VivirLatino

Democracy Now! has an interview up with Honduran president, Manual Zelaya. It’s definitely worth a listen.

An excerpt:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Mr. President, your opponents who engineered the coup claim that you were trying to subvert the constitution of 1982. What were you trying to do with the referendum that you were holding and is it true that as they say, your were trying to illegally extend your term?

MANUAL ZELAYA:[translated] That is completely false. In Honduras we do not have reelections and I never intended to be reelected. That will be a matter for another government, another constitution and another Constituent Assembly. The Popular Consultation is a survey, just like the Gallup one does or other polling groups. It does not create rights. It has no power to impose. It is not obligatory, its an opinion poll. How could this be a motive for a coup d’etat? No one has tried to me. I was expelled by force by the military. This is an argument made up by the coup plotters. Don’t believe them.

AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, the United States has not cut off aid to Honduras. Do you think they should because of the coup?

MANUAL ZELAYA:[translated] We only have humanitarian aid coming from the United States the U.S. held up military aid, our officials in Washington have been replaced because they left with the coup. They were changed yesterday. And all of the U.S.’s messages have been consistent with the firm condemnation of the coup and supporting democracy in Latin America.

We’ve been talking a lot here at VL about the many strange “truths” of the Honduran coup–and then I came across this post by Latina Lista. It is a blog post written by a blogger in Honduras, and she presents a completely different version of what the coup means to Hondurans. It makes things much clearer to me.

An excerpt:

I have not seen any US media outlet show coverage of the tens of thousands who gathered yesterday in support of the new government. A friend commented on the remarkably one-sided coverage of the crisis, “A few hundred rioters throwing rocks at soldiers and the police and water cannon makes much better news than thousands of supporters holding their hands above their hearts with tears streaming down their face singing the national anthem.”

Honduras is a small and underdeveloped country. It can ill afford the bad reputation that the world has for its leaders. However, I hope and pray that world would consider carefully the events surrounding the removal of Mr. Zelaya.

I am reminded of the words of the prophet Amos:

Do you know what I want?

I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want. Amos 5:24

As rivers and oceans of people are marching across the land of Honduras, one can only hope and pray that the world will take notice of a small country that seeks to live in peace, freedom and development.

Read the whole thing here.