Interview with Honduran resistance leader

Workers World spoke on May 24 with an exiled member of the leadership of the National Popular Front of Resistance to the June 28, 2009, coup that removed the legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya, from office. Ríos, who has been living in Nicaragua for five months, is one of the 200 Hondurans currently forced into exile by political persecution, including death threats. Zelaya himself has been granted residence in the Dominican Republic.

Although many of these exiles are far from Honduras, they follow very closely the events there and participate as much as possible in resistance work.

Ríos wanted to make sure from the start that everyone knew that the Honduran government is unstable and that the coup regime has been unable to consolidate power. He pointed to the failure of the current Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo government to win international recognition, despite U.S. attempts to force recognition and after Washington re-established all U.S. aid to Honduras. Lobo came to office through fraudulent elections held under the coup dictatorship last November.

Another recent failure for Lobo was the stated refusal of the UNASUR countries to attend the Latin America-Caribbean-European Union summit held on May 18 in Madrid if Lobo was present there. The Spanish government had invited Lobo to ratify trade agreements but had to meet with him separately.

Under the Lobo administration there has been an increase of human rights violations against members of the resistance as well as a rampant and uncontrollable general violence in Honduras. Regarding the overall situation, Ríos stressed, “We are living in a decisive transition period where our destiny is being defined.”

The Honduran Supreme Court on May 5 had arbitrarily suspended certain judges and public defenders from the Judges Association for Democracy in San Pedro Sula for defending members of the resistance and for their open political position rejecting the coup. These judges are now on a hunger strike that started on May 17. Since then three other judges have joined the strike in solidarity. WW asked Ríos to comment on the situation.

Those on hunger strike “have been denouncing a precarious situation of the justice system, which has been kidnapped by the same oligarchy that produced the coup d’état,” Ríos said. “At the same time we have another hunger strike by trade unionists from the National University protesting the layoff of more than 180 workers. They are part of the massive layoffs that are being carried out now, something that had never occurred in our country. It is all happening in the framework of the illegal coup.”

“Since Lobo took office,” Ríos said, “eight journalists have been murdered because they were against the coup, and the media outlets where they worked were also critical of the coup. Lobo is unable to guarantee anyone’s life. He recently said that Zelaya could return, but that he (Lobo) could not be responsible for his safety.

“In Honduras,” Ríos continued, “the one who is really governing is U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens. He is the one who in fact set up part of the current government, practically the majority, and who is openly moving around from one end of the country to the other promoting the Pepe Lobo government. On the international level a group of lobbyists is doing the same, financed by the U.S. and its State Department.

“So, here our struggle is clearly anti-imperialist. At this moment, when we talk about reclaiming Honduran institutionalism, it refers to the fact that the one who is governing us is the U.S. State Department, with Hillary Clinton’s politics. Last week the chief of the U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Douglas Fraser, came to Honduras to meet with the army and Lobo. [Fraser’s] presence clearly shows the direct supervision of the situation in Honduras by Southcom and the role of Llorens since the conflict began. That is why we affirm that the U.S. presence is real and permanent and that the one who coordinates at a local level is Hugo Llorens.”

Asked what he thought about the current visit of Lobo to Colombia, Ríos answered: “This is very worrisome for us because that closeness of Lobo with [Peruvian President] Alan García and [Colombian President] Álvaro Uribe and the U.S. government confirms our theory that it is a plan of the imperialists to promote their goal of winning back their power in the region. Uribe is the Latin American president most tied to constant human rights violations and war promotion, and who has recently approved seven U.S. military bases close to Venezuela, which is a flagrant aggression against the Bolivarian process and the rest of the region.

“So, Lobo’s closeness to him [Uribe] is a cause of great concern. Besides, the presence in Honduras of Colombian paramilitaries has been exposed and denounced. The paramilitaries were contracted by Defense Minister Óscar Álvarez during one of his frequent visits to Colombia. So we are talking of a possible ‘Colombianization’ of Honduras,” said Ríos.

Next: The Constitutional Assembly and the violence against peasants in the Aguan region.

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