01) MINING INTERESTS DICTATE CANADA'S POLICY

(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Johan Boyden

A few months ago, their little office across from Montreal's Concordia University was an ordinary consulate. Now it is a busy center organizing solidarity with the people of Honduras.

     "They have suspended all our salaries, even the budget for the expenses over here," Justo Alfredo Crespo Castillo, Consul General, explained to People's Voice in a special interview in late September. "So this is quite a new experience."

     The consulate is now getting support from the Honduran community in Montreal. Unlike the embassy in Ottawa, the staff have sided with democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, and against the Micheletti regime.

     "It was the right thing to do," added Roberto Irahetu, media director for the consulate. "You support the constitution and the president. How can you go with people like Michelleti? It is like dealing with a drug cartel."

     They are far from satisfied with the Harper government's position on the coup.

     "Canada will not take a firm position. We have been waiting for Harper to state clearly that what is happening in Honduras is a coup d'état and Zelaya should go back to government," Crespo said. "It doesn't surprise us that the Harper government is not condemning this coup d'état firmly," he explained.

     The consul believes Harper has adopted this stance because of Ottawa's relationship with Washington, as well as Canadian mining interests. "For example, when Zelaya got to office he said no to any more open pit mines. He even procured new rules for mining which are held-up in Congress. No doubt his coup d'état will benefit the Canadian mining industry who are waiting for the opportunity to get back to open pit mines."

     "With Obama also I think it is a double-standard," Irahetu said. "Obama is a good seller of dreams, but another side of his agenda is as predictable as Bush. All the right-wing diplomats from the Bush era - the ambassadors in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala - are still in place."

     Crespo has no doubts that the United States administration from Bush to Obama were deeply involved in the preparation of the coup. "What they did not agree with the putchists on was the way to remove Zelaya from government," he said.

     According to the Consul, the putchists created within Hondura's judicial system legal preparations to overthrow the President. "But something fell at the end. Two days before they decided to carry out the coup d'état, the putchists were not agreed about throwing Zelaya into Costa Rica. So that is when the United States stepped away from them and did not openly support what they did."

     "Zelaya has been confronting the businessmen who were [not] paying taxes, or complying to regulations," Crespon said. "This originated a confrontation. At the end of the first six months when he took power, President Zelaya was visited by the chief of the army of Honduras who said he had been approached by some members of the business sector to oust him from office. At the time he said no. But little by little the business men found a way to convince the military."

     The support of the Honduran military also comes from their response to Zelaya's reforms, the Consul said. "They see the coup as an opportunity to get back to business - like Hondutel, the telecommunications firm, as well as the immigration office and customs. Now, even in the diplomatic service we expect to see some new ambassadors who belong to the army."

     "There are a lot of underground goings on now," Irahetu said, describing mass night-time power black-outs and arrests over Tegucigalpa, especially of teachers, trade union leaders, and also some members of the cabinet. "One of the cabinet belonging to Mr. Zelaya's Presidency recently had her office vandalized. Unionist, Wendy Elizabeth Avila, was just killed by the army," Irahetu said.

     The consulate expects to see more sharply repressive actions by the Micheletti government. "Not many people may want to say this, but if this kind of repression continues I think the country may finish in civil war," Irahetu added.

     "I believe very much the popular organizations will stand and continue fighting, no matter what," Crespon said. "They have shown all the way the unity, and solidarity against the suppression of democracy in Honduras. At the same time they have stated always that they will keep the protests on the street peaceful."

     "The teachers union receives a lot of credit. Traditionally the union of the teachers have been the strongest against the military dictatorships. The difference is that [now] it is not just the teachers. There is a combination of all sectors of life," Irahetu said. Both men talked about unions, the church (which is on both sides of the conflict), and peasants' organizations.

     "They know that the fight is not only to get back President Zelaya, but they are now struggling for their own - for change. This is a struggle between classes. They are the ones who have never had access to the system, to the economy, to the benefits of the system. So now they have the opportunity to be included," Crespo said.

     "It doesn't matter who comes back to power, they will have to talk to the national resistance. This popular coalition with over sixty nine different organizationsà are the ones who will define the future of Honduras," Irahetu said. "And of course the future of Michelletti is already defined as a criminal who will have to face the music in an international court."

     "Probably in all of Latin America they thought that the one place where the population would remain quite was Honduras, Irahetu said. "They were totally wrong."

     (The full transcript of Johan Boyden's interview with the Honduran Consulate staff in Montreal can be found at the Rebel Youth blog, http://www.rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com)