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Sunday’s golpe in Honduras

EditorialSunday’s golpe in Honduras
The military in the republic of Honduras, just south of Belize, staged a coup d’état on Sunday morning, June 28. They barged into the presidential palace, took constitutionally elected president Jose Manuel Zelaya out of bed in his pajamas, and put him on a plane to Costa Rica. Then, in concert with the Honduras Supreme Court, the military had the leader of the Honduran Congress, Roberto Micheletti, sworn in as interim president.
   
The republics immediately around us in Central America – Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador and Nicaragua, have a history of this type of thing. The military in these countries is in the employ of the oligarchy, which is to say, the rich people. Any attempt by any leader to ameliorate the condition of the oppressed masses in Central America, was condemned as “communism” for most of the twentieth century. Murderous Central American dictators were lauded as defenders of democracy by various United States governments, because they defended the interests of big business and American investment. The Christian churches, meanwhile, generally blessed these brutal regimes, because they were fighting atheistic “communism.”
   
In this region of republics, we Belizeans are considered “soft,” because we do not have a history of violent changes of government. Until 1964, British Honduras had been a British colony which was exploited economically but was protected militarily by the British Empire. Belize became a self-governing colony in 1964, and then independent in 1981. We have maintained a system of parliamentary democracy which features national elections every five years. Our judiciary appears to have been corrupted, but we still abide by the rule of law in Belize.
   
The issue in Honduras is the old Central American issue of the rich versus the poor. The crisis of capitalism which has created uproar on planet earth since last year, has underlined the fact that various nation states in Central and South America have been electing so-called leftist governments for some years now. These include Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador. Leftist governments essentially have been abandoning the Friedmanite neoliberal capitalism which collapsed last year internationally. The reason these “leftists” do this is because the masses of their people have been experiencing injustice, pain and death, while an elitist oligarchy live high on the hog, enjoying First World lifestyles to which they believe they are entitled because of their ethnic and class “superiority.”
   
In Honduras, the leftist Zelaya was going to hold a constitutional referendum to allow him to run for another term of office. The referendum was to be held this same Sunday when the Honduras military did the dirty work for the oligarchy.
   
In Belize, whether you know it or not, there are elements here which think the same way the Honduras oligarchy do. Oligarchies believe that they have the right to overturn the verdicts of “one man, one vote” democracy. The concept of might being right is, of course, retrograde in terms of political philosophy, but it is a real concept, espoused by real people. And these real people have a lot of money.
   
In Belize, the military have never come out of their barracks, so to speak, but those Belizeans with eyes to see, can see that Belize’s democracy has been polluted by the oligarchy here. Our democracy, at the basic level of the political parties, has been contaminated by an elite possessed of inordinate wealth, and the masses of our people have not been educated enough politically to understand where the oligarchy is paying us to vote against our own interests. 
   
The reason Kremandala is being attacked is because it is the media institution which does the most political education of the Belizean masses, in the philosophical sense of the word “political.” The attacks on Kremandala are financed by the worst elements of the Belizean oligarchy. We cannot do anything about the oligarchy, but we can ask you, the Belizean people, to ignore those indecent voices which sing songs which they are being paid to sing. Now, more than ever, Belize is in a real world. We are not insulated from the republics around us the way we used to be. The toxins which poison Honduras are similar to the toxins which are polluting Belize. Greedy choke puppy.
   
Power to the people.

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