Zelaya a Cavalier for the Poor?
Was ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya a cavalier for the poor? Reports are conflicting about which side really is the side to back. But if Zelaya really was a champion for the poor as suggested by the Washington Post then I’m willing to consider his politics. Still, he acted illegally within the framework of his country’s constitution…
When Zelaya, 56, a wealthy rancher whose family made its fortune from timber, was elected president in 2005, he was a middle-of-the-road populist from one of Honduras’s two major parties. But as his presidency progressed, Zelaya veered to the left and was in constant conflict with business groups, lawmakers from his own party, the news media and the army.
“Over the last year, Zelaya’s positions moved to the left. He pushed social programs and more attention for the poor who have no work,” said Giuseppe Magno, the outgoing Italian ambassador. “This switch was not in line with the program he was voted in on. He was too close to Ortega and Chávez, a position the middle and upper classes did not appreciate.”
But Zelaya saw it differently, often telling crowds that Honduras needed a fundamental shift to deal with poverty so grinding that 40 percent of the population lives on $2 a day or less. Honduras is, in fact, the third-poorest country in the hemisphere, and many residents continue to resent the often painful past involvement of the United States.
In announcing his country’s affiliation with a Chávez-led alliance, Zelaya told crowds that it was designed to “make Hondurans a free people.” He said that in joining the pact, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, Honduras did “not have to ask permission of any imperialists.”
Zelaya increasingly spoke of the two nations of Honduras, one hopelessly poor, the other wealthy and uncaring. He began to argue for “people power,” a kind of direct popular democracy.
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