the Tegucigalpa/San José Accord signed on October 30 by representatives
of the legitimate president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, and those of the
coup regime of Micheletti, was in reality a farce.
The text of the agreement was already quite bad (even though it was
presented as a victory by Mel Zelaya and some of the leaders of the
Resistance), but at least it contained one clause which talked of the
reinstatement of president Zelaya, who had been removed by a military
coup on June 28. However, in reality, the oligarchy had no intention of
implementing that point and very soon started more trickery.
As we already warned, the text of the agreement left the question of
Zelaya’s reinstatement to the National Congress which could also
consult the Supreme Court of Justice. This was clearly a trap, since
both Congress and the Supreme Court had given “legitimacy” to the coup
in June. As a matter of fact the presidency of the Congress (which is
not in session now because of the elections called for November 29)
decided to consult the Supreme Court and other bodies, thus delaying
the decision on Zelaya. Meanwhile, coup president Micheletti decided to
get his government to resign… and then appoint the same people again to
the National Unity and Reconciliation government which included no
representatives from Zelaya. The farce was complete. To this date the
Supreme Court has not yet responded to the report requested by Congress.
But none of this could have worked, or at least could not have had
any shred of legitimacy, had it not been for the position of the US,
which made it clear that regardless of the decision of Congress on the
issue of Zelaya being reinstated, they would recognise the November 29
elections.
a very interesting article written by Tomás Andino, one of the leading
figures of the Resistance and member of parliament for the left-wing
Democratic Unification party (UD), he put it clearly: “The Tegucigalpa
agreement, far from being a ‘victory’, means the surrender of President
Zelaya. The agreement has been written on the terms of the empire. It
is a pity that Mel swallowed the hook, and authorised the signature of
the agreement… The question is that even though he has signed, the
empire has made it clear that they will accept ‘any decision taken by
the Honduran Congress’, which means that it is likely that they will
not accept the reinstatement before the electoral farce of November 29,
to prevent damaging it.”
Boycott the elections
Faced with this situation, the National Resistance Front has decided
to boycott the elections on November 29. Trade union candidate Carlos
H. Reyes, after consulting the rank and file of his organisation,
decided to make a clear statement withdrawing from the elections and
calling for boycott. A number of candidates from other parties
(Liberal, PINU and others) have also decided to withdraw from the
elections.
The situation with the left-wing Unificación Democrática,
however, is a bit more complicated. The leadership of the party is
divided in two wings. One, the official wing, led by Cesar Ham, has an
openly opportunistic stance, arguing that they have to stay in the
electoral process in order to keep their electoral registration. There
is also the issue of the 4 million lempiras in state political funding
that they would lose if they were to boycott the election. This is
clearly a position of betrayal of the resistance movement. Members and
activists of UD have participated actively in the resistance movement
and at least 6 of their members have been killed for their part in the
movement. The Cesar Ham wing of UD are clearly treacherous
opportunists, more worried about their jobs and money than about the
principles they claim to stand for.
is another wing of UD, led by Renan Valdez and Tomás Andino, amongst
others, who call themselves the Genuine Leadership of UD, which has
come out clearly against the elections and for boycott. They have made
an appeal to the rank and file of UD to prevent the party from
supporting the electoral farce. They argue, correctly, that: “to
participate in the fraudulent elections would contribute to give
legitimacy to the coup regime and will create more difficult conditions
for the defeat of the new government, which would mean that UD would
become its accomplice”.
We could say that the negotiations and the so-called agreement have
played the role they were intended to: create confusion in the
resistance movement and give some degree of “legitimacy” to the
elections called by the coup regime. Washington has already said that
they will recognise the result of the elections as legitimate. That
wing of the US state apparatus that was always supportive of the coup
has won, against those who, even though they shared the aims of the
coup, did not necessarily agree with the methods used.
Now at least the situation has become clear to the mass movement:
the only way to defeat the coup is through mass mobilisations, not
through negotiations. As Tomás Andino puts it correctly: “The only
thing that can save the situation is for the Peoples’ Resistance to
break the ice, first of all refusing to recognise the Tegucigalpa
Agreement and mobilising to prevent the electoral farce of the
oligarchy on November 29… In this way we would prevent the agreement
from fulfilling one of its main aims which is to legitimise the coup
through elections, and only in this way we would have conditions for a
defeat of the coup regime in the medium term and achieve the aim of our
struggle: the Constituent Assembly.”
This is a very similar perspective to what we put forward on October
28: “In order to move forward and continue the struggle it needs to
start by clearly rejecting negotiations with the regime and then move
to organise a serious campaign against the November 29 elections. The
elections should be boycotted across the board because they are called
by an illegitimate regime in conditions of brutal repression. This
boycott should be organised through a massive campaign of political
explanation in the neighbourhoods, building up to mass demonstrations
and a meticulously-prepared general strike.” (see Honduras: repression and negotiation defuse the resistance movement )
As we said then: “The courageous movement of the Honduran masses
over the last four months has not been in vain. It has created powerful
organisational structures and links between the active layer and the
masses. The mass movement has had a taste of its own power and
strength. Above all, the level of consciousness has experienced a giant
leap. None of this will be wasted, no matter what happens in the next
few weeks. None of the fundamental problems facing the Honduran masses
have been resolved, and they cannot be resolved within the limits of
capitalism, so there is no alternative but to continue the struggle. It
is necessary to group the most advanced activists of the movement into
an organisation based on the ideas of Marxism. Within the movement of
the Honduran workers, the Marxists will fight to give the marvellous
energy of the revolutionary struggle of the masses a far-sighted and
decisive leadership that can take it to victory.”
Article first published on 16th November in www.marxist.com
