Forget It

In Porfirio Lobo Sosa's world, everyone who did anything connected with the coup of June 28, 2009, would be pardoned, if only the National Congress would give him that power.

Lobo Sosa announced this Friday after returning from a visit to Taiwan. He said he'd like to pardon Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the military, since he doesn't want to see anyone behind bars. He noted he's already had conversations with the National Congress about getting them to grant him the authority.

Lobo Sosa says that this is merely a power that other presidents have had, and that his mandate, derived from his election, is to bring peace and reconciliation.

"Because of this, as I have said and repeated, I don't want to see "Mel" in jail, I don't want to see the military in jail, not anybody; we've got to pardon everyone; we're buried in the past and that which divides us.....I would pardon everything derived from the 28th of June and I say lets look forward and forget the past."

Lobo Sosa wants the issue of the coup and June 28 to be closed once and for all, so that he can get on with his 28 year neoliberal National Plan without having to constantly fight for international recognition and funding. It's what he promised he would do once elected, but this issue of the coup keeps getting in the way, taking up all his time and energy.

George Santayana said, in the context of a theory about how knowledge is acquired, that

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
(in Life of Reason 1)

Honduras needs the self-knowledge about what happened on June 28, 2009. By attempting to sweep it under the rug, Lobo Sosa looks for a facile solution to move forward, but instead only prolongs the time to self-knowledge.