editorial at/@
tortillaconsal punto/dot com
By Fidel Castro, 10th July 2009. Translated by Karla Jacobs
While US President Barack Obama, on a visit to Moscow to discuss vital matters about nuclear arms, declared that Manuel Zelaya is the only constitutional president of Honduras is Manuel Zelaya, in Washington the extreme right wingers and the hawks were creating the conditions necessary to oblige Zelaya to negotiate a humiliating apology for the illegalities the coup leaders attributed to him.
It was obvious that such an act would mean, to his followers, and to the world, his disappearance from the political scene.
It is beyond doubt that when Zelaya announced his intention to return to Honduras on July 5th, he was determined to fulfill his promise of confronting, alongside his people, the brutal repression ordered by the coup leaders.
Accompanying President Zelaya were the pro tempore president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel D'Escoto, and Honduran Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas as well as a Telesur journalist and another nine people. Zelaya maintained his decision to land. I can confirm that when the plane was approaching Tegucigalpa, the president was informed of the images being broadcast by Telesur of the enormous crowd of supporters waiting to greet him at the airport who were being attacked by soldiers with tear gas and the fire of automatic rifles.
His immediate reaction was to request to go live on Telesur to denounce the millitary's actions and demand that the leaders of the troops in question cease the repression. He then informed them that the plane would proceed to land. At that point the head of the millitary presence at the airport ordered the runway to be blocked. In a matter of seconds motorized transport vehicles obstructed the runway.
The Falcon jet flew over the airport, at a low altitude, three times. Specialists explain that the most tense and dangerous moment for pilots of rapid, low profile aircrafts, like the one Zelaya was travelling in, is when they reduce speed in preparation for landing. For this reason I believe that Zelaya's attempt to return to Honduras was brave and audacious.
If the coup leaders were keen to prosecute him for supposed constitutional crime, why did they not allow him to land?
Zelaya knows that it was not just the constitution of Honduras that was at stake, but also the right of the people of Latin America to elect their leaders.
Today Honduras is not just a country occupied by the coup leaders, but also a country occupied by the armed forces of the United States.
The Soto Cano Millitary base, also known by its other name Palmerola, which is located at less than 100 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, was upgraded in 1981 by Ronald Reagan's administration in order to be used by Colonel Oliver North when he coordinated the dirty war against Nicaragua, and by the US government which directed attacks against the Salvadoran and Guatemalan revolutionaries from this point, attacks that costs dozens of thousands of lives.
In Soto Cano the US Joint Task Force-Bravo can be found. This task force, which is made up of elements of the Air Force, Navy and Army, occupies more than 85% of the area of the military base. In Eva Golinger's article "The US military base in Honduras at the center of the coup," published in the website Rebelión on July 2nd 2009, she divulges the role of the task force. She explains that:
The
Honduran Constitution does not legally permit the presence of foreign
military bases in the country. An informal agreement between Washington
and Honduras authorizes the important strategic presence of the
hundreds of US soldiers in the base as part of a semipermanent treaty.
The treaty was signed in 1954 as part of the millitary
aid the US offered Honduras ... the third poorest country in the
hemisphere. ... The
agreement that permits the US millitary presence in the Central
American country can be overturned without notice."
Soto Cano also serves as the headquaters of the Honduran Aviation Academy. Part of the components of the US military task force are made up of Honduran soldiers.
What is the objective of the US millitary base, airplanes, helicopters and task force in Honduras? Without doubt it is in order to be employed in Central America. The fight against drugs does not require this much military capacity.
If President Manuel Zepaya is not reinstated into his post, the threat of a wave of coup d'etats toppling a number governments in Latin America would arise. Or the same governments could find themselves at the mercy of extreme right wing millitary officers, trained in the security doctrines of the School of the Americas with its expertise in torture, psycological warfare and terror. The authority of many civil governments in Central and South America would be weakened. Those gloomy times are not so distant. The military coup leaders do not even pay attention to the civil administration of the US. It could be very bad for a president like Barack Obama who wants to improve the image of his country. Formally the Pentagon obeys civil power. As in imperial Rome, the legions have not yet assumed control of the empire.
It would be incomprehensible if Zelaya now permitted delay tactics to wear down the considerable social forces that support him, leading to an irrepairable decline.
The illegally overthrown President is not interested in power, but defends a principle, and like Martí said: "a just principle from the depths of a cave, can achieve more than an entire army."