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Ousted former Honduran President and head of the opposition Libre Party Manuel Zelaya called for a popular referendum on the question of whether to establish a U.N. anti-impunity body in Honduras during a parliamentary session on Wednesday.
Creation of the independent body, proposed to promote accountability and investigate the massive corruption scandal embroiling the government, has been a central demand of the popular “outraged” movement, which has been taking to the streets in weekly torchlit anti-corruption marches for the past two months.
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@manuelzr presents project on National Consultation for international investigation of corruption in #Honduras pic.twitter.com/ICM5Y9Evq3
— Gerardo T teleSUR (@GerardoTteleSUR)
July 15, 2015
The proposed organization, referred to as CICIH, would be modeled after the U.N. anti-impunity body called CICIG that has led recent fraud investigations in neighboring Guatemala.
Calls for the independent government fraud probe, beginning with President Juan Orlando Hernandez, have been sparked by a massive government corruption and impunity impeding investigations.
Hernandez and his ruling National Party are accused of funneling at least US$90 million of more than US$200 million embezzled from the public coffers of the country's Social Security Institute into the party's 2013 election campaign.
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Hernandez has admitted to accepting a fraction of the accused amount, but shirked responsibility, saying he was not aware of the source of the cash.
Zelaya proposed that the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal call and oversee a national referendum to create a formal channel for Honduran people to directly say “yes” or “no” to the creation of CICIH in Honduras.
While the body would be set up by the United Nations, President Juan Orlando Hernandez would first have to make a request for it to be established. Honduras would also sign on to an international U.N. convention, to be ratified by a two-thirds vote in Honduran Congress where the ruling National Party holds 48 of 128 seats, or more than one third.
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Zelaya and his Libre Party's call for the creation of CICIH is also backed by the traditional bipartisan opposition Liberal Party and the newly formed Anti-Corruption Party, who together as an opposition coalition have formed an alliance with the popular “outraged” movement, to strengthen common demands for an independent probe into government fraud.
Citizens walk to the United Nations office in #Honduras claiming to bring #CICIH. #indignados #tegucigalpa #joh pic.twitter.com/XGc4Nle9Ke
— Eduardo Moradel (@eduardo_moradel)
July 11, 2015
At the end of a five-day mission in Honduras last week, the U.N. applauded the government for initiating a dialogue process in the name of tackling corruption – a process rejected by a diverse opposition coalition and popular movements – but the Honduran government has not acted on widespread calls to establish CICIH.
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Zelaya was ousted six years ago by a U.S-backed military coup that brought Hernandez' National Party predecessor Porfirio Lobo Sosa to power in a widely-condemned post-coup election and sparked a national popular resistance movement.
While there are differences between the current movement and the post-coup resistance in 2009, recent marches similarly have brought tens of thousands of outraged Hondurans to the streets to protest an assault on democracy perpetrated by an elite and protected by the country’s deep impunity.
