UN Dismisses Honduran Accusations of Venezuelan Scheming
Merida,
July 19th 2009 (Venezuenanalysis.com) – The United Nations dismissed
as illegitimate a letter it received from the current coup government of
Honduras which accused Venezuela of attempting to "provoke a bloodbath" in the
country which has been under military rule since a 28 June coup.
Private
newspapers in Honduras and Venezuela amplified the coup regime's message, accusing
Venezuela of organising violent conspiracies against the Honduran regime. Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said the accusations were part of the de facto
government's "clumsy" strategy to maintain power.
Since
the Honduran military kidnapped Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and
transferred him to Costa Rica, Venezuela has ardently demanded an unconditional
return of Zelaya to power. Meanwhile, there have been ongoing protests, road
blocks and strikes against the coup, met by military repression. Zelaya and
representatives of Roberto Micheletti, the de facto president, have been
involved in dialogue, mediated by the president of Costa Rica.
On 15
July, the coup government wrote to the UN Security Council to request its
intervention in the face of "threats and acts of provocation" by Chavez against
the new authorities in Honduras.
The
letter, signed by Secretary of State Carlos Contreras and published by the
Honduran paper El Heraldo, specifically accused Venezuela of publicly
threatening to send Venezuelan military to Honduras on 1 July and of violating
Honduran airspace when it supplied Zelaya with aircraft so he could try to
re-enter his country on 5 July. On that day, Zelaya tried to land in Honduras
but had to turn back because the military blocked the runway and told Zelaya
his plane would be "intercepted".
The
letter concludes by accusing Venezuelan of wanting to "provoke a blood bath."
Venezuelan
media reported that the current president of the UN Security Council, Ruhakana
Ruganda received the letter but would not distribute it among the members as an
official document, because it came from a government the UN considers
illegitimate. The UN assembly unanimously adopted a resolution recognising
Zelaya as legitimate president of Honduras on 30 June.
"There's
not going to be any debate about this topic," said the Honduran representative
to the UN, Jorge Reina, who remains faithful to the government of Zelaya.
"They
are just fireworks to make it known that they have contacts abroad, when in
reality they are completely isolated," Reina said. The European Union, the
Organization of American States (OAS), and several Latin American integration
blocs have also condemned the coup.
The
de facto government also threatened to expel the staff of the Venezuelan
embassy in Honduras, according to the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, quoting a
Honduran Foreign Ministry press release.
"Certain
governments, in particular the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, in
open violation of the principles of equality, sovereignty, and self
determination, have conducted inadmissible acts of interference, intervention
that should cease immediately. If it continues, the withdrawal of their respective
embassies will be solicited," the press release said.
In
another article, El Heraldo also accused Venezuela of "looking for a massacre"
and "conspiracy managed from Caracas by President Hugo Chavez."
"Plan
Chavez," the paper says, will be led by gang members linked to drug dealers
from Nicaragua. Their objective "will be to rise against authority until the
provocation of gunshots" by taking over airports, blocking roads, paralysing
public institutions, destroying businesses and media, burning vehicles, and
creating confrontations with police and military, according to the paper, which
quoted only "reports" as the source of the information.
President
Chavez said on Friday that the de facto government of Honduras is preparing a massacre
and "inventing the spectre of a Venezuelan invasion".
"They
are preparing a massacre and washing their hands of it in advance. But the
strategy is so clumsy that it will be difficult for the sensible world to
believe," Chavez said.
"How
far will they go? They don't have limits, this mafia, their criminal advisors
who have so much blood on their hands, so much torture and persecution of the
people," he continued.
"Now
[Micheletti] is going about saying that Rafael Correa [president of Ecuador],
Daniel Ortega [president of Nicaragua]
and Hugo Chavez are preparing the invasion of Honduras. Further, he says that
there are Venezuelan terrorists in Honduras throwing grenades and bombs, and he
goes about saying that Chavez will be to blame for the deaths that there'll
be," Chavez said.
"We
respect sovereignty. Who could get the
idea in their head that Venezuela
is going to invade Honduras?
Much less Nicaragua
or Ecuador,
it's an invention. They're inventing the spectre of war now to justify the… assassinations
and persecutions against the Honduran people."
Ramon
Alegria, a campesino leader and a leader of the National Resistance Front
against the Coup in Honduras, told ABN that the media campaign in Honduras is
aimed at demobilising protestors and creating a climate of terror favourable to
the Micheletti regime.
Further,
Chavez said on Friday that the de facto Honduran government is misspending
Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) funds that were assigned to micro-credits
and health policies.
Chavez
explained that Honduras, through agreements negotiated by ALBA, was paying for
half the oil it received from Venezuela within three months, and the rest over
21 years, using that money instead on social policies.
"Zelaya
was using those resources, which are some millions of dollars, for
micro-credits for rural workers, health, and medicine," Chavez said.