New Conditions to Reinstate Honduras into the OAS
- by A Concerned Honduran Citizen
The OAS’s High Level Commission that visited Honduras recently has set new conditions for reinstating Honduras into the Organization. I recently reviewed their recommendations and found the following:
The Commission went to great lengths to interview many people whom they considered had important opinions to be included in the their recommendation: They interviewed ex-president Zelaya and several of his close allies, Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador and Pro-tempore President of UNASUR, a group of South American nations, Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, people from the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission and many other foreign nationals who have something to say about the recent events in Honduras. They also interviewed a selected few Honduran nationals whose opinion they wanted to include in their report.
But the voice they want to keep quiet is that of TWO MILLION Hondurans who voted in the November election. They tried to discard this voice with remarks that the OAS did not oversee this election although they were invited and turned it down. They did however oversee and validated the election in which Zelaya won by a scarce margin and later declared that he had cheated.
But the 2009 election was overseen by many reputable organizations, including representatives of the Republican and Democrat parties of the USA, several former ambassadors of the United States and other countries, who have since declared that the elections were an example of transparency and credibility. The people whom the OAS Commission decided to listen to were the same people who called for abstinence in that November election, yet it was the most voted election in Honduran history, signifying that their call to abstain from voting was insignificant and had no bearing in the result.
Why, despite the calls for abstention and threats of violence by those groups, did so many Hondurans risk everything to cast their vote? The election took place on the last Sunday of November , 2009. Zelaya was elected in a similar election on the last Sunday of November, 2005 and Maduro, the President before him, on the last Sunday of November four years before that and so on, back to Suazo Cordova, the first president of the Constitutional era of 1982. Current President Lobo took charge of his office on January 27th, 2010. Zelaya took over office on January 27th four years before that, as Maduro on January 27th four years before and so on until Suazo Cordova on January 27th, 1982. All of them swore obedience to the same 1982 Constitution.
The reason why TWO MILLION Hondurans, whom the OAS Commission wants to disregard, cast their vote in that election is because we wanted to tell the world that our country and its constitutional, democratically elected government remain in place, no matter what happened on June 28th, 2009.
Our 1982 Constitution is still upheld by all the institutions of government and the vast majority of Hondurans (except the handful of people that the Commission chose to include in their recommendation). And if ,according to the bylaws of the OAS, the form of government that we held since 1982, established by that Constitution, was good enough to consider Honduras a Democratic country until 2009 then it must be good enough to consider it a democratic government today and there should be no more conditioning to reinstate Honduras into the OAS.
Because the democratic nature of a government does not depend on who occupies which office, but on the form of goverment and the manner in which these officers carry out their duties, specifically the manner in which they respect the laws pertaining to the discharge of their duties.
This does not mean that Honduran democracy is a finished product – all democracies must strive towards greater perfection – but the fact that Honduras has returned to that point in which it was before the events of June 28 should be enough to reinstate it back into the OAS.
But the opinion of the TWO MILLION Hondurans, who disregarded those who called for voter abstention, is now being disregarded by the “OAS High Commission”. That voice is quieted in their report and not considered in their reasoning.
Not only that, they are also requiring reforms that were not in place when Honduras was considered a democratic government and which include breaking the rule of law, punishing some while amnistying others, disolving the constitution and ending the separation of powers, which is our protection against dictators and caudillos.
Honduras lived almost 20 years of military dictatorships before Argentina and the other South American countries had their own coups. Our tyrants ruled by means of a constituent assembly as recommended by the OAS Commission and as implemented in Venezuela for the last 12 years. Our constitution guarantees that we will not be ruled by a dictator again. That is why TWO MILLION Hondurans voted to uphold our constitution.
The OAS report on Honduras dated July 29, 2010 can be found in Spanish here and in English here. The attachments (anexos) not included in the report can be found in Spanish in this folder and in English in this folder.
- by A Concerned Honduran Citizen
The OAS’s High Level Commission that visited Honduras recently has set new conditions for reinstating Honduras into the Organization. I recently reviewed their recommendations and found the following:
The Commission went to great lengths to interview many people whom they considered had important opinions to be included in the their recommendation: They interviewed ex-president Zelaya and several of his close allies, Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador and Pro-tempore President of UNASUR, a group of South American nations, Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, people from the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission and many other foreign nationals who have something to say about the recent events in Honduras. They also interviewed a selected few Honduran nationals whose opinion they wanted to include in their report.
But the voice they want to keep quiet is that of TWO MILLION Hondurans who voted in the November election. They tried to discard this voice with remarks that the OAS did not oversee this election although they were invited and turned it down. They did however oversee and validated the election in which Zelaya won by a scarce margin and later declared that he had cheated.
But the 2009 election was overseen by many reputable organizations, including representatives of the Republican and Democrat parties of the USA, several former ambassadors of the United States and other countries, who have since declared that the elections were an example of transparency and credibility. The people whom the OAS Commission decided to listen to were the same people who called for abstinence in that November election, yet it was the most voted election in Honduran history, signifying that their call to abstain from voting was insignificant and had no bearing in the result.
Why, despite the calls for abstention and threats of violence by those groups, did so many Hondurans risk everything to cast their vote? The election took place on the last Sunday of November , 2009. Zelaya was elected in a similar election on the last Sunday of November, 2005 and Maduro, the President before him, on the last Sunday of November four years before that and so on, back to Suazo Cordova, the first president of the Constitutional era of 1982. Current President Lobo took charge of his office on January 27th, 2010. Zelaya took over office on January 27th four years before that, as Maduro on January 27th four years before and so on until Suazo Cordova on January 27th, 1982. All of them swore obedience to the same 1982 Constitution.
The reason why TWO MILLION Hondurans, whom the OAS Commission wants to disregard, cast their vote in that election is because we wanted to tell the world that our country and its constitutional, democratically elected government remain in place, no matter what happened on June 28th, 2009.
Our 1982 Constitution is still upheld by all the institutions of government and the vast majority of Hondurans (except the handful of people that the Commission chose to include in their recommendation). And if ,according to the bylaws of the OAS, the form of government that we held since 1982, established by that Constitution, was good enough to consider Honduras a Democratic country until 2009 then it must be good enough to consider it a democratic government today and there should be no more conditioning to reinstate Honduras into the OAS.
Because the democratic nature of a government does not depend on who occupies which office, but on the form of goverment and the manner in which these officers carry out their duties, specifically the manner in which they respect the laws pertaining to the discharge of their duties.
This does not mean that Honduran democracy is a finished product – all democracies must strive towards greater perfection – but the fact that Honduras has returned to that point in which it was before the events of June 28 should be enough to reinstate it back into the OAS.
But the opinion of the TWO MILLION Hondurans, who disregarded those who called for voter abstention, is now being disregarded by the “OAS High Commission”. That voice is quieted in their report and not considered in their reasoning.
Not only that, they are also requiring reforms that were not in place when Honduras was considered a democratic government and which include breaking the rule of law, punishing some while amnistying others, disolving the constitution and ending the separation of powers, which is our protection against dictators and caudillos.
Honduras lived almost 20 years of military dictatorships before Argentina and the other South American countries had their own coups. Our tyrants ruled by means of a constituent assembly as recommended by the OAS Commission and as implemented in Venezuela for the last 12 years. Our constitution guarantees that we will not be ruled by a dictator again. That is why TWO MILLION Hondurans voted to uphold our constitution.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The OAS report on Honduras dated July 29, 2010 can be found in Spanish here and in English here. The attachments (anexos) not included in the report can be found in Spanish in this folder and in English in this folder.
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