What happens to a country run for generations by a tiny oligarchy when someone gets elected who challenges their power and the power of the American corporations?
Coup in Honduras: an attack on progress, upheld by the United States
WORKERS, NOVEMBER 2009 ISSUE
On 28 June this year a military coup in all but name took place in the Latin American country of Honduras. It brought to mind many of the dark events of 1970s and before: the fascist coup in Chile in 1973, the bringing down of the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954, and the anti-Sandinista contra war of the early 1980s. The background to the coup is enlightening.
Honduras, like many of its Latin American neighbours, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is marked by several distinguishing features, which do not apply to other countries in that region.
First, the country has been run for generations by a small oligarchy estimated to consist of only ten families. Their power over society has been quietly exercised and is not dynastically visible, as it was for example with the Samoza regime in Nicaragua. To these families, the election by the Honduran people of a progressive president, Zelaya, was not only a political but a personal affront.
Second, Honduras is the only country in Latin America that had, until Zelaya, never voted for a progressive government of any kind. No socialist or communist government had been elected in that country, uniquely. Even the country with one of the worst human rights records in that hemisphere, Guatemala, did famously elect the progressive Jacopo Arbenz government which was so violently overthrown in 1954 (and whose downfall the young Che Guevara was on hand to witness).
Third, the country is so poor that it is estimated that when Zelaya introduced the minimum wage, it applied to 80 per cent of the population, who immediately gained substantial benefit from a progressive government indicating the high levels of poverty before his election. The overwhelming opposition of the people to the coup can be directly related to the benefits people in the country gained from the actions of the Zelaya government.
Fourth, only two American companies controlled the distribution of all the oil and other petro-chemicals in Honduras. When world prices were dropping, these two companies increased prices for the Honduran people already suffering great poverty. This was one of the turning points in recent Honduran history, as we shall see.
Included in the 80 per cent of the population who benefitted from the minimum wage for the first time were domestic servants. This not only raised their disposable income considerably but also enabled them to have access to state pensions. The overwhelming majority of domestic servants being women, this measure at a stroke also struck at the reactionary nature of the patriarchal regime in Honduras.
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Pro-Zelaya protesters marching in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. There has been a stream of protests since the coup in June. Photo: from Wikipedia |
Retaliation
Following Zelaya’s election, the introduction of the minimum wage legislation and the retaliation of the American-owned oil companies, the President went to the institutions of the financial establishment, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other US-controlled agencies, in order to raise funds to pay for his social programme.
Zelaya had made no bones about the fact that he would have been prepared to accept even the harsh conditions attached to neo-liberal financial transactions, which would have been financially crippling for his economy. But he felt so strongly that the social programme he was elected on needed to be followed, that he was prepared to undergo the rigours of IMF loans.
But these American-controlled institutions were not prepared to lend a cent to a government bent on alleviating poverty. They refused all financial assistance and at this point the real turning point took place.
Cuba, Venezuela and then Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and several other countries established the ALBA pact, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA means dawn in Spanish).
ALBA is a growing alternative economic bloc in Latin America, inspired by the example of Cuba and now Venezuela, which provides co-operation between countries in developing a social model of economic development outside capitalism. Having been refused finances to improve the lot of its people by capitalism, Zelaya went to ALBA.
Access to oil
The immediate effect of this was that Honduras was given access to one of ALBA’s economic arms, Petro-Caribe, a 14-strong organisation of countries that have developed an alternative oil and petro-chemical distribution system, largely based on Venezuelan oil reserves. At a stroke this enabled Honduras to break the stranglehold monopoly of the two American companies on the Honduran petrol and oil market. It can be imagined what hatred this caused in the ruling class in Honduras.
Honduras then became not only a full member of ALBA, but hosted an ALBA summit. Indeed, little comment has been made on the fact that the last inter- governmental speech Zelaya made was at this ALBA summit, and described by Fidel Castro as “brilliant”, further fuelling the ire of the ten families!
Zelaya then moved on to confronting one of the biggest problems in his country. In order to make progress in many of the other ALBA countries – Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia – steps have had to be taken to change the reactionary and unequal constitutions, often a legacy of colonialism but always a legacy of direct interference by North America.
The Honduran constitution is an odd creature as it (allegedly) cannot be altered but Zelaya began the process of change by organising a “consultative referendum”. The purpose of this was not to change the constitution but to begin a nationwide dialogue about why it was seemingly unchangeable.
It was the beginning of a long road but one that could have ended up with the dismantling of possibly the most reactionary constitution in Latin America. The constitutional referendum was scheduled to take place on the 29 and 30 June 2009. It was pre-empted by the coup, which took place on 28 June.
Zelaya was kidnapped and bundled out of the country. The reason this happened is that the coup leaders learnt a lesson from the attempt to destroy Chavez in Venezuela in April 2002. When that fascist coup was perpetrated the mistake was to leave Chavez within Venezuela (and not to kill him!). Had they removed him from the country his task of regaining control would have been made much more difficult.
As it was, the people, trade unions and civic organisations rallied around the Chavez Government. He was freed and the path of progress resumed. Zelaya has been attempting ever since the coup to regain entry to Honduras. This campaign is partly led by his wife, Xiomara Castro, who has also fronted marches and protests in the teeth of provocation and much violence, seeking the return of the democratically elected President to his country.
An attempt was made to fly him in but the army blockaded the runway. Zelaya managed to smuggle himself back into the country and, as Workers goes to press, is still resident in the Brazilian embassy. That the largest country in Latin America, and not yet a member of ALBA, would risk the wrath of the north by extending hospitality to Zelaya, speaks volumes. It shows how isolated the coup leaders are – their only supporter seemingly is Barack Obama.
Trade with the US
The new American government has denounced the coup but could re-instate Zelaya at the snap of a finger. Eighty per cent of Honduran trade is with the USA, and this trade is undertaken under the Free Trade Act of the Americas (FTAA). This means the trade is extremely favourable to Honduran companies which engage in it (the Americans keep the FTAA afloat) and if this trade was in any way threatened, let alone suspended, the Honduran Government would fall.
Yet, despite its willingness to engage in sanctions against any country you care to name, Iran, previously Iraq, North Korea, any “axis of evil” country, there has been no question of there being such an embargo or interference in trade with Honduras.
After all, the fact that an economic blockade of 50 years’ duration has been inflicted on neighbouring Cuba should not be taken to mean that any other country that has close links to America can in any way be interfered with; the USA only blockades countries to prevent progress, not to prevent progress being undermined. Indeed, this shows more then anything where the coup’s supporters are.
This putsch is an important event for many reasons. To begin with, ALBA is a brave, bold, and ingenious attempt to subvert the stranglehold of American financial and military control in countries immediately adjacent to the giant. It is a way devised to avoid direct military confrontation, in order to bide time to build that defensive capacity (although this will of course be denied).
There have been many attempts to destroy an ALBA government – not just the attack on Chavez but also that on Evo Morales, the no less prominent president of Bolivia, who has also had more than one attempt on his life. So it is no surprise that this military attack on an ALBA country has been made – possibly the country with the strongest oligarchy, with the greatest power over their country’s military.
The response to it has been exemplary. Civic organisations and trade unions (three out of the four national federations are part of the organised opposition, and the fourth will be soon) have been demonstrating and organising guerrilla strikes throughout the economy ever since 28 June.
Whatever happens, Honduras cannot return to its former state. The change has been made and the battle is now being fought.