• by Ignacio Ramonet
• Monday, August 10, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The world's conservative groups and their usual propagandists received the news of the June 28 coup in Honduras with immense pleasure. Although they made critical noises about the coup itself, they swallowed and justified the arguments of those who carried it out, repeating that "President Manuel Zelaya had committed numerous violations of the constitution by wanting to hold a referendum to remain in power," writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.

These statements are patently false. President Zelaya did not violate a single article of the constitution. Nor did he organise a referendum. Nor did he want to extend his term in office, which ends on January 27, 2010. His intention was to organise a non-binding ballot initiative (in other words, a simple opinion poll) asking citizens: "Do you agree that in the November 2009 general elections a fourth issue should be added to the ballot to decide whether or not to hold a national constitutive assembly for the purpose of drafting a new constitution of the republic?"

So why was the coup carried out? Because Honduras remains the "property" of a handful of fifteen leading families that control everything in the country, and Zelaya, though a member of one of the big landowning families and of the Liberal Party, sought to reduce the inequality in his country. He increased the minimum wage by 50 percent, stopped the privatisation of public companies (electricity, ports, health care) and came out in favour of greater citizen participation in setting public policy. It was too much for the "owners" of Honduras to bear. With the support of US hawks John Negroponte and Otto Reich, they plotted the June 28 coup that the armed forces then carried out.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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