Publicado el 10-24-2009
Pinochet’s Elections
in 1989 and the Case
of Honduras Today
It is absurd, it is aberrant, to consider that the election that will be held in Honduras on November 29th, in accordance with the Constitution and with the participation of candidates that had been proclaimed before Zelaya’s ouster, will not be “recognized” by the so-called “international community,” which is a concept and not and institution, nor by the Organization of the American States (OAS). Elections in any country, especially those with the characteristics of the ones of November 29th in Honduras, are not subject in any way to recognition by foreign governments, as if Honduras were not a sovereign republic. Besides being aberrant and absurd, in the light of political and juridical technique it would have to be considered as a blunder, to use a popular word. Anyone familiar with Public Law must consider that it makes no practical or technical sense to declare, one month ahead, that a presidential election will be “ignored” by foreign governments.
On December 14, 1989, when Augusto Pinochet was President of Chile, he held an election in which the opposition parties participated even when there was a suspicion that they might not be democratically correct. And, what happened? The opposition won and General Pinochet, who had considerable control over the country, not only the government but also popular groups, accepted their victory and Patricio Aylwin was sworn as President in March 1990, proceeding afterwards with the necessary reorganization of the government. If in Chile there had prevailed an aberrant criteria, such as the one that it is wanted to anti-democratically impose on Honduras for the election of November 29th, the so-called “international community” would not have “recognized” Patricio Aylwin’s victory. Of course, this would have been totally abnormal and a political arbitrariness. Presuming fraud would not have justified that the international community ignore the elections held in Chile.
Elections in a country, especially a sovereign republic such as Honduras, do not depend on the acceptance or rejection by the mentioned “international community” nor on what the Organization of American States might consider, particularly when it has expelled the government that is holding these elections in Honduras. Honduras’ seat at the OAS is being occupied by a representative of toppled President Zelaya, who does not represent the government of the Republic of Honduras.
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