Guest blog: Enough is enough!

L-R, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias,
and Honduran President-elect Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo
Photo: El Heraldo, Honduras

Honduran Manifesto to the International Community

Guest blog by Jorge Gallardo Ruís

Enough is Enough! The International Community expressed its intention to honor an accord convened by both sides of the Honduran crisis and promised that things would go back to normal for Honduras and its people if it was honored.

They have repeatedly demanded that the Micheletti government honor its side of the bargain, which it has done. Every point in the accord has been honored by the Micheletti government in time and essence: The installation of the Verification Commission, naming its representatives to the Unity government, supporting the electoral process and respecting the results, accepting Congress’s decision to re-instate or not Zelaya and supporting the transition to the newly elected government.

Meanwhile, the Zelaya side has broken every one of its commitments: He retracted his representatives to the Verification Commission; he has continued calling for insurrection and threatening with violence; He called for a boycott of the elections, he has declared that he doesn’t accept the vote in Congress, he is calling on the International Community to reject the electoral process and the newly elected government.

Now the International Community demands new conditions on the Micheletti government while it keeps silent about Zelaya’s flagrantly dishonorable actions.

First, they demand that Zelaya be awarded political amnesty, an issue that was not excluded from the accord but instead, amply discussed and rejected by both sides.

Second, they are asking that Micheletti resign as President. This option was offered to Zelaya in good time and form, before Congress made its decision, and was rejected by Zelaya with the support of the International Community. Now that Congress has made its decision and Zelaya will not be re-instated, they want to return to an option that had previously been rejected and is not part of the Tegucigalpa – San Jose Accord. It's like he had been offered a tie, and after he lost, wanting to go back and accept the tie.

Apparently, the International Community has not fully understood the depth of the decision by Congress on December 4th. Congress didn’t vote directly on the question whether to re-instate Zelaya or not. They reviewed the legal proceedings of June 28th and by an overwhelming majority 111-14 deemed the procedure legal. Thus, they not only voted NOT to re-instate Zelaya, but upheld the legality of Micheletti’s succession, making him a legal, constitutional successor to the Presidency.

Enough! The Honduran people are tired of the International Community playing games with our government and our people.

Zelaya has caused enormous damage to the Honduran people. After having reduced our foreign debt to manageable levels in the previous government, with great sacrifices by the Honduran people, to achieve reasonable macroeconomic stability, Zelaya initiated his term with a “served table”, the resources ripe for the great social actions that would combat poverty and move Honduras to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Yet in 3 years, he put us back to the levels of foreign debt held before it was condoned without advancing an inch towards achievement of these goals. Not only that, but during his mandate, our internal debt has doubled, leaving Honduras in a financial crisis that will sorely affect social programs in the new government.

More than US $300 million undocumented expenditures and more than US $20 million spent on an illegal political campaign are all part of Zelaya’s inheritance to our nation. The Poverty Reduction Strategy was strangulated, hospitals were kept without medicines, more school days have been lost than in any other period of our history affecting our nation’s youth and the country’s infrastructure has steadily deteriorated.

Throughout this crisis, Zelaya has demanded to be reinstated for political reasons and not once has he expressed regret for the damage he caused to our nation and our people before and after June 28th. And the International Community has backed this whole mess and not once demanded that Zelaya even honor his commitments to the Honduran people and to them as sovereign states.

So, no sirs, enough is enough. As long as the International Community doesn’t start demanding that Zelaya honor his commitments, that Brazil resolve its diplomatic bungling in the crisis and that the ALBA nations cease their threats and attacks to our nation, the Honduran people will not accept any conditioning not included in the Tegucigalpa – San Jose Accord. Micheletti stays and no amnesty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many thanks go to Jorge Gallardo for allowing me to post this article.

Jorge Gallardo Rius is a Honduran citizen who was born in La Ceiba and currently lives in Tegucigalpa. He studied in Louisiana, Houston, and Romania and is currently an Information Systems Analyst. Jorge's mother was a US citizen so he grew up speaking both languages at home. For a time, he wrote a weekly column on Education and Technology for an English-language weekly newspaper. He offers English/Spanish and Spanish/English translations. Sr. Gallardo can be contacted at jgallardo515 at yahoo.com