It took a lot of rightwing/corporate/war profiteer money to get that "Big Lie" embedded in a lot of people's gray matter. It is completely untrue.
Mel Zelaya did NOT "try to abolish term limits." Here is the entirety of the resolution that he and most the labor unions in Honduras and other progressive groups proposed for an ADVISORY vote of the people:
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""Do you agree that, during the general elections of November 2009 there should be a fourth ballot to decide whether to hold a Constituent National Assembly that will approve a new political constitution?"
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They wanted the people to have a chance to vote on whether or not the people should form constituent assemblies to discuss all provisions of the Honduran constitution--which was, by the way, written by Reagan's henchmen during the Reagan regime's horrendous, bloody wars in Central America and favored rule by the "ten families" and the U.S.-funded/controlled/"trained" Honduran military.
If passed, the resolution would have set up a country-wide vote on whether or not to do this--whether or not to DISCUSS the current constitution. And if that theoretical vote--that proposed vote--had been "yes" then the matter would have gone to the national assembly for endorsement and implementation. Likely the idea would have failed at that point, because the "ten families" (richest people in Honduras) control the legislature. But at least the idea would have been out there, that the people have a right to discuss and amend the basic law of their land.
Zelaya's proposal not only said NOTHING about term limits, it was NOT BINDING.
And for THIS, the military shot up his house in the middle of the night, terrifying his wife and family, dragged him out of bed and put him on a plane with blackened windows out of the country--a direct violation of the Honduran constitution, which forbids the forced exile of any Honduran citizen--stopped at the U.S. airbase for refueling and dumped him, in his pajamas, on the tarmac in Costa Rica?
For proposing an advisory vote to discuss the constitution--a vote desired by many progressive groups--the elected president gets treated this way?
Furthermore, even if the vote to have a vote had won, and even if the "ten families" legislature had yielded to the will of the people and agreed to hold the second vote--the one that would have created constituent assemblies--and even if the constituent assemblies had been implemented, then it would take YEARS for people to discuss their constitution, to draft a new one or amend the old one, and to agree on the entirety of the fundamental law of the land, and then THAT would have required another general vote.
Lots and lots of opportunities for our corporate rulers and war profiteers to subvert this process and keep their bloody talons in Honduras with the Reagan constitution. Mel Zelaya--a young, energetic, progressive president--would have been dead of old age before the Honduran people could actually influence their political culture and turn the country toward social justice and independence.
NOT ONE WORD in that proposal ABOUT TERM LIMITS.
But here is how that "Big Lie," invented in Washington DC, got into your gray matter.
http://www.borev.net/2009/06/national_news_outlets_bring_th.html
An innocent resolution that challenged the rich elite in Honduras, and opened a discussion on the constitution, a) was never cited, and b) was TURNED INTO something IT WASN'T, by the CORPORATE PRESS.
The REASON for overthrowing democracy in Honduras had NOTHING TO DO with "term limits" whatsoever. It had to do with Chiquita International's and U.S. clothing retailers' sweatshops in Honduras (Zelaya had raised the minimum wage), and John McCain's telecommunications interests (Zelaya opposed privatization), and Dyncorp and the Pentagon (wanted to build new U.S. military bases in Honduras; Zelaya and 99% of Latin Americans oppose U.S. military bases in their countries), and a host of other U.S. transglobal corporate interests in exploiting and dominating the Honduran people.
You have been the victim of a CORPORATE "narrative." The whole gang of Corporate 'News' crap rags did the same thing, in lock step--never quoted the resolution, lied about what it contained. And they did it to justify a rightwing coup d'tat.
It makes me very mad when these bastards succeed with their goddamn lies. This one really sticks in my craw because then--THEN--they started shooting the Honduran people. Hundreds of peaceful protestors and journalists have been murdered, thousands imprisoned, tortured, raped, beaten, tens of thousands spied upon, fired from their jobs and subjected to various kinds of oppression.
What about them, hm? You just write them off. In your view, if they HADN'T demanded political change, if they HADN'T protested this outrageous coup d'tat...they would still be alive, or, if they managed not to get shot dead in front of their students, as one teacher did, or they managed not to get decapitated and their headless body left on the road as a "lesson" to all, as another protest leader did, they could...um...just forget being raped, tortured, imprisoned.
You make it sound so easy. Just...don't protest, don't try to improve the lot of the poor, don't propose anything that offends Washington, just be good little pawns and serfs and all would be well.
You blithely state that Zelaya would still be president and then cite the "Big Lie" of those who overturned Honduran democracy about "abolishing term limits" as the reason that he isn't. First of all, that in itself is NOT TRUE. His term would be up by now. The current Honduran constitution limits the president to ONE four year term. He was elected in 2006. He had six months to go when he was thrown out of the country at gunpoint. The proposed vote that he championed for the progressive groups would have had NO effect on HIS term of office. And he never, ever, ever said one word to indicate ANY intention to stay in office beyond his term. So he WOULDN'T "still be prez now."
Secondly, the bigger untruth in this Corporate "Big Lie" about "term limits" is that those who overturned Honduran democracy WANTED a democratic country and would have continued to put up with a higher minimum wage, subsidized bus rides for poor workers, school lunches for children, conversion of the U.S. air base to an international airport (badly needed in Honduras) and the other reforms that Zelaya implemented or proposed. They would NOT have put up with it. They wanted him out NO MATTER WHAT. They would have made up any lie, any excuse, to get rid of him. And the Corporate Press would have gone right along with it. And they desperately wanted to prevent ANY reform--and even ANY discussion of reform--that would have curtailed their power to rob, loot, pillage and control the Honduran people.
You repeat their "Big Lie" and don't bother to look at the bigger picture--who Mel Zelaya represented, and who the coupsters and the Corporate Press represent.
Even if the Honduran people had wanted to give the president, say, two terms--after a long and arduous constitutional process--what's wrong with that? Why shouldn't they have that right--a right that WE had for most of the history of United States, and by which the people of THIS country elected FDR and the "New Deal" to FOUR terms of office? We lost that right in the mid-'50s because the Republicans in this country wanted to prevent a "New Deal" from ever happening here again. Why can't that be subject to discussion? Because the Reaganites wrote "one term" for the president into the Honduran constitution?
The president of Costa Rica stated that the Honduran constitution is "one of the worst in the world." That's because it was written by the rightwing bastards of the Reagan regime. That shouldn't be open to discussion? WHY did the Corporate Press and their transglobal corporate masters want NO discussion of this?
Think harder. And question what you read and hear from the Corporate Press! Please! And when you read/hear something that serves transglobal corporate interests in the Corporate Press, do some research. Don't just accept it. They lie! They really do. Outright, bald-faced lies--like this one--and many subtler lies.
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