So Now What, Ambassador Llorens?

By Roberto Quesada

Unfortunately, the military coup in Honduras and the United States’ announcement to recognize the elections, without reversing the military coup is another coup to all of Latin America and undoubtedly a regression in relations. The other day, while waiting at a traffic light, I told another driver who was wearing a hat with the image of Obama, “Obama has let us down in my country Honduras, they are about to recognize some elections under a state of terror”. The traffic light changed and each of us accelerated and quickly lost sight of each other.

My four-and-a-half-year-old son, who is one hundred percent North American and pure gringo was in the back seat, and he said to me, “Papi, Obama is a good person.” I nodded yes, and he insisted on defending his president... “Yes, but you told me that Obama had done something bad to the people of Honduras”. So I had to explain to him that Obama still had time to prevent Honduras from sinking deeper. I told my son that when he grew up he would be able to understand these issues better and that hopefully Obama would not allow Honduras to sink him as well in his first serious foreign policy challenge in Latin America.

Ambassador Hugo Llorens, as you can see, this military coup concerns even children. Even at a distance, they know that things are not well. They hear the news, they see the adults worried, and they sense things. Perhaps that’s why my son asked me, “Papi, Michelleti is spelled with M like monster, right?” Uruguayan writer, Mario Benedetti, used to say that the US has had set opinions about us Latin Americans for centuries and that that is why we should not only have our own opinions about the US but be politically active and vote in US elections. As such, you should know that because we are geographic neighbors we have much in common. And due to the large Latin American community that exists in the US, we are also constantly paying close attention to what is going on in your country. Anything that happens in the US has an impact on Latin America, especially on small countries like Honduras.

Nobody believes the story that Hondurans should resolve this issue "Honduran style". That banner belongs to the de facto government. The US has always intervened in our country. Perhaps the rumor that the Obama administration allowed the Republicans to twist its arm on Honduras is true. If so, then I think Mr. Obama's decline is imminent.

Many of us still hope that the US will change its ways in Latin America and that it will adopt positions emphasizing human equality and dignity for their own sake, regardless of ethnic background, creed, or religion. At the Summit of the Americas, celebrated this past April in Trinidad and Tobago, in which Mr. Obama promised a new era of relations with Latin America, he gave us much reason to be optimistic. He succeeded in removing much of the distrust we naturally feel for the US. Unfortunately, the announcement by the US government that it would recognize the elections in Honduras without reversing the military coup only dashed our hopes.

We, the truly democratic people of Honduras have already overthrown the military coup at the intellectual, informative and moral level. But then came Thomas Shannon’s announcement which gave oxygen to the dictatorship which was beginning to expire. You are aware that this move served to turn back the hands of time and return the US to the days when it created and backed dictators in Latin America. Recall President Theodore Roosevelt's comments about the dictator Somoza in Nicaragua, "Yes, he is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch".

Do not think for a moment that the US’ announcement to support an electoral process conducted under a military coup which has left in its wake more than thirty people dead, four thousand violations of human rights, and repressions of freedom of speech is only having an impact on Latin America. No. Inside the US, labor unions and immigrant, religious and artistic organizations are repudiating what has happened and believe that if the US does not reverse the military coup in Honduras, the time will come for payback at the ballot box.

When my son and I returned home that day, I had to explain to him what I had said about Mr. Obama since his mother is a US citizen and a strong activist supporter of the president. Our son has been raised with images of Barack Obama in books and posters. And so the concern for people like myself, who have children of both Honduran and North American blood, is that we live practically in two countries that are very different and distant from each other, but yet share much in common, thus creating certain cultural dilemmas.

I had to explain to my son that a military coup has been perpetrated against the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales. I explained that soldiers took him out of his bed at gun point at dawn and flew him (while still in his pajamas) to Costa Rica.

While we were looking at photos related to the coup, my son asked why they had done that, and I easily responded, "Look, you as a US citizen have medical insurance, a doctor, immunizations. You go to a nice pre-kindergarten. You have everything. You even have a cafeteria where you eat for free. You go to the park and you play and it is safe. This is what President Zelaya wanted for children in Honduras. He wanted children to not have to walk barefoot. He wanted them to have enough food to eat, to be able to play, to not die because of a lack of affordable medicines. He wanted them to have the opportunities to study. In short, he wanted the Honduran people to one day have a better life. He wanted them to have a lifestyle at least half as good as that enjoyed by children in the US.

So then my friend Ambassador Llorens, what else do you need now to rescue democracy in Honduras. Does it take a genocide, a massacre? Andres Pavón, the president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) has already alerted us about a massacre plan to help perpetuate the dictatorship in power. Not too long ago, Mr. Obama spoke at the funeral for the three victims of the massacre last Thursday at Fort Hood. He said, “No religion could justify these cowardly killings”. I would add to this that absolutely nothing justifies a military coup or the recognition of elections under a military state of terror in which more than thirty people have already lost their lives.

You know all too well that social injustice in Honduras runs deep. You know that President Zelaya is innocent. You know that the dictatorship lead by Mr. Micheletti and Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez have systematically violated human rights. You are aware that the only way to reverse the military coup is to reinstate the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya Rosales. The upcoming elections will only worsen the crisis, and those who support them will be nothing more than direct accomplices. Meanwhile, what Mr. Obama expressed in Trinidad and Tobago about a new era of respect in relations between the US and Latin America becomes wet paper, and the only option for Latin American countries is to align themselves more with the southern part of the hemisphere and strengthen their relationships with other continents... regions with which we can share a mutual respect.

Before going to bed, my son asked me, “Where does Obama live?” I responded, “In Washington”. Half asleep already, hugging his teddy bear, my son said, “I want you to take me to Washington. I need to speak to Obama”.

Note: Roberto Quesada, whom the great American writer Kurt Vonnegut described as «a witty, lively and talented writer», was born in Honduras in 1962. In 1986 he founded and directed the literary magazine SobreVuelo. He is the author of El Desertor (short stories, 1985), Los Barcos (1988), which was highly acclaimed in the US, and El Humano y la Diosa (1996), that was awarded the prize of the Instituto Latinoamericano de Escritores in the U.S.A. His third novel, Big Banana, published in 1999, has been well received in the United States, as also was the Spanish edition (Seix Barral, 2000). His work has obtained excellent reviews in The New York Times Book Review and Babelia (El País literary supplement, Spain). He has lectured in many American universities and at present is First Secretary of the Honduras Embassy in the UN. His short stories have appeared in anthologies published in Germany, Russia, Great Britain and Spain. His recent novel Nunca entres por Miami (Mondadori, 2002) has been several weeks in the bestseller list in the US. His new novel, La Novela del Milenio Pasado, has just been published by Tropismos.