Tegucigalpa, July 10 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Leaders of three opposition parties stated on Thursday they entirely supported the Outraged Movement and their demand of setting up an International Commission against Impunity.
The three political parties (Liberal, “Libre” and Anti-Corruption Party) represent together the biggest opposition to the conservative government in Congress. They handed over a 200-page report during a press conference in Tegucigalpa detailing how such a commission is currently working in neighboring Guatemala, and how it differs from the anti-corruption office proposed by President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Former President Manuel Zelaya of the Libre Party, ousted in 2009 in a U.S.-backed military coup, said that when the resort to the Honduran judicial system has been exhausted, it is necessary to seek out international justice.
The political leaders insisted that the pacific dialogue offered by the president could only be conditioned by the implementation of such a commission. “Honduras does not want violence, it wants justice; and this participation of the people is asking justice,” he added.
Ariel Varela, one of the leaders of the “Outraged” Movement, warned the president that he should pay attention to their demands. “We do not want violence,” he said. “Yesterday we met with the left, tomorrow we will meet with the right, today we are meeting here with the political parties.”
Earlier this week, various sectors of civil society, including businesspeople, farmers and women groups, have been heard by a U.N. exploratory mission sent to the Honduran capital to evaluate the president's offer to dialogue.
The Outraged movement could also express their point of view, as well as the leaders of the three opposition parties, beside the president himself and the attorney general. The mission will present its conclusions to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday.
The outraged movement has been demanding for weeks the establishment of an independent body of investigators to probe government corruption. The proposed accountability body, 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.
Hernandez and his ruling National Party are accused of receiving $90 million of more than $200 million embezzled from the country's Social Security Institute, known as IHSS, to fund the 2013 election campaign that saw him narrowly win amid widespread calls of electoral fraud.
