This is a political cartoon depicting the six candidates to the Honduran Presidency in our elections on November 29. There are two majority party candidates, three minority party candidates, and one independent. You can see the original in the La Tribuna website.

While in Washington D.C., “His excellancy” (their typo, not mine) Manuel Zelaya will speak at George Washington University, the Alma Mater of Colin Powell and Jackqueline Kennedy Onassis. His topic: “Returning Honduras to Democracy and Constitutional Order”. This statement makes me see red, especially when I hear Oscar Arias or Obama repeat it or anyone imply that there is no democracy or constitutional order in Honduras.

The Honduran Constitution and our democracy have never been stronger.

Couldn’t democracy be defined as the rule of law combined with the will of the people? Who writes the laws? The Congress. Who interprets them? The Supreme Court. Who votes? The people.

If Congress and the Supreme court did not approve a referendum, and Zelaya disobeyed them, they had every Constitutional right and duty to remove him. The people have every right and duty to vote this November, but Zelaya, and the OAS want to stop them. Millions of Hondurans would erupt with anger if the US were to attack our elections together with them.

Isn’t it enough that the pro-Zelaya party is vandalizing the billboards that bear Liberal Party or Nationalist Party candidates? Normally I’d call the unsightly and ubiquitous signs visual pollution, but now, the presence of these signs and billboards show we are still free.

Those who attack our elections attack our freedom and democracy.

Image by Cissey Ye, used with a Creative Commons license