ALBA Declaration on Honduras Coup D’etat
Bolivarian Alliance
for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)
Proclamation of the
Extraordinary Presidential Council
Managua, Republic of Nicaragua 29 June 2009
On Sunday the 28th of June in early hours of the morning, when the
Honduran people were getting ready to exercise their democratic will through a
poll with a consultative character, promoted by the President of the Republic
Manuel Zelaya Rosales to deepen participative democracy, a group of hooded
soldiers, who affirmed they had received orders from the High Command of the
Armed Forces, assaulted the residence of President Zelaya, in order to kidnap
him, disappear him for a number of hours and later expel him violently from his
homeland.
Immediately, the people of Honduras reacted like the noble heirs of the legacy
of Francisco Morazán [1], in the streets of the cities and towns of Honduras.
From the early hours of the morning hundreds of electoral booths received
thousands of men and women who attended to exercise their right to vote, and on
being informed of the kidnapping of their president, spilled out onto the
streets to protest the coup d'etat, giving an example of heroism, to confront,
unarmed, the guns and tanks.
Through the screens of Telesur, they managed to break the national and
international silence that the dictatorship wanted to impose through closing
the state television channel and cutting the electricity supply, aiming to
conceal and justify the coup d'etat against their people and the international
community – demonstrating an attitude that recalls the worst epoch of the
dictatorships experienced in the 20th century in our continent.
With one single voice, the governments and peoples of the continent reacted
condemning the coup d'etat, making clear that in Honduras there is only one President
and one government: that of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. At the same time,
we salute the declarations of condemnation, that from very early, other
governments of the world began to issue.
In the face of the urgency of the situation, the governments of the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of Our America immediately convoke an Extraordinary
Presidential Council, with the objective of agreeing on forceful actions to
defeat the coup d'etat in Honduras, to support the heroic people of Morazán and
to unconditionally re-establish the President Manuel Zelaya Rosales in his
legitimate duties.
After analyzing the circumstances which have produced this coup d'etat, in the
face of the gravity of the violations of International Law, the multilateral agreements
and the accords of our countries with the Republic of Honduras, and in view of
the categorical rejection that the international community has manifested in
front of the dictatorial government that is trying to impose itself, the member
countries of ALBA have decided to withdraw our Ambassadors and leave a minimum
expression of our diplomatic representation in Tegucigalpa until the legitimate
government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales is reinstated in its duties.
Likewise we recognise
as the only diplomatic representatives of Honduras in our countries, the
personnel designated by President Zelaya. Under no circumstances will we
accredit personnel designated by the usurpers.
Equally, as full
members of the various systems of integration of the continent, we insist that
our brother countries of UNASUR, SICA, CARICOM, the Rio Group, the UN and the
OAS proceed in the same way in the face of the assailants of the Honduran
people.
On the other hand, we have agreed to declare ourselves in permanent alert in
order to accompany the valiant people of Honduras in the actions of struggle
that they have convoked, and we invoke the content of Articles 2 and 3 of the
Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras:
"Art. 2: Sovereignty
corresponds to the People from which emanate all the Powers of the State that
are exercised through representation. The Sovereignty of the People can also be
exercised in a direct manner through a Plebiscite or Referendum. The
supplanting of popular Sovereignty and the usurpation of the constituted powers
are classified as crimes of Treason against the Fatherland. The responsibility
in these cases is imprescriptible and can be deduced to the role or petition of
any citizen."
"Art. 3: No one has to
obey neither a usurper government nor those who assume functions or public
employment through the force of arms or using measures or procedures that break
or fail to recognise that which the Constitution and the laws establish. The
acts verified by such authorities are invalid. The people have the right to
resort to insurrection in defense of constitutional order."
As well as the principles of International Law respect the acts of resistance
and rebellion of the people confronting the attempts at domination. To the
teachers, workers, women, youth, peasants, indigenous peoples, honest business
people, intellectuals and other actors of Honduran society, we assure that
together we will win a great victory against the coup plotters that aim to
impose themselves on the brave people of Francisco Morazán.
Invoking the spirit and though of Francisco Morazán, together with him, we
proclaim to the coup plotters: "Men, you who have abused the rights of the
people for a sordid and stingy interest! With you I speak, enemies of
independence and liberty. If our actions, aimed at acquiring a homeland, can
suffer a parallel to those Central Americans that you have persecuted and
exiled, I challenge you to present them. Those same people, who have been
humiliated, insulted, debased and betrayed so many times, that today are the arbiters of their destiny and ask for our advice,
those people will be your judge."
Those who are leading the coup d'etat must
know that it will be impossible to prevail and to make fun of international
justice, to which sooner or later they will be subjected. We call on the
officials and the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Honduras to rectify and to
put their weapons at the service of the people of Honduras and their general
commander, President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
The member countries of ALBA, in
consultation with the governments of the continent and with various
institutions that guarantee the fulfilment of International Law, we are
bringing forward measures so that the grave violations and the crimes that are
being committed aren't gotten away with.
The only path that remains for the coup
makers to abandon their attitude and to guarantee immediately, unconditionally,
and definitely, the return of President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales to his
constitutional functions.
The Republic of Honduras is a full member
of ALBA, and likewise of other regional integration and multilateral
organisations, whose membership demand respect of the sovereignty of the people
and the constitution. These fundamental conditions, having been violated by the
coup makers, the governments of ALBA have decided to maintain all the
cooperation programs that we have pre-empted with Honduras through President
Zelaya.
Likewise, we propose that punitive measures
are applied by all the multilateral integration organisations and mechanisms,
which would help to enforce the immediate return to constitutional order in
Honduras and would bring about the principles of action that Jose Marti
referred to when he said, "Each person does their duty, and nothing can defeat
us."
The governments of ALBA declare ourselves
in a permanent consultation session, with all the governments of the continent,
in order to evaluate further joint actions that enable us to accompany the
Honduran people in the re-establishment of legality and the restitution of the
President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Two hundreds years since the historic
gesture that our peoples have developed throughout the continent, following the
timeless example of the General of free men Augusto Cesar Sandino, of Francisco
Morazan and faithful to the word of The Liberator Simon Bolivar, we put our
hope with the people of Honduras and the peoples of the world for the sureness
of victory, as, "all the peoples of the world who have wrestled for freedom
have, in the end, exterminated their tyrants."
[1] Central American statesman, lawyer,
orator, and general born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 1792
Translated by Kiraz Janicke and Tamara
Pearson for Venezuelanalysis.com