I was also lucky enough to catch a few minutes of a regional meeting, and to participate in an encounter between some of the central leadership and two of the human rights organizations that were in Tegucigalpa for the inauguration and the demonstration that happened across town. My contact in both cases was relatively brief, but I
could see that this movement is being run by mature, experienced individuals.
The number of people who are prepared to demonstrate their support for the resistance is astonishing. On Wednesday, January 27, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo was installed as president. The stadium downtown was filled with dignitaries, including representatives of the United States and various clients, such as Israel, Columbia, Panama, etc. In another part of town there was an immense march, several kilometers long, ending at the airport where President Zelaya was scheduled to fly away to the Dominican Republic, accompanied by the president of that country.
It would be difficult to estimate the number of marchers with any scientific accuracy, but many observers put it at around a quarter of a million. I was somewhere in the first half, and whenever we got to one of the various high spots along the route all I saw was a thick stream of people stretching out as far as I could see ahead and behind. After marching for the better part of an hour someone nearby called on their cellphone to a couple of journalists who had stayed back at the beginning to record people as they left, and they said that people were still leaving.
The next day I looked at every page of one of the big daily newspapers, El Heraldo. There was lavishcoverage of the inauguration, but not a single word about the far larger event that was going on at the same time in another part of the city. In arecent demonstration a new chant has been raised: "No somos conco, no somos cien, prensa vendida cuentanos bien." ("We are not five, we are not a hundred, sold out press, count us right!")
Unlike most of the other large demonstrations since the coup, there was no repression along the route. (This was anticipated, because Lobo was stressing "reconciliation," and it might look bad if people were being beaten simultaneously with his speech.) Later I learned that there were roadblocks on the roads coming into the city, and that people trying to get to town for the march were turned back. There were police and soldiers along the route, but they were just standing and watching with their clubs and shields. As we were passing along in front of the central portion of the airport I saw several people looking up and gesturing with their middle fingers. When I asked what they were doing they said to look up at the control tower. A couple of soldiers were standing there, leaning against the wall. "Not them. Look closer." A friend had a powerful telephoto lens on his camera and he showed me the image on his camera's screen. There were sharpshooters lying in a prone position on the walkway around the control tower, watching us through their telescopic sights. This had a chilling significance, because just such a sniper had killed a young man in one of the first demonstrations after the coup.
Strategy of the Resistance
The newly-installed government of Pepe Lobo presents itself as a government of reconciliation. Lobo has appointed ministers from opposition parties, and has begun to set up a "truth commission" to be led by a former vice-president of Guatemala. The United States is leading an effort to get other countries to restore diplomatic
relations, and a few of its clients, such as Israel and Colombia have done so. South Korea and Taiwan have an interest in the cheap labor available in Honduras, so they too are falling into line.
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