Reply #3: A Junta-run election will put "lipstick" on this pig of a coup.

[Peace Patriot]

There are only four weeks until the election, and the country has been under martial law for four months. Many leftist activists have been arrested, beaten, tortured, raped, and some have been murdered. The police and the military are everywhere, and there is no freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of transit or habeas corpus protection.

An election under these circumstances may suit Bushwhacks just fine--it's their kind of "election"--and none other than James Baker, the "fixer" of Florida 2000, is all for it (WaPo op-ed last week). But anyone who believes in democracy can only contemplate this brutal farce with disgust. And it will in no way solve the crisis in Honduras, where a huge leftist democracy movement is demanding fundamental reform of Honduras' political/government system.

The issue of a return to the rule of law, and reinstatement of the rightful, elected president, Mel Zelaya, is the current focus of the crisis, but it is not what the problem in Honduras is all about. The problem is rule by the rich elite and the military, in the interests of U.S. global corporate predators and war profiteers. Honduras is a U.S. client state, like Colombia--and is more and more resembling Colombia, a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. Brutal rule by the rich is enforced in both places by billions of U.S. tax dollars in military aid, and the U.S. military is present in both countries, in Honduras at the Soto Cano U.S. military base (where the Junta plane carrying the kidnapped president stopped for re-fueling, while the U.S. military stood down), and in Colombia at numerous military bases (seven new ones recently established).

Mel Zelaya has been robbed of four months--going on five months--of the only term allowed him in the Honduran Constitution--a Constitution written by Reagan's henchmen in the 1980s, which limits the president to ONE (4 year) term, in order to prevent a president from achieving sufficient power to challenge the oligarchy and the military on behalf of the poor majority. That has not, and will not likely, be rectified. Zelaya was doing things like raising the minimum wage. All that--good government policy to help the poor--has been brought to a violent halt, and undone. The candidates of the two main parties are front men for the coup. The left is dealing with murders and wounds (one congressional candidate has broken bones, inflicted by the police), a complete lack of justice, four months with no media, no money, of course (while John McCain has larded $43 million U.S. taxpayer dollars on rightwing groups in Honduras, through the International Republican Institute of the USAID), and cannot conceivably mount effective political campaigns in the next four weeks, even if all illegal and unconstitutional restrictions on them were lifted tomorrow.

The international community has said that it will not recognize this election, and it should not. The election needs to be postponed for four months, and Zelaya restored to office to finish the full term that he is entitled to. This is what the Honduran people want, as opinion polls have already established (Zelaya has a 67% approval rating!) Once that is done, independent outside organizations, such as the OAS and the Carter Center, need to be brought in to poll the Honduran people on the following:

1. Whether or not to restart the entire election process, at the nomination stage, and what timeframe would be fair to all parties?

2. Whether or not to form a Constituent Assembly (constitutional convention) to discuss and amend the Honduran Constitution, with all segments of society participating. (--the original plebiscite that Zelaya proposed as an advisory vote; this time it should be binding).

This is what is needed to restore peace and tranquility, and the rule of law, to Honduras. It cannot be quick. Why should it be? The Junta has thrown the rulebook out, and committed many atrocities. This cannot be mended by a Junta-run election, even if Zelaya is restored to office. The rich elite has ripped Honduran society to pieces. It needs REAL mending. And a country-wide discussion of the fundamental law of the land would be an excellent way to put "Humpty-Dumpty" back together again in a new and better way.