honduras

A press release from the office of Colin Burgon MP welcomes comments by Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant this week that the Honduran elections held on Sunday cannot be "valid" as they did not take place under elected President Manuel Zelaya. 

In a House of Commons debate on Tuesday December 1, Bryant said: “We made it clear before the elections that we believed that President Zelaya should not have been removed from power, and that if the elections were to be valid, they had to be engaged in under President Zelaya."

Bryant added: "Without his return before the end of his term, which is at the end of January, it will be impossible to believe that those were proper elections. However, we recognise and welcome the fact that the elections that did take place did so in a peaceful situation."

For the full text of the media statement, see below.

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RESTORE DEMOCRACY IN HONDURAS
Public Meeting — Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm

No more dictators in Latin America
End all US financial support to the coup
Speakers include:
Ken Livingstone
Katherine Ronderos (Central America Women’s Network) will give an eyewitness account of her recent visit  to Honduras. 
Tony Lloyd MP, Chair, Parliamentary Labour Party
Sally Hunt, TUC General Council International Spokesperson
Colin Burgon MP
Alvaro Sanchez, Counsellor, Venezuela Embassy
Steve Hart, Regional Secretary, Unite London and Eastern
Karen Mitchell, Thompsons Solicitors
Dr Francisco Dominguez, Head of Latin America Studies, Middlesex Uni
Bernard Regan, National Secretary Cuba Solidarity Campaign
Plus videos and messages from Honduras

Since the Honduran president was forced from office, UK-based solidarity organisations and trade unions have grouped together to lobby for the return of democracy in the Central American country.

The Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras has a blog with regular posts in English on the latest events. There is also video - for example, showing violence unleashed against crowds who had gathered at the Brazilian embassy to support President Zelaya who's sheltering there after his surprise return to the Honduran capital: http://committeeagainsthondurascoup.blogspot.com/