President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a coup in June, returned to Honduras on September 21, 2009, after this article was written, taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy. The coup government in Honduras has responded with violence against his supporters; the situation was deteriorating as we went to press on September 22.
Three months have passed since a military coup in Honduras ousted democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya when he was forcefully taken from his home in the middle of the night on June 28, 2009 by armed and masked military officials and flown to Costa Rica on an Air Force plane.
Despite international condemnation and growing economic and political pressure, coup leaders have refused to permit the President to return to Honduras. Failure to reverse the coup poses a severe test to democracy and respect for basic rights, not only in Honduras but throughout the region. The Obama Administration, while quick to condemn the coup, is being increasingly criticized for not taking quicker and stronger measures to cut off all aid. The coup has also exposed that CAFTA shackles the U.S. and other countries in the region from applying trade leverage even when a democratic government is overthrown.
Mainstream media have generally presented the coup as a power grab by Zelaya, casting him as aligned with the much-maligned Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. This portrayal obscures the fact that coup backers and opponents are largely split along class lines, with Honduran business and political elites supportive of the coup and trade unions and women’s groups, among others, opposed. While a large increase in the minimum wage pushed through by the Zelaya government earlier this year is frequently cited as one basis for the coup, its roots go deeper.
Background to the Coup
The day of the coup, the people of Honduras were to vote on a referendum proposed by Zelaya on whether to have a binding vote in November to form a constituent assembly to consider constitutional reforms. Zelaya’s opponents feared that a constitutional reform would minimize the current economic and political power held by the elite in Honduras. Honduran members of congress and the Supreme Court attempted to halt the referendum by ruling it unconstitutional but Zelaya pressed ahead. Before the vote could take place, the military carried out orders to detain and remove Zelaya from the country. Speaker Roberto Micheletti was “elected” in his stead.
International Condemnation
International response to the military coup was immediate. All Latin American governments strongly denounced the coup and withdrew their ambassadors. The UN and the Organization of American States (OAS), supported by the U.S., also condemned the coup and refuse to recognize the de facto government as legitimate. In the U.S., faith-based groups and NGOs, including USLEAP, issued statements opposing the coup, as did the labor movement, including the AFL-CIO and SEIU.
Nevertheless, mediation efforts led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and backed by the U.S. and the international community have failed to secure Zelaya’s return.
The situation in Honduras worsened as continued levels of violence and repression against members of civil society and Zelaya’s supporters heightened. The de facto government suspended civil liberties, including freedom of association, shortly after the coup, and troops have since then controlled the streets. On-the-ground reports from Honduras claim thousands of human rights violations and twelve political assassinations, including those of trade unionists, as well as rapes and disappearances.
Labor Movement Resists
Honduran unions have been leading popular resistance against the coup since the beginning. The three principal labor centrals in Honduras, the Unitary Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the General Workers Central (CGT), and the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH), called for a national strike until the restitution of institutional order and the return of Zelaya. Chiquita banana worker union members gave up a day’s pay and more to participate in the general strikes and protests. Teachers unions, the largest in the country, went on strike, shutting down the education system while thousands of workers have joined peaceful protests that have been met with teargas, detentions, threats, and attacks against protestors.
The international trade union movement has continuously weighed in against the coup and in support of the people of Honduras and unions. The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, the regional arm of the International Trade Union Confederation, condemned the coup and denounced the invasion and destruction of the head office of the CGT. Dockworkers unions have pledged to not unload Honduran-flagged ships.
Business Mostly Supports Coup
Big business in Honduras is staunchly allied with the coup. One of the biggest backers of the coup has been the Honduran Maquila Association. Some Honduran maquila employers have reportedly forced their workers to take part in marches supporting the coup. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups in the U.S. also issued a July 11 statement that effectively supports the coup.
USLEAP requests to Dole and Chiquita to condemn the coup were rebuffed but four leading apparel companies have spoken out for democracy. In response to an initiative by the Maquila Solidarity Network, backed by USLEAP, Nike, Gap, adidas Group and Knight Industries, in a July 26, 2009 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called for a restoration of democracy in Honduras. But the vast majority of companies that cast themselves as being socially responsible have failed to condemn the coup.
Level of US Response Criticized
Within hours of the coup, President Obama made a statement in support of democracy and the rule of law. After mediation efforts failed, the U.S. suspended military aid and revoked the diplomatic visas of four coup leaders in late July.
As concerns about the levels of violence and repression escalated, the international community and Zelaya himself called on the U.S government to apply more pressure.
On September 3, the U.S. revoked all visas for senior officials involved with the coup and cutoff of nearly $32 million in aid, much of which had already been suspended. But the State Department has so far refused to categorize the situation in Honduras as a “military coup,” a determination that would by law cut-off all funds to Honduras.
Lost in the debate about cutting off U.S. aid is the glaring fact that with CAFTA, the U.S. has lost the ability to apply trade leverage in the face of a coup. CAFTA has no provisions for a suspension of trade benefits in response to a coup. Trade sanctions are a much more potent weapon than aid suspension, particularly when the targets are political and business elites.
Honduran opponents of the coup are digging in for the long haul, forming a resistance movement that is focused less on the return of Zelaya than convening a national assembly to write a new constitution that would be more democratic and grant more power to average citizens.
A failure to restore Zelaya soon will provoke further unrest if the coup government tries to go ahead with elections scheduled for November. Any election held by the coup government will be denounced as illegitimate.