Honduras at the guillotine of neo-liberals
November 30, 2005
Two candidates (out of five) representing the right political sector, were really fighting for the post of the president. Porfirio Lobo of the «National Party» («Partido Nacional») and Manuel Zelaya from the «Liberal Party» («Partido Liberal») held election campaign that left rather an indefinite impression about the plans of these neo-liberal politicians to drag the country out of permanent social and economic, power and all other crises.
According to experts in Latin America studies, these “twin candidates” actually did not present any program of actions in reforming, reorganisations and renewal of the country, coming down in the course of election campaign to vulgar verbal fights, mutual accusations in corruption and all other vices even up to “secret sympathies to communists”.
Perhaps only one actual problem was more or less distinctly touched upon by the candidates to presidency: fight against crimes. Zelaya declared that he would increase the number of policemen, increasing their strength from 9 to 18 thousand men and would try to carry out the program of “reeducation” of juvenile delinquents (they are about 40 thousand sitting at prisons and “acting” at large). Candidate Lobo promised to use his fist of iron to dispose of juvenile gangs and guaranteed introduction of capital punishment once again.
And besides crimes, the country is swept by other problems. 40% of population are totally illiterate. There is shortage of accommodations. In order to cope with the problem to the minimum, it is necessary to build 700-800 thousand accommodations of the “popular type”. Unemployment has gone up to 60%! The poverty level is catastrophic: 80% of the Honduranians live from hand to mouth, moreover, the majority of them just for 1 dollar a day.
And in such anti-humane conditions of living the both candidates held their election campaigns under neo-liberal slogans, not failing to mention several times about the social justice, free education and other never reached goals of bourgeois-representative democracy.
Influence of the United States in Honduras (the word “domination” offers itself) is traditionally rather strong. It has especially been intensified in the years of fighting guerilla movement in Central America. Numerous operations against guerillas in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua were developed and held from the US military bases in the country. Left organisations and groups in Honduras were practically irradicated, and now it hardly worth asking a question, why left party “Democratic unification” («Unificacion Democratica») has so limited an electorate. That is why “competent” declarations of neo-liberal experts that the Honduratians “traditionally” reject “red marxists” by virtue of their conservatism can call for nothing but irony.
One may say that ordinary Honduratians “survive” owing to dollar money orders of relatives working in the USA (they are about 1 million). That is why, when we sing “Honduras, Honduras where is your working class” the answer is clear: it has gone to the USA in search of a job.
New North American ambassador in Tegucigalpa Charles A. Ford in the most favourable tone spoke of the democracy in Honduras and expressed hope that the elections would be extremely clear. He has congratulated the candidates to the presidency with another “triumph of democracy in the country”.
Population of Honduras is 7 million, and 3.9 out of them has the right to vote. They had no real choice. Manuel Zelaya Rosales, one of the “neo-liberal twins”, was elected the new President of Honduras.