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<div class="Section1">
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 0in;"><b><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="6"><span
style="font-size: 21pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; font-weight: bold;"
lang="EN">Truth in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><font color="black"
face="Georgia" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">One year after the coup, the battle over who gets to
expose—or avoid—recent history begins.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt;"><font color="black"
face="Georgia" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;" lang="EN">By
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://inthesetimes.com/community/profile/3543"><b><font
color="#24418d"><span
style="color: rgb(36, 65, 141); text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: bold;">Jeremy
Bigwood</span></font></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="background: white none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;" lang="EN"><img
id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:part1.08060906.09040906@quixote.org"
border="0" height="231" width="310"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div
style="border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: medium medium 1pt; padding: 0in 0in 8pt; background: white none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in; background: white none repeat scroll 0%; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; text-align: right; line-height: 12pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"
align="right"><font color="#666666" face="Helvetica" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"
lang="EN">Army soldiers clash with members of the National
Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) workers union during a protest
against
the establishment of the Truth Commission, on May 4, 2010, outside the
Government House in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tegucigalpa</st1:place></st1:City>.
(Photo by <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orlando</st1:place></st1:City>
Sierra/AFP/Getty Images)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238) none repeat scroll 0%; text-indent: 37.5pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><font
color="white" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Helvetica; color: white;"
lang="EN">"The only purpose of [Lobo's Truth Commission] is
to support the Honduran regime's continued efforts to whitewash those
responsible for the coup and its violent aftermath."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="background: rgb(204, 204, 204) none repeat scroll 0%; line-height: 150%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><font
color="black" face="Helvetica" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Helvetica; color: black;"
lang="EN"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=xa-4b732e316a86f2a0"
ost="1"><font color="#24418d"><span style="color: rgb(36, 65, 141);">SHARE
THIS ARTICLE</span></font></a>
<span class="addthisseparator2">|</span> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Helvetica" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Helvetica; color: black;" lang="EN">
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b732e316a86f2a0">
</script></span></font><font color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">One year after Latin
America’s first coup of the century, two opposing truth commissions—one
official, one not—have set to work to determine why and how Honduran
President Manuel Zelaya was removed from power. At stake is the
legitimacy of
the Honduran state and its president, issues of hegemony versus
democracy, and,
not least, the historical record.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">The Honduran Armed Forces staged a coup
d’état against Zelaya on June 28, 2009. Upset by Zelaya’s leftward
drift, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region>’
oligarchy, which has long ruled the impoverished Central American
nation of 7.3
million, backed the coup.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">In response, Zelaya supporters, as well as
those simply opposed to the rupture of democratic rule, formed a vocal
opposition movement, the National Front of Popular Resistance. The coup
government’s reaction, which was immediate and continues to the
present,
has involved “thousands of human-rights violations,” according to
the human-rights <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">organization</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> for Justice
and
International Law. Scores of opposition activists have been
assassinated,
according to Honduran human-rights organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">On January 26, the Honduran Congress granted
amnesty to all those involved in political crimes during the coup. The
next
day, President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo was inaugurated. Yet with the
exception of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
and allies like <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Colombia</st1:country-region>,
most of the hemisphere’s nations, including <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Argentina</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
and
the Organization of American States still did not recognize Lobo’s
government. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">On May 4, Lobo came up with a remedy,
launching “La Comisión de Verdad” (known in English as the
“Truth Commission”). Although truth commissions are usually
conducted in post-conflict situations—like in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region> or <st1:country-region
w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region>
in the 1990s—<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region>’
is to take place during ongoing conflict. The commission’s stated aims
are to clarify what happened before, during and after the coup that
removed
Zelaya from power, and to produce recommendations so that last year’s
events will never be repeated. Eduardo Stein, a former vice president
of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
was
picked by Lobo to lead it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">Lobo’s “Truth Commission” has
already yielded diplomatic results: since its incorporation, eight
nations have
joined the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
in
normalizing relations with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">Along with Stein, the government commission
will comprise two academics (the present and former presidents of <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Honduran</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">National</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>),
a Canadian career diplomat and the ex-head of the Peruvian Supreme
Court. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
will fund the
commission, rather than the Honduran government.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">Bertha Oliva, director of the Honduran
Committee of the Detained and Disappeared, is not impressed. “The only
purpose of [Lobo’s Truth Commission] is to support the Honduran
regime’s continued efforts to whitewash those responsible for the coup
and its violent aftermath,” she wrote on Huffington Post. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">To counter the official commission, the
Honduran opposition movement is establishing its own investigative
body. Six
human-rights organizations will launch “Comisión de la Verdad”
(known in English as “Commission of the Truth”) on June 28, the coup’s
anniversary. It will be “responsible for making known the human rights
violations committed against thousands of Hondurans,” according to a
May
6 commission press release. The commission—which will include a Nobel
laureate, a writer and a priest—will last one year. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><font
color="black" face="Georgia" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black;"
lang="EN">With the official “Truth
Commission” backed by the Honduran oligarchy and the U.S. government,
and
the oppositionist “Commission of the Truth” backed by the Latin
American Left, the two commissions will likely become respective
standard-bearers
for the Honduran government and the still-vibrant opposition
movement—and
the continuing continental struggle between haves and have-nots. Truth
or no
truth, don’t expect an amicable resolution to <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Honduras</st1:place></st1:country-region>’
continuing
political crisis any time soon. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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