Features » November 13, 2009 » Web Only

‘Blood and Fire’ in Honduras: An Interview with Mel Zelaya (cont’d)

ITT: What went wrong with the [Tegucigalpa] accord? Why aren’t you president right now?

Zelaya: Look, it’s necessary to do things transparently. [The de facto regime] only does things for appearances, and to deceive. Their actions do not reflect the truth. The cause of progress in Latin America is failing. The cycle of times past was filled with coups and military dictatorships.

We don’t want to go back to that. Which is why we’re struggling to rid the country of this military dictatorship–so that, in Honduras, we don’t return to those times. Such as what happened in Nicaragua, Chile, or the Dominican Republic. All those countries suffered through their own dictatorships, too…

ITT: The U.S. State Department recently said they would now recognize elections in Honduras even if you were not re-instated. What’s your opinion on that statement?

Zelaya: The moment that the U.S. recognizes the elections under oppression, they lose the moral quality to question other countries when there are these kinds of problems.

ITT: Why wasn’t an amnesty clause for you included in the peace accord? [The coup regime has charged Zelaya with 18 different felonies, all of them coming after his ouster.]

Zelaya: I won’t beg for amnesty, because I didn’t commit any crime. I returned to Honduras, because I am innocent of all their accusations. But this government of usurpers, they do not follow the order of the law. Laws mean nothing to them. This was a conspiracy [inaudible] created by the two great powers of the country: the armed forces and the rich.

ITT: What about elections? What do you think should happen?

Zelaya: There are certain people who want to have elections–because they want absolution from their illegal actions. But elections now would be like [the recent ballot vote] in Afghanistan. It could be even worse. It could be a disaster. With blood and fire. We want elections with a peace treaty. We don’t want what happened, or is happening, in some other countries…

ITT: Why have you been meeting this week with [U.S. Ambassador to Honduras] Hugo Llorens?

Zelaya: He manifested that the U.S. maintains its position, that it isn’t ready to make a final decision about the elections. And that they are still interested in the restitution of democratic order.

ITT: How much longer will you stay inside the [Brazilian] Embassy?

Zelaya: I will quit being president in January 27, 2010. This is when my term is up.

ITT: What is the most important thing for people in the U.S. to know about what is happening in Honduras?

Zelaya: The return to violence in Latin America affects the security of the U.S., and the image of the American people. The government of the U.S. would be the first in the world to recognize these elections–and President Barack Obama would damage his image as well. President Obama pleaded with me to have a dialogue with the putschists. I agreed. But this dialogue benefited only them. Benefited a dictatorship. And it weakened the positions of the American States. This was not the plan. The plan was to restitute democracy, not to validate a dictatorship.

ITT: So does blame for the treaty’s failure lie with the de facto government–or with how the peace accord was written?

Zelaya: [The accord] was intended to benefit democracy, I can tell you that. Not to benefit the forces of anti-democracy. With the dictatorship, in this case, I would ask the government of the U.S. not to weaken, and to maintain its well-known principles and valorous manners. And to continue to be brave in supporting democracy, as it has been so many times before.