What is critical about the military coup in Honduras is not the coup itself, but the dangerous precedent for new coups in Latin America and, do not be surprised, in other places in the world.
We were talking about the role of the armed forces in our continent a few years ago with some compañeros, the late general Liber Seregni, leader of Uruguay’s Frente Amplio, among them. The armies are only useful now only to consume budgets, some compañeros said. The risk of inter-regional war has disappeared -almost totally-and, whenever some conflict appears, it is to justify the existence of the armed forces, they would argue. As a general rule, they are artificial conflicts and when a country increases its armaments, it forces others to do the same. This is the purpose: to fatten their budgets and to contribute to the enrichment of some Heads of State and high ranking military officers, said others. Nevertheless, in spite of everything and even though Seregni was a prisoner of the Uruguayan military for many long years, he would defend with passion the need for the armies.
The armies are no longer useful, not even for coups d’etat, we all said. A coup d’etat would have no viability, or hope of survival. This was a premature judgment. There are still gorillas who dare stage coups d’etat, as was shown in Honduras. Even though there, they are living it darkly due to their immense repudiation on a planetary level. They are, poor devils, disconcerted, all alone, big mouths, and groveling among themselves, between slobber and ridicule. They shout gibberish, swear that there was no coup and other idiotic nonsense.
The people: peasants, laborers, teachers, students -they informed me via the Nicaraguan Embassy in Tegucigalpa- gather, furiously defying the uniformed monkeys. I am told that among the people marching in the streets there were four deceased victims of the weapons fired by the chimpanzees.
The great worry of the revolutionary governments and even of the right wing ones, is that, if the mutiny of Honduras is successful, it will unquestionably be a harbinger, encouraging the appetite of the tangled hair ones who are still quiet, for the moment, in some countries around the world. Not all soldiers, naturally and fortunately, are apes, as Omar Torrijos, Hugo Chavez and others in this continent show. They were and are the true sons of Bolivar and very good disciples of Jose Marti.
Yet some wild, right wing communications media across a broad spectrum: Managua, Nicaragua’s “La Prensa,” Lima, Peru’s “Correo,” Spain’s “El País,” the enemies of Chavez in Venezuela and CNN, vacillate between pleasure and anguish.
Zelaya will return to Honduras, accompanied by several notables. This will be a test for the despicable military sadsacks, and their shameless buddies from the bourgeoisie. It is good to be aware of how far we have progressed towards a dangerous mortal setback for democracy.
Probably what occurred in Tegucigalpa is the synthesis of the spite of the oligarchy, due to the immense political changes in this continent, which drove it to licentiousness and stupidity. We are either near a sewer or close a new awakening. Forever!
TOMAS BORGE was a founding member of the Sandinistas.