For Immediate Release: July 9, 2009 Contact: Hector Perla, 310-985-1673; Dana Frank, 831-600-5525; Suyapa Portillo Villeda, 626-403-0514; Forrest Hylton, 347-742-4401
Latin America Experts Call on Clinton to Oppose Early Elections Option in Honduras Anything Less Than the Urgent Restoration of Zelaya to Office "Would be an usurpation of the will of the Honduran people" They State in Open Letter Santa Cruz, CA - Over 35 scholars and experts on Latin America sent an open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urging against the idea of early elections in Honduras as a possible resolution of the current crisis resulting from the June 28 military coup d'etat. Stating that "Anything less than the urgent restoration of President Manuel Zelaya to office would be an usurpation of the will of the Honduran people," the signers urged Clinton to enact forceful sanctions on the coup regime to ensure Zelaya's prompt reinstatement. The signers include Harvard emeritus professor John Womack; scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker Saul Landau; Central America expert Hector Perla, and authors and Central America experts Greg Grandin and Dana Frank, among others. "It's supremely important that we not make any concessions to those who have perpetrated military coups. By doing so, we establish a dangerous precedent," said Dana Frank, Honduras expert and professor of history at U.C. Santa Cruz. The letter also notes that the coup regime has suspended civil liberties, thus eliminating conditions under which free and fair elections could take place in the near future. The signers also debunk the pretext for the coup - Zelaya's supposed plans for reelection - by pointing out that it would be almost impossible for Zelaya to be reelected before his successor assumes office next year, and that Zelaya stated before June 28 that he did not seek reelection. The full text of the letter follows: ________________________________ July 9, 2009 The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary Clinton, We, the undersigned, are concerned by proposals by some in Washington's foreign policy circles to push for early elections as a solution to the crisis instigated by the illegal and anti-democratic coup d'etat in Honduras. Anything less than the urgent restoration of President Manuel Zelaya to office would be an usurpation of the will of the Honduran people. Following resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American States calling for Zelaya's immediate and unconditional return to office, the U.S. must ensure his prompt restoration by enacting forceful economic sanctions against the regime. Each day that the illegal coup regime remains in office further jeopardizes the capacity for Honduras to enjoy free and fair elections in November, let alone in an earlier time frame. Elections currently would take place under a coup regime that has suspended civil liberties, and where the conditions for free elections do not exist. Such an election would not have international legitimacy. Democracy has to be restored before a legitimate election can take place. It is also important to avoid making concessions of any kind to the coup government, as it would create a terrible precedent, showing other anti-democratically minded and power hungry individuals that it can be worthwhile to carry out a military coup in order to advance their political agendas. Since illegally seizing office by abducting the president at gunpoint and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica, the coup regime has suspended civil liberties and treated the Honduran people as the enemy. They have revoked freedom of the press by imposing a media blackout, assaulted and detained journalists, clamped down on protests, detained hundreds of supporters of President Zelaya, and killed at least two people by firing on demonstrators. The regime claims it acted in order to prevent an unconstitutional move by President Zelaya to extend his term. Yet an examination of the facts reveals this to be a dubious excuse for an assault on democratic institutions and the rule of law. President Zelaya's proposed survey would have been a non-binding poll of public support for an additional ballot - on whether a constitutional assembly should be created- in the November elections. The actual question read: "Do you agree that, during the general elections of November 2009 there should be a fourth ballot to decide whether to hold a Constituent National Assembly that will approve a new political constitution?" Zelaya was not running for reelection in November, nor would he have been able to. Therefore, Zelaya's successor was always slated to be elected in November, to be inaugurated in January. Zelaya had also stated before June 28 that he did not desire reelection. Possible reelection was not the reason the military carried out the coup. They opposed Zelaya's policies, and they have at times been honest about their true motives: "It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government," Honduran army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza explained following the coup. "That's impossible." There is one legal, just, and democratic solution to Honduras' current crisis: the swift restoration of President Zelaya and the imposition of economic sanctions-trade as well as aid, on the illegal regime. We call on the U.S. to take the lead in ensuring this outcome. Sincerely, Marc Becker Associate Professor of Latin American History Truman State University* Blase Bonpane Director Office of the Americas Michael Brun, PhD Dept. Economics Illinois State University Ron Chilcote Professor Economics University of California Riverside Aviva Chomsky Professor of History and Coordinator, Latin American Studies Salem State College Noam Chomsky Professor of Linguistics Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jaime Concha Professor of Latin American Literature University of California, San Diego Luis Duno Gottberg Associate Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literature Rice University, Houston, TX Steve Ellner Professor Political Science University of Oriente, Venezuela Professor Raul Fernandez Social Sciences University of California, Irvine Dana Frank Professor of History University of California, Santa Cruz James Goldfarb Devine Professor of Economics Loyola Marymount University Greg Grandin Professor of History Director of Graduate Studies New York University Mark Healey Assistant Professor of History University of California, Berkeley Daniel Hellinger Professor of Political Science Webster University Forrest Hylton Assistant Professor of Political Science/Int'l. Relations Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) Misha Kokotovic Associate Professor Department of Literature UC San Diego Saul Landau Professor Emeritus California State University, Pomona Jorge Mariscal Director, Chicano/a-Latino/a Studies University of California, San Diego Luis Martín-Cabrera Assistant Professor of Literature University of California, San Diego Gilda L. Ochoa Associate Professor of Sociology and Chicana/o - Latina/o Studies Pomona College Tanalis Padilla Associate Professor of History Dartmouth College Diana Paton Reader in Caribbean History Newcastle University, UK Hector Perla Assistant Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz Deborah Poole Professor, Anthropology Johns Hopkins University Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda CFD Fellow, History Department Pomona College Gerardo Renique Associate Professor, Department of History City College of the City University of New York William I. Robinson Professor of Sociology and Global and International Studies University of California-Santa Barbara Dr. Victor M. Rodriguez Professor, Department of Chicano and Latino Studies California State University, Long Beach Dr. T.M. Scruggs School of Music University of Iowa Victor Silverman Department of History Pomona College Steve Striffler Doris Zemurray Stone Chair in Latin American Studies Professor of Anthropology University of New Orleans Christy Thornton Director and Publisher North American Congress on Latin America Miguel Tinker Salas Professor of History Pomona College Mark Weisbrot Co-Director Center for Economic and Policy Research John Womack, Jr. Professor of History, Emeritus Harvard University Stephen Zunes University of San Francisco *Institutional affiliations are listed for identification purposes only. -- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
