Opposing the coup: Nuns, priests, monks and Richard Milhous Nixon

Hermano Juancito writes on the Golpe de estado – day 12:

Today I received numerous copies of statements from religious orders in Honduras. None are supportive of the coup, though some are more guarded than others. But the call for “dialogue leading to negotiating,” protests against the denial of civil rights, and concern for the poorest seem to be ever present. The concern is real from these groups of men and women religious who work with the poor and know their struggles.

Onn his  Spanish-language  site, Juancito Honduras Brother John has posted  statements condemning the coup from the:

• “Conferencia de Religiosos/as de Honduras” (sort of all-conference priests, nuns, monks and friars)
• “Provincial de los Dominicos en Centro America” (Dominican Order in Central America)
• “la Comisión Provincial de Apostolado Social (CPAS) de la Provincia Centroamericana de la Compañía de Jesús” (the Jesuits Social Policy division)
• And… a joint statement by the “Miembros de la Familia Dominicana (Orden de Predicadores), Hermanas Claretianas y Hermanas de la Misericordia” (Dominican Preachers, Claretian nuns and Sisters of Mercy),

Meanwhile, Reina Saiki, a research assistant at the National Defense Council Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, sent her own statement to the Washington Post, also calling for peace and bread, not military solutions.

As Abraham Maslow noted in his psychological study of human motivations, for people to meet the highest needs of self-actualization, such as a sense of identity and purpose, their lower needs must be achieved first, starting with the basic physiological necessities of food, water and security.

Democratic nations can apply the same notions to avoid focusing on traditional military approaches when combating insurgents. As Richard Nixon once warned, we must disabuse ourselves of the notion that national strength is measured solely by military power and that simply by having enough of it we can feel secure.

The first group no doubt says “Deliver us from evil,” but even from the depths of Hell we’re hearing objections to settling socio-political differences with a gun.

Micheletti and company are soooo screwed.