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He could have chosen a comfortable exile. He did not. He chose the Honduran people and the future of Honduras--at risk of his own life and liberty.
In any likely scenario to come, he will be out of office after the November elections (since he can't run), and will likely never be president again--although it could conceivably occur that the Honduran people will re-write their Constitution and get it passed by the voters, in his lifetime--which could conceivably permit him to run for president again some time in the future. That is the tenuous rope that the junta tried to tie around his neck--but it was a very remote possibility when he proposed the advisory vote on a Constituent Assembly (to discuss, re-write and eventually vote on a new Constitution), and it is even more remote now. So why is he doing this?
There is little or no benefit to Zelaya--other than the benefits that accrue to someone like Martin Luther King or Gandhi--the benefit of knowing you are doing the right thing, the benefit to your soul of empowering others and fighting for a greater cause. Zelaya is an unlikely figure to carry this mantle, but I am beginning to see him this way. And both MLK and Gandhi were "unlikely" at the beginning. Social genius can arise anywhere--even out of a middle-class Baptist church in Atlanta, or out of a law school in the British Empire.
Mel Zelaya seems to have connected with his people in a way that he never did before--though he was trying to help the vast poor majority with policies such as raising the minimum wage. But, like Gandhi and King, he found that more fundamental change is needed. The obstacles to political democracy--equality, fairness--are economic. Honduras needs to throw off "free trade"--by which all the wealth flows north to monster corps like Chiquita International and AT&T, through the fingers of local rich elites--and start forging ties to sister countries for mutual benefit and collective economic and political strength. Only this way can Honduras achieve sovereignty--much like an individual citizen's rights are strengthened in a democratic system, bolstered by a collective assertion of each individual's rights. ALBA is the answer, not US-dominated "free trade" which drains not only the wealth but also the creativity, the enterprising spirit, the common good and the hope right out of the country. Gandhi saw this in the British Empire's cloth industry--their shipment of India's raw materials to England, where value is added in the manufacture of cloth and clothing, which was then sold back to Indians. He said, "Make your own cloth. Refuse to buy British cloth and clothing." Also the "salt tax" struggle. Salt there for the taking on India's beaches, but Indians had to pay the British a tax to take and use their own salt. And MLK saw this, too, and began economic campaigns toward the end of his life. You might gain equal rights on paper, in the legal system, through great struggle, but these are still only theoretical rights if the economic system excludes and oppresses you.
In any case, I think Mel Zelaya is an inspired man. He seems to have risen out of that guarded personal space that most of us, including our leaders, protect. Not many of us, nor many of our leaders, would walk across the Honduran border in these circumstances. We would choose exile, and understandably so. We might wish better of ourselves, but we wouldn't do it--knowing that a bullet with our name on it could well be waiting for us on the other side, and having nothing personally to gain from such risk, in the material world.
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