Crisis en Honduras

Thank you...reaad on for the true views of those living in Honduras...from a letter written to Time Magazine.

Manuel Zelaya took advantage of the people's impressionability in a country where 70% of the people live below the poverty line to win a very, very close election - on a platform that was not based on a specific plan or fundamentals and on which a number of promises were made that were ignored altogether.

Zelaya's antics were initially ignorant and laughable and initially caused little harm other than to embarass the country's citizens internationally. However, this "clown's" actions had become increasingly dangerous as he asserted his allegiance to Hugo Chavez, socialist policies and behavior, anti-US sentiment (decrying a country that has done nothing but help the Honduran people as "imperialist".) Now, more recently, wanting to use a premeditated illegal poll to open the door to a modification of the constitution that would allow him to remain in power indefinitely was the final and clearest indicator of this man's delusion.

Over the past years he has gradually lost the support of the entire country, having little to no approval rating to speak of and yet, in a clear, selfish act he wanted to remain in power in spite of the country's will. This is where bufoonery become dangerous. The AP, CNN Spanish Network , TIME magazine need to do a significantly better job of providing objective or rather even accurate reporting to the world and find quotes and testimony from people outside of the president's inner circle. This type of reporting is shameful and inaccurate   In our country we decided to have a Democratic Society with three Institutions in Power: Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch (President).   Our Congress men and women are selected every four years together with the President and the City Majors. The Supreme Court is selected every 7 years with a very open and transparent  selection by Congress and the President.   When all of the countries in Central America around Honduras were in civil wars because the Communist wanted to take over by force, our people decided to do it in peace. We had political leaders that got together and wrote a constitution with restrictions so that we do not have Presidents to stay in power more than 4 years.   When Chavez decided to expand his way of managing a country, he started with those countries that needed money the most, and Honduras being the second poorest country in the continent was a perfect target.   Sadly, Ex-President Zelaya and his team took this opportunity to bring to Honduras a new way of running the Government and stay in power for as long as they could. But, their illegal operation fail and now they are out!   During the 3 and half years that Zelaya was in power we had a lot of social unrest, and he divided our society even more to be able to gain in his plan to stay in power. Peace was not part of his agenda.   With Zelaya's arrest and his letter of resignations, the next in line would have been the Vice President Santos, but he had quit several months before, (he also wants to be President, but he wants to participate in the November elections), so the next one in line was the President of Congress.   We now have a new President, and Honduras is back in business.   The ports are working, the factories are working, Customs is working, Public Transportation is running, The new President has new people helping him to run the country, and yes there are a FEW people in the street burning tires and breaking windows. But we always had that with Zelaya as well (We always had some kind of strike going on).   The country is back in business, but we need the rest of the world to support us. Our new challenge is to keep Chavez away from us.   For years I grew up seeing how people around the world was saying that we need to be DEMOCRATS with RESPECT to our LAWS, that we should not respect those that try to impose a new regime using the force. We saw how Nicaragua went from Dictatorship to Democrat but suffer a civil war in the process; How El Salvador had a cruel civil war and had finally elected a president representing the rebel forces later converted in a political party. But we have also seen how the Castro Clan has governed Cuba for over 49 years and how many had left that country in search for a better life.   But, people leaving a poor country is not happening only in Cuba, all of our poor countries are having the same problem. The question is, do they want to leave because there is no democracy or because there is no Socialism? Or they leave because they do not have opportunities to make more money and have a better life in their own countries?   I would guess that the second question is the main reason why people leave their poor countries, If I am wrong, please correct me.   Well, then how do we create opportunities for everyone in our poor countries?   Some of the answers that I always get from people are: 1) Education (Honduras has FREE education from Kinder to University). 2) Good Land Distribution so that there is no idle land (Honduras has a Land Reform in place for more than 45 years), 3) Health for everyone (Honduras has free care for everyone, good or bad, it is what the country can pay). 4) LAWS that allows locals and foreigners to invest (Honduras has all of the laws, including the ones that CAFTA required us to have to guarantee investment), 5) Respect for the authorities and the laws in place, among many other reasons.   Here is where I am confused!   Why is it that the world is now saying that we should allow back some one that broke the law into our country?   What is it then?   Law or no Law? Respect or no Respect to the laws in place?   Do we need to accommodate new laws to make it legal? like in the case of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia?   We all agree that we need to make changes in our Laws, but Zelaya did not want to do it following the legal framework established to make those changes. He Broke the Law, and his out now!   How can the rest of the world understand that?   And just like the Honduran Citizen Adan Canales said: "if we have to suffer hunger to show the world we did the right thing, then that will be it!".