the resistance of the Indigenous Peoples and the resiliency of our traditional government systems has also been uninterrupted, continuing to be assertive of the Right to Self Determination by implementing our own ancestral forms of self-governance within our traditional territories. At the international level, this technique of collective political assassination by the creation of a political entity that usurps the symbolic identity of a native nation can be seen in the establishment of the Republic of Mexico in 1836 within the orbit of Hispanic control.
In the Xicano Studies courses taught by the University of Aztlan some thirty years ago, the question was asked “How could Mexicanos become U.S. citizens by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 when U.S. naturalization laws then in effect admitted into U.S. Nationality and Citizenship only those who could fulfill the racial criteria of being “WHITE”? These courses were sometimes assignments in self directed study, such as research missions to the primary sources of the studies by Lewis Henry Morgan; sometimes the study involved strategy and tactics of indigenous self defense such as the Wounded Knee conflict in South Dakota in February of 1973. In all cases, in all courses, the curriculum involved searching for the threads of our indigenous identity that had been shredded by 500 years of genocide and strengthening the community building capacity and skills of our movement in order to rebuild our Indigenous Nations. Along the way we realized that there was common element in the enemy concept, a psychological strategy that was being disguised as a form of jurisprudence: a legal system.
The Maoris of Aoteroa have called it the “jurisprudence of oppression” referring to the colonizer’s systems of law that are the psychological instruments of colonization, implemented by physical force, establishing the context of rights, responsibilities and wrongs for the human society of a particular territory. The bottom line is that these psychological systems establish the parameters of context for behavior and thought, identifying and protecting that which is “civilized” as opposed to savage, legal as opposed to criminal. At the international level, the systems coincide and collaborate within the context of what is described as the United Nations system, a system controlled by government states in proportion to their respective economic and military power.
All legal systems are based on the customs and traditions of the Peoples from which they derive. We too, as Indigenous Peoples have our own systems of jurisprudence; we call them the Tradition. What is critical, now more than ever, is an effective evaluation of the relationship of these systems to the precept of justice, expressed in terms of the reciprocal nature of our global humanity.
Our tradition as Xicanos teaches that the principle of equilibrium within the ecosystems of the universe of the FOUR DIRECTIONS is integral to the concept of justice in the human realm. This for us – defines for us, the courtroom of our collective community judgment. Self definition is the precept of self determination, and warrants self defense in terms of the current global campaigns of psychological warfare that dominate the agenda of the so called “civilized world”.
From this courtroom, from the OrigiNations themselves, a Warrant of Arrest is issued: not to incarcerate but to Liberate. From within, the swirling space of sacred elements resonates with a voice that emerges from the future generations: the voice is echoed by Totatonatiuh (Father Sun) and Tonantzin (Mother Earth). It is not one, but all Nations under God, and in terms of Civilization, here, on this our homeland as Indigenous Peoples – the West is a Guest.
Tupac Enrique Acosta
chantlaca@tonatierra.org
TONATIERRA
www.tonatierra.com
This artwork is generously made available to this cause by Gabriel Gaytan, Tolteca of El Paso, Texas
January 28, 2010
Declaration of the Hemispheric Social Alliance
Honduras: without democracy and without a President.
The Resistance continues.
Today a group of Presidents (Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Taiwan) as well as official delegations from 15 other countries including Australia, United States, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the Vatican, Peru, Switzerland and Turkey will assist a parody of the transition of presidential power with leading roles played by Mr. Jose Lobo and other actors and authors of the coup de tat that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009.
Although the judicial system has “absolved” the military leaders who kidnapped and violently expelled President Zelaya, history will condemn them all: material and intellectual authors and others complicit including judges, members of Congress and Ambassadors.
Although the coup leaders have the backing of the United States, the power of arms, the means of communication and the support of the Roman Catholic Church – despite all of this – they do not have the support of the people. On the contrary, the resistance has strengthened in reach and in the development of a political agenda.
Therefore, the Hemispheric Social Alliance declares that:
1 We do not recognize Jose Lobo as the President of Honduras.
2 We ask governments, international bodies and social movements throughout the world not to recognize Lobo as the President of Honduras and to sustain the pressure necessary to reestablish democratic institutionality to the country.
3 We demand that the governments of Central America abstain from advancing trade negotiations with the European Union or with other government. Real integration is not possible if the coup is legitimized nor if Honduras is marginalized. Trade can wait. Democracy and human rights cannot!
4 We express our permanent solidarity, without conditions nor timeframes, with the National Front for Popular Resistance in its struggle to restore democracy and to hold a Constituent Assembly that recognizes, protects and guarantees the rights of the people of Honduras and its organizations.
January 28, 2010
Hemispheric Social Alliance, Secretariat
Bogota, Colombia
HONDURAS SOLIDARITY
Killing Activists in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/
12/23/09
*******
Belén Fernández (UDW); Les Blough (Axis of Logic)
US Flip-Flops on Honduras Vote
Video Links:
English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Espanol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Resistencia hondureños en EEUU y boicot a elecciones
***
Update Tuesday 12/1/09 : Interviews from Tegulcigalpa
and Washington DC with Amy Goodman - Democracy Now
Honduras:
"The US State Department wants it both ways.."
http://www.democracynow.org/
*******
"I don't know how they are going to legitimate these elections..."
--Bertha Oliva Sunday, 11/29/2009 - 11:08am
29 November 2009
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS: The streets are empty, as are the polling places. The majority of activity outside of the polling places is at the kiosks whose existence--replete with illegal election propagando, balloons, and cheerful and helpful citizens--is meant to encourage and motivate people to vote in the face of what is already a clearly successful people's boycott of elections.
"I don't know how they are going to legitimate these elections," Bertha Oliva just told me, as she arrived to the COFADEH office. "The polling places are empty." Oliva is the founder and head of COFADEH, the Honduran Committee of the Families of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, and the premier non-governmental voice for human rights in Honduras. "I'm now worried about what will happen at mid-day, when they see that this is not working for them...I'm worried they'll take people out of their homes to force them to vote. That's where the danger is."
COFADEH is command central for the international grassroots delegations who are here to witness the environment in which the electoral farse is taking place, as well as for Honduran grassroots human rights promoters and journalists. In about an hour the Frente will meet here to share information and clarify their next steps. Their strategy changed a bit after Zelaya's last-minute call, transmitted via Skype from inside the Embassy to the Assembly in STIBYS, that the people should take to the streets today in nonviolent protest. The Frente has been calling for a "popular curfew," that people should stay inside their homes from 6am to 6pm, in order to drive home their boycott of the electoral farse. The boycott remains, but now includes a call for nonviolent shows of resistance to the coup and coup-sponsored elections.
Those following our website or Honduran news know about yesterday's raid of the Red Comal, a campesino (peasant farmer) organization which does training and community building. According to one of the 12 soldiers who was guarding the entrance to the nearby School for Solidarity Economy, a project of the Red Comal, there was in fact a warrant issued to search for and confiscate any firearms or articles which would threaten people. Apparently the protest banners, notes from workshops on the impacts of the coup on the communities with which the Red works, several hundred dollars, and laptop computers fall into one of those two categories, since these articles and more were confiscated by the 50 or so police and additional military and prosecutors who came to conduct the search and seizure.
According to accounts from within and nearby the commmunity of Guadalupe Carney, near Trujillo in the north of Honduras, hundreds of military have been patrolling within a kilometer and a half of the community's borders since last night, but have not yet entered. This intimidation comes in the context of a history of military presence and intervention in this highly organized rural community, as well as amidst reports of police and military raiding the homes of Resistance leaders throughout the country.
The Quixote Center has presence today in many regions of the country, including Tocoa in the Atlantic Coast region, San Pedro Sula in the North, Santa Rosa de Copan in the West, and Tegucigalpa. One of the Tegucigalpa teams is about to head out to Danli, about two hours east of the capital, to follow up on two people who are detained there, as well as to meet with community members there to hear about how the repression and militarization in their community has affected them.
The other Teguc team will remain at COFADEH to do accompaniment within the city including to visit hospitals and detention centers, as well as following the reports that come in from throughout the country, and covering news from the National Front.
These are some of the facts and events that led to today's
elections in Honduras and the controversial recognition the US government has
promised to give:
About the accords
- No agreement
has been reached yet between the two sides in conflict. Elections are thus
taking place under a framework of illegality, without constitutional order
being restored.
- The first
accord, the San Jose Accord, promoted by Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace
Prize, Oscar Arias, failed due to the de facto regime’s unwillingness to
restore Zelaya, one of the seven points of the document. Zelaya’s side had
agreed to sign the accord.
- In an urgent
effort to solve the crisis, the US sent a high commission headed by Assistant
Secretary of State, Thomas Shannon, to push the so called Tegucigalpa-San Jose
accord.
- The US
sponsored agreement called on both sides to create a government of national
unity "without delay" and on the Honduran Congress to
"swiftly" consider the restoration of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
- "The
Tegucigalpa/San Jose Agreement provides a pathway to free and fair elections,
the outcome of which, if handled accordingly, will be widely accepted both
within Honduras and abroad," a State Department spokesperson
said."Failure to implement the accord could jeopardize recognition of the
election by the international community," she stressed, adding that
Washington is pressing the de facto regime headed by Roberto Micheletti and
other actors in Honduras to avoid "taking actions that would impede the
carrying out of free, fair and transparent elections, such as (recent) decrees
(by the de facto government) that restricted civil liberties and closed certain
opposition media outlets."
- The regime
finally caved in and both sides signed the October 30 deal which provided the
mechanism for Zelaya's return to office. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton
congratulated herself and, in announcing what she called a historic agreement,
said: "I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America
that … overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue."
- But Latin
American leaders and some U.S. Democratic lawmakers were shocked when, on Nov
4, Washington's chief negotiator on Honduras, Assistant Secretary of State
Thomas Shannon, told a CNN interviewer that the U.S. would recognize the
results of the election regardless of whether Zelaya was restored to the presidency.
- When the
state department broke the news of its volte-face to a stunned international
community, the coup leaders immediately understood the message. With US recognition
now in the bag, they were no longer under pressure to reinstate the legitimate
president. The Honduran Congress said they intended to delay a vote on Zelaya's
restoration at least until after the elections (they said they were meeting
until December 2 to discuss it) and Micheletti announced that he had put
together a unity government (with him as head) without any input from Zelaya.
- Zelaya and
the head of the OAS were furious, but the San Jose deal was effectively dead,
killed by the very same state department that had played such a key role in
imposing it.
- After Congress
delayed the restitution issue and Micheletti named himself head of the unity
government, Zelaya immediately invalidated the agreement due to “the de facto
government’s unilateral non-fulfillment”, and explained that the deal was “conceived
to be implemented in and integral and timely fashion”.
- Meeting in
Jamaica, the foreign ministers of the 24 Latin American and Caribbean nations
that make up the Rio Group unequivocally rejected the U.S. stance, declaring
they would not recognize the results of the Nov. 29 elections unless Zelaya was
immediately restored to office. OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza
issued a similar statement and announced that the hemispheric group would not
send observers to the upcoming elections.
Obama’s surrender and what was behind his administration's
abrupt decision to recognize the elections without Zelaya and democratic order
restored
- While Obama
initially rallied behind demands by fellow members of the Organization of
American States (OAS) and the United Nations that Zelaya be immediately
restored to power, he proved much slower to exert serious pressure on the de
facto government, in part due to fierce opposition by right-wing Republican
lawmakers.
- For several
weeks Hillary Clinton and the US State Department had stated that “we would not
be able to support the outcome of the scheduled elections” in the present
conditions and stated that only “a positive conclusion of the Arias process [which
included Zelaya’s restitution] would provide a sound basis for legitimate
elections to proceed”.
- However, in
early October, US congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen (Republicans-Florida) visited Honduras and in a press conference,
together with Micheletti, rejected Obama’s initial stance and assured that they
were going to do everything possible to get US recognition for the elections.
They promised introducing a resolution in Congress that sought recognition for
the Nov. 29 elections.
- For weeks,
the hard right of the Republican party, under the leadership of Senator Jim
DeMint (South Carolina), had been threatening to block Democrat nominees for
key posts in Latin America. Clinton wanted a way out of the impasse, and
DeMint, a fanatical supporter of the Honduran coup, offered her a trade-off: we
will agree your nominees, he told her, if you will agree to recognize the
outcome of the Honduran election, regardless of whether Zelaya is returned to
the presidential palace.
- “I am happy
to report the Obama Administration has finally reversed its misguided Honduran
policy and will fully recognize the November 29th elections” said Senator
DeMint in early November after the US had announced their abrupt change in
position.
- Given this
commitment, which Senator DeMint had requested for months, he moved to lift
objections on the nominations of Arturo Valenzuela to be Assistant Secretary of
Western Hemisphere Affairs and Thomas Shannon to be US Ambassador to Brazil.
- In Nov. 5,
after Thomas Shannon announced the abrupt change in US stance regarding the
Honduran elections, Arturo Valenzuela was finally confirmed as Assistant
Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
- The Obama administration’s abrupt
reversal on its longstanding demand that ousted Honduran President Manuel
Zelaya be restored to office as a condition for U.S. recognition of elections
scheduled for Nov. 29 can thus be seen as a SURRENDER to the de facto
government headed by Roberto Micheletti and hard-line conservative forces in
Congress. It is similar to Obama’s decision to back down from its initial
demand that Israel freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem which is now widely seen as capitulation to the government of Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and its right-wing allies in the so-called
"Israel Lobby".
Comments and consequences
- "If you
can't solve a crisis in Honduras, where can you solve one?" asked William
LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist and dean of the School of Public Affairs
at American University. The collapse of a U.S.-sponsored accord to resolve the
impasse in Tegucigalpa and Washington's failure so far to revive it "makes
the United States look impotent in the region" he adds.
- Michael
Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue, said that the current
controversy over Zelaya and recognition of the elections marks "a potentially
serious rift between the U.S. and the rest of the hemisphere" that
threatens to "aggravate existing irritations".
"The United States is once again isolating itself in
the Americas," warned a letter to Obama signed by 240 mainly
university-based U.S. Latin America specialists some days ago.
- Some weeks
ago the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, had to fire most of the military
leadership because of credible evidence that they were conspiring with the
political opposition. This is one of the consequences of not reversing the
Honduran military coup of June 28th and of legitimizing elections judged and
organized by the same actors that staged that antidemocratic coup.
- Mark
Weibsbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said
regarding US recognition of the elections “it’s hard to imagine a stronger
statement than that human rights and democracy in this hemisphere count for
zero in the political calculations of this administration.”
--
Daniel Cruz
Stanford University | Class of 2011
B.A. Candidate | International Relations
Honduras Solidarity Committee
Press ReleaseFor Immediate Release
Date: Friday November 27, 2009
Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta (602) 466-8367
International Solidarity for Honduras
Protest Action Today in Phoenix at Honduran
Consulate
“An Election Farce is in the making in Honduras with U.S. State Department Support!”
US National
Committee in Solidarity with Honduran Resistance to the Coup Regime
When: Friday November 27, 2009
Time: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Where: 4040 E. McDowell
(Honduran Consulate of Phoenix)
Phoenix Honduras Solidarity Committee joins international action Denouncing the Fraudulent Elections in Honduras, Calls Again for End to US Support for Illegal Military Coup Dictatorship
The action in Phoenix in front of the Honduran Consulate today is a call on the U.S. Government and the Obama administration specifically to the reject the Honduran election farce being prepared for November 29, 2009.
There can be no legitimate, fair elections under the violence and threats of violence of the de facto, unconstitutional government, and its repressive police and military forces who have been brutally violating the rights of peaceful Honduran protesters for the past four months. Opposition candidates at national, provincial and municipal levels have withdrawn from the electoral process.
The action in Phoenix is part of a national and international series of solidarity actions across the U.S. in support of the Honduran people’s untiring, courageous resistance on November 28th and 29th, as they justifiably boycott the bogus and farcical elections.
The equivocating of the U.S. position as regards Honduras is spinning heads around the U.S. and the world and contributes to setting the stage for a return to failed policies of the past, legitimizing via US power brokering an illegitimate and illegal regime of the military coup now in power in Honduras. The failure of the October 30 agreement between Micheletti and Zelaya clearly stems from a plot to delay or impede altogether the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya to power.
This represents nothing less than a capitulation, or worse the outright endorsement of the Obama administration to the illegitimate usurper coup regime in Honduras.
Recalling the period in history from 1865-1867, when the US government applied diplomatic pressure in favor of Mexico’s legitimate president Benito Juarez and against the illegal right wing usurpers of power, the battle for constitutional government in Honduras takes place during new era of democratization across the hemisphere. The developments in the central part of the continent also are framed by the constitutional recognition for the first time of Indigenous Peoples, as declared by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th, 2007.
Also calling for investigation of the role of the US based School of the Americas at Ft. Benning Georgia in the military coup in Honduras, the Honduras Solidarity Committee of Arizona is also calling upon congressional support for House Resolution 630 before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, demanding the reinstatement of President Zelaya.
For more information please contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta (602) 466-8367 in Phoenix or consult the School of the Americas Watch website at:
http://soaw.org/
Links:
Quixote Center
www.quixote.org
Americas Program
http://americas.irc-online.
NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
http://www.nahuacalli.org/
###
November 20, 2009
After five months of political chaos in Honduras, repeated attempts to reach a negotiated agreement for restoration of Constitutional order have failed due to the defiant recalcitrance of the Micheletti coup regime and the complicity of the State Department. Given this impasse and the deepening human rights crisis, it is widely recognized that conditions for holding free, fair and transparent elections on November 29th, just days from now, do not exist.
Recognizing this dilemma, in late October the United States rushed a high level State Department delegation to Honduras, bringing Micheletti back to the table and brokering the October 30th “National Reconciliation Agreement” requiring the reinstatement of President Zelaya by November 5th. However, in a move paralleling the behavior of the Micheletti regime, a few days later, State Department officials reversed their position, stating that the elections would be recognized by the United States with or without restitution of President Zelaya, effectively breaking the accord.
In a press release on November 5th, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint who had been using a procedural tactic to hold up the Obama Administration nominations of Arturo Valenzuela and Tom Shannon, suddenly announced that he was withdrawing the hold because he had reached an agreement with the Administration relative to the situation in Honduras: “I am happy to report the Obama Administration has finally reversed its misguided Honduran policy and will fully recognize the November 29th elections… Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Shannon have assured me that the U.S. will recognize the outcome of the Honduran elections regardless of whether Manuel Zelaya is reinstated.”
A subsequent announcement by Senator Lugar confirms that in fact the United States intends to recognize elections sponsored by the coup regime without prior restitution of Zelaya. Lugar also announced that the State Department is funding election observer missions from the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.
Lugar also used his statement to encourage Brazil in particular to consider that “recognition of the election will be the only way for Hondurans to look beyond the 5-month-old crisis”. Just a few days ago, the Brazilian foreign minister warned of a “deterioration” of U.S. relations with South America. Brazil is one of 25 countries in the Rio Group which issued a declaration on the same day of DeMint’s statement, declaring that this important group of countries will not recognize a government resulting from Honduran elections if Zelaya is not previously restored.
Late last week, President Zelaya announced that he will not accept restitution at this late date in order to not be used to legitimize elections. In a letter to President Obama renouncing the possibility of a return to office in the days prior to the election, Zelaya wrote, “…3500 people detained in one hundred days, over 600 people beaten and injured in hospitals, more than a hundred murders and countless numbers of people subjected to torture directed against citizens who dare to oppose the regime and express their ideas about freedom and justice in peaceful demonstrations. All this converts the November election into an anti-democratic exercise under an uncertain state of lawlessness with military intimidation for large sections of our people…”
Zelaya’s assessment of the illegitimacy of elections under current condition is shared by large majorities in Honduras and the international community. The broad based national resistance movement has called for a total boycott of the elections. Participation in the elections has become a kind of ethical litmus test for all candidates. Candidates who run are widely considered to be supporting the coup, placing tremendous pressure on candidates to withdrawal.
The first candidate to withdraw was Carlos H. Reyes, a well know Independent Party candidate for President and leader of the resistance movement against the coup. His popularity has surged as revulsion to the violence perpetrated by the coup regime has impacted communities and homes throughout the country. Some strategists believe that had a reinstated President Zelaya endorsed Reyes, he could have won the vote, but would have lost due to fraud. After consulting with grassroots assemblies in different parts of the country, Reyes announced his decision to step down.
Last week, the popular Liberal Party mayor of San Pedro Sula announced that he was stepping down as a candidate, in spite of his healthy lead in the polls. Another 110 mayoral and 55 candidates for Congress are reportedly pulling out of the election, and the number continues to grow. Both the leftist UD and the PINU parties are split, with many Congressional candidates stepping down, but the party leadership wanting to stay in the race. These small parties have the most to lose, as they risk losing the position of their party on the ballot.
The UD party has suffered severe criticism for not withdrawing. Their active involvement in the resistance movement morally obligates them to withdraw, but some party leaders see this moment as an opportunity to win more contests than they normally could. However, as the pressure mounts it seems that withdrawal from the elections by the party is imminent, although not yet certain.
With just days to go until the elections, tensions are mounting in Honduras. Micheletti has threatened those encouraging abstension with lengthy prison terms. The resistance movement has called a civic strike for the entire week prior to elections, widespread protests beginning on Friday and a full boycott on Election Day. This comes in a context of heighten levels of state terrorism.
Recently, the military issued a letter to every mayor in the country instructing mayor’s offices to compile lists of inhabitants of the municipality who have been working against the coup. The letter asked for the list to be compiled immediately and stated that each mayor would receive a follow up visit. Mayors who do not comply with this order also risk consequences. This systematic profiling of the population is a blatant violation of human rights and dangerous signal of the levels of repression to come.
In declaring that it will recognize the coup regime sponsored elections on November 29th without prior restitution of Constitutional order, the United States has embolden the coup regime, betrayed a lengthy negotiation process and endangered the lives of millions of Honduran citizens who are committed to democracy, human rights and the rule of law who will boycott elections they consider to be illegal.
Tom Loudon
Quixote Center
http://quixote.org/
*******
Position of the National Committee in Solidarity with the People of Honduras with regards to the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord
In response to the failure of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accords, agreed upon by
Mr. Roberto Micheletti and President Manuel Zelaya on Friday the 30th of
October, our committee reaffirms our committment to the counter-coup movement
in Honduras, and our will to support the 42 organizations that form the
National Front Against the Coup.
The agreement on the restitution of Zelaya signifed an apparent watershed in the negotations between democratic & putchist forces. However, it is now clear that the Micheletti regime has no intention of fulfilling its end of the bargain.
After four months of military rule and widespread human rights violations, the regime hopes to legitimize itself by realizing elections under circumstances that couldn’t possibly be considered free and fair. The withdrawal by candidates who oppose the coup, at the presidential, congressional, and local levels, and the denouncement of elections by President Zelaya, indicates that democratic elections can not be carried out under dictatorial conditions.
Our committee rejects the words of the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Hemispheric Affairs, Thomas Shannon, who referred to both the military-imposed Micheletti and the democratically-elected Zelaya as “heroes of Honduran democracy,” representing an administration that failed to denounce the brutal and dictatorial measures of the regime, but swiftly qualified as “irresponsable and foolish” Zelaya’s clandestine return from exile. Shannon’s overseeing of the accord seems to have been a cynical political maneouver. His candidacy to the ambassadorship of Brazil, which for several months was blocked by Republican Senator Jim DeMint due to the administration’s stance againt the coup, will now proceed, as Shannon has assured DeMint that the Obama administration will now recognize the results of the November 29th elections, regardless of whether or not Zelaya is returned to power. This conflict of interest should be unacceptable to a president who pledged to “launch a new chapter of engagement” with Latin America.
We will continue pressuring the administration to support democracy and the rule of law in Honduras, and to oppose those forces whose core objective is to ensure the oligarchy’s clutch on Honduran society. These forces have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice the human rights of the citizenry, to violate their constitution, and to isolate Honduras from the community of Latin American nations in achieving this goal.
Apart from demanding the restitution of Zelaya, the popular demand for the convocation of a constitutional assembly remains in the balance, and the resistance continues the struggle towards a constitution inclusive of women, youth, indigenous and Garifuna peoples, workers, community councils, teachers, artists, intellectuals, and professionals. It is the aim of our work to support the Honduran people in this historical process.
Links:
School of the Americas Watch
http://soaw.org/
Quixote Center
www.quixote.org
Americas Program
http://americas.irc-online.
NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
http://www.nahuacalli.org/
###
H. RES. 630
Condemning the June 28, 2009, coup d'etat in Honduras, calling for the reinstatement of President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 10, 2009
Mr. DELAHUNT (for himself, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. FARR, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. FILNER, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. GRIJALVA, and Ms. BALDWIN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Condemning the June 28, 2009, coup d'etat in Honduras, calling for the reinstatement of President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and for other purposes.
Whereas Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales was elected President of Honduras in November 2005 in elections that were deemed free and fair by international observers;
Whereas President Zelaya and other political actors in Honduras became embroiled in a political dispute over whether to hold a non-binding referendum asking Honduran voters whether they wanted a constituent assembly to be established to amend the Constitution;
Whereas, on June 28, 2009, the day that the non-binding referendum was to take place, Honduran military forces stormed President Zelaya's residence, apprehended him, sent him out of the country, and seized the materials for the referendum;
Whereas the Honduran Congress named Roberto Micheletti, the head of the Congress, as President and subsequently suspended a number of constitutional rights, including the freedom of association and of movement;
Whereas the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has expressed its concerns regarding human rights abuses by the de facto Micheletti government, including the arbitrary detention of Zelaya supporters;
Whereas the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations, and the European Union, representing governments from across the political spectrum, have condemned the coup d'etat, refused to recognize the de facto Micheletti government, and demanded the unconditional return of President Zelaya to office;
Whereas, on July 1, 2009, the OAS voted unanimously to suspend Honduras from participation in the OAS unless President Zelaya was returned to office within three days;
Whereas, on July 4, 2009, the OAS unanimously voted to suspend Honduras;
Whereas the Obama Administration has condemned President Zelaya's removal, supported the OAS resolutions regarding Honduras, and demanded that he be returned to office;
Whereas the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have suspended aid and loans to Honduras;
Whereas national elections are scheduled in Honduras for November 29, 2009;
Whereas President Zelaya has said that he will only serve until his term ends in January 2010;
Whereas it is critical for the stability of Honduras that the November 2009 elections be free, fair, and transparent; and
Whereas U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on July 7, 2009, that Costa Rican President Oscar Arias would seek to negotiate a solution to the crisis, and President Zelaya and the de facto Micheletti government have agreed to the mediation of President Arias: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns the June 28, 2009, coup d'etat in Honduras and refuses to recognize the de facto Micheletti government installed by that coup d'etat;
(2) calls on the Obama Administration to continue to refuse to recognize the de facto Micheletti government;
(3) calls for the reinstatement of President Zelaya as President of Honduras;
(4) urges the Obama Administration to suspend nonhumanitarian assistance to the de facto Micheletti government as required by United States law as it deems necessary to compel the return of President Zelaya to office;
(5) calls for extensive international observation of the November 2009 elections once President Zelaya is returned to office to ensure that his successor is elected freely, fairly, and transparently; and
(6) welcomes the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and encourages the Obama Administration to provide any assistance President Arias requests in his efforts.
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INDIANISMO: THE RESURGENCE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN HONDURAS
http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/indianismo/
Indigenous people represent 7% of the total population in Honduras. For many years human rights abuses have taken place in the area of education, technology, culture, health, and the environment. Recently indigenous have organized themselves formally to combat these abuses. The indigenous people in Honduras want rights and their movement is gaining strength. Several indigenous leaders have come to the forefront representing the 500,000 indigenous people because they are tired of the broken promises made by politicians. Through protests hunger strikes and other peaceful means indigenous people have made their agenda known. Recently the government has passed 9,000 hectares of land over in the western part of the country. But this is merely one step to repay the centuries old debt owed to the indigenous people. They are becoming strong activists in their community and the new indigenous movement in Honduras is working its way to some sort of justice.
EDITORIAL CONCLUSIONS
Before the invasion of Christopher Columbus and the conquistadores there were 130 million people living in the Americas. By 1567 seventy million indigenous people had been slaughtered by Europeans and all the diseases they brought with them. From the minute Columbus stepped foot in the Americas the indigenous peoples were the victims of violent repression and human rights abuses. These acts have been occurring for over 500 years. Since 1492 the natives have been in a constant fight for the rights that were stolen from them.
Although the main goal of the governments has been to assimilate these peoples, they have maintained their claim to their tradition, culture, land and sovereignty. As an answer to this, the governments have used symbolic gestures, neglect and outright violent political repression. When policies which would benefit and protect indigenous peoples are adopted, they are largely ignored by the government and society as a whole. The governments are unlikely to produce substantive change because any legitimization of their rights would threaten the maintenance of the current system.
As a result, indigenous people all over the Americas are living on the margins of society and continue to be excluded from decision making processes dealing with issues which directly effect them. When the Europeans arrived many indigenous nations were forced to flee their ancestral lands which were a crucial element for their continued survival of their culture and tradition. Those who were able to stay on their lands live in a constant state of fear that they will be taken away. Their land is what gives them their identity and the roots that bind generations of indigenous people. For centuries they have struggled to maintain their lands in a communal manner, but are constantly met with opposition from the individualistic power structure. Not only have they met opposition in trying to preserve their land, but in any attempt to protect their traditional culture, language, and human rights.
Due to this marginalization and the lack of action from the government, indigenous peoples have begun a resurgence of political activism in order to call attention to their problems and to gain external support. This Indianismo has enabled indigenous people to mobilize collectively on the basis of their historic sovereign right to everything that has been taken from them. Technological advances have allowed them to gather international support for their cause and has assisted them in organizing with other indigenous groups on a transnational level. They are fighting against a racial hierarchy that began in the Americas when Columbus first arrived. However, today they are gaining momentum and are forcing society to face the institutionalized stratification and the injustices that have resulted over the past 500 years.
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There
is one main group of indigenous people in Honduras, they are Miskito
Indians. They reside in the southeastern section of Honduras. Other
indigenous people in Honduras are the Xicaques, torrupan, Lenca,
Chorti, Tawanka, and the Garifuna. These groups reside in the western
section of Honduras. The Paya and Sumu Indians live in the same region
as the Miskitos and some of their tribes have integrated with the
Miskitos. Major Miskito, Sumu and Paya settlements are located on the
Caribbean coast from Rio Platono to Gracias a Dios.
MISKITO INDIANS
The
Miskito Indians are the largest indigenous group in Honduras. They make
up approximately more than 50% of the indigenous population in
Honduras. Most Miskitos of Honduras speak the Miskito language and
English, due to the influence of British settlers. They are
Protestants. Miskito workers are either drifting workers or
agricultural laborers. Miskito men usually travel away from home for
seasonal work. Because of their coastal location Miskitos also fish as
a means of employment. Miskito Indians are the poorest in the Honduran
society. Because of this they rely on inadequate health care and
educational facilities. While other Indians have integrated into urban
centers the Miskitos have mainly stayed on the coast and in the rural
areas off the coast. The primary organization that represents the
Miskitos in Honduras are called the Unity of Miskito. This group
represents Miskito needs and objectives to the Honduran government. The
Miskito Indians in Honduras have strong ties with the Nicaraguan
Miskitos. It has been with the resurgence of the Nicaraguan Miskitos
that the Honduran Miskitos have become stronger. The main issues for
the Miskito tribe is land rights and development of social programs,
especially health care and education.
LENCA INDIANS
The
Lencas are one of the seven largest ethnic groups in Honduras.
Numbering 100,000, they live in the central department of Las Paz, and
the western departments of Lempira and Itibuca, as well as in some
smaller communities in the northern part of the country. Their homes
are made form bahareque a mixture of mud and bamboo. Their communities
lack all of the basic services such as running water. Roofs are made of
clay tiles or nylon. In a twenty square meter room there is a bed and a
kitchen. The bed is made from pieces of plywood tied to posts and sunk
into the dirt floor. Eight people usually occupy one bed. At night the
cold mountain air seeps through the cracks in the walls and results in
frequent respiratory illnesses. Many Lencas work on coffee plantations
and harvest. Lenca men are encouraged to educate themselves so that
they may move up the social hierarchy.
CHORTI INDIANS
The
Chortis are direct descendants of the people who built Copan, the
capitol of the ancient Maya empire, They number between 1500 to 2000 in
Honduras and have moved away from tradition in recent years. Only a few
elders still speak the Chorti language. Unlike the Maya in Guatemala,
the Chortis now wear western clothing and take on western names.
Recently a Chorti leader named Candido Amador began pushing for a
resurgence of ethnic pride. Working with the larger Lenca Maya group to
the south, Amador demanded that the central government turn over nearly
35,000 acres to indigenous peoples as was promised in an agreement with
the Spanish colonial government made in the 18th century. Amador was
slain in April 1997. Another Maya leader who worked with him was shot
and killed less than a month later. The Chortis claim that both men
were killed by order of local land owners. If violence was meant to
intimidate the Maya movement, it has had the exact opposite effect.
TAWANKA INDIANS
The
Tawanka Indians are the smallest of the indigenous tribes in Honduras.
Together they are a population of 916 people. They occupy an area of
233 hectares in the center of the Mosquitia, the largest rainforest.
Presently they are struggling to have the zone declared an indigenous
reservation, and to be considered one of the main biological areas of
Mesoamerica. They are peaceful in their lifestyles and dedicated to
preserving the forest. They view their forest as a medecinechest with a
bounty of natural resources.
GARIFUNA INDIANS
The
Garifunas reside on the Carribbean coast in Honduras. Recently they
have celebrated their two hundredth anniversary in this country. They
came to Honduras because the British expelled them from the island of
St. Vincent. Presently there are 250,000 Garifunas residing in this
area. With the coastal areas as a natural resource the Garifunas rely
heavily on the fishing industry.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burke, Pam "Indigenous People of Honduras" http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/indhon.htm (April 1,1998).
Hegstrom, Edward "Maya Bid to reclaim Land at Copan Tourist Site Stirs Violence" Central America NewsPak 12.17(1997):1-2.
Martinez, Oswaldo "Indigenous Groups Want Rights" Latinamerica Press 29.18(1997):3.
Mejia, Thelma "Death Pursues the Tawanka People" C
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Chronology for Indigenous Peoples in Honduras
1989-2000
United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees
| Oct 12, 1998 | On Columbus Day, indigenous people in Honduras concluded their trial of Christopher Columbus, finding him guilty of genocide, spreading European disease, and of stealing gold, silver, spices and sacred artifacts. About 1,000 people in native dress blocked access to Mayan ruins for over a week, demanding land and a percentage of the tax revenue from Copan to be used for native associations. (Arizona Republic 10/13/98 and Inter Press Service 10/20/98) |
| Oct 20, 1998 | Several Lenca camped outside the Vatican embassy in Honduras - and four began a hunger strike - to draw attention to their pllight and to the fact that the government had still not lived up to the promises it made the year before (see 5/12/97). In response, the Papal Nuncio announced that while he did not specifically support the indigenous claims, he felt that the government should not put off negotiations with the protestors. (Inter Press Service 10/20/98) |
IV Continental Summit Abya Yala May 27-31, 2009 Puno, Peru
Declaration of Mama Quta Titikaka
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Message to the Americas
CALL TO CONTINENTAL CONSCIENCE
Abya Yala
Continental Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor
Monday June 29, 2009
Honduras – Peru – Colombia
The present crisis in Honduras, a blatant criminal military coup against the legitimate offices of the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, represents yet another tragic flashpoint exposing the violent imposition of unjust regimes of expropriation and exploitation of the natural resources and labor of our continent Abya Yala. While the situation Honduras unfolds before the unequivocal denunciation of global society, in Peru the conflict of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazonas continues over the issue of the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, and today President Obama is to meet with President Uribe of Colombia, who has overseen one of the most long lasting and bloody pogroms of genocide against the Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala.
The time has long past for members of civil society in the Americas to remain silent on the cumulative and overlapping doctrines of dispossession that began in this hemisphere with the Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 1493 issued by Pope Alexander VI and the Doctrine of Discovery. As Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala we have endured over five centuries of Doctrines of Colonization which the Republics of the Americas [OAS] have continued to impose continentally in violation of the legitimate Right of Self Determination of the Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of Abya Yala, enforced militarily by the Empire of the North through the Monroe Doctrine and now, the assault expands via economic regimes of bi-lateral “free” trade agreements.
We of Abya Yala North stand today with our Indigenous Peoples of Honduras and civil society in denunciation of the illegal and illegitimate military takeover in Honduras, demanding accountability and restitution of justice for the Honduran People.
We recognize that the interests behind the military takeover in Honduras are in collusion across the hemisphere and globally, acting as agents of an ecologically destructive and dehumanizing regime of exploitation and expropriation of the natural resources and labor of all Peoples, among whom we as Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala are the first victims of genocide. This self destructive schema is not development, but a derivative of the commodification of the material world as property and product for commercial marketing that negates the spiritual relationship and ecological inter-dependence of all life, and threatens to bring the whole of Human Society globally to the brink of terracide.
The particulars of implementation of this mal-adaptive schema, the imposition of the bastard relics of the Divine Right of States in contradiction to the Right of Self Determination of the Indigenous Peoples, continues to be evidenced by policy and practice across the continent. In Peru, the good faith negotiations entered into by the AIDESEP with the government have suffered from persecution of the indigenous leadership from the Amazonas and other regions where Indigenous Peoples have challenged the illegal expropriation of their resources by the national government.
