The last of the Latin American soap operas: the Honduras' coup d'Etat

When analyzing the situation of a country or when thinking about a country, it’s easy to be tempted by the idea of how desirable or good would be for a country to be able to start over, to start a new life again, from the very beginning, from zero. In many circumstances and situations, it’s always possible to star again. If there is an old building that is so dirty that when you look at it you feel bad, it’s always possible to order the demolition of that construction. The same with cars, that when get old and highly pollutant, it’s just better to dispose of it and buy a new one. Even individuals have the chance of trying to change the course of their complex lives: every time we celebrate our birthday or a new year, we think about goals for the future. Well, countries can also become as dirty or as old as buildings and cars, and their institutions can become as corrupt as the most corrupt of individuals, but now it seems, countries don’t have anymore at their disposal the privilege of starting over. There was a time when they could, that’s the era of revolutions, but that’s also a time gone. For some countries, it would be great to have that chance. One of these countries is Honduras.

This world we live in is so unfair and so uneven that, just as individuals, there are countries that were born rich and there are countries that were born poor and disadvantaged. This time I want to refer to a tiny country that is very close to my native country and which over the last weeks experienced the last coup d’Etat of Latin America. I am talking about Honduras.

I don’t know too much about the history and the specific circumstances of Honduras, but I know that this is one of the countries that were born poor and which inherited a list of problems whose complexity largely surpasses the capacities of the Honduras’ governments. Last month one more problem added to the list: on June 29th 2009, the legal government of president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the military, and a new president Roberto Micheletti took his place. Because he was following Hugo Chavez (no need to explain my point) the deposed president was bad for the country, who was trying to force a Constitutional reform in order to extend his tenure and bad also is the fact that the military, for whatsoever reason, broke the legal order and took power.

The current situation in Honduras constitutes an unprecedented twice negative dilemma of two bad possible outcomes: if the military government headed by Micheletti stays, this clearly would be bad to the political health of the country and if Zelaya returns it would be also bad, because he has already proved that he wants to disrupt the constitutional life of Honduras. Two possible outcomes, both of them awful. Actually there’s a third possible outcome to this Honduras story that started as a drama but that very soon has become a Latin America soap opera: the possibility that violence erupts as a consequence of the two sides fighting.

Is it possible to find in the political landscape of the world of the past or of these days any other situation where all the outcomes are bad? Honduras has everything that makes it look like a building to be demolished or a car to be replaced. Unfortunately, Honduras is a country and transforming its situation will never be as simple as demolishing an old building, replacing a car or transforming an individual. It seems that Honduras can’t start over.

It’s not my purpose to deny hope for the people of Honduras. It’s not that I don’t see any hope for Honduras, it’s that I’m projecting my own despair for how I see my country, Mexico. Sometimes you would like that things change in your country as easy as if an old building was ordered to be demolished or if an old car was to be throw away. Sometimes you would desire that things change overnight and that the politicians that rule our mismanaged countries just disappear. How is possible that with that long list of problems that Honduras faces (poverty, corruption, inequality, natural disasters, deprivation), Honduras politicians still have the time to stage a soap opera of a military coup?

At first I thought that the military coup of Micheletti was born from the despair of the Honduras people, tired of having as president a Chavez like politician. I thought that like military coups of the past, this new Honduras version of military take over would be accompanied with a vast program of changes for the transformation of Honduras. However, very soon I realized that I have been too naïve. The military coups of these days are not like they used to be. There’s no more transformational radicalism embodied in the people that take power these days. There’s no program, no ideology, nor any agenda for change. So far, the Honduras military coup has proved to be only an action that broke the legal order of the country, so it was a purposeless coup.

The Honduras’ as well as the Thai military take over of 2006, constitute a big change from the past. Even the military coups of today seem to have become mild in their actions and purposeless for that they don’t present any alternative program, any agenda for change. They are born only from denial of a certain order, but they fail to offer any alternative.

As said, any of the possible outcomes of the Honduras’ crisis seems to be ideal for this country afflicted by so many threats, deformities and irregularities. Let’s just hope that these stupid political teams of Micheletti and Zelaya don’t decide to make the Honduras people pay with blood for this pathetic Latin American new soap opera.