November 14, 2009 Letter to President Obama from President Zelaya

PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC

From the Desk of the President
 
                                                                                               Tegucigalpa, November 14, 2009

H.E.
BARACK OBAMA
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Washington D. C.
 
Dear President Obama:

When we met for the first time after the coup on July 8th with Secretary of State Clinton it was made clear to me and to the world that the position of the Obama administration was to condemn the coup, not recognize its authorities and demand for the return of the rule of law through the reinstatement of the President elected by the people. The official position of your government and its representatives was to sponsor and sign the UN and OAS resolutions in which the third point requires my immediate and safe reinstatement.

As of June 28, 2009 when I was abducted by the military and exiled to Costa Rica, the Congress of the Republic issued an illegal decree which ordered "the separation of citizen José Manuel Zelaya from the post of Constitutional President of the Republic" without the constitutional authority to do so, and with no due process or being summoned to a trial.
 
Since the first meeting with Secretary Hillary Clinton the mediation of President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica was proposed to me even though I consider it counterproductive to dialogue with people who have a guns in their hands. I accepted, considering that it would be under the sponsorship of U.S. and international community.
 
In a statement dated September 4th of this year the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed the following: "The positive conclusion of the process initiated by Arias would be the basis for proceeding with a legitimate election"
 
It is well known that without a visit to Honduras by Asst. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, Daniel Restrepo and Craig Kelly, the de facto regime would have not signed the Agreement. We all know why the Tegucigalpa - San José agreement was broken.

President Oscar Arias himself for sake of the truth declared that "Micheletti never had the will to collaborate and was instead making fun of the international community and sought only to delay time in order to never give up power to whom it belongs."
 
Former President Ricardo Lagos, a prominent member of the International Verification Commission in his statements confirmed this by stating: "Mr. Micheletti broke it", "Micheletti did things he should not have done like saying I'll form a unity government without Zelaya " which caused the failure of this negotiated agreement.
 
The very day that the Verification Commission was installed in Tegucigalpa as part of the agreement we were surprised by the statements of State Department officials in which they changed their position and interpreted the agreement unilaterally with the following statements "... the elections will be recognized by the United States with or without reinstatement ... " The de facto regime celebrated this change and used these statements to their objectives, and immediately finished by not completing and violating the agreement.

Because of that we express as follows:

• The Tegucigalpa-San Jose Agreement is null and void due to unilateral failure of the de facto government. This was designed to be implemented comprehensively and simultaneously, not as twelve separate agreements, it was one agreement with twelve points which had a single purpose, to restore the democratic order and social peace, and this would reverse the coup state, which means the safe return of the legitimately elected President of the Republic. And so, foster a climate of national reconciliation and a clean subsequent constitutional electoral process, , with guaranteed free and equal participation for all citizens of Honduras.

• The next elections should be developed under a legal framework and especially international support from the OAS and UN and that these political and citizen’s rights serve as a basis to ensure a result attached to liberty and transparency. In this, I note that the new position of the United States Government's functionaries is elusive to the initial dialogue of San Jose, relegating an agreement with the legitimately recognized government into the background and trying to translate this agreement into a new electoral process regardless of the circumstances in which it develops. Among other things, public resources are being approved by government officials not legally recognized and charged to a budget that has not been authorized by President rightfully recognized.

Under these conditions, this process, and therefore their results will be subject to being challenged and non-recognition, which seriously jeopardizes the future stability of relations between Honduras and other nations who recognize its results.

As noted by the OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, there is no political environment for elections, as has been observed and pointed out by U.S. Congresswoman Jane Sharkorky in her visit to Honduras where there is a proven environment of human rights violation in Honduras.

On November 6th, we reported our refusal to continue the false dialogue, and therefore the expired and dead text is losing relevance, because an agreement is met in a timely manner. The violation of this by the facto regime is the condition, which for us determines that the agreement ceased to exist.

Undoubtedly precious time was lost in this attempt.
 
The presidential election is currently scheduled for the last week of November. In this case, as Constitutional President of Honduras, and as a citizen representing and elected by the democratic vote of the people of Honduras, I feel obliged to report that under these conditions we can not support it and must legally challenge it on behalf of thousands of Hondurans and hundreds of candidates who feel that this competition is unequal and there are no conditions for a free participation.
 
            • In Honduras the repression under which the Honduran people have been   

            submitted to, where not even the highest authority of the President of the  

            Republic is respected. It has not been considered that in three years I managed

            to get the best economic indicators and make the largest reduction of poverty in  

            the 28 years of democracy, which was overthrown by force of arms. I was never   

            subjected to a trial or due process and I have today, 24 indictments and arrest  

warrants for corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism among others and most

of my cabinet ministers are subjected to political persecution and are fleeing the

regime in different parts of America.

• 3,500 people have been arrested in one hundred days, over 600 people injured and beaten inside hospitals, more than a hundred murders and a countless number of people have subjected to torture committed against citizens who dare to challenge and express their ideas of freedom and justice in peaceful demonstrations, all this makes the November election an exercise in an anti-democratic state of lawlessness, by uncertainty and intimidation by the military, for large sections of our people.

• Conducting elections in which the President elected by the people of Honduras, recognized by your government and the international community, is a prisoner, surrounded by soldiers in the Brazilian embassy, and a de facto president, imposed by the military, surrounded by the powerful in the government palace, will be a historic embarrassment to Honduras and a disgrace to the democratic peoples of America.

• This election is illegal because it hides the military coup, and the de facto state in Honduras, which provides no guarantees of equality, and freedom in civic participation for all Hondurans. It is an undemocratic electoral maneuver repudiated by major sectors of the people to cover up the perpetrators and masterminds of the coup d’état.

• Elections are a process not just a day where you choose, it is a debate, a presentation of ideas, and it’s equal opportunity.

• In my capacity as the President elected by the Honduran people, I reaffirm my decision that from this date, whatever the case, I do not accept, any agreement to return to the presidency, to cover up the coup, which we know to has a direct impact on the military crackdown on human rights of the inhabitants of our country.

Mr. President

At the Summit of American Countries held in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year, where I was present you said:

"We should cease to denounce America for what it has done in the past in the continent and look toward the future." The future you show us by altering your position in the case of Honduras which encourages the abusive intervention of our military castes in the civic life of our state (historical cause of the backwardness and stagnation of our countries in the twentieth century) is nothing more than the decline of freedom and an insult to human dignity, it’s a new war against the necessary processes of social and democratic reforms in Honduras.

President Obama.

Whenever a legitimately elected government in America is overthrown, violence and terrorism win a battle and Democracy suffers a defeat.

We still refuse to believe that the military coup underway in Honduras is now the new, state terrorism of the twenty-first century. And it will be the future for Latin America you told us of in Trinidad and Tobago

We are firmly determined to fight for our democracy without hiding the truth and when a people decide to fight peacefully for their ideas, no weapon, no army or maneuver that can stop it.

In hope for your prompt response, I reiterate my highest consideration,

José Manuel Zelaya Rosales

President of Honduras