Honduras has become an open hunting ground, with State forces indiscriminately hounding the opponents of the democratorship in power, acting with impunity and unchecked by law. Anyone can become a target, all they have to do is stand up and protest, blurring the carefully doctored image featured throughout the U.S., the European Union and mainstream media networks, which shows a Honduras that has resumed business-as-usual after the November 2009 elections. This premeditated and complicit silence over the real situation in Honduras also brings up critical questions about the depth of democracy in many other countries.

-How many days were you touring Europe?

-Some 15 days in all. Besides participating in the meeting of the IUF’s International Executive Committee, which I am a member of, I attended a number of events with sister organizations from France and Switzerland, invited by SOLIFONDS٭.

-Your aim was to break the silence that surrounds the situation in Honduras, a silence that reeks of complicity…

-Yes, we went over there to denounce what’s happening in the country, the persecution suffered by the leaders of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) and anyone who opposed the coup in Honduras.

As we’ve said before, the coup had very negative political effects and it also wiped out many labor gains and demolished much of the progress achieved by the labor movement in many areas.

-Business has used the coup to its advantage...

-Business has not only used the coup to its advantage, it was the main promoter of the coup. Even before the coup, a major part of Honduras’ business community had been pressing the government to pass a law that would allow employers to hire workers on a temporary basis for up to three years. They claimed that this measure would expand employment in the country. They also pushed for half-day work schemes. These measures were rejected by the workers, who mobilized to prevent them from being implemented.

The proposed bill never made it to Congress, but after the coup and under the rampant repression that prevails, employers are nonetheless implementing these measures. Because the Ministry of Labor does practically nothing to stop them, and if a worker decides to bring an action in court, it’ll be years before it even gets to trial.

Fast food restaurants have fired everyone on their payroll and rehired them as part-timers, paying them only for half-days, which are now six hours long instead of four hours, but the pay is still a half-wage.

It’s a form of payback against the minimum wage that was implemented under the government of Manuel Zelaya, which only covered 80 percent of the cost of the minimum basic food basket anyway.

-Honduran businesses, which are known for their staunch antiunionism, are probably very happy with the current repression of the labor movement, am I right?

-You’ve been to Honduras and you know that things have never been easy. Now there’s a selective persecution that is targeting trade union leaders and the most prominent activists of the National Popular Resistance Front. The number of murdered political activists, peasant leaders, teachers, journalists and unionists just keeps growing. Every day we hear of a new episode of violence or harassment. 

The IUF has condemned this and demanded an investigation of the case involving our fellow worker Porfirio Ponce, vice president of our trade union, in which hooded men burst violently into his home, stole his computer and left a pool of blood on his bed… and nothing happened! There was no investigation! That’s the kind of thing that’s happening here!

-And these actions are committed with the utmost impunity...

-Exactly. The worst part is that it’s the same groups that in the 1980’s, during the low-intensity conflict in Central America, murdered and disappeared over 300 Hondurans, most of them members of the popular and peasant labor movement, seriously undermining the movement at the time.

-Direct repression and criminalization of social protest...

-That’s the case, for example, with the Trade Union of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (SITRAUNAH), where eleven members of their governing committee were arrested by the Police. This major union has been negotiating its Collective Bargaining Agreement since July of last year. The members who were arrested have been released, but only on bail, so they can’t participate in the negotiations.

The Prosecutor charged these unionists with sedition, misappropriation and coercion, for their involvement in the occupation of the UNAH facilities. This process of criminalization that our fellow unionists are being subjected to can also be seen in other places where the strategy is to paralyze social dissent.

-And portray an image of peace and harmony…
-Right. The elections served the interests of the United States, intent on showing the world that everything had returned to normal in Honduras, so that way it could call on the countries that had severed diplomatic ties with Honduras to reestablish them.

-How is the Resistance’s morale?

-Everyone’s holding up well and morale is high. In the 1980s we went through a similar experience of great repression, so today we’re more prepared to face it, and we all agree on the need to join together and fight as one.

We have been suffering coups since 1956, with the “gringos” getting their way in our country, and the drug lords and organized crime and corrupt politicians doing as they please… everyone can get away with anything here. The only way to end this is through a politically aware movement of the people. Which is why we’re moving forward with our plan to gather signatures for a Constituent Assembly.

-Are you worried about the cloak of silence that has fallen over the situation in Honduras?
-I certainly am. During this trip to Europe, more specifically when I was in the south of France, one of the organizers scheduled several interviews with reporters who asked us about the coup, and we told them about the resistance movement in Honduras and how we needed their support. During my stay, they called one of the editors of Le Monde -the editor in charge of Latin American affairs, in fact-, to see if he was interested in interviewing me, and he told them that after the elections Honduras had been taken off the newspaper’s agenda.

 
That’s the result of the huge lie that was spread throughout the world, which is that all of Honduras’ problems were solved with the elections, and that all the hardships and miseries of the people were over. And that’s just terrible. It’s like telling the government: “Go ahead, keep doing whatever you want, because we have other concerns now.”

When the press keeps silent, repression becomes invisible. Which is why we value so dearly the support we do receive from committed media, the support you’ve given us through IUF Latin America’s denunciation efforts, the support we’ve had from TELESUR, and the Internet itself, which has helped us raise our voices.

-Does the arm the Police broke still hurt?

-It hurts a bit, but what hurts me more is the pain my country is suffering. This has been a terrible setback. These people have approved a national plan for the next 30 years, which is essentially a neoliberal plan to implement any measures the oligarchy wants, while at the same time dissolving the resistance and the labor movement, one of the best organized labor movements in all of Central America.

The message we’re basically trying to get across is that this is a class struggle, so my broken arm is nothing compared to what our people are suffering. That pain is much greater.