THE RED TEAM: WHO WANTS ZELAYA BACK?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TEGUCIGALPA 000566 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/07/2019 TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL HO SUBJECT: THE RED TEAM: WHO WANTS ZELAYA BACK? Classified By: Ambassador Hugo Llorens for reasons 1.4 b & d. ¶1. (C) Summary: The groups demonstrating since June 28 for the return of President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, which for want of a better term we will henceforth call the "Red Team," are primarily comprised of labor unions, peasant groups, teachers and leftist students and social activists. The movement considers itself pro-democracy, abhors the military and saw Zelaya's constitutional reform proposals as a vehicle to unseat the ruling political/economic "oligarchy" and create a more open and participatory political system. Post will report on those aligned against Zelaya (the "White Team") septel. End Summary. -------------- WHO ARE THEY? -------------- ¶2. (C) The participants in protest marches over the past 11 days against the coup that unseated President Zelaya are comprised of two factions: 1) those who have supported Zelaya over the past year and supported him in his "Fourth Urn" ambitions to revise the Honduran Constitution; and 2) those who have defended human rights in Honduras independent of any political party or administration. Red clothing and banners proliferate among participants in these marches, so we have dubbed them the "Red Team." ¶3. (C) Much of the graffiti left behind following Red Team protests has been signed "People's Revolutionary Union" (URP),a holdover leftist student group from the politically charged 1980s. However, Red Team sympathizers extend well beyond extreme leftist groups to encompass public school teachers (to whom Zelaya was extremely kind when it came to pay and benefits),other public employees, unionized labor, social activists, indigenous groups and organizations claiming to represent the rural poor. Many of the leaders of these groups have ties to or receive funds from Venezuela. ¶4. (C) A common bond amongst all of these groups is a general disdain for the elite -- whom they dub the "power groups" -- which, they say, control the military, manufacturing, media and finance to the detriment of the poor Honduran majority. They claim the military is beholden to these "power groups" and removed Zelaya because he was trying to change the system to be more favorable to the poor. ¶5. (C) Many Red Team members have argued to Poloff that the current Constitution was created by the elite to prevent the Honduran people from participating in democracy, citing in particular the seven unalterable articles (called the "petreos," meaning carved in stone). These articles forbid changing the governmental structure or the national territory, prohibit Presidential reelection and the make certain officeholders eligible from running for president. ¶6. (C) Zelaya earned the loyal support of these groups largely through policies and patronage. For example, he earned the support of labor by raising the minimum wage for urban workers nearly 60 percent in January 2009. He also set a generous (by Honduran standards) minimum salary for the public sector in September 2008, and has repeatedly ruled in favor of teachers in their running battles over benefits and claimed back-pay (in many cases for teachers who never in fact entered a classroom). He has earned the respect of the rural and indigenous groups by promising land reform and obtaining funds and material support from Venezuela to subsidize small farmers. Zelaya has also created the "Red Solidaria" ("Solidarity Network"),managed by his wife, Xiomara Castro, to distribute cash and welfare benefits in poor rural areas. Zelaya's "Citizen Power" movement emphasizes inclusive government and participatory policymaking, as well as efforts to reduce poverty. ¶7. (C) Since Zelaya was forced into exile, many of his ministers and advisers have gone into hiding or fled abroad. In their absence, the movement in favor of his TEGUCIGALP 00000566 002 OF 003 return has been led by: -- Rafael Alegria, a self-described peasant leader widely believed to be on the payroll of Hugo Chavez; -- union activist Carlos H. Reyes; -- Labor leaders Daniel Duron and Israel Salinas; -- Juan Barahona, leader of the social activist umbrella group known as the "Popular Block;" and -- human rights leader Carlos Pavon. Nearly all of the movement's leaders were leftwing activist students in the 1980s. ¶8. (C) Since her husband's overthrow, First Lady Xiomara Castro has become a figurehead for the movement, leading protest marches in Tegucigalpa July 7 and 8. The First Lady, in contrast to other leaders of the movement, is popular across the Honduran political spectrum. ¶9. (C) Opponents of the movement consider them to represent a small minority and tend to dismiss them with derisive terms such as "turbas" (mobs) and "chusma" (rabble). Coup defenders/supporters also frequently assert that the Red Team survives on the financial support of Hugo Chavez and is full of outside agitators from Nicaragua. Since coup supporters dominate the media, the Red Team has received minimal media coverage and many claim they have received threats, been blocked from traveling to Tegucigalpa to participate in protests or had their communications cut off (landlines, email and websites). -------------- What They're Saying -------------- ¶10. (C) The Red Team insists that Zelaya be reinstated immediately as President. They often cite Article 3 of the Honduran Constitution, which states the people have the "right to insurrection" in the event that the constitutional order us usurped by force. The Red Team has praised the United States for not recognizing the new de facto government and supporting a return to the constitutional order. ¶11. (C) Graffiti left behind by recent Red Team protest marches have attacked the media elite and the military, as well as Micheletti and others associated with the coup. There are also frequent references to leftist activists who disappeared in the 1980s. Some representative slogans include: -- They (urinate) on us but the papers report it's raining; -- Watch where you step, Cardinal (reference to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez, who has endorsed the coup); -- If no restitution, revolution; -- We are actors in our own history, not spectators; -- Down with the treasonous, servile military; -- People, educate yourselves in the spirit of combat; -- The power is in the streets; -- Death to the national oligarchy; and -- Down with the de facto government. -------------- What is Their Support? -------------- ¶12. (C) Although the media and the educated classes dismiss the Red Team as representing a small minority, they have been able to mobilize as many as 30,000 people over extended periods to protest the coup, despite intimidation and deliberate disruption of their ability to circulate within the country. Zelaya was generally assumed to be popular in TEGUCIGALP 00000566 003 OF 003 poor rural areas, even after he lost the support of most of the educated population. Nonetheless, Embassy contacts working with the poor in remote rural parts of the country indicate that the bulk of the population there is indifferent to the current political controversy, with majorities opposed to Zelaya's return. This is an unscientific sampling but argues against the assumption that the population has been cleanly split along class lines, with the bulk of the poor supporting Zelaya. LLORENS