Military Coup in Honduras Against Popular Will

By Oscar González Vázquez/ Radio Cadena Agramonte
www.cadenagramonte.cubaweb.cu

Camagüey, Jun 28.- A coup d'état showed its ugly face in a Latin American nation this morning, and this time the highest military commands of Honduras, betraying their homeland and violating the laws of their own country, assumed the shameful responsibility of trying to hinder the popular will.

Since early this Sunday, people wering the fatigues of the Armed Forces of Honduras launched themselves onto the street to impede a popular opinion survey propelled by President José Manuel Zelaya, aiming at giving people more power.

In spite of the majority support of the Honduran people and the international community, the attempts to interrupt institutionality and thwart the democratic process that is taking place nowadays in Latin America didn’t stop.

Spurred by the ruling oligarchy and other elite groups, since early this morning the main streets of Tegucigalpa and the surrounding area of the Government headquarter were seized by military detachments obeying orders by unknown masterminds.

Using methods resembling those employed by the assault troopers that assassinated Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973, Honduran soldiers abducted President Manuel Zelaya, and took him on a plane to Costa Rica. They also arrested the Foreign Minister of that Central American nation.

In a blatant violation of all international rules, the soldiers who participated in this military coup kidnapped and abused diplomatic representatives physically and verbally. And look who...the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who were having a meeting with Honduras' Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas.

Last week, on Thursday, President Zelaya accompanied by an impressive crowd had recovered ballots, that had been seized in an air force installation. This worthy and sovereign action of the Honduran Head of State was applauded by farmers, workers and other segments of the population.

Backed up by the democratic principles with which he has ruled the country, the President of this Central American nation had called the electorate for a popular opinion survey that will define if the Honduran people would want to vote a Constituent Assembly, when the general elections takes place on November 29th.

Preparations for this coup d’etat were evident over the last days, and this Sunday, Honduras was the stage of treason.

For the reactionary oligarchy of this long-suffering country and its foreign allies, the call for a referendum to make a new Constitution that would represent the interests of the majority, was simply inadmissible.

This is the reality, but the Honduran people have the final say. They can rely on the solidarity of their brothers and sisters in Latin America, headed by the member-nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA) that have always shown its steadfast solidarity with the people of Honduras, whom they are trying to take away the right of a better future.

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