THE HONDURAS SAGA CONTINUES

We left it back at President Zelaya's first visit to the borders... I found those visits to have been a legitimate non-violent protest extravaganza and in vast contrast to the military apparatus mobilized by the junta regime in response. The second visit, the 26th of July awakened even further memories of the dark and dreadful Latin America Cold War era when the body of a youth, supporter of the President, was found ditched on the side walk shot dead with apparent signs of torture and severe beatings on him. There is not a doubt in mind what this machine is made of and how far these people are willing to go; granted, they are making it harder for any resolution that would provide amnesty for their crimes - see previous postings with President Aria's proposal - to be part of the bargain.

Inadvertently the mass media, including those considered progressive are adopting the tune of the junta regime by inviting junta representatives - most of whom speak with the same tremor and robotic fashion accustomed to totalitarian regime puppets - and by selling out on the semantics, such as calling the President simply "Mr. Zelaya" and the interim buffoons with their self appointed illegitimate labels. In a democracy where the President is elected, the title of Presidency becomes a stamp, the stuff of practical jokes when used by forcefully self appointed tyrants.

In the game of power, some insist on pointing at the man with the biggest weapon yet some currencies of power are handed free in a multitude of forms such as the stupendous generosity of a news-hungry journalist blasting titles to those who provided the exclusive to a story or an interview.

In the game of political manipulation semantics are the largest currency of power and whoever controls their direction and shape stands as the puppet master. All "popular" archons, from Hitler and Franco to mildest forms in the post Cold War environment such as George Bush and Vladimir Putin understood and manipulated these strings. Most folks disregard as remotely relevant the relation between the names and phrases they individually use to describe people and situations and the effect of that choice to the course of events themselves. Well here we have it... President Zelaya, the elected President of the Honduras, within a few weeks only, and in absence of contrary popular vote, has been reduced into some "Mr Zelaya" where Micheletti, the abominable Sheriff of Nottingham has grown gradually to "President Michelleti..." And just as every other one of his partners to the crime, he carries the title with an air of an elected head of state. Kudos to those in the media – including many in the BBC News - who have not sold out to the junta yet and I hope they will keep it so.

After the grim echo of road ditches strewn with dead mutilated bodies from the streets of Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, the junta went even further, to block the way of visit from OAS delegates to negotiate a solution to the crisis. They actually decided to hold the People of the Honduras a hostage, isolated from the international community in defiance, and with no consideration of the abysmal economic and societal desolation that those people have been surviving through for decades. Under pressure and after they reduced the role of OAS Secretary-General, Jose Miguel Insulza's into that of a mere observer, they withdrew their objection and the OAS representatives are now expected to visit Tegucigalpa at any moment now.

As for that promised decision-by=vote by the Honduran Congress on whether to accept the terms of President Aria's proposal... we are still waiting as the junta seems disquieted at even the remote possibility of the agreement being ratified and avoids taking the risk to consult the actual representatives of the people.

As the junta regime insists on treating this as a "Zelaya punishment row" instead of the constitutional crisis that it is, it becomes more and more obvious that we are facing the usual gang of thugs who again and again have exploited the Latin American elite's fantasy of eternal order to establish another control dungeon. La Casa de los Espíritus by Isabel Allende makes the following of all this a terribly nauseating experience.

What's next? Well, if the junta has left anything standing of the democratic institutions in the Honduras, and the OAS representatives manage to see the Congress voting freely on President Aria's proposal, there may be some good chances for this constitutional crisis to be resolved smoothly. What I am afraid is that the door to those institutions has become narrower and that sooner than later, those who voted for backing up the coup will be the first to end up in line for political extermination just as back in the dark old days. As the media establishment is increasingly losing sight of perspective, and as the militants increase their control against political descent by the minute, time is very much of the essence here...

President Zelaya must immediately return, exercising his right as a Honduran Citizen to return to his country of birth. His association with the Presidency is not threatening to the Honduran democracy as he does not represent or suggest a competing political system - he is not a returning King nor a dictator. An early free election under a short-lived social unity government is at this point paramount. The junta leaders should be punished for the loss of three lives and should be sent off in exile in their pajamas just so they experience the humiliation that they inflicted to President Zelaya… but this is just me fuming and I suppose… they may have to get away with murder until order is restored in the country and a new government will have to decide what to do with them.