The article published below is by Santiago Reyes, a representative of the Honduras National Front of Resistance Against the Coup (FNRG) based in Australia. It has been translated from Spanish by Anabel Morales.
Reyes returned to Honduras for three months after the June 28 military coup that overthrew the elected government of President Manuel Zelaya.
There has been sustained mass resistance to the coup, in the form of street protests, strikes, occupations and road blockades, for more than 130 days. The FNRG has demanded the return of Zelaya, an elected constituent assembly to write a new, inclusive constitution and that those responsible for the coup be brought to justice.
In an attempt to give itself a democratic cover, the coup regime, which has silenced critical media, detained thousands of opponents and killed or disappeared dozens of others, is planning to organise national elections on November 29. Zelaya and the FNRG have called for a boycott of the poll.
The FNRG are continuing to protest in the streets. Hondurasresists.org said hospitals are preparing for expected repression by the security forces against protests on election day by setting up extra beds for emergency medical attention. Some surgeries are being postponed to ensure hospital personnel are ready.
Hondurasresists.org said a campaign rally in Intibuca for Liberal Party presidential candidate Elvin Santos was shut down by protests.
The FNRG and Zelaya have asked for other governments and international institutions not to recognise the outcome of the vote. However, the United States, which has refused to cut off all aid to the coup regime, has indicated it will recognise the vote as legitimate.
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The Honduran people's refusal to participate in what will be an electoral circus on November 29 is fully justified after getting to know the manoeuvrings of the coup regime led by Roberto Micheletti.
The upcoming elections, as they currently stand, undermine the dignity of the Honduran people. It would be unjust and dishonourable to give them legitimacy.
The accords of San Jose, Tegucigalpa [pushed by the US to come to a negotiated compromise solution between Zelaya and the coup regime], which have now failed, sought to continue this oppression of the Honduran nation.
Any initiative to promote the accords is offensive to the dignity of the Honduran people and, at the same time, a demonstration of disrespect to popular sovereignty.
The tactics of the fascists in seeking to recognise the accords will ultimately strengthen the coup.
The US State Department, led by the flamboyant characters of the empire Thomas Shannon and Lewis Anselms, have been trying before, during and after the coup to consolidate a dictatorship in Honduras
The legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, attempted to ask the Honduran people, through a ballot box poll, if they wanted a plebiscite on whether to organise a constituent assembly.
This constitutional process for surveying the national opinion was enough to instigate the hellish coup, with the hypocritical excuse of defending democracy.
As the coup events unfolded, much has been learned. The coup has been realised and sustained with the decisive support of the international ultra-right, particularly of the Cuban-Americans. This same ultra-right now claims to endorse the rigged elections and are ready to carry out a terrible electoral fraud.
The people's reactions, before the mockery of the coup and with the complicity of the empire, have been many.
We firmly believe that every hostile step of the fascists strengthens our beliefs. Our collective struggle will not surrender to the imperialists' threat of establishing a cruel and murderous military regime.
Quite the contrary, our struggle continues in its dignified conviction, and gaining merit and clarity.
The empire's ideas for how to crush the resistance have been depleted. The central problem remains how to obstruct the people's demands for a more just and participatory society.
The de facto regime has sold its idea to the Yankees that the elections, which they are organising without the support of our people, are the solution to the crisis. These elections are being rejected by the world.
People must reject the terrible fraud that is being planned in collusion with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which together with the Colombian paramilitary forces and death squads now operating in Honduras, control the electoral process.
The North American imperialists are not concerned that the Organisation of American States has decided not to take part in the international observation of the elections.
The forthcoming electoral fraud already has its consequences. A mass meetings of MPs, mayors, independent candidates for elective office, including political leaders involved in the national resistance movement, declared they would join Zelaya in refusing refuse to participate in the elections.
They said they were convinced of the absolute lack of guarantees for transparency, honesty and integrity on the part of election officials and the military command, as well as that the primary issue remains restoring the constitutional order.