Honduras: Overthrow of President Zelaya - full text
Searching more than 75 years of world history
Roberto Micheletti, the interim president of Honduras, on July 29 called for new talks to solve the country's ongoing political crisis, the Reuters news agency reported on July 30. Earlier mediation talks aimed at solving the crisis, led by Costa Rican President scar Arias and hosted in San Jos (the capital of Costa Rica), collapsed on July 22, when Micheletti rejected a proposed accord because it included plans allowing deposed President Mel Zelaya (full name Jos Manuel Zelaya Rosales) to resume his post.
Immediate Context
The crisis was triggered on June 28, when President Zelaya was deposed in a civil-military coup. Early in the morning of June 28, just hours before voting in a national referendum on constitutional reform was due to start, up to 300 soldiers marched into the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa (the capital), forcibly removing Zelaya at gunpoint, before ordering the deposed president into an aeroplane that immediately flew to Costa Rica. Hours later, Micheletti, who was the head of the National Congress (the unicameral legislature) and constitutionally second-in-line to the presidency, was sworn in as the interim president.
At the root of the crisis was a protracted power struggle between, on the one hand, the leftist Zelaya, and, on the other hand, members of Honduras's staunchly conservative political elite, many of whom exerted significant influence over government institutions such as the judiciary. The proposed ballot on June 28 had been intended to gauge the level of support for a referendum to be held at the same time as the presidential elections scheduled for November on the setting up of a body to review the constitution. However, Zelaya's critics said that the ballot was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on presidential service and paving the way for Zelaya's possible re-election. Zelaya, who was constitutionally obliged to leave office in 2010, had repeatedly claimed that the referendum was intended to "deepen participatory democracy".
Reaction and Outlook
Zelaya on June 29 rejected claims made earlier in the Honduran legislature that he had resigned from office, telling supporters that his arrest was akin to "kidnap". Micheletti, however, denied that a coup had taken place and insisted that his assumption of power was legitimate. In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on July 28, Micheletti continued to deny that a coup had taken place, claiming that Zelaya's removal from power was legal.
The coup prompted near-universal condemnation from the international community, including the UN General Assembly, which on June 30 adopted a resolution refusing to recognise the new government and demanding Zelaya's restoration to power. On July 5, the Organisation of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution suspending Honduras from the regional body and instructing OAS Secretary General Jos Miguel Insulza "to reinforce all diplomatic initiatives and to promote other initiatives for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in the Republic of Honduras and the reinstatement of President Jos Manuel Zelaya Rosales".
In a statement issued from the White House on June 28, US President Barack Obama said that he was "deeply concerned" about the "the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya". On July 28, after the mediation talks in San Jos failed to yield a breakthrough, US Department of State spokesman Ian Kelly announced that the US government had revoked the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials serving Micheletti's defacto government, reiterating that the USA was "very focused" on restoring Zelaya to power. The US government had already responded to the coup by cutting US military aid to Honduras, worth around US$16.5 million. The EU responded to the coup by suspending budgetary support payments to Honduras, whilst the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank suspended loans to Honduras, thought to be worth around US$200 million in 2009.
Historical Context
The indigenous inhabitants of Honduras included the Maya, whose civilization extended throughout the region, into Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Spanish colonialists arrived in search of gold during the 16th century, and imported Africans who were forced to work as slaves in the mines. Following independence from Spain in 1821, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America in 1823, and declared full independence in 1838.
Throughout most of its post-independence history, Honduras had been ruled by a succession of dictators and military strongmen. The country was also beset with problems emanating from widespread corruption, street crime, and gang violence. It was one of the poorest and least developed countries in the Americas region. According to some estimates, up to three-quarters of Hondurans lived below the poverty line and around 25 per cent of citizens were illiterate.
In the early part of the 20th century, US-based multinational banana producing companies held significant influence in Honduras, enjoying strong relationships with the country's senior political figures, including the dictator Tiburcio Carias Andino (1932-1949) of the Nationalist Party of Honduras (PNH). Juan Manuel Galvez (1949-54), the moderate PNH dictator who succeeded Carias in 1949, was instrumental in ending a banana workers' strike in 1954.
The Honduran armed forces, which signed a military assistance agreement with the USA in May 1954, first intervened in politics in 1956, deposing President Julio Lozano in a bloodless military coup. Lozano had assumed power in December 1954 after candidates failed to win a clear majority of votes in presidential elections held in October that year, but his removal from office resulted in rule by a three-man military junta.
In elections organised by the ruling military junta, Ramn Villeda Morales, of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH), was elected as President in September 1957, when his party won more seats than any other party in a 58-member constituent assembly.
However, Villeda was overthrown in a military coup led by Defence Minister and Armed Forces Commander Colonel Osvaldo Lopez Arellano, who immediately declared himself as the head of state. During Lopez's rule, nationalist hostility between Honduras and El Salvador resulted in a brief and undeclared war between the two countries, a conflict which also had the effect of shoring up support in Honduras for the military's control of domestic politics.
In elections held in March 1971, the Nationalist Party regained power, with Ramn Ernesto Cruz, the party's leader, being elected as the new president. However, Lopez returned to power in a bloodless coup in December 1972, leading a populist government which redistributed large swathes of land to around one-fifth of the country's landless population. However, Lopez became embroiled in a bribery scandal involving a US-based banana producing company and he was replaced by Col Juan Alberto Melgar Castro in April 1975.
Melgar Castro's rule came to an end in August 1978, when he was deposed and replaced by a military junta headed by Gen. Policarpo Paz Garca, the commander of the armed forces. Garca was elected as the president in July 1980 but, with strong encouragement from the US government, the Honduran military allowed fresh elections to be contested in November 1981. The elections of 1981 resulted in PLH candidate Roberto Suazo Cordova assuming the presidency.
Despite the nominal restoration of civilian rule, the military remained the dominant political actors in Honduras, most notably as a result of the armed forces' political autonomy being reaffirmed in a new constitution enacted in 1982. The military's influence in Honduran politics was also reinforced in the 1980s by its role in assisting US-supported "Contra" insurgents, who were waging a war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. During Suazo's presidency, the military conducted a brutal "dirty war" against left-wing dissidents, including trade union leaders and students. Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who had led the "dirty war", was dismissed as commander of the country's armed forces in March 1984.
Towards the end of his presidency, Suazo attempted to continue in power beyond the single term in office that was permitted by the constitution, but the military intervened and announced the holding of fresh elections. Those elections were held in November 1985, and resulted in Jose Azcona del Hoyo, the candidate of the PLH, being elected as President.
Four years later, in November 1989, Rafael Leonardo Callejas, the candidate of the PNH, won the presidential election, marking the first democratic transfer of power in Honduras between the dominant political parties in almost 60 years.
During the 1990s, Honduras enjoyed a relatively "democratic" electoral system, with presidential and legislative elections being held every four years, including those in 1993 and 1997.
During Callejas's presidency, the country's first human rights commission was inaugurated. The commission later issued a report implicating the armed forces in a series of human rights violations during the 1980s. With domestic and international support for the Honduran military waning, the National Congress (the unicameral legislature) in September 1998 approved a constitutional amendment abolishing the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and transferring those duties to the ministry of defence and public security.
The decline of the military's political influence in Honduras was further accelerated during the administrations of Presidents Carlos Roberto Reina (1994-98) and Carlos Roberto Flores Facuss (1998-2002).
Mel Zelaya won the presidential elections of December 2005, as the candidate of the PLH. He assumed office in January 2006.
