International action needed as Honduras coup rips up power-sharing agreement

By Simon Fletcher / @fletchersimon

Last week it seemed that a victory had been secured in Honduras over the military coup that had removed the President, Manuel Zelaya. The coup leaders had agreed a deal for power-sharing that would take the country forward to elections.

The Tegucigalpa-San Jose agreement set out the priority of returning to constitutional order, and requires the need to "return the holder of executive power to its pre-June 28 state through to January 27, 2010, which marks the end of the term of the current government." At the time of the agreement, Hillary Clinton said:

"I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that…overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue."

But the situation is so fast moving that within a very short space of time things had turned around again. The illegal government of Roberto Micheletti refused to implement the accord, excluding Zelaya from the interim government.

These events have brought international condemnation. Spain's Secretary of State for Latin America, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, said, for example:

"I believe that there is a flagrant breach of the agreement...It seems clear that the government of national unity and reconciliation...is a mere continuation of the situation following the coup. [It] "at first sight appears to be contrary to the spirit and even the letter of the agreement".

Zelaya himself now says "The accord is dead." An election in these conditions could not be democratic and would be a farce. It should not be given a veneer of respectability. The President of the country has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy, which has been surrounded and repeatedly harassed by the military. There has been ongoing repression and political violence. An agreement to restore normality and democracy has been ripped up. Zelaya's supporters are calling upon the international community to refuse to legitimise the situation including by not recognising elections that look likely to take place in these impossible circumstances on 29 November.

If Hillary Clinton and President Obama wish to usher in a new phase in America's relations with their southern neighbours then a clear and unambiguous refusal to go along with this charade is essential. The grave danger is that the opposite may happen.

The British government gained respect around the world for the strong line it took in the hours following the coup. We now need ministers to work with their counterparts in other countries to completely isolate Micheletti's regime. If Micheletti's de facto administration is able to ignore international condemnation it will send a powerful and dangerous signal to anti-democratic forces in Latin America that there is still space for military coups to subvert democracy in the region. That would be an enormous step backwards.

As ever, for the most regular updates on this matter, including practical support for Honduran democracy, visit the website of the Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras.