CPTRT comments on the situation in Honduras

"The People are Bigger than an Army" by Dr. Juan Almendares

Speech given on July 2, 2009 at the House of the United Nations during a massive demonstration organized by the Frente de Resistencia Popular contra el golpe militar en Honduras - Front for Popular Resistence against the military coup in Honduras.

Today we are here before the United Nations, thousands of Hondurans marching for freedom and dignity. The soldiers with their machine guns have not been able to sway the erect bodies of the protesters, nor squash with their tanks the spirit and courage of the people.

Today and always we applaud the arm of the international community that acts in solidarity. Today, and always we will never, never cease to condemn the suspension of our constitutional rights; the arrest warrants, the torture and the persecution of our leaders; the muzzle placed on liberty of thought and expression by the classist military coup that will never be able to silence an aware, organized and mobilized people.

Here are the people, marching in the streets, who have discovered the truth. They have laid bare this false democracy and its leaders. The love of liberty exceeds and transforms the fear and terror engendered by the coup.

The struggle dances in the multitude. Today the people are singing poets that embrace humanity. They write and paint the word liberty in the streets, highways, bridges, on the walls and in the prisons; while the shout of the oppressed and tortured is heard in all corners of the planet.

The de facto regime conceives of Honduras as an immense prison; but the blindness of power does not understand that the people are bigger than any prison; and that each soldier must understand that they are also part of the people and should not obey orders like armed robots robot that would beat their own people.

This struggle of pain and suffering caused by the violence of the coup regime represents the oppressive ruling class has shown that each participant in the popular struggle is a leader, that we are all leaders: Lencas, Mayans, Garífunas, Afro-americans, Misquitos, Tawakas, Pech, Chorties, Tolupanes, campesinos, workers, students, environmentalists, human rights defenders, artists, social communicators, organic intellectuals, organized women; pobladoras, lesbians and homosexuals that struggle for their rights; youth, children, and the elders; each and every one is a leader in the Popular Resistance Front.

The people are our true leader against fascism. The followers of the National Security Doctrine and the fundamentalist fanatics will never be able to imprison an entire people because the people are bigger than any army! And the army is the guardian of the class supporting the coup and the multinational corporations.

The dawn of injustice has awaken the national and international conscience. "I" means the others. "I" means us, means we. "I" means brother or sister. Fraternity is collective planetary love.

The coup regime organizes their perfumed marches, they walk all made-up, with their white uniforms so as not to be confused with the masses and they invite dialog and peace but are united with the army. Behind those white uniforms are the invisible hands that clutch the arms and torture a people accustomed to pain and suffering. The white hand.

Everyone marched together to receive the Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Without fear because the people have lost their fear. The coup supporters will not be able to capture president Zelaya because they will have to imprison all the people that struggle without arms where the greatest leader is the people, because the people is bigger than any army.

Tegucigalpa, July 2, 2009

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Dr. Juan Almendares is the director of RCT partner organisation "Centro de Prevención Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Victimas de la Tortura y sus Familiares".