Source of Arias' statement--Honduran Constitution "worst in the world."

[Peace Patriot]

I originally read these remarks of Oscar Arias--the initial US-designated negotiator for the Honduran crisis--in Greg Grandin's recent article in The Nation, which quotes Arias. And I just stumbled upon the original account and occasion. Arias was speaking at a forum on Latin America sponsored by the Miami Hairball (er, Herald) two weeks ago. This is an Associated Pukes (um, Press) report published in the Chicago Grimes (Times), reprinted from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. (Don't be fooled--it's all one source.) It's a fairly straightforward account, for all that. I'm quoting the entire section about Arias because I want to comment on the parts that I am underlining or bolding.

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Costa Rica's president warns South Florida conference about Honduran elections

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
2:16 a.m. CDT, September 30, 2009

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias on Tuesday commended the interim president of Honduras for saying he will reverse an emergency decree suspending civil liberties in his country.

But he warned that the results of the Nov. 29 presidential election in Honduras would not be internationally recognized if it is held while interim President Robert Micheletti's government is in charge.

Arias said Micheletti's government "has not moved an inch" in negotiations to return ousted President Manuel Zelaya with limited authority.

He called the June 28 coup that propelled Micheletti to power a "dramatic, historical backward step" that needs to be corrected through free and transparent elections under Zelaya's government.

"It's the assurance of the continuity of democracy in Latin America," Arias said. "The cost of failure of leaving a coup d'etat unpunished is setting up a bad precedent for the region."

Arias spoke at the Americas Conference, a business and political forum hosted by The Miami Herald.

Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, brokered a plan to reinstate Zelaya, but Micheletti's government refused to accept it. He said his San Jose Accord could be modified, but it was "the only thing on the table right now."

"You could have remembrances of a bad Latin American past, insisting on elections under these circumstances and overlooking items in the San Jose Accord," Arias said, addressing the conference in Spanish.

Micheletti said late Monday that he would accept congressional calls for him to reverse the emergency decree he had announced on Sunday. He also said he would allow an Organization of American States team, whose arrival was blocked this weekend, into Honduras. The OAS hopes to convince the coup leaders to bow to international demands to reinstate Zelaya, who was arrested and expelled from the country in June.

The interim government had said the decree suspending freedoms of speech and assembly was needed to counter calls for an uprising by Zelaya's supporters.

Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, since sneaking back into his country Sept. 21.

Arias said the June 28 coup was the result of Central America's governments spending more money on their militaries than on their schools or on fighting poverty.

Also to blame was the Honduran constitution, he said. He called it "the worst in the entire world" and "an invitation to coups."

It lacks an impeachment process, "so I imagine the only way of calling the president to account was to oust him," he said. "This is something that will have to be resolved, and the best way to do this is, if we can't have a constitutional election, is to have certain reforms so this Honduran constitution ceases to be the worst in the entire world."

(MORE - the rest of the article is about Bill Clinton in Haiti)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/sfl-oscar-arias-address-bn093009,0,535910.story?obref=obnetwork

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The Junta has NOT rescinded the decree that suspended all civil rights--free speech, freedom of assembly, habeas corpus. The country is under martial law, with severe repression including murder, torture, rape and unjust detention. This is one of the chief reasons why a fair and transparent election cannot be conducted. The other is that the Junta has purged all persons from the government who support the rule of law!

Oscar Arias is the president who rammed through approval of CAFTA ("free trade for the rich"), in a very close vote in Costa Rica, in which the labor unions' political power was basically busted. He is not a particular friend to the poor. So his sharp criticism of the Honduran Constitution is especially notable. As to specifics, he only mentions the lack of an impeachment provision. Other analysts have criticized this Constitution, for instance, for its restriction of the president to ONE term (4 years) and its absurd provision that Honduran citizens cannot discuss the term limit issue. Provisions like these point to the motives of the Reaganites who wrote it. A one-term president, for instance, can never gather sufficient power to challenge the rule of the "ten families" and the untoward power of the military, on behalf of the poor majority.

One other important item of perspective: The proposal that got Zelaya violently thrown out of his country (in violation of an explicit provision in the Constitution forbidding the exile of any Honduran citizen)--a proposal for an advisory vote of the people on calling a constitutional convention ("Constituent Assembly") to reconsider and rewrite this flawed Constitution ("the worst in the world")--was coming from the labor unions and grass roots groups, and has widespread support in Honduras--it wasn't just Zelaya's idea--and it contained not one word about term limits, and could not have resulted in extending Zelaya's term in office.

The proposed Constituent Assembly is still "on the table" as far as the united Resistance is concerned. THAT is the issue that MUST be addressed--fundamental reform of the Honduran political system to balance the power of the oligarchy and the military with the power of the people of Honduras.

Arias' criticism of the Honduran Constitution is very interesting because it was so strong ("the worst" Constitution "in the world"), but also because the San Jose Accords (the Arias Accords) specified that Zelaya must drop his proposal for a national advisory vote on the issue. If this Constitution is so bad, why in heaven should any leader or citizen of Honduras abandon their efforts to revise it?

Arias's remarks are also quite compelling because of who he is--a close ally of the US and its corporate rulers. He links the pending, egregiously unfair election (to be held under martial law) to the need to revise the Constitution. And although his criticism focuses on the lack of an impeachment provision, he indicts the entire Constitution. It is, indeed, so bad that it cries out for revision. And, indeed, the Junta can hardly expect democratic countries to accept the results of a Junta-run election--a Junta that has so egregiously violated the existing Constitution, has suspended civil rights and brutalized its people.

What I'm wondering is this: Are these Arias remarks "trial balloons" for Obama/Clinton policy--and/or indications of a plan among the key players (the US, Brazil, the OAS and Zelaya) for ousting the Junta and establishing a better democracy in Honduras? (The Resistance is also a key player, but Zelaya and the Resistance are already in accord on the need for a Constituent Assembly.)

The US has stated that it will not recognize a Junta-run election. Is it also preparing to call for a Constituent Assembly, amidst yet stronger measures to oust the Junta?

Arias made the further remark that Central American governments spend too much money on the military and not enough on bootstrapping the poor. This is especially true of the Honduran elite, which not only lavishes Honduran and US money on the military, but it was outraged when Zelaya raised the minimum wage in one of Latin America's poorest countries! Needless to say, US global corporate predators--Chiquita, in the ag field, Gap and others in the clothing industry--are the behind-the-scenes players on that one. Other behind-the-scenes players include John McCain--who has interests in privatizing telecommunications in Honduras--and whose US taxpayer funded "International Republican Institute" has funneled $43 million to rightwing, coup-supporting groups in Honduras, and Pentagon war profiteers and war planners, who want to retain and expand the US military base in Honduras (--the Junta landed the plane carrying the kidnapped president at that US base for refueling on its way out of the country; the US commanders' inaction has yet to be explained).

Take note: With this Honduran base, the seven new US military bases being established in Colombia, and the newly reconstituted US 4th Fleet in the Caribbean, the US military has Venezuela's main oil reserves and operations surrounded. Zelaya had proposed that the US base in Honduras be converted to a commercial airport. Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, has said that the 4th Fleet threatens Brazil's oil fields (not just Venezuela's). Ecuador (south border of Colombia) recently evicted the US base from Ecuador. There is widespread concern about US militarism in Latin America, and huge opposition to US military presence in their countries or near their countries. This is another big factor in the Honduras situation--Obama/Clinton's accord with, or opposition to (or waffling around about) US militarism in the region. They have a stated policy of peace, respect and cooperation in Latin America, but do they have the power, within our government, to enact it (and how sincere is it?)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Such a landmark statement from Arias regarding the hideous Honduran constitution.

Appreciated reading his other remarks, bookmarked your post.

Thanks for posting this, Peace Patriot.