Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Empty Words

In an announcement devoid of any real content, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez went on national television and announced he was creating the "Sistema Integral Contral la Impunidad (Integrated System Against Impunity)".  However, what that Integrated System is, or will consist of, was left unsaid and is perhaps, unimagined.

In his announcement that he would create an Integrated System, Hernandez issued a call for dialogue, inviting any and all of civil society to sit down with him, Congress, and the Public Prosecutor's office and discuss what this Integrated System should be.  Hernandez called for civil society to :
"join our fight for the dignity and transparency and equal application of justice...the changes that we've been making are deep and irreversibly transform our nation.  I assure you we will not back off from these changes."

Note that civil society is invited to join his fight, not specify the terms of it.  This announcement is meant to be a palliative for the Torchlight Marchers to try and bring them under control, not to further their goals.  Hernandez, through his adviser Ebal Diaz has already made clear his contempt for the marchers
"They don't believe in God, they don't respect anyone and they are inclined to sow chaos"

But as any reader of the previous entry in this blog knows, Ebal Diaz just makes things like this up.

So its not really a proposal, just a call for a meaningless dialog.  Hernandez didn't announce any concrete goals of the Integrated System, nor what its purpose or organization should be.  In fact, all he proposed was a name, without content, so not really so much of announcement.  He would have been better served to come before the Honduran populace with a concrete suggestion as a starting point for discussions, but its pretty clear from listening to Ebal Diaz that the discussions are more about convincing Hondurans to join his fight, not letting them propose how to win their own fight. 

After all, he could stop the Torchlight Marches, stop the hunger strikes in a minute by asking the UN publicly for  an International Commission Against Impunity, like that the UN subvents for Guatemala.  He won't.

That's why this is an empty proposal, and the Torchlight Marches will continue.


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