Honduras at Ten Years After the Coup: a Critical Assessment
JUNE 28, 2019
by JAMES PHILLIPS
On the morning of June 28, 2009, Honduran army units entered the home of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and forcibly brought him to Palmerola, a joint Honduran-U.S. military air base where they put Zelaya on a plane and sent him into exile. This action was ordered by the Honduran Congress and the Supreme Court, in violation of due process set forth in the country’s Constitution. The head of Congress, Roberto Michelletti, assumed the presidency until elections were held five months later amid massive popular protests and heavy police and military repression. Since then, Honduras has been ruled by two post-coup governments of the National Party. While Latin American governments condemned what many called a coup, the Obama Administration at first hesitated, and then Secretary of State Clinton approved the removal of Zelaya, while carefully avoiding the term “coup.” United States support for the post-coup governments has not wavered in the ten years since 2009—perhaps until now.
As the tenth anniversary arrives, many Hondurans see the coup of 2009 as a major turning point that began a downward spiral in the country’s troubled history. In recent weeks huge popular protests have once again filled the streets and plazas of most of the country’s major cities and have appeared also in rural areas, leading up to what are expected to be even larger protests around the June 28 anniversary. The immediate cause of the latest protests was the government’s passage of a set of laws that for many Hondurans signaled the privatization of the public health and education sectors and the layoff of thousands of workers. Leaders of major medical and teachers organizations have been the organizing force of these demonstrations that have tapped the widespread generalized anger of many Hondurans against the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez whom some call a dictator.
This is happening as close family and associates of President Hernandez are under indictment or investigation for corruption and drug trafficking, and there are reports that the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency has been investigating Hernandez himself. Meanwhile increasing flows of emigrants continue to leave Honduras at a rate averaging 100,000 each year for the past few years. The recent migrant caravans have graphically illustrated to the world the country’s worsening condition.
There are many reasons for the popular anger that has been building in the decade since the coup. Underlying all is an extractive development policy that is selling the country’s resources to private and foreign interests and is at the root of much poverty and violence. There has been the systematic construction of a one-party state ruled by a president with nearly absolute power within a culture of official impunity. Over the decade, large protests have been sparked by a series of high profile government corruption scandals and a culture of corruption that robs resources from the public coffers and eliminates public services while enlarging the military and security forces and allegedly filling the pockets of government officials. With corruption, gang and drug violence has flourished, fueled by high poverty and few opportunities for youth. Privatized and more expensive but less reliable utilities and public services have especially irritated many people. And there is more.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/28/honduras-at-ten-years-after-the-coup-a-critical-assessment/
