Episode 2: What the Coup Means 11 Years Later

Summary:

Its been 11 years since the 2009 coup in Honduras. This episode provides a brief overview of the current crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the 11th anniversary of the 2009 coup d’état. We hear from social movement leader and President of STIBYS union, Carlos H. Reyes and the General Coordinator of COPINH, Berta Zúñiga Cáceres.

Transcript:

Today, I want to put the 2009 coup discussed in Episode 1 into context. Its now 11 years later, and like all countries around the world, Honduras is responding to another crisis – the crisis generated by the covid-19 pandemic.

But the crisis doesn’t have the same impact in a country like Honduras, where conditions were already extremely dire after facing non-stop crises over the last 11 years and since the coup. A coup backed and supported by Canada and the US.

If the coup represents the beginning of a series of crises in Honduras, and North American governments supported it, I would say those governments are at least partially responsible for the conditions that it created. This is specially if our government has stood next to the Honduran government, legitimizing it, and its policies that have made the conditions in Honduras almost unbearable to live in.

As I spoke with people about the 11th anniversary of the coup, they reflect and consider it in the current context in Honduras.

Current Context in Honduras

Across the country, Hondurans are mostly in their homes with the exception of workers in some industries. The government declared a state of siege or permanent mandatory lockdown in response to the spread of covid-19

Its interesting because 11 years ago today and in the aftermath of the 2009 coup and all the protests, a series of state of sieges were ordered around Honduras. And now 11 years later on the anniversary of the coup, Hondurans are again locked down.

Since the state of siege began, all transportation, with a few rare exceptions, has been suspended. Hondurans can now only leave their houses to go the bank, supermarkets, and pharmacies, once every two weeks. The attempt to reopen the economy as infection rates continued to increase, only led to the government shutting it down again around the time that the number of covid-19 cases exceeded 10,000 or so.

The 2009 Coup & the 2020 Crisis

Just like after the 2009 coup, the covid-19 state of siege has led to another wave of militarization in the country. Tens of thousands of people have been detained, particularly when protests break out. Many people and communities are demanding support from the government, saying that if they can’t work, they can’t eat, and staying in their homes is not an option.

In response to the covid pandemic, the U.S., Canadian, and the International Financial Institutions like the World Bank and others – have given or have loaned money to the Honduran government. This financial assistance and loans is allegedly to help the government respond to the pandemic, supply and equip the hospitals, provide support to the population, and implement public health measures to contain the virus.

Since the coup, the legitimacy of the Honduran government has significantly deteriorated. This means that Hondurans have very little trust and faith in the government to provide them with the support needed to confront yet another crisis.

The international support given to Honduras to confront the virus has been the subject of several huge corruption scandals. Millions of dollars have seemed to have “disappeared.” Healthcare workers complain that hospitals are not even close to receiving the supplies they need to handle the crisis. The health care system collapsed even before there were covid cases reported in the country.

So Honduras will remember the 11th anniversary of a major crisis in the country while being immersed in another. Yet, both are connected.

In fact, the coup kicked off the conditions of deteriorating that Hondurans have experienced for years. Now with the virus, Hondurans are seeing it in the completely collapsed hospitals and clinics around the country; and the extreme poverty.

What the Coup Means 11 Years Later

To talk about the 11th anniversary of the coup and what it means 11 years later, I spoke with a few people. I spoke with Carlos Humberto Reyes and Bertita Zuñiga Cáceres, the General Coordinator of COPINH and the daughter of murdered indigenous activist, Berta Cáceres.

Carlos H. Reyes is the President of STIBYS, a union that represents workers that bottle soft drinks and beer for transnational companies like SABMiller and PepsiCola. He’s a well respected union and social movement leader. Carlos helped to found the Convergence Against Re-election and the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) that was formed after the coup. In fact, Carlos was nominated by the social movement to participate as an independent Presidential candidate in 2009. Then the coup happened, and he, like others, refused to participate in the illegitimate elections that followed shortly after the coup.

I asked Carlos what the coup means 11 years later.

Carlos H. Reyes: “Central American governments are allowed to do what they want as long as the security of the United States and the interests of regional oligarchies are not jeopardized.

The coup d’état was planned and carried out when:

a) The neoliberal model is in crisis. It is not being deepened as it corresponded to the mandates of the International Monetary Fund. Instead the advancement of the neoliberal model was suffering stagnations and setbacks on the part of the Manuel Zelaya government;

b) Manuel Zelaya’s government is facing a serious confrontation with the Honduran oligarchy for not obeying their mandates, for not continuing with the privatization of public services and common goods, for decreeing a high minimum wage, for issuing a decree to deliver land to small farmers, for deciding to make an airport at the Gringo [U.S.] military base in Palmerola, and for applying a formula to calculate the price of fuel that was not convenient for the transnational companies.

C) Honduras is joining ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America, for Zelaya having brought Evo Morales from Bolivia and Hugo Chávez from Venezuela to an event in Tegucigalpa; for advancing towards PETROCARIBE and the regional integration processes that the U.S. Empire has opposed since the existence of the Monroe doctrine of “America for Americans ”;

d) As the correlation of forces of the gringo or U.S. empire is diminished in the Central American area, due to the presence of the Sandinista Front ruling in Nicaragua, the Farabundo Martí front in El Salvador and the Manuel Zelaya government in Honduras, highly influenced by the popular movement like the National Coordinator of Popular Resistance which I headed, and the progressive currents of the liberal party;

In this historical and conjunctural framework, the coup d’état takes place to reestablish the Empire, the security policy of the United States and the interests of the national and Central American oligarchy, to deepen the neoliberal model, to ratify Honduras as a policing agent of the United States in the region and to whitewash the coup with “Honduras-style elections” and to ensure the maintenance of regimes in favor of those policies.”

So as of today, its been 11 years since the coup d’état and there is a global pandemic impacting the world. Its impacting some countries more than others not just because of the number of covid cases, but also because of the economic, social and political conditions in countries in the so-called “Global South”.

The impacts of the pandemic are not felt equally, and Honduras in 11 years, has not recovered from the coup, especially since the U.S. and Canadian governments have continued to prop up governments that implement policies that drive Hondurans more into poverty and desperation.

So in 11 years, the coup has plunged it deeper and deeper into a crisis, which has left Honduras and Hondurans even less able to confront the crises generated by the Covid pandemic.

Carlos H. Reyes: Effects of the Coup 11 Years Later

I asked Carlos about this. Now that Honduras is in the middle of the pandemic, what is the current context in the country and how does it relate to the effects of the 2009 coup, 11 years later?

Carlos H. Reyes: “Capitalism and the neoliberal model continues in crisis and with Covid-19, the health crisis has deepened even more.

Because the “market” cannot resolve the crisis, its up to the state to resolve it. But in the case of Honduras, where there is a corrupt dictator associated with drug trafficking, the state can’t because the creditors have the government on its knees. And they have to borrow more money. So the pandemic is a political problem that the dictatorship cannot resolve and it must sustain its survival. So the regime and the owners of the country take it out on the working class, and from there, the labor massacre that we are living.

The deepening of the neoliberal model brought on by the 2009 coup d’état has brought with it: More exploitation, more plunder, more corruption, more drug trafficking, more social inequality, more human rights violations, and as a result, the deepening of class contradictions.”

So I understand that this is heavy stuff – Honduras is a hard country to support, live in, and be a union leader, journalist or human rights defender, or work in solidarity to support.

I admire Carlos so much because of how long and how consistent he has been in the social movement in Honduras. He was 14 years old during one of the biggest labor strikes in the history of the country, the 1954 banana strike and he was involved in it.

He has been arrested, tortured, during the protests after the 2009 coup, he was badly beaten by Honduran police.

But … he’s still going strong even at 79 years. He’s an inspiration to many Hondurans. If you walk with Carlos in public anywhere in the country, people come up to shake his hand and chat with him. He’s well-respected and admired.

Conditions in the Streets

Carlos has also been so busy because of how workers inside soft drink and beer bottling plants around the country are being treated. Since he’s the leader of the STIBYS union, he has to respond to all the changing and worsening conditions that workers are experiencing inside the factories where they don’t have proper biosecurity protections. Some are being laid off if they don’t want to risk their health or cannot get to work because of the check points set up around the country. I’ll talk more about the day-to-day impact of the pandemic in the next episode.

So the pandemic has generated lots of work for union leaders and Carlos has been traveling between the two major cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula to respond to worker’s needs and demands. It took me 5-6 days to be able to speak with Carlos because of how busy he is these days. He had just returned to Tegucigalpa from San Pedro Sula which is approximately 4 hours along a major highway driving north from the capital. I asked him what it was like traveling on the roads given the lockdown, the militarization, the protests, and the check points on the roads, just to get a sense of the police and military presence. We spoke exactly one week ago on Sunday, June 21st:

Carlos H. Reyes: “The day we traveled to San Pedro and the day we came back, no one asked us for our documents justifying our presence in the streets. Nothing. There were few military and police. But, for example, today, the police and military were in the north and southern exit of San Pedro Sula. Various groups in the country are blocking the roads precisely to demand a government bonus or demanding that the government let them work. And the military and police started tear gassing them and attacking the protesters because the government doesn’t have money to give them. The doctors were also protesting demanding support because 5 doctors have recently died in San Pedro Sula and there are 15 with the virus.“

Reflections on the Coup

Like in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, the conditions are also difficult in the small city of La Esperanza in western Honduras where COPINH is based.

After speaking with Carlos, I spoke with Bertita Zuñiga Cáceres, the General Coordinator of COPINH, and daughter of Berta Cáceres, about her thoughts on the anniversary of the coup and the current context in Honduras.

Now, Bertita has a different perspective of the coup than Carlos. Bertita was only 18 years old when the coup happened. I remember meeting her in the streets in Tegucigalpa in all the protests after the coup – the countless hours of walking in the marches under the hot sun. She was with her mom, Berta Cáceres, who played such a fundamental role in the formation and analysis of the FNRP, along with Carlos and other leaders.

If Bertita wasn’t Berta’s daughter, already born with resistance in her blood, she, like so many other young people in Honduras, would be called a child of the resistance. The youth or children of the resistance are now adults involved in the social movement but that witnessed and saw the coup, were impacted by it, and grew up committed to social struggle. There are so many of these types of young people, many university students.

I started by asking Bertita what the coup means to her, 11 years later and now in the context of the pandemic.

Bertita Zuñiga Cáceres: “Well, the coup d’état for us, is the initial source of the current harsh situation that Honduras is in. The coup is known even internationally for reasons behind the worsening of economic conditions and the widespread violence, impunity, forced migration and for the circumstances that were formed as a result of the coup.

We believe that the coup had to do with reshaping of the control of public property and resources, the control of strategic resources in our country, which have had a very important impact on the indigenous and Garifuna peoples in Honduras. And as we say, it is an economic model that uses electrical energy, public goods and exploitation of natural resources for the enrichment of the small group of national oligarchy. And that is achieved through force, which is a strategic and essential component of the model.

The coup d’état was the military component of fear, social mobilization and human rights violations. In all of Honduran society, and particularly us, this affects us, the Lenca people, the indigenous people – this threatens us as a result of the exploitation. Also, for us, the coup has also meant the maximum expression of violence against people by threatening and taking away life and their lives, which is the primary right of human beings.

And that was the case of our comrade Berta Cáceres, who was assassinated after the reformation of these economic, political, and military powers, around this impunity that continues to hide the truth from us. Berta was a deliberate part of the social movement that struggled to re-found Honduras, to construct an inclusive, multiethnic, multilingual democracy, one with human rights.

What we are experiencing in this pandemic affects the world and our country is to suffer one of the expressions of the coup, the reformation of powers, which is corruption. There are public officials involved in corruption that have gone unpunished for many years, who have committed various crimes and have never been brought to justice. So they have total freedom to do whatever they want. They have indebted our country with the international financial institutions and have allocated public funds to supposedly face this pandemic. However, it’s not reaching the places in need and there is evidence of the theft from the people, and of the deepening of the accumulated social problems in the country. For example, the issue of impoverishment, food shortages and the control of streets in the hands of the military.

The loss of constitutional guarantees and rights and exposing ourselves to live under so many violations. It is difficult to speak of these 11 years of coup d’état. So much has happened. In some ways, the social movements that have been in the struggle since the coup and before, feel the weight of defeat. There are also many problems. Since the coup, we have almost had to lock ourselves up to try to sustain our work or defend our territories. And that has also produced a process of de-articulation of many of the spaces of struggle and organizing. We believe that this pandemic is the same.The pandemic has created a type of social explosion, of questioning the current government, and also an opportunity to think urgently about building a different country.”

That was Berta Zuñiga Cáceres, based in western Honduras in the small city of La Esperanza.

I like what Bertita says, especially in the last part.

That the pandemic gives us an opportunity to think urgently about building a different country. In fact, in the 3.5 months since the pandemic and state of siege began in Honduras, Honduran organizations and movements have been meeting, brainstorming, calling for creative actions from their homes and on zoom of course, and have published 15 communiques with their proposals about how to “build a different” Honduras.

Now, building a different Honduras, almost means building a different U.S. and Canadian foreign policy … and that’s our job in North America.

Lets not “go back to normal” as so many people are saying about the pandemic. As Carlos and Bertita have explained, “normal” in Honduras has meant supporting military coups that have ushered in policies that have driven Hondurans out of their own country to the U.S-Mexico border. “Normal” has meant the murder of activists like Berta Cáceres and policies that strip rights from workers and drive the poor majority further into poverty in Honduras.

If the coup did anything in Honduras – it helped expose the unjust, undemocratic foreign policy that the Canadian and U.S. governments maintain in Latin America.

Bertita is right about urgently thinking about building something different. 11 years later and in the middle of the covid crisis, is an excellent time to start constructing something new.

Now, before I sign off, I wanted to mention that there are many events in Honduras – radio programs, poetry readings, discussion forums, and protests, respecting social distance of course, commemorating the 11th anniversary of the coup.

In my last two episodes, I’ve used the music of Honduran singer Karla Lara. Karla is also hosting an online concert on Youtube on July 3 and 4th and live streaming on the channel: Un Compa que Acompaña