Honduras: without democracy and without a President. The Resistance continues.
Today a group of Presidents (Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Taiwan) as well as official delegations from 15 other countries including Australia, United States, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the Vatican, Peru, Switzerland and Turkey will assist a parody of the transition of presidential power with leading roles played by Mr. Jose Lobo and other actors and authors of the coup de tat that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009.
Although the judicial system has “absolved” the military leaders who kidnapped and violently expelled President Zelaya, history will condemn them all: material and intellectual authors and others complicit including judges, members of Congress and Ambassadors.
Although the coup leaders have the backing of the United States, the power of arms, the means of communication and the support of the Roman Catholic Church – despite all of this – they do not have the support of the people. On the contrary, the resistance has strengthened in reach and in the development of a political agenda.
Therefore, the Hemispheric Social Alliance declares that:
1 We do not recognize Jose Lobo as the President of Honduras.
2 We ask governments, international bodies and social movements throughout the world not to recognize Lobo as the President of Honduras and to sustain the pressure necessary to reestablish democratic institutionality to the country.
3 We demand that the governments of Central America abstain from advancing trade negotiations with the European Union or with other government. Real integration is not possible if the coup is legitimized nor if Honduras is marginalized. Trade can wait. Democracy and human rights cannot!
4 We express our permanent solidarity, without conditions nor timeframes, with the National Front for Popular Resistance in its struggle to restore democracy and to hold a Constituent Assembly that recognizes, protects and guarantees the rights of the people of Honduras and its organizations.
January 28, 2010
Hemispheric Social Alliance, Secretariat
Bogota, Colombia