Honduras Action: More Info to Use with Media!
Alliance for Global Justice
Info to Use with Media! [This action alert comes to you from the
Alliance for Global Justice and its member projects, the Nicaragua
Network, the Campaign for Labor Rights, the Venezuela Solidarity
Campaign, and the Respect for Democracy Campaign.]
US Corporate Media Reporting Badly on Honduras Coup
Write Letter-to-the-Editor to Correct Media Inaccuracies
If Zelaya was so bad, why are all those people out in the streets
demanding his return?
The reasons you never hear in our media!
Very few news sources have covered the real reason why Honduran
President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown. Even while reporting their
presence, they have not covered the reason why tens of thousands
of ordinary Hondurans are in the streets demanding Zelaya's return.
The reason Zelaya was overthrown and the reason why his supporters
are in the streets is that, during his three and one half years in
office, he made fundamental changes in whom the government favored
with its policies.
Zelaya abolished fees for primary education resulting in 400,000
more children attending elementary schools. One million children
received a meal (breakfast or lunch) during the school day. Nearly
US$1 billion was spent by the government on education in 2008,
according to El Heraldo newspaper of January 29, 2008. Hospitals
have more medicines in stock and the program of childhood immunizations
has been expanded, including a vaccination against the rotavirus
which is a major cause of diarrhea in small children. Beginning
in February 2009, the government expected to vaccinate 180,000
children. Where will this program stand with a coup government
that considers such social programs to be "communism?"
The government brought electricity to more homes in both urban and
rural areas. The Zelaya government estimated that its programs had
lowered the poverty level 9.8% from 46% of the population to 36%
in 2008, based on a survey of 133,861 households, and created 313,000
new jobs nationally. According to Leticia Solomon, Zelaya angered
the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise and the National
Industrialists' Association in January when he decreed a raise in
the nation's minimum wage.
In the area of agriculture, production of basic food grains under
Zelaya increased from 650,000 tons per year to 950,000 tons and the
strategic reserve of food grains was four times larger than in 2005.
Secretary of Agriculture Hector Hernandez said in January that for
2009, the goal was to produce 1.3 million tons of basic grains from
1.3 million acres, noting that Honduras had the land and the capacity.
Will the coup government continue to emphasize food production?
More than his association with Hugo Chavez, more than his pursuit
of a constitutional convention that might have allowed for him to
run for president again at some future time (but not in time for
the next elections), the real reasons for Zelaya's overthrow were
his change from the centuries old policies favoring the rich elites
to policies that improved the lot of the poor. And that's also why
the poor have mobilized in his support.
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