Adrienne Pine, Charles Utwater and Doug Zylstra have translated the Honduran Government's Preliminary Report Regarding the Coup d'Etat.  You can download the 26 page pdf from this page, or read the report's conclusions on the Quotha page.

The report is too long to post, so I encourage you to download and read it.  However, I'm tempted to take parts of the report as the basis for future blogs, especially as the issues they address becomes prominent to the developing story of Honduras.  Right now there is one issue that I think has been under-considered by the press and the handful of bloggers who have been bringing the news from Honduras to the Internet table.

 Amnesty

Amnesty is contained in the current form of the San Jose Accord.  As I understand, Zelaya is provided amnesty from prosecution for a six month period after his office is restored, and the Coup leaders would enjoy a blanket amnesty for their violations of the constitution.  I would say it is a good deal for the coup leaders, but there are some interesting wrinkles.  For example, the San Jose Accord does not have the power to trump several international treaties and agreements wherein Honduras agreed to prosecute crimes committed under the auspices of human rights.  The two human rights investigations carried out in Honduras show a wide range of prosecutable human rights abuses carried out by the coup leaders. The San Jose Accord does not - can not - guarantee immunity from prosecution for these crimes. 

Is this a fly in the ointment?  I think so.  I can't imagine that the coup leaders, even in light of the overblown arrogance they have shown, are not aware of their potential vulnerability - even under the amnesty offered in San Jose.  To me that means they have to stay in power just to protect themselves from prosecution - no return of Zelaya period, and no compromises that would weaken in any way the existing power structure. 

The "Report" cited above, however, reads like an indictment against the coup leaders.  From the top, an indictment against the Honduran government itself:

I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. -
The Government of the Republic of Honduras, presided over by citizen José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, officially informs the Honduran people and the international community by this report of the causes and motivations which provoked the coup d'état executed by the Military on June 28th, 2009.

Honduras. An unequal society

Honduras, the third poorest economy of Latin America, is the society with the highest level of inequality on the American continent. A small group of families, almost all of Arabic origins, monopolize 90% of the national wealth.

The oligarchy has taken power over the banks, the commercial centers, the energy generating businesses, the airport concessions, telecommunications, the newspapers, radio and TV, administrators of credit, businesses relating to soccer teams, fast food, maquiladoras, and of the leadership of the political parties and some churches.

Through rigged privatizations, they have taken control of natural resources, of public services, and of financial services. Now with the coup d'état, the three Powers of the State are at their service.

The National Congress and Institutions of the State create a regimen of
privileges for the oligarchy

The National Congress, following the ascent to power of former president Flores Facussé, placed itself at the service of this small oligarchic group, creating a regime of privileges with concessions, exonerations, and tax exemptions, so as to not pay taxes and to weaken the state with an extremely low tributary charge, barely 14%.

This oligarchy financed the campaigns of the political parties, of presidential candidates, of congressmen and mayors of the major cities. They control 90% of the most powerful media, they buy their consciences, they act as owners of the National Congress and through this means they name their lawyers and employees as operators of justice and comptroller organs of the State: Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, Attorney General and Assistant Attorney, National Commissioner of Human Rights, Magistrates of the Superior Court of Auditors, Magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and Solicitor [Procurator] General of the Republic. In conclusion: everyone belongs to them and everyone obeys them.

The Military Coup D'état in Honduras is the return to fascism of the State and it has named as Chief Usurper the most discredited and repudiated politician of all of Honduran political history, Roberto Michelleti Baìn; as Ministerial Advisor, the sinister member of Squadron 3-6, accused of disappearances and tortures in the 1980s, Billy Joya Améndola.

What follows is a litany of achievments of the Zelaya government, that can be taken, in whole, as a challenge to the existing power structure described above.  This is followed by an explanation of the fourth ballot box:

Achievements of the Government of President Manuel Zelaya

Paradoxically, the Government of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales obtained the indices of the greatest success of all the governments established since 1980. It achieved the greatest economic growth with an index of 7% in the years 2006-2007, the greatest foreign investment, the lowest level of indebtedness, the greatest public investment, but above all the most significant and important reduction in poverty in the entire history of the Country, which constitutes, without a doubt, its greatest achievement. All this without having established or raised new taxes or tributes. Free graduation, school lunch, the Solidarity Bond, the reduction in price and the subsidy of fuel, the application of the standard of 60° for commercialization of fuel, the rescue of public enterprises ENEE and HONDUTEL, the lowering of bank interest rates, the farm technology bond, the free substitution of energy saving light bulbs, massive literacy programs, the financing of microenterprise, the ban on cutting the forest, the prohibition of open pit mining, free electrical energy for the 700,000 poorest families of the Country, the rescue of Palmerola Military Base for a civilian airport, the increase in national reserves, opposition to devaluation of the currency (lempira) relative to the dollar, joining of PETROCARIBE and ALBA, and the rise of 60% in the minimum wage to everyone in the working class, rising from $150 to $230 dollars per month; these are just a sample of the actions of the government on behalf of the national interest, particularly that of the poorest.

Proposal for Citizen Power

Our proposed politics of Citizen Power incorporated unprecedented forms of participation for Hondurans, both men and women: permanent assemblies of Citizen Power in various localities of the Country, open doors and a permanent presence in the House of Government of the social sectors, inclusion and accompaniment of organizations and personalities in the analysis and solution of national problems.

Finally, considering the existing inconsistencies and limitations in the Constitution of the Republic and the Electoral Law, which restrict the constitutional rights of the citizens with the law of the Plebiscite and Referendum, this Government approved the Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information and the Law of Citizen Participation. We proceeded toward the first large-scale exercise of massive citizen participation through the implementation of a  survey, whose results would not be binding.

The survey had as its object that we express ourselves as to whether we did or did not agree to have a fourth urn [for ballots] on the day of the general election (29th of November, 2009). In the event of obtaining a majority in favor of approval, we would send to the National Congress a draft law which would govern the installation of the fourth ballot so that the people might pronounce whether or not they agreed that the next government should convene a National Constituent Assembly, as a peaceful and above all democratically-oriented exercise to give citizens effective participation in the taking of the most important decisions of the country.

Taken on its face, these paragraphs show a government that uniquely, with regards to Honduran history, both challenged the existing power structure and began a process of redistribution of wealth and political from the small ruling elites to the general population, as we would expect in a democratic republic.  The fourth ballot is a continuation of this process.
And of course this is exactly the reason behind the coup d'etat, which the document addresses next:

Why the coup d'état?

The "owners" of Honduras did not view benevolently a government which departed from their "control" and which was not devoted to being vigilant for their interests and perpetuate their privileges, but rather gave opportunities to the poorest and proposed a development plan for Honduras with processes and mechanisms of direct democracy. These families did not understand the message and could not contain their anger at the words of the people: "MEL IS THE ONLY PRESIDENT WHO HAS HELPED US, WHO HAS REMEMBERED US, WHO HAS DEFENDED THE POOREST."

They unleashed a dirty war, terrible and without respite against the Government of President Zelaya, with their media, their servants, their organizations, their businesses and all their resources, they invented and repeated their lies a thousand times: that President Zelaya wanted to perpetuate himself in power, that he wanted to re-elect himself, that he was handing the Country over to communism and that he wanted to commit a coup d'état, among others.

Despite their iron control of the media and their unlimited economic resources, the «owners of Honduras» could not fight with ideas, with reasons, nor by peaceful means the proposals for citizen participation. Therefore, they took the worst decision: to use brute force, violence, barbarism, and submerge Honduras in the dark night of a military coup d'état.

After the military coup d'état, directed by these owners of Honduras and their political puppets, after having exiled by force of arms the President elected by the people and his Cabinet, they have continued their war, trying to discredit all the actions taken on behalf of citizen participation in Honduran democracy.

As owners and masters of the tenured [justices] of the Supreme Court of Justice, of the Public Ministry, of the Court of Auditors, of the Electoral Court, of the Solicitor [Procurator] General of the Republic, and of the National Commission of Human Rights, they ordered the invention of charges and accusations of all kinds, which ranged from betrayal of the country to abuse of power, corruption, administrative deficiencies, etc. and, without following even the most elementary steps of due process, nor much less permit the sacred right of the accused to a defense, they have drawn up numerous arrest orders against the President and various of his Ministers.

Meanwhile the criminals and those responsible for the coup d'état continue unpunished in the Country, committing crimes against humanity against an unarmed populace that has maintained a peaceful resistance, responding only with their honor, their dignity and their blood [to demonstrate] their tireless will for the return of the constitutional order.

While hardly an "unbiased" document, at this point in my reading it became clear that this is an indictment, rather than a simple explanation of the coup.  I'm going to stop now, as the following material starts naming names and crimes, which only underscores the issue of amnesty, and I believe that amnesty will be the central informing issue in the future of these events, and it will not be spoken out loud.  

Tiempo published a story (in Spanish) yesterday on the reaction of congress to the US State Department's announcement of the increase in sanctions against the coup government. RAJ published a story on  her blog. She translates this graf from Tiempo:

The communique left the congressional representatives stupefied. That obliged the President of the Congress, Saavedra, to call a recess to talk about it later. But they didn't have enough time to digest the ideas, because when they came back, they approved a confusing motion: "That the National Congress issue a press release to aid in galvanizing the Honduran population and so that we have a written document that allows us to talk to our electorate, to the point that we can resist for three or four more months that remain to assure ourselves that with the takeover by the authorities at the end the world will understand what it is that the Hondurans are seeking".

I think "end of the world" may be incorrect - but...

Not a devasting left hook, but swinging nevertheless.  From NYT:

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, responding to calls to increase pressure on the de facto Honduras government, announced the termination on Thursday of about $22 million in United States aid that was suspended immediately after President Manuel Zelaya was deposed.

"Restoration of the terminated assistance will be predicated upon a return to democratic, constitutional governance in Honduras," said the State Department announcement.

The announcement came after Mrs. Clinton's meeting with Mr. Zelaya, who had called on the United States to match its tough words on his ouster with action. United States trade and assistance are the lifeblood of the Honduran economy.

The State Department also announced that it was revoking the visas of several people who had been identified as members or supporters of the current Honduran government. And officials said that, as matters stand, the Obama administration would not recognize the upcoming Honduran presidential elections.

Mrs. Clinton took these actions "recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras," Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a spokesman, said in a statement. The accord, brokered by the Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, provided for Mr. Zelaya to resume his presidency in advance of the elections, to be held in November.

In addition to the terminated $22 million in aid, officials said as much as $200 million in Millennium Challenge funds was at stake. The board of the fund, whose chairwoman is Mrs. Clinton, will discuss its grants to Honduras in a meeting next week.

WaPo's reporting is a bit different -  35 million in aid, and passport revocations are being processed right now. 

It's significant, in my view, that State also announced that it would not recognize the coming November elections if the coup remains in power.

A strange lull in Honduras - well, not exactly.  The new political campaigns have kicked-off this week and a second resistance front has taken on legs: reject the November elections as fraudulent, given that the illegal coup government is orchestrating them.

Meanwhile, Secretary Clinton has everyone sitting on pins and needles with regard to her formalizing the classification of "military coup" - thus setting into motion an array of automatic sanctions against the coup group in Honduras.  He decision was expected by now, but perhaps her scheduled meeting with President Zelaya tomorrow will be the final act before she decides.  Who knows at this point?  It's a guessing game.

Elvia Valle, Liberal Party (same as Zelaya's)

Adding to the chorus of voices urging Clinton to get tough with the sanctions is Honduran Congresswoman Elvia Valle's August 30 letter published in the Seattle Times. We haven't heard much from the congress members in Honduras, so this one is interesting.  For one thing, it addresses the claim that a near unanimous vote by congress deposed the President:

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.

Remember, this vote was not a roll call vote, it was a show of hands.  That portion of congress that was invited to the special session was asked to vote on overthrowing the constitutional order of the State with a show of hand!  Define cavalier.  Valle continues:

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.

So there's the second front.  The first of course is returning Zelaya to the presidency.



Silvia Ayala Democratic Unification Party

Narconews recently published a terrific story by Belen Fernandez which contrasts Honduran Congresswoman Silvia Ayala to an American Expat blogger in Honduras, La Gringa's Blogicito. La Gringa has appointed herself to defend the coup, and she has targeted Ayala in the process.  But I don't want to get sidetracked. Fernandez shows us how disinformation works in the Honduran Expat community.  An interesting article.

And La Gringa lives in La Cieba, which is smack in the middle of Garifunaland - that portion of the Honduran Caribbean coast settled by escaped West African slaves who brought with them their African culture and language.  In fact, one of the first social development projects killed off by the coup was the development of the Garifuna dictionary.  Now, especially with the commercial interests associated with the expat retirement communities, the Garifuna land base is threatened with development.  it is a very sad story.