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An Inside View of the Coup in Honduras

I received an email from a reader who knows something about what is going on in Honduras and Latin America in general. It is enlightening and speaks for itself.

Dear Dr. Jones,

  I wanted to respond regarding your having posted "The so called coup in Honduras".  My wife and I live in Honduras and have been here now almost a total of eight years.  I work for the U.S. government; I am a believer; I love Jesus Christ and He has, I believe, grown considerably within me over the last several years.

  I also very much appreciate your writings and our Father has used these writings as well as His perfect Word (both incarnate and and written) to bring about His growth within me.

 

  I have been following President Zelaya's activities very closely since he entered office in January 2006; there is no doubt he is corrupt.  After having spent 23 of my 52 years in Latin American countries I have come to realize that corruption is part and parcel of Latin American politics... we could certainly say the same regarding the U.S. (and probably every other country in the world).  As you might say, this is to be expected in a world that has not yet come fully under Jesus' dominion.

 

  Zelaya was deposed for one reason and one reason only - he had become a threat to the (approximately) eight very wealthy families that have ruled Honduras over the last twenty years.  Because my profession includes and requires  knowledge of "host" national laws, the fact is that Zelaya did not break any laws that would have removed him from office.  Had he actually done so, the Supreme Court would have instructed the Honduran Attorney General's office to issue an arrest warrant; the warrant would have then been served by the Honduran police.

 

  Prior to the coup, Zelaya in fact specifically invited both the Court and Attorney General to do precisely that if they could prove that he had violated any Honduran laws or the Honduran constitution.  The fact that they used the Army, not the police, to remove Zelaya speaks volumes.

 

  Zelaya is the first president in over twenty years that has made a genuine effort to improve the lot of the poor in Honduras; it wasn't through handouts but through the creation of jobs that paid a livable wage.  This is what angered the eight families more than anything else; they were also extremely concerned that the referendum that Zelaya wished to conduct would show the world (and the Honduran people) that Zelaya was in fact a very popular president... among the poor, that is, who make up the vast majority of the Honduran population.  Zelaya was gradually eroding the control that the wealthy elite have in Honduras and that scared them.

 

  I have been dismayed at the lies that have been put out by the elite - it is worth mentioning that the country's four major newspapers are owned by three of the eight families and they have been printing nothing but lies regarding Zelaya.  (These three families are the Canahuatis, the Facusses and the Rosenthals - fascinating in that each of these families originated in Palestine.  The Canahuatis and Facusses are Palestinian Christian Arabs, the Rosenthals are Palestinian Jews.)  They also own the country's major radio and television broadcasting stations - these were the stations that were not shut down on the day of the coup and the days following.  The wealthy elite here own the Congress (much as our Congress is under the sway of wealthy U.S. or transnational corporations); they own the Supreme Court and, of course, they own most of the Honduran military.  All the elite are related by blood and marriage and Honduras is their perfect fiefdom.

 

  I believe Zelaya is actually a "closet" evangelical believer; by "closet" I mean he has to be very careful since this nation is still primarily Roman Catholic... and it saddens me to see that many of the evangelical churches supported the coup and the Roman Catholic hierarchy (Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez) fully supported it.  Zelaya has his issues with corruption but it really seemed to me that he has been trying to rule as cleanly as it is possible in this very corrupt Central American nation.

 

  I fear that by deposing an authority, and all authority derives from our Father, these people have sown the wind and we may see the nation sink into a civil war.