Dr. Arturo Valenzuela
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
United States Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Arturo:
As a group of scholars of Central America we ask that you seek to change the ill advised position taken by Mr. Thomas Shannon that would recognize the results of the Honduran election even though Pres Zelaya is not restored to office. This sets a terrible precedent that undermines the wave of democratization that has swept the region because it in essence legitimizes a coup. It is at odds with the other Latin American nations.
We ask also that the Department of State not fund election observation missions by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, as announced by Senator Richard Lugar. This would legitimize a patently illegitimate poll. The secretary general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he would not send observers to monitor the November 29th elections, while many of the OAS's member countries said they would not recognize the election winner unless Zelaya was reinstated. Will you push for reconsideration of the decision to send U.S. observers?
The issue is not whether technical election procedures are carried out, or if the ballots are counted accurately, but rather the effects on the election of the coup. Several candidates have withdrawn because they do not wish to legitimize an election sponsored by a coup government, including Carlos H. Reyes of the Independent Party and leader of the resistance movement against the coup. It is highly unlikely that the forces behind the coup would have allowed him to take office were he to win. The broad-based national resistance movement has called for a total boycott of the elections and a number of candidates have withdrawn. Press reports note that as many as 110 mayoral and 55 congressional candidates have withdrawn because they do not believe the elections will be free and fair.
We are concerned that there appear to be powerful forces (beyond the individual efforts of Senator Jim DeMint) pushing the United States in the direction of acceptance of efforts to roll back the democratic gains in Latin America because of the election of some or all candidates of the left. Could you tell us if you perceive these rollback efforts as a threat and, if so, what your plans are to minimize them?
Human rights violations continue. The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) notes, in its second report since the coup, that the de facto government relies on:
“the use of excessive force on the part of military and police, control of the media and closure of media outlets that are not allies of the regime, use of paramilitaries to intimidate, threaten and kidnap those opposed to the coup, and the emission of illegal decrees that suspend the exercise of fundamental rights.... It is clear that a repressive apparatus is being mounted to intimidate and annihilate resistance to the coup. In the 115 days since the coup, thousands of human rights violations have been registered that reflect the evolution of state violence and the rupture of institutionality.”The United States should forcefully condemn these human rights violations. We ask that it announce that the U.S. will not fund observers to the Nov. 29 elections, and that it not recognize the election results, and that we will work with other members of the Inter-American community to resolve this crisis in a way that reflects democratic processes and respects human rights.
Sincerely,
Jack Spence, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Aaron Schneider, Tulane University
David Close, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Marc Zimmerman, University of Houston
Nora Hamilton, University of Southern California
Francisco J. Barbosa, University of Colorado, Boulder
Karen Kampwirth, Knox College
Ellen Moodie, University of Illinois
Gary Prevost, St. John's University
Thomas W. Walker, Ohio University
Irene B. Hodgson, Xavier University
Julie Stewart, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Marc Edelman, Hunter College, CUNY
Lisa Kowalchuk, University of Guelph, Ontario
Sylvia Tesh, University of Arizona
Eliza Willis, Grinnell College
Lena Mortensen, University of Toronto Scarborough
Abigail E. Adams, Central Connecticut State University
Robin Maria DeLugan, University of California-Merced
Susanne Jonas, University of California, Santa Cruz
Mary Finley-Brook, University of Richmond
Aviva Chomsky, Salem State College
Mayo C. Toruño, California State University, San Bernardino
Miguel Gonzalez, York University
Richard Grossman, Northeastern Illinois University
Carol A. Smith, University of California, Davis
William S. Stewart, California State University, Chico
Katherine Borland, The Ohio State University
Hector Perla, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jefferson Boyer, Appalachian State University
Rose Spalding, De Paul University
Bruce Calder, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sheila R. Tully, San Francisco State University
LaDawn Haglund, Arizona State University
Suyapa Portillo, Pomona College
Arturo Arias, University of Texas
Laura Enriquez, University of California, Berkeley
Chris Chiappari, St. Olaf College
Dana Frank, University of California, Santa Cruz
Katherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network
Gilbert G. Gonzalez, University of California, Irvine
Celia Simonds, California State University Northridge
Beatriz Cortez, California State University, Northridge
Ana Patricia Rodriguez, University of Maryland, College Park
Justin Wolfe, Tulane Univesrity
Gloria Rudolf, University of Pittsburgh
Elizabeth Dore, University of Southampton, UK
Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University
Leisy Abrego, University of California, Irvine
Craig Auchter, Butler University
Bill Barnes, City College of San Francisco
Linda J. Craft, North Park University, Chicago
Lois Ann Lorentzen, University of San Francisco
Juliana Martinez Franzoni, University of Costa Rica
Breny Mendoza, California State University, Northridge
