HONDURAS: IN LIEU OF A PEACE PROCESS

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 25 Jul 2009

Adrian Bergmann - Matagalpa, Nicaragua, July 23, 2009

There are well-founded arguments to say that deposed president Manuel Zelaya has violated the Honduran constitution. I do not thereby imply that his illegal actions are entirely immoral. There are immoral actions that are not illegal, just as there are laws that are immoral. The Honduran constitution is a conservative one, and contains a number of questionable elements – like the one prohibiting presidential reelection.

Then, two wrongs have never made one right either. Seizing a presidential palace by armed force and deporting a president at the break of dawn, would be a case in point. If there are certain doubts about the unconstitutionality of president Zelaya’s actions, there is none when it comes to the actions of the Honduran coup-makers. If all else could lead to long discussions, the deportation of a national is not a remotely «gray» area in national nor international law.

Then comes a ray of bright constitutional thinking, in the form of the Honduran constitution’s article 3; «No one owes obedience to a usurping government nor to those who assume public functions or occupations by armed force […].» (No exception is made, even if the new rulers are better liked than the old ones.)

To clear up any doubts, the process of constitutional change initiated by president Zelaya would not have extended his present term, but would, if anything, have enabled him to run as a candidate in the 2013 elections. That being said, I fail to see the «democratic problem» in presidential reelection.

Theoretically, 100 percent of Honduran voters could favor president Zelaya’s reelection, but would be currently be denied that. Rather, I see a significant democratic problem in denying voters the choice of carrying on with a ruling or former president after «free and fair elections». As an instrument for preempting continuismo (the tendency of Latin American leaders to never step down), it is a bad one; illegitimate means are not justified by legitimate goals, but should invigorate the search for better instruments.

Now, the «epicenter» of this current quake is of course located at far more profound levels than the contradictory readings of a constitution. Like with a television series, if you haven’t been following the series, you’re unlikely to understand the episode. Hondurans has been unable to liberate themselves from their past, and denied the opportunities to formulate new visions of a desirable future.

With a finger or foot in play in the wars in bordering El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua during and up and until 1996, Honduras and Hondurans have had plenty of war, even if little of it played out on its own territory. Peace processes in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua put an end to the wars there, and while the extent to which they are being lived up to is highly debatable, those visions of a beautiful society were at least born. While thirteen years of upstream struggle in Guatemala have yielded too little fruits, there is a compass needle, a reference point guiding society’s path. No such visions, and no such guides have seen the light of day in Honduras.

It would be very difficult to fit a Honduran peace process into a short text, so I won’t aspire to do that. However, the need for one – today – should be emphasized, as should a couple of urgent components. While they are hardly the only components, or even the most important ones, the need for them have been made obvious to redundancy in the past weeks.

The two processes should be viewed as linked, complementary and progressive. One is the reform of the armed forces, including troop reduction. The armies are undoubtedly the greatest national security threats in Central America. The goal should be the abolition of the Central American armies, a regional process learning from Costa Rica’s example of 1948.

A couple of weeks before the coup d’etat, new homicide data for Honduras was released, showing an approximate twenty five percent rise over the past year, and that firearms were used to commit some eighty percent of them. A second process should see to the progressive regulation, control, decommissioning, and destruction of firearms and ammunitions, eventually leading to their prohibition and place in a dark corner of the graveyard of history.

It’s high time to demilitarize and disarm Central America. (Start! Now!) Demilitarization and disarmament are also common starting-points for peace processes, and present opportunities to redirect much-needed funds and efforts to peace, developmental and environmental tasks. Not least, together this all makes for a pragmatic approach to dealing with the ongoing crisis in Honduras. For the accusations of constitutional crimes (the quake), there are clear procedures for how to deal with those in the courts.

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Adrian Bergmann is a Norwegian conflict worker with TRANSCEND–A Peace, Development and Environment Network, globally, and an MA candidate with the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies, England. He has lived and worked in Central America since 2006.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 Jul 2009.

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