A woman casts her vote at a polling station in Tegucigalpa, Nov. 29, 2009. Honduras chooses a new president on Sunday but neither ousted President Manuel Zelaya nor arch-rival and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti are running in the election, which could give a new president the chance to take Honduras beyond the political gridlock that has divided the Central American nation and cut off international aid. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters)
Honduras holds new election
Is the fresh election a military farce or restoration of democracy?
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The squad of young soldiers surrounded the school to be used as a voting booth in this sweaty Central American capital and hauled sandbags to build a military post at its front gate.
The de facto government says such security, which is part of a huge deployment of troops across Honduras, will make people feel safe and confident to vote in Sunday’s national elections — the first to be held since President Manuel Zelaya was forced out in a military coup in June.
The ballot for a new president, congress and mayors, the military government hopes, will show the world that Honduras has restored democracy and can be brought back into the international community.
But Zelaya and his supporters argue the need for such a military operation underlines how the nation is in no condition to hold a fair franchise. Because the coup leaders have muzzled the press, ordered troops to shoot at protesters and imprisoned dissidents, there can be no fair race, he says.
“This is the first time in history that the executioners are being allowed to oversee a so-called transition back to democracy,” Zelaya told GlobalPost by phone from inside the Brazilian Embassy, where he has been holed up since he snuck back into the country in September.
“There can be no valid election when the regime has terrorized the Honduran people,” he said.
Zelaya has called on the nation to boycott the ballot and has urged the international community not to recognize its results.
But support for the Stetson-wearing populist — who pledged to fight for Honduras’ poor and downtrodden before he was forced into exile at gunpoint — is looking increasingly thin.
He is particularly dismayed about the Obama administration saying it will recognize the vote, after it had previously condemned the coup.
“The United States had a good position and then it weakened, it lost its way,” he said.
Following the U.S. position, many other countries have swung round to support the vote. Among the most notable new advocates is Costa Rican leader Oscar Arias who oversaw peace talks to try and restore Zelaya to the presidency. After those apparently failed, he announced Friday that he was supporting the election, saying isolation would only punish an already poor Honduras.
“Why do we want to make Honduras into the Burma of Central America? Why do we want a second Hurricane Mitch?” he asked CNN.
This article, at best, is filled with shoddy reporting, at worst is ideologically biased.
Grillo writes, "But support for the Stetson-wearing populist — who pledged to fight for Honduras’ poor and downtrodden before he was forced into exile at gunpoint — is looking increasingly thin.
Following the U.S. position, many other countries have swung round to support the vote."
Since when does (as the WSJ and other media outlets reported) does two countries, Panama and Costa Rica, who have latched onto Obama´s misguided policy towards Honduras, define "many."
Grillo also writes, "Support for Zelaya also appears to be waning inside Honduras."
Citing defections from Honduras´political establishment,which largely represents the country´s oligarchy, and whom felt betrayed by Zelaya´s policies, which were opposed to their class´s interests, in favor of the country´s overwhelming poor population, should that be a surprise, or used as a measure of Zelaya´s popularity.
Grillo then goes on to state, "Another sign of slipping support for Zelaya is the weakening of street protests."
Hmmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with the coup regime turning Honduras into a police state, or maybe the fact that there have been mass arrests, military occupations of media outlets, coup opponents murdered and kidnapped, and other human rights violations which have been documented by int´l orgs such as the OAS (which refuses to recognize the election) Amnesty Int´l, Human Rights Watch, etc...
Finally, the massive and majority opposition to the elections isn´t so much about supporting Zelaya, but rather about supporting democracy and opposing a military coup.
This article was a huge disappointment and could have been written by John Negroponte or Roger Noriega...I expected better from the Global Post!
Cyril M.
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