The situation in Honduras has not normalized. The new president, Porfirio Lobo, or “Pepe”, is continuing a policy of his elected predecessor Manuel Zelaya to ignore Supreme Court rulings. A couple of years ago the highest judicial authority in Honduras ruled that TV channel 8 was to be controlled by Mr Afiusa. However, president Zelaya refused to accept that verdict, wanting the frequency instead for a government channel. When Zelaya was deposed last year, for violating another Supreme Court ruling, interim president Micheletti started paying rent for channel 8 to Mr. Afiusa, and declared that the state channel started by Zelaya to propagate his plans for overthrowing the constitution was operated illegally, and should be shut down.
However, Pepe refuses to abide by the court decision, and sent the matter to Congress. Yesterday the Congress passed a motion declaring that channel 8 belongs to the state. A minority vehemently opposed the move, saying that it violates the Constitution and the separation of powers.
But why on earth is it so important for the government to have channel 8, as opposed to another channel, like 20 for instance, which it already has the right to?
About this one can only speculate. Is it a mere coincidence that their southern neighbor, the ALBA-country Nicaragua, earlier this year bought the private TV-channel 8? This temporarily forced off the air a debate program led by Carlos Fernando Chamorro (son of former president Violeta Chamorro), a strong critic of the present president and former revolutionary Daniel Ortega.
Or is it a mere coincidence that the state TV-network In Venezuela sends on channel 8 in all the country? Chavez’s Sunday TV show “Alo Presidente” is seen on Venezolana de Television (VTV) every Sunday, and so are the “news” broadcasts from TeleSur, the international satellite TV channel that staged “news” in Honduras last year.
Is it, furthermore, a mere coincidence that the vote in the parliament was accompanied by street violence targeting news media and the human rights ombudsman, and led by Zelaya’s local henchmen, people like Rasel Tomé, Rafael Alegría, and Juan Barahona? Tomé was intimately connected to the illegally run channel 8 during the Zelaya administration, and Alegría has been denounced as leading street violence with mobs paid by Chávez.
The eery feeling in Honduras under Lobo is of a “dejá vu all over again”. Lobo misunderstood the lesson from June 28 last year. Instead of learning that nobody is above the law not even the president, he understood that a president is an elected modern-day king. Why did he get it wrong? Simple. The international community reacted as if the president is a modern-day elected king, and that’s the lesson he learned.
The international community reacted all wrong, but not by chance. The news cycle was dominated by a Chávez channel, TeleSur. The UN General Assembly was controlled by a Sandinista revolutionary. The OAS was controlled by an Allende-friend. The deck of cards was stacked against the rule of law, and the majority of countries were sleep-walking, believing that someone else was in charge on the bridge, controlling the helm.
Let us hope and pray that there won’t be a next time, but above all, let’s work to avoid a repetition by spreading the news a bit better. Shall we?
Read more at La Gringa’s Blogicito – and check the comments too for more info.
The Judicial Branch was out of order invading the realm of the Executive Branch. Who puts in order the Judicial Branch when it commits an abuse? In this case, Congress did.
“But why on earth is it so important for the government to have channel 8”.
You could ask also, why on earth is so important for Elias Asfura to have that exact number for a television channel. What is really important these days is not numbers or frecuencies, but quality content.
“The eery feeling in Honduras under Lobo is of a “dejá vu all over again”. Lobo misunderstood the lesson from June 28 last year. Instead of learning that nobody is above the law not even the president, he understood that a president is an elected modern-day king.”
Really? And you know this by… telepathy? What Congress did yesterday was perfectly legal.
Congress passes laws of a general nature. The government agencies like Conatel implements them. The court settles disputes arising from the laws or the implementation of them. If congress disagrees it can change the law. But what congress did was not to change the law; it was to run over the court. In my country, what they did would have been completely illegal and stopped before it happened by the constitutional checks in congress itself. I’m not an expert on Honduran jurisprudence but if that was legal, then the laws need to change. That is a step towards dictatorship.
As for your question, I draw the conclusion based on his actions.
> The Judicial Branch was out of order invading the realm of the Executive Branch.
How so? Teleunsa asked CANATEL for the rights of exploiting the channel 8 frequency in 2005, the government asked for the same rights (illegaly) afterwards so they went to court and the Juzgado Contensionso ruled in favor of Teleunsa in May, 2007. The executive branch appealed but in October 2007 the Corte de Apelaciones ruled in favor of Teleunsa and then the Supreme Court favored Teleunsa again on May 2008.
> You could ask also, why on earth is so important for Elias Asfura to have that exact number for a television channel.
Teleunsa asked for channel 8 BEFORE the executive branch, its a property rights issue. It is the executive branch who needs to justify their actions, not the other way around.
> Really? And you know this by… telepathy? What Congress did yesterday was perfectly legal.
I agree with Ulf here, why on earth people like you want have president-kings is beyond my comprehension, Lobo is repeating the mistakes of Mel with the difference that he also has Congress to back him up. Congress has no business on this issue cuz you see:
1. CONATEL is the institution in charge of regulating telecomunications in Honduras
2. Teleunsa asked CONATEL for the rights of channel 8
3. The executive asked for the rights to channel 8 too but they couldn’t do it because the administrative process of granting the rights to Teleunsa were already underway so, per CONATEL’s own rules, CONATEL should had simply deny the petition.
4. The executive branch (via Mel having Rassel Tomé who was in charge of CONATEL at the time) pressed on and eventually they went to court, I have already described the court rulings above.
5. End of story…. until Lobo decides to mimic Mel’s illegal actions and abuse his power.