Honduran Oligarchy: “The War is Against Chavez”

The Honduran de facto
government and private media insist on denying the coup d'etat and say that
they accept the mediation of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, but exclude any
conversation over the return of Zelaya to the presidency. At the same time they
sustain that they are the spearhead of a "war" against the "dictatorship of
Hugo Chavez."

The daily newspapers,
Heraldo, Tribuna and La Prensa, lead the way in defending the coup d'etat and
repeat, almost in the same words, the accusation against the Venezuelan
president for his supposed interference. They also promote the withdrawal of
Honduras from the ALBA accords, because they claim, "it has only benefited the
left."

The headlines of these
newspapers and the declarations of the current leaders of the State are a copy
of the anti-communist manual of the press campaigns in the decades of the
sixties and seventies in the last century.

With contrived
arguments, the Honduran media promotes a campaign accusing the Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez of interfering in the country and provoking the
confrontations last Sunday near the surrounds of the Tegulcigalpa International
Airport, when 200 000 people waited for the return of the constitutional
president.

By extension, they sustain that the UN and the OAS are manipulated by Chavez,
and that the presidents of Argentina, Cristina Fernández, of Paraguay, Fernando
Lugo, of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and the Honduran
president himself, Manuel Zelaya, also obey the orders of the Venezuelan
president.

Even the highest authorities of the Catholic Church have joined the campaign.

The Honduran oligarchs continue ignoring the demand of the people for a return
to institutionality and to allow Zelaya to finish his term. "We have
communicated with president Arias to tell him that we are prepared for any
dialogue, always and when it is not for the return of president Zelaya, but
rather when it is to hand him over to the justice tribunals," Roberto Micheletti,
the defacto president, said. He insisted, "we are not going to negotiate
anything, we are going to dialogue."

"We are clear that
everything that has happened here was within the framework of the law and the
Constitution of the Republic, here what there was, was a constitutional
situation," the dictator concluded.

At the same time, the
de facto president continued naming new authorities in the cabinet and
substituting governors and mayors.

Legislator, Mauricio
Reconco, of the Liberal Party, defended the legality of the overthrow of
Zelaya, "we know what was done was best, if not we would have been in a worse
situation," he said. Immediately he went on to attack Chavez, "in this moment
we are seeing internationally that Honduras has shown it is a country that has
put a block the path of Hugo Chavez. The war is no longer against ex-president
Zelaya, but against Hugo Chavez."

"It is lamentable that
in organisations such as the UN and the OAS, Hugo Chavez continues have
strength and power, he has chess pieces – such as these presidents, Correa,
Lugo, Kirchner, Mel Zelaya and Daniel Ortega – who he manouvres at his whim,"
he concluded.

Cardinal Oscar Andrés
Rodríguez, after defending the coup d'etat and critising the protests calling
for the return of the constitutional president, attacked the Venezuelan
president;

"We totally reject the
interference of the Venezuelan president, we are a small but sovereign country,
since he came to insult us in the month of August, that Mister has been trying
to put his hands in here, he should leave us in peace, he should dedicate
himself to governing his own country". 

Meanwhile, the rightwing movement Generation for Change, continues holding
mobilizations in support of the coup, as they did previously against president Zelaya,
and they repeat the same arguments of the old rulers. Luis Colindres, one of
the youth leaders said during an event on Tuesday, that a dictatorial system
exists in Venezuela, and that "if Zelaya Rosales returns the same thing could
happen in our country."

The Retired Officials
of the Armed Forces Association mobilized together with the "youth" of the
Generation for Change. At the same time as they defended what they claimed was
a legal presidential substitution, they criticised the OAS, which they considered
to be biased in favor of Zelaya and through a communiqué condemned the
intervention in internal affairs by said organization.

Translated by Kiraz Janicke for Venezuelanalysis.com