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