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'Who Rules in
Honduras?' The Coup's Legacy of Violence
ANCHORS: Annie Murphy, February
13, 2012
GUESTS: Manuel Zelaya, Edgardo
Valeriano, Rafael Callejas, Fulton Armstrong, Crisencio Arcos
RACHEL MARTIN: The
United Nations recently named Honduras the most violent country in the world.
The government there is weak, it's a major stop for drug traffickers and corruption
is rampant. Many analysts say things got markedly worse there after a
2009 coup that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya.
Annie Murphy reports on the struggle in Honduras to recover from the coup's
fallout.
ANNIE MURPHY: When it comes
to coups and dictators, Latin America has a difficult past, but today, the
region is largely democratic. Dictators and coups are supposed to be a thing of
the past. In Honduras, the last dictatorship ended in 1982. So, the
June 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya was a shock to the
region and a surprise to world leaders, including Zelaya.
MANUEL ZELAYA:
(Through translator) The shooting started around 5:20 am. I went downstairs and
there were about 250 masked soldiers around my house. All you could see were
their eyes. I said, my God, what is this?
ANNIE MURPHY: The
military whisked Zelaya out of the country on a tiny plane and left him in
Costa Rica.
MANUEL ZELAYA:
(Through translator) They took off, and there I was, the democratically elected
president of Honduras, standing in my pajamas in the middle of a runway in
Costa Rica. And I said to myself, so this is that great new future everyone is
talking about for Latin America?
ANNIE MURPHY: Zelaya
was speaking from his home in Honduras's capital, Tegucigalpa. He spent two
years in forced exile. Last year, he returned home as part of
negotiations for Honduras's re-entry into the Organization of American States,
which it had been kicked out of after the coup.
The coup itself was
ordered by members of the Supreme Court and carried out by the military. Zelaya had been pushing
for a poll to gauge public interest in rewriting the constitution and the
court ruled that it was illegal. After ousting Zelaya, the coup government sent
the army and police into the streets, then began arresting, beating, and even
killing anyone who protested against the new government. According to an
official truth commission, they were responsible for at least 20 deaths in the
immediate aftermath.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
ANNIE MURPHY: Edgardo
Valeriano is a medical doctor and researcher. He'd never been political, but
after the coup he joined protests demanding democracy and Zelaya's return. Like
many protestors, he was beaten. His skull was split open by batons, and police lashed
him with chains. Valeriano says he feels like Honduras went back to the 1980s.
EDGARDO VALERIANO:
(Through translator) I remember those years well. I was a student in medical
school back then, and I remember how some students would show up tortured by
the police - stories on the news about other young people that had been
brutally tortured, whose bodies would turn up at different spots in the
capital. There was an atmosphere of strong repression.
ANNIE MURPHY: Former
president Rafael Callejas ruled from 1990 to 1994, and his election
marked the first time in 60 years that power was transferred peacefully
between two major parties. He believes Zelaya is too brash but says
illegally ousting him has had huge repercussions.
RAFAEL CALLEJAS: We're
in a crisis. We went back 20 years. We lost again the issue of democracy. Who
rules in Honduras now? Really, who rules? The people, the system or strength? I
mean, that's the question that has to be solved.
ANNIE MURPHY: For
over a century, the U.S. government has had significant influence in Honduras,
from the era of U.S.-owned banana plantations, to military and economic ties
that endure today. Because of that history, the U.S. response carried a lot of
weight. Fulton Armstrong is a former analyst for the CIA and was working as a
senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the coup. He
watched the U.S. response unfold.
FULTON ARMSTRONG:
After the coup, a lot of the line that was taken by pro-coup people here in
Washington was that the coup was the restoration of democracy, and they sold
that in Washington. But when you look at what was actually happening in
Honduras, he really was part of a continuation of halting but definitely
forward-moving consolidation of democracy.
ANNIE MURPHY: Despite
the call for Zelaya's return by nearly every other country in the hemisphere,
Washington chose to back new elections, which were condemned internationally
because of widespread violence and repression. Polls were held and, five months
after Zelaya's ouster, Porfirio Lobo was elected president. Eventually, the
crisis was declared over but violence has only increased. Crisencio Arcos was
ambassador to Honduras in the early '90s, and has been involved in the country
for decades. He says the Obama administration failed to take a firm position
regarding the coup.
CRISENCIO ARCOS: And I
think that this stems from the following: that Latin America is an
orphan in our foreign policy. I don't think we have a defined policy. We
never defined - we had one during the Cold War, they were our allies.
After the Cold War ended, we never redefined, we never retooled.
ANNIE MURPHY: Many
here say the outcome of the coup is what pushed Honduras to where it is today -
the world's most violent nation. Edgar Valeriano, the doctor who was beaten by
the police.
ANNIE MURPHY: It was
shocking that in the 21st century, they could pull off a coup. If the president
can be taken out of a country and have his rights taken away without a trial or
anything, he says, then what becomes of your average citizen? For NPR News, I'm
Annie Murphy.
RACHEL MARTIN:
Reporting for this story was supported by a fellowship from the investigative
reporting program at the University of California Berkeley's journalism school.
