Editor,
It has now been three months since the democratically elected president of the Republic of Honduras was forced into exile after a military coup. Since President Manuel Zelaya was forced from office at the barrel of a gun for attempting to redistribute wealth to the lower classes, he recently returned incognito and has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa. The puppet regime that illegally took power since this national violation has made it common practice to murder and torture
Zelaya supporters, shut down opposition radio stations and imposed martial law.
How has the U.S. responded to this violation of democracy in its own hemisphere?
The U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States Lewis Amselem said, “The regime should manage security with restraint and caution. President Zelaya should exercise leadership in urging his followers insistently with no mixed message to express their views peacefully.”
Hypocrisy drips from each word of the ambassador. Not only has the interim government shown no restraint at all in its treatment of Zelaya supporters, it is a testament to the character of Zelaya supporters that they have chosen to listen to their angels and have not used retaliatory violence against the security forces of the state who have maimed, beaten and shot them dead for the past three months. Once again, the political leadership of the U.S. seems complicit in that God-awful tradition of claiming to support democracy in rhetoric but supporting tyranny and slavery in action.
What will happen next is unclear, to say the least. The puppet regime is threatening to break into the Brazilian embassy to arrest, and most likely murder, President Zalaya. Let us pray that they are not so foolish, because it is very unlikely that such an action would lead to anything less than a bloody civil war.
Muahjir Salam
UNM student
