Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The lies of Manuel Zelaya

Zelaya: Only the people's voice can make democratic changes!

Me: it was NOT the people's voice. NO ONE WANTED THE SURVEY.

Zelaya: I never thought that increasing the people's minimum salary it would become a mess with the elite!

Me: That raise caused more trouble than anything else. You never asked your Minister of Finance anything. You just did it. Not even asking Congress to vote on it--Congress, whom the people elected. You acted completely unilaterally, not even considering the consequences. And all it did was raise the costs of food, clothing, EVERYTHING. People could not PAY the insane increase. What happened? Thousands losts their jobs. But you didn'tmention that little fact, did you?

Zelaya: I have fought for freedom of the press!

Me: Sir. You've spent four years railing against the newspapers for reporting your actions fairly. And you say you haven't done anything against them? BECAUSE YOU CAN'T. You shameless, shameless liar.

Zelaya: it has been three years of attacks and not telling what is really going in the country!

Me: They HAVE been reporting the truth. You just don't like it because they criticized your actions. You HATED that we had freedom of the press. You HATED it.

Zelaya: when I came to power 6 of 10 people lived in poverty. We decreased that by 10%

Me: Oh. Come. ON. LIAR. Have you SEEN your people? Have you ever walked down one of the poor neighborhoods? Have you heard the people crying out for help against the floods destroying their fields and food during the past three weeks when you were busy throwing money into your little survey?

Zelaya: our countries have a lot of inequalities between the rich and poor...

Me: Very true, sir. But you are a millionaire entrepenour with land holdings all over the country. Your family members are driving around in luxury cars, going to the best schools, taking trips around the world. Your son's wedding cost more than a poor person will see in a lifetime. You spent millions taking your entire family to visit US President Bush a few years ago. You recently spent millions sending a team of lawyers to the US to attempt to sue a man who sent some very serious accusations of corruption your way. What happened to that, by the way? The millions just went nowhere?

Listen. What this comes down to is that Zelaya keeps saying that people have the right to an opinion on economics, health, government, etc.

Very, very true. NO ONE is denying that. No one. The problem here is that Zelaya initiated a survey that was qualified by ILLEGAL by all sectors of the government because he decided to bypass every check against him, every constitutional law, and decided to do this completely on his own. Hiring his own OUTSIDE firm to hold this vote. STOP LYING TO PEOPLE. Congress was NOT denying the people's right to anything. They even said that they would ask the question on the fourth urn, but they would ask it when the new government was in place after the November elections. But you fail to mention that, don't you? You fail to mention the fact that you wanted to do this while YOU were still in power.

I am so angry right now. This man is telling lie upon lie upon lie, forgetting the fact that the SUPREME COURT, elected by the CONGRESS, who in turn was elected BY THE PEOPLE, told him that he could not hold this vote. And he said "I WILL STILL DO IT".

Really, sir, stop lying. Stop lying to the world.

Oh, god he's still at it.

ZELAYA: The armed forces have kept the country in a state of fear and paralysis for three days. They have fired shots against the people. There were 160 people beaten. There is a general strike decreed by the workers. The teachers are on strike. There is military everywhere. The airport is closed down.

1. No one is in a state of fear and paralysis. People are incredibly calm. Going to work. Trying to go to work, anyway, because your supporters are the ones causing chaos and fear.
2. No one was shot yesterday. There were 60 wounded. The crowd turned violent first, harrassing the policemen and turning wild.
3. There is no general strike. None at all. My brother went to work today, and he took a cab (Zelaya just said cab workers are on strike), and things are normal.
4. The airport is NOT closed down.

ZELAYA: Yes, there are a lot of people protesting me right now, but they are not counting the poor people in the rest of the country. They can't come and support me, because they don't have access to media.

Me: Ooh, right. And when there are massive protests against one of your government's decrees, with MILLIONS of people marching in the streets...I guess the poor people didn't hear about that, huh? You're claiming that the poor people don't know about these marches? That they don't know that there are protests in your favor? Don't be a liar, sir. Our people hear things when they want to.

ZELAYA: I had decided not to do the survey. I said I wouldn't do it. But my supporters came to the Presidential palace and asked me to do it. So I said we would do it.

Me[yelling at the TV by now]: BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT. YOU DID NO SUCH THING. You kept saying, every single day, every single hour, every time you got a chance that there was no WAY you would back down. STOP LYING.

ZELAYA: I was just asking if the people wanted to have a fourth urn at the elections. I didn't say anything else about the changes.

Me: Yes, sir. Yes. The survey WAS just asking that. But, sir, by not letting the Electoral court hold the vote, by having YOU control the ballots from beginning to end, you were giving us NO guarantee whatsoever that the results would be real or true. None. And not even mentioning the fact that it had been declared ILLEGAL.

ZELAYA: I live in a middle-class house...

Me: HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! *falls over laughing at the shamelessness*

Oh, now he's telling the story of his kidnapping. Here I must stop being glib. That was very, very wrong. No one is happy that this is the way it happened. It was wrong, and what it did, what it is doing now, is letting Zelaya look the victim, which does not help the government's cause in the international community. And now the odds will turn farther in his favor. God, this country's leaders are dumb all around.

ZELAYA: I am against dictatorships...

Me: Sir, you're friends with Castro and Chavez. *taps side of head*

ZELAYA: there are brutal actions going on...

Me: by YOUR supporters, sir.

ZELAYA: The Congress can't choose a new President...

Me: They didn't. They used the constitution and set up the man who is supposed to take the place of the President when he is unfit to rule. The President of Congress. That's who is INTERIM President right now.

I hate this. I hate this so much. I hate that the world will only hear this man's words, and that he is making himself look like a helpless, blameless victim. And we, the people who have suffered under his rule for four years, are going to be the ones to pay. By international condemnation, by lumping us all together with the military who were acting under judicial orders to take the President out of the country. Sir, the military did not take you out. It was the courts. And you admitted that. You acknowledged that. Stop it. This makes me so angry. And so sad. I hope the world's leaders are at least shown the other side of the question. That they don't buy this man's constant, shameless lies.

Here's what it comes down to:

The International Community supports him. The UN has issued a resolution to reject the government and to reinstitute Zelaya. Great. They support him.

His own people do not.

Who will prevail?

Let Zelaya return. That would be logical. If the international community wants it, let him return. But I do not think he will return to being President. It's not feasible at this point. I think he will be placed under arrest, as he should have been last week. The big mistake here was taking him out by force. It makes perfect sense that the international community is angry. To the outside, that action alone warrants the UN resolution.

I think the only thing to do at this point is to let him return. Peacefully. No violence. And take him to trial here. A fair trial.

Is this too far-fetched a hope? Maybe. But the only other option, it seems to me, is a full-out violent action to depose the current government (like it or not there IS a new government in place. Not a dictatorship. A new President. Congress, and it seems, the people, have accepted this). Does the international community really wants this?

**EDIT**
CNN Spanish is finally talking to a representative of our government. I think he should get his butt over to New York and make a stand there. He is being very logical.

Another hope is that countries still have their ambassadors here in place. They can SEE what is going on in the country. So maybe they will let the truth be known outside the country.



That's a picture of the peaceful march in favor of the new government that took place today in the center of town. The crowd was truly enormous. And it was peaceful.

4 comments:

Doran said...

Figgy, I heart you so hard right now. I wish the foreign media would send some people there to report on what's actually happening as it could only serve to open international eyes.

Anonymous said...

thanks for your blogging. can you fix the formatting, though? it's tough to follow.

Figgy said...

Ooops. Sorry about that. Formatting is fixed.

Kris said...

Awesome.