20 July 2009 | News | Free Honduras | Human rights
No Deal
Honduran Popular Movement increases its efforts after negotiations failed in Costa Rica
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“It’s now or never”, a crowd of people would shout in Honduras, when social and trade union leaders who have led the popular demonstrations against the coup d’état are calling to increase the efforts to reestablish democracy.
The talks carried out in Costa Rica this weekend between representatives of the Honduran constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government, led by Roberto Micheletti, failed.
The negotiations – mediated by the Costa Rican President Oscar Arias – did not move forward because the delegation of the de facto regime opposed the terms of the agreement submitted by the Costa Rican president, specifically the first of seven proposals.
This proposal provided that Manuel Zelaya should be reinstated as President, and that he should end his term in office, which ends on January 27 of 2010.
“I am really sorry Mr. President, but the proposals that you have submitted are unacceptable for the constitutional government of Honduras, which I represent (…) In particular, proposal number one is a direct interference with Honduran domestic matters”, said the head of the delegation of the de facto regime, Carlos López.
Some of Arias proposals, accepted by Zelaya’s delegation, included the creation of a conciliation government and to give up the intention of carrying out a popular consultation where the people was asked about the possibility of reforming the constitution.
Arias gave a 72 hour ultimatum to resume the negotiations, and said that the alternative to the talks could be a “civil war and bloodshed, something the Honduran people do not deserve”.
But the de facto government dismissed Arias declarations, while the police was threatening the demonstrators saying it would crush any action that would “alter public order”, something argued by the dictatorship to repress the whole peaceful demonstration.
The Committee of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) published a report during the weekend, documenting the human rights abuses that took place since the coup was staged in Honduras, last June 28th.
According to COFADEH, there are 1155 cases of human rights abuses by the coup regime, of which nearly 1,050 account to detentions, and the rest is divided between threats, attack to freedom of expression, injuries and executions.
