U.S. CONTINUES POWER-PLAY TO GET THE O.A.S. RECOGNIZE HONDURAS

BELOW:  A second article by Annie Bird about how the US is pressuring hard to have Honduras reinstated to the OAS.  Honduras, controlled by the post-military coup regime, is backed by the US, Canada and a few Latin American nations.  The chance for real democracy and rule of law in Honduras, and across the Americas, hang in the balance.

HOW TO SUPPORT Honduras's amazing anti-coup, pro-democracy and pro-refounding of the State and society movement:  see below

 

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AFTER FAILING TO LIFT THE SUSPENSION OF HONDURAS FROM THE OAS,
HIGH PROFILE DELEGATION FROM U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT VISITS HONDURAS
By Annie Bird (Rights Action co-director), annie@rightsaction.org, August 2010

The week after failing to lift the suspension of Honduras from the Organization of American States, OAS, the U.S. State Department sends the highest level delegation to visit Honduras since the coup.  The delegation that visits August 3 and 4 is led by Maria Otero, the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.

On July 29, 2010, OAS Secretary General Insulza submitted a report on Honduras authored by a multinational commission he headed.  He was charged with the job during the June 6 to 8, 2010, annual meeting of the OAS in which the US urged lifting the suspension of Honduras.  A meeting had been expected to occur on July 30, 2010 to receive the report and determine whether to lift the suspension, but the July 30 meeting did not occur.

It is crucial to understand that the conclusions of the report were not what stopped the June 30 meeting, rather it was Insulza's failure to negotiate agreements that would facilitate the readmission of Honduras to the OAS. Beyond the formal mandate to investigate, the commission was seeking to negotiate a reinstatement agreement without an explicit mandate to do so.

THE US HOPES TO IMPOSE THE TERMS OF HONDURAS' RETURN TO THE OAS
Insulza's report, as everyone expected, bowed to the interests of the United States.  Failing to advance a negotiation process to lift the suspension of Honduras from the OAS, the report sets the framework for follow-up actions by the State Department, seeking to impose a recipe to quickly return Honduras to the OAS.

In this recipe, the legitimacy of the Lobo regime is an untouchable subject. The Alternative Truth Commission does not exist, just like the Resistance did not exist in the eyes of the Honduran State until the Insulza report.

As the Insulza report now, suddenly, acknowledges the existence of the Resistance, someone from the Resistance must join the official Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Guatemalan Eduardo Stein.

Pepe Lobo is charged with concocting a national dialogue, which along with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will undoubtedly attempt to influence a constitutional reform process. The installation of an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations in Honduras is proposed, arguing it will strength the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights while observing the violations of human rights.

The State Department now seeks to approach people identified with the Resistance in Honduras, which is not the same as approaching the Frente. It has finally been made clear to them that the Resistance is a force that can not be ignored.

The proposals the State Department brings are nothing new, but beware that they do not divide the resistance ironically when its strength has become clearer than ever.

WHAT WAS NOT SAID SAYS MORE THEN WHAT WAS SAID:
LOBO'S LEGITIMACY IS UNTOUCHABLE AND THE ALTERNATIVE TRUTH COMMISSION DOES NOT EXIST
At the heart of the matter, the OAS has not lifted the suspension because there is a significant bloc of Latin American nations who do not recognize as legitimacy of the election through which Porfirio Lobo became president, and neither does a large segment of the population of Honduras.

The legitimacy of the Lobo government and last years elections is an issue conspicuously absent from the report, even though the report presented by President Zelaya to Insulza and his Commission on June 9, 2010 clearly presented the issue of lack of legitimacy of the elections.

Far from raising the issue key to the problems in Honduras, Insulza went so far as to review official election statistics, without mentioning the lack of international observation that meets recognized standards or the boycott of the elections.

Another issue that is conspicuous by its absence from the Insulza report is the existence of the Alternative Truth Commission, created by the Platform for Human Rights. Now that the Platform of Human Rights has launched a Truth Commission with well-known figures and a mandate more legitimate than the imposed "Truth" Commission headed by Stein, this further illustrates the lack of legitimacy of the Stein Commission and represents a threat to the path the US has mapped out for the recognition of Honduras.

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OR MEANS TO INFLUENCE A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION?
The U.S. agenda has been clear since the early days after the coup. The first public intervention was to promote, and then undermine, the failed Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accords. One element of these agreements stands out because apparently neither party requested it; the establishment of a truth commission.

A truth commission in the context of Honduras was a strange proposal. Truth commissions are formed after a conflict ends, not during one. This gives them the clarity of hindsight. Truth commissions occur at the request of and with the participation of victims, which is not the case with the "Stein" Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

There may be several reasons to force the creation of this denaturalized truth commission, like declaring that a conflict is over when it is not.  But it is more likely that the U.S. interest in promoting an alleged truth commission is to create a space through which to influence the constitutional convention, which the State Department had already seen was inevitable.

Thus, during Insulza's unsuccessful attempt to negotiate, once again a proposal appears that no one asked for, the integration of someone associated with the Resistance in the "Stein" Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This would serve as important support for the Stein Commission just when it has lost legitimacy, and commit at least some sectors of the Resistance to the conclusions and recommendations of the Stein Truth Commission.

OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, THE BEST FIT FOR HONDURAS?
There is a great need to establish a permanent international presence in Honduras that could help ensure that human rights are respected.

The Alternative Truth Commission is charged in its mandate with observation of ongoing violations, and with the creation of a proposal for a mechanism to effectively ensuring human rights are respected.  The Alternative Truth Commission in its interaction with the victims of rights abuses is clearly suited to generate proposals that can really respond to the reality of Honduras.

It is doubtful that an office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the best mechanism to guarantee respect for human rights. The Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations Offices come from a mold, they responded to the institutionalized bureaucracy of the United Nations then to the situation in each country.

The proposal to establish an office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras comes from the first moments of the coup. The High Commissioner was already interested in establishing another office in Central America and the coup made it clear that there was need of observation in Honduras. However, there are more effective experiences in the region.

NEIGHBORING EXPERIENCES - UNITED NATIONS TECHNICAL MISSION IN GUATEMALA (MINUGUA)
Currently there is an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala. It was created in 2005 as a cushion to soften the blow of the departure of the Mission of Verification Mission in Guatemala, MINUGUA. The OHCHR has suffered from the contrast to MINUGUA.

MINUGUA was a technical assistance mission created specifically to stop human rights violations while Guatemala was still amidst an armed conflict but entering into the peace process. Because of how it was created, it enjoyed a high degree of independence of the famous United Nations bureaucracy and was effective in stopping serious violations and thereby facilitating the space in which the social movement in Guatemala could be reborn after the devastating violence 1980.

It is important to note that MINUGUA was not a peacekeeping force (the famous "blue helmets"), like what exists in Haiti. Peace Forces are military missions, while the nature of a technical assistance mission is very different.

In MINUGUA teams of lawyers, anthropologists and other professionals maintained a significantly large permanent presence not only in the capital but even in villages, directly accompanying peasant and indigenous organizations, and all organizations fighting for human rights. They entered the military bases and police stations to ask about abuses, and in this way protect human rights activists.

While MINUGUA was not a perfect human rights mission, by creating a presence of human rights lawyers and observers based in small offices throughout the country, it offered an immediately felt and needed presence of international human rights observers - which contrasts with setting up a small human rights mission, based in a capital city, with no real capacity to provide a human rights presence in the country.

PROPOSAL FOR A NATIONAL DIALOGUE FOR RECONCILIATION
Another proposal that reappears in the recent efforts of Insulza and recent expressions of the State Department is the proposal to promote a process of national dialogue for reconciliation, a process that Lobo would head up.

This same proposal was raised in March 2010 at the hearing of the International Relations Committee of the U.S. Congress to consider the situation in Honduras. WOLA (the Washington Office on Latin America), in addition to requesting increased U.S. support for the Honduran police and military, also requested support for a "national dialogue process."

It is worth mentioning that the U.S. Under-Secretary Maria Otero is the wife of a founder and member of the board of directors of WOLA, who facilitated a position at American University for ex-Honduran Ambassador to the U.S., Roberto Flores Bermudez, after President Zelaya fired him for his involvement in the coup. Thanks to this post of "Ambassador in Residence" at American University, ex-Ambassador Flores Bermúdez was able to continue coordinating lobby in favor of the coup.

UNITY IS A CHALLENGE TO THE RESISTANCE
That a government which is the product of a military coup is not recognized in the OAS for over a year is an enormous achievement and historically unprecedented.  The halls of the OAS have received an endless stream of representatives of military governments.

Prior to Honduras the only country to have been suspended from the OAS was Cuba, and that for obvious political interests manipulated and imposed by the U.S. for decades.

The clear response by most Latin American nations to the coup in Honduras is leaving an important precedent, given the threat of future coups; Latin America will not accept coups.  This would not have been possible without the strength, unity and clarity presented by the Honduran resistance movement.

Paradoxically, as the United States in its efforts to achieve the recognition of Honduras is forced to recognize the existence of the Resistance, a result of the strength of the Resistance movement, the threat of manipulation, division and co-optation grows.

How to forge a path is to the Resistance's goal of a popular constituent assembly amidst attempts to manipulate the process is a challenge to the Resistance. Some proposals can derail the constitutional convention and other proposals promote observation of human rights violations as a step to the recognition in the OAS.

While it is undoubtedly necessary that some presence ensures that all of Honduras can promote a truly popular constituent assembly without threat of violence, it is necessary to find a proposal that actually has the ability to stop violations and does not just serve to white wash the image of the de facto government.

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WHAT TO DO

FUNDS ARE NEEDED:  Since the coup, June 28, 2009, Rights Action has funded and worked with community based Honduran organizations doing a range of work: poverty eradication and community development education and organizing; human rights defense and promotion; media (radio, publications and internet); human rights accompaniment; reporting; emergency support for victims or repression and human rights violations; transportation; communication (phone, internet); camera work (film and still); travel to forums and negotiations; etc.

TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
To support the Honduras pro-community development, pro-democracy, anti-military coup movement, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A0in8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

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For more information: Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org, Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org