Honduran people confront the police during a march condemning the 2009 coup. File photo.
By Hugo Chávez – Jun 28, 2009
Editorial note: This editorial was penned by the late Hugo Chávez, the former president of Venezuela and leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, approximately 14 years ago. Its original context lies in the aftermath of the US-backed coup that ousted then-President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya. While Orinoco Tribune typically adheres to a publication timeline of articles within 15 days, an exception has been made in this instance. The enduring relevance of this piece, in light of the current presence of another progressive administration led by President Xiomara Castro in Honduras, coupled with the recurrence of coup dynamics, justifies its inclusion.
You are under the mud,
a continuous sword.
Our honour and destiny
that guard the seas.
May the young learn it
and may the miracle
of bread and fish resurge.
You return from everywhere,
rising from your dignity.
You are among us.
Under the same night.
Sharing the light, every day.
From the poem Morazán lives [Morazán vive] by the great Honduran poet Roberto Sosa, I felt compelled to recall these verses as a means to express that on this very June 25, we have witnessed the resurrection of Morazán embodied in the people: thousands of women and men, like a tidal wave of dignity and patriotic fervor, have emerged to illuminate the darkness that had aimed to extinguish ALBA, into which Honduras has been integrating itself.
Let us delve into the realms of memory to understand where we come from and where we are going, to unveil the wellspring of heroism that lies within the Honduran people, and to understand their decision to cast aside the burdens that attempted to bind them eternally to ignominy.
The bridge that the Honduran homeland represents for Our America has perpetually been the target of every Yankee administration, dating back to the era of the nefarious William Walker, a disastrous gringo adventurer. With the complicity of the Nicaraguan oligarchy, he even ascended to the presidency of Nicaragua until his overthrow in 1857. Walker stands as the epitome, the undeniable embodiment of the Monroe Doctrine, and it is crucial to recall the place of his demise: he was shot on the shores of Trujillo, Honduras, in 1860. This historical symbol resonates today, perhaps more than ever before.
Honduras, the homeland of Lempira and Morazán, has suffered the scourge of Yankee imperialism from its very inception. An agrarian nation that the Yankees sought to reduce to a vulgar banana republic, despite its enviable mineral wealth. Above all, it is home to a resilient and dignified people. Through tyranny, the Yankees aimed to establish it as a stronghold for imperial dominance against Our America. The oligarchic rule has consistently suppressed the participation of the people, subjecting them to the cruelest dictatorships in Central America, beginning with the economic crisis of 1929. Names such as Tiburcio Carías Andino and Oswaldo López Arellano, symbols against all efforts at dignity, have been etched in the Honduran blood. To this we must add another dictatorship of a different nature, but equally violent and oppressive: Honduras has endured the most blatant experiments of neoliberalism, the last tyrant, seeking to defy his inevitable downfall through death rattles and with the support of military figures devoid of any popular backing. How can we doubt that the April 2002 dossier finds resonance in the upward social movement undertaken by our sister nation, Honduras? Can we not expect the calamitous reaction when the historic atonement to Cuba was achieved, right in San Pedro Sula, under the leadership of our brother Mel Zelaya and the revolutionary Patricia Rodas?
Honduras and its people face a challenge as they stride toward a new dawn, birthing hope and change. The Yankee forces seek to ignore the sovereign decision of President Zelaya to propose a Constituent Assembly. They aim to halt the new constitutional doctrine that crosses our Patria Grande. It was inevitable that the sons and daughters of Morazán would give everything to protect it alongside their courageous president, and together with the honorable Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, defenders of Honduran and Pan-American dignity. Honduras resolutely rejects the harbingers of death, of the likes of John Negroponte, Otto Reich, and the Posada Carriles networks. Honduras declares that there shall be no more US bases dedicated to military intervention in the region. Honduras firmly states “never again” to the Palmerola and El Aguacate bases. Honduras rejects oligarchic parasitism and says “yes” to the direct and definitive participation of the people in their own conquests. As the eternal Bolivarian hero Francisco Morazán once said, “Posterity will do us justice.” With the clarity inherited from their own people, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) responds: “With the ancestral strength of Iselaca, Lempira, and Etempica, we raise our voices for life, justice, dignity, freedom and peace.” The future of Honduras is at stake, and it counts on the endearing support and spirit of the sons and daughters of Bolívar, our brothers and sisters in the cause.
And what would have happened if Telesur, always timely and courageous, had not been present in Tegucigalpa on June 25?
“There is a silence that hides, and another that reveals,” poet Gustavo Pereira reminds us. The silence that hides is personified in the ignorant, the cunning, the presumptuous, and the falsely wise. The one that reveals, is personified by the humble, who are often the true sages.
Honduras: Psychological Operations Against Xiomara Castro’s Government
Our Telesur, without the extravagant machinery of the major transnational media, revealed to the entire world the heroic deed undertaken by tens of thousands of humble men and women, who were fighting to safeguard their freedom and the self-governing system they had established.
Leading up to the events of June 25, the chained media oligarchy had been vehemently denouncing these same people and their president. But when they decided, people and president, to throw fear to the winds and defend their homeland, the same infamous tactics used in Venezuela on April 11, 12, and 13, 2002, were employed in Honduras: the criminal imposition of the silence that hides.
“The ALBA governments, upon learning of the allegations of destabilization in Honduras, declare our solidarity and commitment to mobilize alongside the Honduran people,” expressed Roy Chaderton, our ambassador to the OAS, in an interview with Telesur, reflecting the unwavering dignity that has always characterized him. There is no doubt that, just as ALBA has successfully defended Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela and other countries against imperialism’s interventionist attempts in alliance with national oligarchies, ALBA will stand in defense of Honduras and its determination to advance necessary transformations. We must never forget that the cause of Francisco Morazán aligns with that of Simón Bolívar, both united by the vision of a Republic of Nations: a strong political entity. That both recognized that without consolidating unity, each of our Republics would remain subjugated, dominated. Thus, Honduras’ entry into ALBA represented another great step toward unity, along with the recent incorporations of Ecuador, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda on June 24. We must recognize the political will of President Zelaya’s government: a government that has demonstrated its dignified role in the transformative era that Our America is living today. It is precisely this that infuriates the imperialists and their bourgeois collaborators the most.
The night is high and Morazán is watching.
Invaders filled your dwelling place.
And they split you like dead fruit,
and others stamped on your back
the teeth of a bloodthirsty lineage,
and others plundered you in the ports
and piled blood upon your sorrows.
Is it today, yesterday, tomorrow? You know it.
Brothers, dawn is breaking.
And Morazán is watching.
Yes, it is dawn. However, today, Sunday, June 28, marks the day of the significant consultation for the Honduran nation. As expressed in Pablo Neruda’s poetic verses in his work “Morazán,” from his Canto General, this is the moment of collective vigilance of all the peoples of Our America and the world, the hour for us to stand alongside Morazán, ensuring that the courageous Honduran people attain their long-awaited and well-deserved freedom: the freedom to determine their own destiny, a right that belongs solely to them.
ALBA is coming, Yes… And Morazán is watching!!
We shall overcome!
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/KZ
