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points. Evia Valle is a member of the Honduran congress.
On the unconstitutionality of the coup's actions...
Our Constitution does not allow Congress to remove a president from office, as it did under Micheletti's direction on June 28. The judicial actions invoked to justify the detention of the president also go against our Constitution. Micheletti's regime deported President Zelaya from the country without even trying him for an alleged crime, something to which even the worst criminal has a right."
On the coup's lie about unanimity...
"Moreover, on top of being unconstitutional, the vote to approve the destitution of Zelaya was not transparent. I am a member of our Congress' Executive Committee, yet I was not summoned to participate in the vote to approve the president's removal, nor were another 20 fellow Liberal Party members of Congress. The regime then tried to fool the world by claiming there was a unanimous congressional decision supporting the coup, even though some 27 congress members publicly voiced their opposition."
On the junta running the election...
"The U.S. should also join the Union of South American Nations and Mexico in refusing to recognize the outcome of November's elections. Since the electoral process would be held under a de facto regime that has suppressed all constitutional liberties, civil guarantees and the freedom of expression, conditions for free and fair elections will be impossible, and some politicians who have publicly denounced the coup now face reprisals and retaliation for their ties to President Zelaya.
Valle also makes this important point, that US sanctions should be designed not to hurt the poor, but rather to hurt and pressure the oligarchy who ordered the military's actions and placed usurpers in office. The US has been playing a double-game so far, and could well inflict sanctions in such a way as to coerce the poor majority into accepting the coup. Frankly, this would not surprise me.
I disagree with one thing Valle says--that the Oscar Arias accords should be implemented. These accords are insufficient. For one thing, they unconstitutionally limit Zelaya's power as president during the remainder of his term. For another, they do not guarantee an honest, aboveboard election. And that is going to take some doing--the OAS will need to conduct the election, for anyone to trust its results. The junta and anyone in the coup government must not have one finger on this election. Secondly, the left has been put at such a great disadvantage, that the election should probably be delayed. (The Oscar Arias accords were going to move it up, which I never understood.) And, finally, the accords apparently nixed the proposal for a constitutional assembly (to rewrite the Reagan-era constitution), which has widespread support in Honduras. How is the majority's desire for fundamental reform in Honduras going to be addressed?
In any case, Valle provides important counter-weight to the garbage coming out of Puke senators and congressmen in the US, and to the coup's lies, and Lanny Davis' lies on the coup's behalf. There was no legal justification for Zelalya's removal (at gunpoint, no less). It was unconstitutional. And for this illegitimate government to demand that they now get to try Zelaya for treason, on his return, is the ultimate in hubris. It is they who committed treason. His only "crime" is that he wanted to put something to a vote of the people--something the people wanted: reform of the constitution.
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