Coup info

So a few weeks ago Greg Morrison from the US Embassy came to visit our Peace Corps group and talk about the country’s history. Since there was a coup in Honduras in June 2009 this turned into a pretty interesting meeting. Here is what I learned about Honduras and the coup (from the US government official position).

• Honduras has had a very bumpy history, with lots of US influence. Fruit companies historically had major influence in internal affairs here – Honduras is considered the stereotypical ‘banana republic’. In the 1980’s, the US paid Hondurans to act as guerillas opposing the Sandinista (socialist) government in Nicaragua – lots of violence. The Honduras constitution (established 1982) has lasted longer than any other constitution in the country’s history – this is a source of pride for Hondurans.

• Honduras is heavily dependent on aid – both from foreign countries and from citizens living abroad – supposedly 1 MM of its 8 MM citizens are living (mostly illegally) in the US and sending money back to Honduras.

• Mel Zelaya was elected president in 2006. The constitution of Honduras limits the president to only one four year term. Also, according to the constitution certain topics are off-limits – including changing this term limit. I believe the constitution goes as far as to make it illegal for these certain topics to be discussed. Apparently Zelaya was moving Honduras a bit towards a Hugo Chavez style government, and like Chavez, he wanted to have more terms in power. In early 2009 he decided that the people of Honduras should decide whether there should be a constitutional amendment to the limit on the number of terms. The vote was to be held in June 2009.

• In June 2009, on the eve of the vote, an arrest warrant was issued in secret by the supreme court of Honduras. This warrant was then carried out by the army of Honduras rather than the police – as the police believed they would be ineffective against Zelaya. Zelaya was kidnapped and flown to Costa Rica in the middle of the night, where he immediately held a press conference in his pajamas. A few days later, Zelaya magically reappeared in Honduras at the Brazilian embassy – where he lived for the next six months.

• Some Hondurans think this was an unjustified coup and others think it was legal as the president was not following the country’s constitution and therefore was no longer the president. For Hondurans this remains a very divisive issue – and not one to be discussed openly.

• As we learned, the official US position is that it was a coup. Although the US didn’t agree with many of the Zelaya’s positions, we felt that he wasn’t tried in a transparent way. We also thought it was unconstitutional for a country to deport one of its citizens without a trial. We opposed the coup and the succeeding administration, and halted most aid (except basic humanitarian aid) to the country.

 • The succeeding administration agreed to a deal brokered by the US and neighboring countries. They decided that Mel Zelaya could not be returned to power, and that new elections would be held to elect a new president. We only reinstituted aid after these elections that produced the current administration (I think Pepe Lobo was sworn into office in January or February).