Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 21 January 1977
Honduras: purge of the young turks
A purge of younger and more radical officers and the sacking of the popular labour minister have confirmed that both the military and the government are under the control of the right.
The pre-Christmas promotion of 134 middle ranking officers and a generous handout of medals turned out to be more significant than was at first apparent. Rumours of right-wing coups within the armed forces had been rife in the previous two months, many of them prompted by disgruntled reitred army officers. Local observers saw the ceremonies on 20 December as a way to dampen the traditional discontent of young officers who feel they have languised in the middle ranks for too long. But a mere two weeks later the brightest of these young officers found themselves demoted or moved sideways amid accusations and counter-accusations of left-wing influence in the army and air force.
Throughout December a new newspaper, La Tribuna, owned by the Facusse Family (one of whom is the brains behind the businessmen's organisation, COHEP), joined with the traditional mouthpiece of the landlords and commercial interests, La Prensa, in a shrill campaign against 'extremists' in the government and the unions.
he popular labour minister, Enrique Flores Valeriano, was attacked and the right-wing education minister, Lidia Williams de Arias, was praised. On 21 December the ex-chief of military intelligence, retired Colonel Edgardo Alvarado Silva, claimed in an interview that there were seven communists in the high command, a claim which received wide publicity over the next two weeks. At the same time, the major television channel was devoting Sunday afternoons to long interviews with top men in the Chilean junta.
On 4 January there was a drastic reorganisation of the armed forces high command. Colonel Cesar Elvir Sierra (who had been promoted and decorated two weeks earlier) was removed as chief of the armed forces' general staff, but remained head of the president's advisory council (CADEJE). Official spokesmen claimed that this reflected the importance the government gave to a return to civilian rule and that Elvir was preparing to be a presidential candidate himself. Few people believe this, since it is in fact clear that he has been stripped of all effective power. Elvir was replaced as chief of staff by the defence minister, Colonel Mario Carcamo Chinchilla. The new defence minister is the former deputy minister, Colonel Omar Antonio Zelaya Reyes, and his new deputy is the newly promoted Colonel Esteban Elvir Argenal.
A number of outstanding younger officers were also moved into posts of lesser importance, changes which La Prensa saw as a move to frustrate an attempted coup by a group of young radicals. Lieutenant-Colonel Gerardo Wildt Yates was removed from the command of the tenth battalion and sent to Mexico as military attache. The director of the military college, Lieutenant-Colonel Mario Leonel Fonseca, became military attache in Caracas. Lieutenant-Colonel Rolando Mejia Garrigo was removed from command of the fifth battalion and sent to the general staff headquarters as head of personnel.
On 5 January the air force was put on a state of alert after it was reported that its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Domingo Alvarado, was faced with insubordination from the two officers immediately under him: Lieutenant-Colonel Carlos Aguirre, in charge of the flight group at Tegucigalpa, and Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Lopez (a nephew of ex-President Oswaldo lopez Arellano), in charge of the new jet fighter squadron at San Pedro Sula. Since then there has been silence. It is known that these two officers support a speeding up of the reforms promised by the government of President Juan Alberto Melgar Castro. It is doubtful whether the undoubted discontent that led to the purge of younger officers has actually gone as far as preparations for a coup d'etat. But it is clear that the reshuffle has removed any threats either to Melgar's position or to the rightward trend of his government.
It was no coincidence that on the same day as the reshuflle Enrique Flores Valeriano was also removed from his post. COHEP had been leading a coordinated campaign against the labour minister, accusing him of favouring the unions, and more specifically those sections who were creating 'class conflict and anarchy' (a polite way of calling someone a communist). It is certainly true that Flores, a bright young lawyer, was prolabour, a rare enough phenomenon among Central American cabinet ministers. The unions and campesino organisations have declared their strong support for him.
The three campesino organisations are particularly worried about the future of the agrarian reform, especially after the statement two weeks ago from the head of the Consejo Nacional Agrario that Melgar was in favour of changing the present agrarian reform law.At present the reform is in conflict with previously existing laws, particularly those governing private property, and judges always come down in favour of existing private land rights. Procarra, the highly successful campesino training department of the Instituto Nacional Agrario (INA), has been closed down and the last of INA's United Nations advisers, attacked by the right as communist three months ago (see Vol. X, No. 47), has left the country.
This month's developments provide additional evidence that the government is likely to be swayed more by the country's business sector than by the unions, or by the more liberal elements within the armed forces, when it comes to any radical reapportioning of the land. The popular organisations and parties are themselves in a poor position to influence the government, riven as they are by internal conflicts. Only last week a number of people were injured after fighting broke out at the offices of the Central General de Trabajadores between workers and supporters of the Union Nacional de Campesinos, the most militant of the campesino organisations.
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