Tegucigalpa, November 14, 2009



His Excellency
Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
Washington, DC


Dear President Obama:


When we met for the first time on July 8 with Secretary of State Clinton after the Coup d'Etat, the position of the Obama administration in condemning the Coup d'État, withholding recognition of those responsible, and insisting on the return to a state of law through the reinstatement of the President elected by the people was made clear to me and to the world. The official position of your government and its representatives who sponsored and signed the resolutions of the UN, OAS. In which the third point urges my immediate and safe reinstatement.


On June 28, 2009, I was kidnapped by the military and flown to Costa Rica. The Congress of the Republic issued an illegal decree ordering the "Separation of citizen José Manuel Zelaya from the office of Constitutional President of the Republic" without the constitutional rights to do so, without due process and without a trial.


Since the first meeting with Secretary Hillary Clinton, it was proposed to me that the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, mediate. Although I consider talking with people who hold a weapon in their hands to be counterproductive, I accepted, given that the US and the international would oversee the process.


In a press release dated September 4 of the current year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed the following:


"The positive completion of the process initiated by Arias would be the appropriate starting point from which to proceed with a legitimate election"


It is recognized by everyone that, without the Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Thomas Shannon, Daniel Restrepo and Craig Kelly, the de facto Regime would not have signed the Accord. We all know why the accord, Tegucigalpa-San José, was broken
For the sake of the truth, President Oscar Arias himself declared that: "Micheletti never had the will to collaborate, and instead was only playing with the international community and looking to stall for time in order to avoid turning over power to whom it belongs"
In his announcements, Ex President Ricardo Lagos, who is a prominent member of the International Verification Commission, confirmed this, when he expressed:


"Mr. Micheletti broke it", "Micheletti did things that he should not have done such as saying that I will form a unity government without Zelaya", which is what caused the negotiated agreement to fail.


On the very day that the Verification Commission was establishing itself in Tegucigalpa, officials of the State Department surprised everyone with announcements modifying its position and unilaterally interpreting the agreement with the following announcements "...the elections would be recognized by the United States with or without reinstatement..."; The de facto regime celebrated this change and used these announcements for their objectives, and they immediately opted to not comply with and violate the Accord
It is in light of all previously put forward that we express ourselves in the following manner:


* That the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord is left without merit and is ineffective due to the unilateral failure to comply by the de facto government. This was conceived to be implemented in an integrated and simultaneous way; well, it was never contemplated to be twelve separate agreements, but rather one sole agreement with twelve points which had as one purpose, to restore the democratic order and social peace, and with this the coup d'etat was to have been reversed, implying the safe return of the President of the Republic who was legitimately elected by popular vote. And with this, create a climate for national reconciliation, followed by a constitutional electoral process that is clean and guarantees equal and free participation for the citizens of Honduras.


* That the next elections would be developed within a legal framework and with international backing, especially from the OAS and the UN, and that the political conditions and rights of citizens at a minimum be such as to guarantee that the results are realized through a free and transparent process.


In this, I want to note that that new position of the officials of the Government of the United States breaks with the initial objective of the San José dialogue, relegating to second place an agreement with the legitimately recognized Government and trying to advance this agreement through a new electoral process without giving importance to the conditions under which it develops. Among other things, public resources are being authorized by public officials who are not legally recognized and drawn from a Budget document that has not been authorized by the legitimately recognized President.


Under these conditions, this process, and thus its results, will be repudiated and not recognized, thus placing at grave risk the future stability of relations between Honduras and the rest of the nations that recognize its results.


As the Secretary General of the OAS José Miguel Insulza has indicated, there does not exist a political climate for elections. As the North American Congresswoman Jane Sharkorky has observed and pointed out in her visit to Honduras, there is a climate of proven violations of human rights in Honduras.


Last November 6, we communicated our refusal to continue with the false dialogue, and as such because the deadline has expired, the text has expired and lost its validity. Because an agreement must be complied with on time and in order, the violation of it by the de facto regime is the reason that we have determined that the agreement no longer exists.


Undoubtedly, precious time has been lost in this failed attempt.
The presidential election is scheduled for the last week in November. In this case, as Constitutional President of Honduras and as a citizen who represents and was elected by the democratic vote of the people of Honduras, I feel it is my obligation to inform you that, under these conditions, we cannot support them, and we will proceed to fight legally in the name of thousands of Hondurans and hundreds of candidates who feel that this contest is unbalanced and that the conditions do not exist for participating freely.


* In Honduras, because of the repression to which the Honduran people are subjected, where not even the highest authority, the President of the Republic, is respected, where it has not been taken into account that I achieved the best economic indicators and the largest reduction in poverty in the 28 years of democratic life, where I was overthrown by force of arms and was never given a trial or due process and today I have 24 charges and orders for capture for drug trafficking, corruption and terrorism, among others, and where the majority of the Ministers in my cabinet are objects of political persecution and they find themselves fleeing from the regime in different parts of America.


* 3,500 people detained in a hundred days, more than 600 people wounded and injured in the hospitals, more than one hundred assassinations and an unknown number of people subjected to torture committed against citizens who dare to oppose and express their ideas of liberty and justice in peaceful demonstrations. All of this transforms the elections of November into an undemocratic exercise for large portions of our nation, due to the state of illegitimacy, the uncertainty and the military intimidation.


* To hold elections at a time in which the President elected by the people of Honduras, and who is recognized by his Government and the International Community, is held prisoner in the diplomatic mission of Brazil, surrounded by soldiers, while a de facto President who was imposed by the military and who is surrounded by the powerful is in the government palace, would be an historic shame for Honduras and infamy for the Democratic nations of America.


*This electoral process is illegal because it covers up the military coup d'etat and the de facto state in which Honduras lives, does not provide guarantees for equality and liberty as it relates to citizen participation, to all Hondurans it is an antidemocratic electoral maneuver repudiated by large sectors of the nation as an effort to hide the material and intellectual authors of the Coup d'Etat.


The Elections are not a process of only one day where you go to elect, they are a debate, they are a public presentation of ideas, they are opportunities for equality.


In my capacity as President elected by the Honduran people, I reaffirm my decision that, as of this date, regardless of the circumstances, I DO NOT ACCEPT any agreement to return to the presidency, which would cover up the coup d'etat which we know is directly responsible for the military repression of the human rights of the inhabitants of our country.
Mr. President.


At the Summit of the Countries of the American Continent celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago at the start of this year, in which I was present, You expressed "That we should stop accusing the United States of all that it has done on the continent in the past and that we look toward the future".



By changing your position in the case of Honduras and thus favoring the abusive intervention of the military caste in the civic life of our State (historical cause for the backwardness and stagnancy of our countries in the XX century), the future that you show us is No more than the sunset of liberty and a waste of human dignity, it is a new war against the processes of social and democratic reforms that are so necessary in Honduras.


President Obama.

Each time that a legitimately elected Government in America is overthrown, violence and terrorism wins a battle and Democracy suffers a loss.
We still refuse to believe that this military coup d'etat being executed in Honduras is now the new state terrorism of the XXI century. And that it will be the future for Latin America of which you spoke to us in Trinidad and Tobago.


We remain firm in our decision to fight for our democracy without hiding the truth, and when a people decide to fight peacefully for their ideas, there is no weapon, there is no army or maneuver capable of stopping them.
I await your prompt response, I reiterate my highest respect for you.


JOSE MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES
President of Honduras

Honduras President Manuel Zelaya formally wrote a letter to US Pres. Barak Obama about its government sudden shift of policy towards coup d'etat and the illegal election.

The problem is we will never know the TRUTH and the REAL story as the US is covering up the coup d'etat and supporting the illegal election and its reneging the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord that US State Secy. Hillary Clinton signed defeats the cause, the agreement is left without merit and is ineffective due to the unilateral failure to comply by the de facto government of Michelleti to reinstate Zelaya before the November 29, 2009 election.

I STRONGLY suggest that ALBA, UN with China and Russia, EU & OAS get the US off its high horse and get back to working on getting Honduras political crisis back to a level playing field. The world democracies will not win if only one player is playing. The de facto government of Michelleti is playing the injured party gives an autocratic odor of the French kings before the revolution.

I believe that Zelaya was acting illegally and unconstitutionally with his referendum he was organising?
Doesn't that entitle the military to take action to protect the constitution of the country and prevent the formation of a left wing dictatorship?