Root cause of the golpe against Zelaya ?

[rabs]

Attn: Peace Patriot and Judi, furthering discussion on the "Latest in Honduras" thread from last night.
(Bear with me, this is kinda long and convoluted but it may shed new light on the reasons for the coup. It looks like it was triggered by a vicious fight in the Liberal Party pitting Micheletti against Zelaya.)

Last night struggle4progress provided a link to the Honduran Human Rights Committee.
http://www.codeh.hn/

The link (last updated in May) contains an article that Andres Pavon, president of the committee had denounced there had been a plan to topple Zelaya. The article is dated about seven weeks before the June 28 coup.

The same link has an article that Micheletti had been accused of agression against a Liberal Party deputy, María Margarita Zelaya (unknow if she is related to Mel Zelaya.)

Further digging into newspaper articles of that period uncovered that:

There was a Liberal Party convention on April 18 to choose the candidates for the presidency in this year's election. The party is headed by a Concejo Central Ejecutivo del Partido Liberal (CCEPL) (Liberal Party Central Executive Council.) The candidate chosen was Elvin Santos. María Margarita Zelaya was chosen to be his vice presidential candidate.


At the convention, Micheletti assumed the presidency of the CCEPL (replacing Patricia Rhodas) but he was lustily booed by thousands of delegates, even water bottles were thrown where he was sitting. The decision to install Micheletti was made by party hacks loyal to Micheletti and anti-Mel Zalaya before the convention, ignoring the thousands of delegates. Micheletti was forced to leave the convention hall amid the turmoil.
http://www.hondudiario.com/politica=1017.php

Mel Zelaya was in Caracas for an ALBA meeting and criticized Micheletti's assuming the party's leadership, saying goriletti legally could not wear two hats at the same time (Leader of the Congress and leader of the Liberal Party.)
Mel Zelaya said Micheletti assuming the presidency would a "aberrant and a reversal of 20 years of the democratic system and a return to (rule by) imposition and the dictatorships."
“sería aberrante, sería retroceder 20 años en el sistema democrático para volver a las imposiciones y a las dictaduras”.

"Micheletti can be president the day he wins internal elections but not by imposition, he is the president of (the Congress) and is prohibited by rules of the party to wear two sombreros."
“Micheletti, puede ser presidente el día que gane unas elecciones internas, pero no por imposición, él es el presidente de un poder del Estado y tiene prohibido por su reglamento y los estatutos del partido tener dos sombreros”, explicó.

Back to

María Margarita Zelaya
Three days after his humiliation at the party convention, Micheletti called her into his office in the Congress and gave gave her a tongue-lashing before other witnesses, saying she had been responsible for the insults heaped on him at the convention. Liberal Party and congressional sources have said that on repeated occasions, Micheletti has shown an "explosive temper."

Anyway, Maria Margarita Zelaya charged her health broke, she suffered chest pains, a drop in blood pressure and she had had to seek urgent medical treatment, where doctors recommended rest for several days.

http://www.hondudiario.com/politica=1026.php

Seven week later, the coup and Micheletti becomes "president."

[Judi Lynn]

1. Just finished your first article. Superb. Wonderful news. Thanks. n/t

[rabs]

3. To the right of the links are several stories of what transpired

at the Liberal Party convention.

In the end it was personal and ideological differences that led to the Zelaya-Micheletti free-for-all. Micheletti sided with the oligarchs who wanted Zelaya out and that was it.

Have not seen any of this in the mainstream media but why am I not surprised.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Goriletti has been deeply disliked by a majority, it seems, a LONG time.

He apparently has strong connections with the "powerful" people around who can compensate for his lack of real support with most people.

It would be so good to see them realize how little he really has to offer, in the long run, since they need a more personally skilled person to hold high office, after the GREAT destruction he and the coup plotters have brought to their country's image.

They have taken the country backwards at least twenty years and probably more.

Thanks for takikng the time to render these article more understandable. It's really helpful to learn Micheletti has been heavily, clearly disliked a long, long time.