EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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22jul09
Open Letter to the President of the United States of America
For a peaceful and democratic resolution of the political conflict in Honduras
Honorable President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama:
In these moments, our beloved country, Honduras is headed towards a possible civil war. Months, or perhaps years of economic and diplomatic isolation awaits us. We have reached this situation due to a military-civil coup that kidnapped and deposed the democratically elected president, who had come to power by popular vote, as the law of the nation mandates. With this, twenty-eight years of democracy were broken, and one of the most consolidated democracies in Latin America has been put to an end.
The effects of this violation of the democratic principles in which our nation rests, will be felt not only in our territory and its inhabitants, but also in the rest of the region and possibly, even in your own country. Diverse reports from serious sources reveal that diplomatic representatives of your country, economic groups and members of the Republican Party and the secret service of your government not only had previous knowledge of the military-civil coup, but funded and were also the intellectual authors of the coup. If this is true, the United States and your government would be co-responsible of the violent interruption of the constitutional order in Honduras and the blood bath that already has begun in our homeland.
Mr. President, Honduras was among the countries in the world that saw with great hope your arrival to the presidency and the deepening of democracy in your country. We applauded your expressed desire to establish new type relations with the region that would end the arrogance and the traditional intromission in our internal affairs. We sincerely believed in your promise to support the deepening of our democracy, too. But Honduran feminists are now profoundly disappointed to learn that there is a possible involvement of the United States government in the events that led to the coup de etat on 28 June 2009 in Honduras.
We are also worried about the position of your Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, that tacitly gave the de facto government a political and legal recognition to act as a legitimate partner in the negotiation process mediated by the President Arias in Costa Rica, a negotiation process that we now know has failed due to the intransigence of the de facto regime. It is hard to imagine that the government of the United States would sit down to negotiate with a political group that has carried out a terrorist act against the democratic system. We ask ourselves, why would this be acceptable for Hondurans?
The weak condemnation of your government of the military-civil coup in Honduras and the lack of a strong adherence to the proposals made by the United Nations and the Organization of American States, and other democratic governments of the world, are leading to a situation of violence in our country that we do not deserve. We are a people that struggles permanently against violence, poverty, and the lack of civil rights, but we have always demonstrated our firm decision to build a democratic society where we can live in peace, free of poverty and without gender, racial and class injustice, like most women and men in the planet. Honduran feminists would like to participate in the construction of the future of our country, with the solidarity of all governments and people of goodwill that share our ideals and wish to end the use of violence as way of conflict resolution in private and public life within the framework of a democracy.
For these reasons, feminists in Honduras ask you as the President of the United States:
1. To lead an exhaustive investigation of the involvement of institutions and state officials of the US government in the military-civil coup in Honduras
2. To end the intromission of the US government in Honduran internal affairs
3. To deny any kind of political and legal recognition to the de facto government in Honduras and that your government adopts firm measures that contribute to the reinstatement of the state of law, the constitutional order and the democratically elected president.Tegucigalpa, July 22, 2009
Feminists in Resistance
 | This document has been published on 23Jul09 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |