Roberto Micheletti:  Defender of the Constitution?
Originally published in Spanish by AJS's Honduran sister organization, la Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa, at: http://asjhonduras.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:roberto-micheletti-idefensor-de-la-constitucion&catid=31:golpe-de-estado&Itemid=88

Roberto Micheletti has worked tirelessly to convince the Honduran public and the international community that he’s the defender of the Honduran constitution and a patriotic hero. But a study of his past reveals that in his 30 years as congressional representative, he’s done little to defend the constitution, the poor or the common good. His history is far from heroic; he handled millions of dollars in subsidies without transparency, was accused of corruption, and tried himself to manipulate the constitution to keep a president in office.

And though they look like enemies now, not long before the June coup, Micheletti was one of President Mel Zelazya’s closest political allies and supported him in his quest for power.  The truth is that Zelaya would never have gotten to the point of calling a constituent assembly had it not been for Roberto Micheletti.  Micheletti’s congress ratified ALBA, the purchase of petroleum from Venezuela and the Citizen Participation Law, all actions now typically blamed solely on Mel Zelaya.

Relations with Zelaya
In the internal elections held in 2004, Roberto Micheletti was coordinator of Manuel Zelaya’s campaign and in exchange Mel supported him in his bid to be president of the Honduran Congress. Today, the two find themselves deep in an apparent animosity while their recent cooperation is conveniently ignored or forgotten.

It was Micheletti’s Congress that approved the purchase of subsidized petroleum from Venezuela, increasing Chávez’ influence in Honduras and in the process creating an enormous presidential slush fund.  In his campaign, Manuel Zelaya promised to lower the price of gas but his first attempt failed when he found he had nowhere to store the millions of gallons of fuel he purchased. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, then sent Zelaya an invitation to participate in the PetroCaribe alliance. As a member of the Alliance, Honduras paid market price in cash for 60 percent of the fuel it purchased and paid the other 40 percent over 25 years with an interest rate of just one percent. The 40 percent savings was to be earmarked for social programs, but this clause never made it into the signed bill despite the protests of a number of congressional representatives. In the end, the fund  was used at the discretion of the president for expenses such as the Cuarta Urna (fourth ballot box), Zelaya’s attempt to bring to a vote a revision of the Honduran constitution. Micheletti’s approval of this deal as president of Congress (despite this lack of fiscal controls) facilitated closer ties between Chávez and Zelaya. 

It was Micheletti’s congress that approved Honduras joining the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America), an idea Zelaya began promoting in 2008. At first, Roberto Micheletti said that the Congress would not ratify the executive decree, but a few weeks later, the Honduran Congress approved the measure with the abstention of 18 representatives from the National party. The explanation that circulated after that change of heart, was that Micheletti had negotiated approving Honduras’ membership in ALBA in exchange for two things: Zelaya’s support during the upcoming elections and monetary contributions from the ALBA fund for Micheletti’s campaign chest.  Once again, Zelaya and Micheletti were campaigning together, only this time Zelaya was stumping for Micheletti.

Together, Zelaya and Micheletti wanted to stop Elvin Santos in his quest for the presidency. First, they needed to repeal a new law.  According to Honduran law Micheletti had to resign as president of Congress in order to launch his presidential campaign. This law was designed to prevent using political position and resources to advance a political campaign.  Micheletti, however, managed to convince the Supreme Court to overturn this law, allowing him to run for President while still presiding over the Honduran Congress.

Micheletti, however, did not view the constitution with the same disregard when it came to his political opponent, Elvin Santos, who had recently resigned as vice-president in order to run for President.  Michelleti argued that Santos’ candidacy violated the constitution which states that a person can be president only once in his or her lifetime. According to Micheletti, when Santos filled in while President  Zelaya  traveled outside Honduras, he was acting as president and so made himself ineligible to run in this election. A series of political shenanigans between Micheletti and Santos concluded with Santos winning a clear majority of the primary votes for his party. Micheletti did demonstrate, however, the degree to which he was willing to manipulate the constitution to his own ends.

Subsidies and Laws to Benefit Congressional Representatives
Micheletti handled millions of lempiras without any transparency or accountability. As a congressional representative, Micheletti passed out 150 million lempiras ($7.9 million dollars) in subsidies to congressional representatives. He decided how much to assign to each one. This money was supposed to benefit the representatives’ constituencies, but were in effect little more than pieces in the political game. According to the Legislative Balance Sheet  published by CIPRODEH, Micheletti  eliminated the subsidies of 20 representatives who supported  Elvin Santos’ candidacy. The department of Yoro, (Micheletti’s birthplace), got the second highest amount of subsidies. In 2008, with primary elections looming, Micheletti distributed subsidies to 95 projects, compared to 7 projects in 2007 and 15 in 2006. But ironically, despite this investment, the people of Yoro showed their distaste for their elected representative; Micheletti received only a small percentage of votes there.

It’s important to note that these subsidies are public funds which means they come from taxes paid by Honduran citizens or from loans which will need to be repaid, yet there is no transparency in their use. Representatives sign a receipt that they received funds but are not required to show how the funds are used nor audits  for completed “projects.”

Micheletti supported laws benefiting Congressional Representatives. Micheletti’s Congress has taken advantage of a law that gives tax exemptions to representatives for bringing in vehicles, sound equipment for political campaigns, computer equipment or any other equipment or material “needed by the party” as long as the value of the item exempted is less than two million lempiras ($105,820).  Micheletti’s congress has abused this law, importing cars like Hummers, Porsches, and a Mazaratti worth $95,000. The impact of this abuse is the loss of $1.7 million in taxes without any corresponding benefit to the people of Honduras.  Micheletti claimed he would investigate subsidy abuses, but far from working to uncover abuse, his response has been to defend the law to its critics.

Roberto Micheletti Ignores Civil Society
In his 30 years as a Congressional representative, Micheletti  has ignored the role of civil society. During the district attorney’s hunger strike in 2008 and in regards to a number of laws desperately in need of reform, he has failed to do what was right for the Honduran community.

Micheletti ignored the hunger strike. In 2008, 10 district attorneys and supporters carried out a hunger strike in an attempt to prosecute 23 corruption cases which had been buried by the District Attorney’s office allegedly to protect the prominent Honduran businessmen accused in the cases. The strike gained enormous support among the Honduran community, including that of Evangelical pastor, Evelio Reyes. Supporters accused Micheletti of arrogance and obstructing transparency and justice and pointed out that in his inaugural address as President of Congress he promised to combat corruption and bring greater transparency to government.

Micheletti never reformed the Mining Law. Honduras’ new mining law was approved after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 with the purpose of increasing foreign investment and creating jobs, but the law provided many benefits to companies at great environmental cost, especially for those communities near the mines. Civil Society, including Cardenal Oscar Rodríguez, had been calling for reform and during Micheletti’s administration, the law was discussed and revised and new articles were approved. But according to Congressmen Tomás Andino, of the Democratic Unification party, Micheletti’s Congress never passed the reforms because mining executives were paying into Micheletti’s campaign chest.

Defender of the Constitution?
Roberto Micheletti claims Manuel Zelaya betrayed the country by calling for a Constituent Assembly. But Micheletti carried out his own campaign to change the unamendable articles of the Constitution. In  1985, Micheletti tried—unseccessfully—to change the Constitution in order to allow the sitting president, Roberto Suazo Córdova, to extend his term.

The Honduran Constitution prohibits the exiling of it’s citizens, but Roberto Micheletti defends that action because Zelaya was insisting on the Constituent assembly. By all rights then, Micheletti should have been thrown out back in 1985 or at the very least removed as a congressional representative when he made his own attempt to change the constitution.

In the most recent assault on the Constitution, Micheletti suspended constitutional freedoms in an attempt to silence those who speak out against him.  On the evening of September 27, Roberto Micheletti announced the suspension of five constitutional guarantees, among them: Freedom of expression, freedom of circulation and freedom of assembly. The next morning, soldiers entered the offices of Radio Globo and Channel 36 and took them off the air. In a surprising twist that same day, the Honduran Congress rejected Micheletti’s decree and called for its revocation but Micheletti has refused to relent. This refusal to comply with a decree from Congress appears to be the act of a dictator who is disregarding the constitution and the Honduran people.

Conclusion
Today, many march in favor of Micheletti, “the defender of democracy.” But his actions—using public money for his own interests, manipulating the Constitution and ignoring civil society—demonstrate that he is concerned neither with the people he claims to serve, nor the preservation of democracy. We should all ask ourselves whether Roberto Micheletti’s actions are worth defending .