Honduras Joint Chief of Staff ratifies support to President Xiomara Castro's government

teleSUR English

Statements by Roosevelt Hernandez, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, on the attempted coup d'état in that country. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00Go back to Honduras to listen to President Xiomara Castro.

00:04Of working on the offices related to the defense mechanism of work between the defense offices

00:15of the United States here in Honduras and the offices of the Secretary of Defense and

00:23armed forces.

00:24And second, the way of coordination of communications through the different cooperation agencies.

00:33And the third one, it is an invitation to Washington and the Florida and the Southern

00:39Command and the Cayo Hueso to know the way they are operating in the different activities,

00:49how work has been conducted and the work that has to do with combating drug trafficking.

00:59The fourth, an invitation and agreement for an informative session on the Sotocano Air

01:08Base and to know which are the scopes of the joint work that's been done in this base.

01:16And the last one, the assistance program of military of the United States, including

01:25the issue of radars and other prioritizing issues for the Honduran government.

01:31We have ratified the United States government through the ambassador of our availability

01:40to hold talks, hold permanent talks, which must be under respect and considering the

01:48principles of independence and self-determination of our peoples.

01:53And under the respect preset, what has to do and that coincide with the opening of the

02:02electoral year, which will be summoned the day after tomorrow, and considering the autonomy,

02:11the independence of our homeland, we have no problem to address this working agenda

02:17that we have marked with the ambassador.

02:20I am going to give the floor to General Ruter Hernandez for him to expose, and then we are

02:29going to have a couple of questions.

02:37We're listening to Secretary of Defense of Honduras address the situation in the country.

02:43We go back to images to continue listening.

02:49We are now going to listen to the chief of the military, the chief of the army of the country.

03:01Let's listen.

03:03So, we are focusing jointly with cracking down the drug trafficking, organized crime on the military side.

03:20And so, these approachments come to strengthen what we have been conducting.

03:27We have these works that we are about to do, and related to the coordination to be able

03:37to achieve the system of raiders.

03:40And on the other side, what is the mobility?

03:43They have been cooperating particularly with the Navy Force of Honduras in the maritime area.

03:53We have been doing our job, and we shared what is about innovation and technological

04:01equipment to combat drug trafficking in the coasts, and what is the mobility also.

04:11And we have the ground, air, and Navy shields, and this was a fruitful meeting.

04:21And this has been addressed by our general in the armed forces, and the constitutional

04:31president, Xiomara Castro.

04:34We have beginning from January, and thanks God, we are on the eighth or ninth month,

04:40and we are advancing in this fight of the drug trafficking.

04:47And so, this meeting with the ambassador has come to strengthen this fight, and we

04:53are certain that we are going to strengthen the three shields of our forces in the air,

05:01in the sea, and in the land.

05:04And so, we are going to give you the floor for your questions.

05:12Well, the press conference continues in Honduras.

05:16We just listened to the Minister of Defense, Richie Moncada, also to the Chief of the Military,

05:23Ruzbel Hernández.

05:24They are addressing the recent situation in the country.

05:26Let's recall that Richie Moncada assumed as the Minister of Defense of the country only

05:33days ago after a series of events that also included the president of Honduras, Xiomara

05:40Castro, denouncing interference from foreign powers.

05:44There was also an attempted coup against her government, and in that situation, Richie

05:51Moncada assumed the Ministry of Defense of the country, and now they are addressing the

05:58current situation, giving indications on the following steps.

06:03What we are looking at are live images from Honduras as both heads, both the Minister

06:11of Defense and also the Army Chief, have offered statements before the press, and now

06:17they are getting ready to hear from the questions from the media and press, and we are going

06:23to have live images also from the press conference to see what they ask and what they address

06:31in the coming minutes.

06:33We are following closely, we have been following closely all the events that took place in

06:39Honduras.

06:41Just minutes ago, we heard from the president of Honduras herself, and now we listen to

06:47Richie Moncada.

06:50These four questions are for doing a treaty, but I am going to refer briefly to the first

06:58part of the question in the sense that we have ratified in this meeting the criteria

07:05exposed by the government of the republic through our president in a TV chain earlier.

07:15We have ratified our commitment to fight organized crime, public and private corruption, and

07:25fighting of drug trafficking, but our principle of fight as of the recognition of the current

07:35conditions in the country matter, we have ratified each one of these affairs, and this

07:43has been crystal clear with the lady ambassador.

07:49Regarding the question by a group of, well, the armed forces, I am talking to all the

07:56armed forces and soldiers.

07:58We are a permanent institution, and what does this imply?

08:03That we are not improvised.

08:06I am 38 years old, I have been here for 38 years old, but after me, there are all the

08:16other generation that have been here for 37 or 36.

08:21Yesterday, I was at another academy, and those citizens have two, three, or four years, and

08:31so that is what is permanent, and it is earned with actions, with giving example, and one

08:41has an example of life here, so any of those stances, of those lying stances, are the ones

08:50who are not commanding troops, and those whose actions get out of the situation.

09:00Those are persons who have their opportunity, and they didn't profit to bless this country,

09:09and so if I were, and I would be the first if Moral asked me to, I would ask and give

09:22my post to others, but there are no such situations, and so if there were someone, it is a minority

09:33for not being satisfied, and for not having a position of command, you have to respect

09:42the post, and so if there is someone who is not satisfied, it is because that someone

09:56deserves so, and I hope this could be an affair of tranquility for our society, and

10:03on the other side, you are talking about if there is going to be any clashes, we from

10:09since 2022, we have never been sent to confront the Honduran society, we have never get our

10:23equipment to confront, we have never executed any violence, we have been forbidden about

10:31those kinds of actions of repressing our Honduran society, our president has ordered us since

10:39our posts to reproach the people, to make social projections, we have been doing that

10:50on the medical brigades, on the agricultural projects, like those of cafes, and you have

11:01to ask the Honduran society who visited Honduran public hospitals, in which the army offers

11:11them some coffee, and we have been educating, we have been providing education to our youngsters,

11:20we have been deploying these kinds of actions, and we have been making other projections

11:35with the Catholic Church, we carry out other actions, and we even participate in the building

11:44up of houses with the Catholic Church, and those are the orders by our commander to reproach

11:51the people and not repress it, thank you very much.

11:55We are live from UN TV, you know that you were meeting with the opposition, do you know

12:18about that? Well, I am from the 27th promotion, I am third place, and I already explained

12:27the order of posts, and those qualities are being counted up, and in the quantification

12:39of those qualities, if it is 98% from the first place, and the last place, which is

12:4994%, all these people are real efficient, so all are in the position of command, there

13:04is no person of not being able to command, because they deserve it, and so if you mention

13:12there is a conformity, it is completely fake, these are people from outside that possibly

13:20can generate this kind of environment, and we are giving the example from our careers,

13:28we have difficult trainings, but some of us have it, and so that must be respected,

13:38the military environment is a life of effort, of commitment, of giving example, and here

13:48those who are in this kind, in this career is to achieve a great level of moral, and

13:56so those who are discredited, there is a lower of moral. Thank you very much.

14:11Good afternoon, Minister, good afternoon, General, about the issue of the coup of Barracas

14:24were announced by you, and that initiative from the internal of the armed forces is also

14:34related to the combat, combating the drug trafficking, I said initially that we have

14:51ratified in this meeting, in this working meeting with the U.S. Ambassador, the statements

15:00exposed by our President in our TV channel, and we have ratified these stances in the

15:08sense that the state suffered the process of dismantling of its equipment to fight effectively

15:19drug trafficking. Luis Herbert, we have ratified these stances of the chain, and regarding

15:29the obstruction point affair about the electoral process and mobilizations that have to do

15:39with destabilizing the state regarding the electoral process, we have assured honestly,

15:49we have sustained our stance, we have sticked to our stance regarding the statements that were

16:00the basis of the last incidents, and we have exposed to that personally, we have ratified that

16:12our government is in favor of extradition as a mechanism, as one of the mechanism of cracking down

16:23the drug trafficking. The treaty is a bilateral treaty with the United States, but Honduras has

16:33other kinds of treaties that reflect extradition, and it's been denounced that specifically, which has a

16:42bilateral nature, but we are in favor of extradition as long as extradition doesn't want to be an instrument

16:56profiting the electoral process. The day after tomorrow, the National Electoral Council will summon the

17:06elections, and this institution, the duty of this institution is to guarantee that it's going to be held,

17:15the electoral process, the primary and general electoral process in the year of elections.

17:23And I think that for the expressions of the U.S. Ambassador, for the way we addressed not only this working agenda,

17:34but also these affairs that you were mentioning, she recognizes and validates our stances.

17:46The meeting was a meeting of a lot of respect and with a lot of honesty, and we all accepted to not reach any

18:08agreement to destroy the electoral process. And regarding the denunciation that President Xiomara Castro did about

18:20the voices that are boosting to destabilize the state, I think that the evidence are being made public, and the

18:35general has ratified the condition of its armed forces, of its posts, and of the different posts that are in this institution.

18:49And I think that the Honduran people must be certain that from this, the Secretary of State, we are going to maintain,

18:57abide by the law and constitution, and we are going to boost the true fight against drug trafficking, and at the same time,

19:06we are going to guarantee the state of peace of the country for an electoral process to be clear and transparent.

19:18And so, the armed forces will play their constitutional role, and we appreciate a lot the attendance that you are here,

19:31and we will continue with our work. We will have a meeting now, so we have to go, because at 1 p.m. we have to be at the

19:46air forces. We are going to meet with all the leaders there, all the heads of the armed forces. It's a meeting of the command.

19:56Thank you very much.

19:58We're listening to Honduran authorities, particularly the authorities of the army. This was the defense minister,

20:06Rishi Pongada, and also the chief of the army, Ruzbel Hernández. They were addressing the recent situation in the country

20:14just minutes before we were listening to President Xiomara Castro, that also reiterated her call, saying and stating that the country

20:24is receiving a coup attempt, that it's receiving international interference, and she is denouncing this.

20:30And also, the conference just made, the press conference by the authorities of the defense ministry, had to do with reinstating their

20:39order of command, talking about the role that the army is about to take place, also the orders that President Xiomara Castro gave them,

20:48and in this context, is that we were listening to the Honduran authorities. We will come back and follow closely this topic,

20:56as we have been doing so, but for now, we have come...

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