Did Obama Fall or Run Aground in Honduras?

By Roberto Quesada
Both Roberto Micheletti and Romeo Vásquez Velásquez have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate -- as if we were not convinced -— that they do not know how to do things. They were sent to usher in a presidential succession and they ended up executing a military coup d’état. As novelist Mario Vargas Llosa would call it: “A military act of great awkwardness”.

With such awkwardness, they have dragged the coup writers, journalists and columnists to form an anthology of ridicule. To these poor colleagues of mine, who had already prepared the ink with which they were going to defend the “succession”, they have nothing left but to throw themselves into the abyss when trying to defend a military coup. Before it is all over, they will have to perform all types of spells to see if in this way they can get rid of the stigma on their foreheads which will identify them wherever they go: coup plotters. I am sure that the most intelligent among them must hate the incompetent duo, for it would be much easier to defend a “succession” than it would a military coup as it has been proven impossible to defend. No matter how expert the informer might be in the art of misinforming or lying.

Injustice, wherever is found, is a threat to justice as a whole

-Martin Luther King Jr.

With so many blunders, this coup plotter duo could even be amusing, if it was not because on their way, they have left about thirty people dead, fellow countrywomen raped, and an endless list of human rights and freedom of expression violations. To all of this, we need to add the wasteful spending during the crisis which directly or indirectly causes other deaths by depriving hospitals of funds they need for materials, supplies, and equipment.

What is a game for the Micheletti-Vásquez is not a game for the majority of Hondurans and the international community which respect human life. So many efforts, so much time, and so much money have been expended to try to resolve this crisis, but it has been impossible, given that in the Micheletti sector verbosity is abundant.

Unfortunately, Tom Shannon added himself to this cheap circus, for his purpose, as it has been made public, was not to find a resolution to military coup in Honduras but rather to unblock US Senator Jim DeMint's opposition to his nomination as US ambassador to Brazil and the nomination of Arturo Valenzuela to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. As stated by Sen. DeMint: “State Secretary Clinton, and exiting Assistant Secretary, Thomas Shannon, have guaranteed me that the United States will recognize the results of the Honduran elections, whether or not president Zelaya is reinstated”, and just like a magical act, the veto against Valenzuela was suspended.

What Mr. Shannon did in his recent interview with CNN was not just provide an interview or news; he sent a very direct message so that the coup plotters could exploit it to the maximum and to demoralize the Honduran people.

If such negotiation is truly at the cost of the people of Honduras, the Obama administration and anyone else who doubts it, must understand that the military coup in Honduras was not perpetuated against President Zelaya but also against the Honduran people, and it is these people who now demand for this military coup to be reverted. The only venue is to reinstate President Zelaya.

The uneasiness among the people of Honduras toward the US has begun to manifest. Mr. Obama called hypocrites those who criticized the US’ insufficient intervention to resolve the Honduran crisis by reinstating President Zelaya. Now, the basketball of hypocrisy is the hands of the other basketball player, Mr. Obama. We need not to forget that Republican interventionism has been active both before and during the military coup. The visits to Honduras by the "Miami Trio" and Sen. DeMint himself have plainly proven this.

Something curious occurred in the US when Mr. Obama announced Hillary Clinton to be US Secretary of State; the African-American Community and some within the White community were not convinced by this appointment since Hillary had ferociously attacked Mr. Obama during their presidential primary campaign. Also, many believe that even if Hillary is a Clinton, she is much more conservative in her politics than her husband Bill. Now, with Mr. Obama's first political challenge in the Western Hemisphere, doubts flourish. There has been the ambivalent language, the lack of firmness, the supposed negotiation at the cost of the Honduran people without regard for the deaths, the violations to human rights, and the deaths that can happen if the situation worsens when supporting elections in the context of a military coup.

Everything moves us to suspect whether or not Mr. Obama has someone in his administration who is mishandling his errands, so that he would lose this round. Or perhaps it is possible that the Obama administration has underestimated the situation in Honduras and that its policy has run aground and left no exit to the crisis. Maybe the administration undervalues us for being a small and poor country.

It is only fair to think that national coup plotters in communion with the US have mocked the Honduran people and the international community. If the military coup persists, and there is no reinstatement of President Zelaya and still the US insists in recognizing the elections, Latin America must understand the message well and realize that this gives it justified freedom to defend itself against military coups.

Lastly, given the inability to resolve the Honduran crisis or worse, the willingness to use this crisis to advance his administration's interests in the Senate, Mr. Obama -- in order to differentiate himself from the coup plotters -- has the moral obligation to not accept the Nobel Peace Prize. The speech should be easy, and simple. It should be titled: “Did I fall or run aground in Honduras?”.

Note: Roberto Quesada, whom the great American writer Kurt Vonnegut described as «a witty, lively and talented writer», was born in Honduras in 1962. In 1986 he founded and directed the literary magazine SobreVuelo. He is the author of El Desertor (short stories, 1985), Los Barcos (1988), which was highly acclaimed in the US, and El Humano y la Diosa (1996), that was awarded the prize of the Instituto Latinoamericano de Escritores in the U.S.A. His third novel, Big Banana, published in 1999, has been well received in the United States, as also was the Spanish edition (Seix Barral, 2000). His work has obtained excellent reviews in The New York Times Book Review and Babelia (El País literary supplement, Spain). He has lectured in many American universities and at present is First Secretary of the Honduras Embassy in the UN. His short stories have appeared in anthologies published in Germany, Russia, Great Britain and Spain. His recent novel Nunca entres por Miami (Mondadori, 2002) has been several weeks in the bestseller list in the US. His new novel, La Novela del Milenio Pasado, has just been published by Tropismos.