Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran Military Leaders trained by US SotA!

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Sunday, September 27, 2009
02:13 Mecca time, 23:13 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/200992620821596493.html
   
News Americas 
 
Pro-Zelaya supporters stage protest
 

The UN Security Council warned the interim authorities not to harass the embassy [AFP]
 
Thousands of Manuel Zelaya's supporters have taken to the streets of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, to mark 90 days since he was ousted from power.

Surrounded by anti-riot police and soldiers, thousands marched to the Brazilian embassy on Saturday where Zelaya has been holed up since Monday, while hundreds more took part in a vehicle  protest, hanging out car windows, honking horns and waving Honduran flags as they drove through a main axis of the capital.

"Thanks, Brazil, for protecting Mel (Zelaya's nickname) from  this vile regime," one banner read.

Many said that Zelaya's suprise return to the country on Monday, nearly three months after he was ousted in a dispute over his  plans to change the constitution,  had strengthened his support.

"The coup leaders have more pressure to negotiate" now, union  leader Juan Barahona told AFP news agency.

A top diplomat leaving the Brazilian embassy denounced the state of "siege," with troops lined up around the compound.

"It's the only place in the world where there's an embassy under siege," said Francisco Catunda, the Brazilian charge d'affaires, as he left the building for the first time since Zelaya appeared there.

Most people inside the embassy were in good health, Catunba said, adding that one Brazilian diplomat told him he had smelled gas the previous day, after Zelaya accused the army of trying to  intoxicate him and some 60 people still inside the compound.

Pressure and isolation

The UN Security Council on Friday warned the rebel authorities not to harass the embassy and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that Zelaya "could stay as long as necessary for his safety" in the embassy.


In depth :
 Video: Honduras poor pained by coup
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/2009926142318826278.html

 Video: Family reunion for Zelaya
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/2009926191644435146.html
 
The de facto leaders, led by Roberto Micheletti, insisted the compound will not be taken by force and denied they were responsible for initial power and water cuts.

The interim government said it was not ready to meet with a delegation of diplomats from the Organization of American States (OAS) hoping to help mediate the crisis.

The UN froze its technical support for presidential polls scheduled for November, which appeared increasingly challenging to organise.

A daytime curfew was lifted and airports reopened allowing businesses to resume and providing relief to an increasingly frustrated public. However, a nighttime curfew remained in place.

Zelaya, a rancher who veered to the left after his election and  alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was ousted from  power in a military-backed coup in June.
 
 
 
 
 

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September 27th, 2009

Honduras warns Brazil over ousted president

Posted: 06:29 AM ET
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) — Honduras is accusing Brazil’s government of instigating an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya who took refuge there.

“Since the clandestine arrival to Honduras by ex-president Zelaya, the Brazil embassy has been used to instigate violence and insurrection against the Honduran people and the constitutional government,” the secretary of foreign affairs for Honduras’ de facto government said in a statement late Saturday night.

The statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if the latter did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be.

“No country is able to tolerate that a foreign embassy is used as a command base to generate violence and break tranquility like Mr. Zelaya has been doing in our country since his arrival,” the statement said.

Zelaya was removed from power in a military-backed coup in June.

Claiming he is still the president, Zelaya returned to Honduras on Monday and has been staying at the Brazilian embassy since then.

On Friday, Zelaya said he and supporters were victims of a “neurotoxic” gas attack  that caused many people to have nose bleeds and breathing difficulties.

Roberto Micheletti, who was named president after the coup that removed Zelaya, told said his government did not launch a gas attack on the embassy.

– CNN’s Esprit Smith contributed to this report.

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Honduras' leaders push back after Brazilian Embassy snub


Story Highlights :

NEW: Brazilian Embassy isn't Brazilian soil, de facto Honduran government declares

NEW: Roberto Micheletti's government cracks down on Honduran media

Brazil has rejected an ultimatum about ousted Honduran president's status

Jose Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge at Brazilian Embassy in Honduras


Honduran troops stand guard in front of the Brazilian Embassy earlier this week.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- Brazil on Sunday rejected an ultimatum from Honduras' de facto government to decide the status of ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who has been holed up in the South American country's embassy in Honduras since last week.

In turn, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti refused to acknowledge the embassy as Brazilian soil, deeming it a "private office."

"It was Brazil who broke relations with the current government, when they refused to recognized it," said interim government Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez. "So we are just being doing the same with them."

However, he said, that does not mean Micheletti's government "will lose its courteous and civilized manner, and will go inside the establishment, just because the seals are coming down."

Micheletti's government also refused to admit five of six representatives from the Organization of American States after the group arrived at the Tegucigalpa airport. Of the group, which included two Americans and one Canadian, only OAS Special Adviser John Biehl of Chile was allowed to stay, though the reason remained unclear.

"We don't know why were weren't allowed in because the de facto government agreed to accept us," said OAS spokesman Alvaro Briones in Washington.

Micheletti has accused Zelaya of using the embassy to instigate an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian Embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted president, who took refuge there.

"Since the clandestine arrival to Honduras by ex-president Zelaya, the Brazil embassy has been used to instigate violence and insurrection against the Honduran people and the constitutional government," the secretary of foreign affairs for Honduras' de facto government said in a statement late Saturday night.

Upon his unexpected arrival at the embassy on Monday, Zelaya said he returned for "homeland, restitution or death."

Brazilian authorities said they told Zelaya to avoid inflammatory language, and Zelaya has said he is seeking to meet with Micheletti's government to find an end to the political crisis peacefully.

At a summit in Venezuela between leaders of South America and Africa, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Brazil "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotting governments," referring to the de facto rule of Micheletti, who was named president after Zelaya's ouster in a military-backed coup in June.

Lula said that his government had nothing to negotiate with Micheletti, and that Zelaya was a "guest" of the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital.

Micheletti's government on Sunday night ordered all media outlets to cease publishing or airing "any images that threaten peace and public order, or insult the human dignity of public servicemen."

An attorney for Channel 36 had said earlier that the Honduran television station was shut down by authorities. The channel temporarily broadcast color bars and a message in Spanish: "This is what they want -- the coup of Micheletti."

Earlier Sunday, the Brazilian foreign ministry said in a statement it would not respond to Honduras' request regarding Zelaya's status because it does not recognize Micheletti's government, according to the official Agencia Brasil news agency. Watch Zelaya and Micheletti talk about the standoff »

The Honduran statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if the latter did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be.

"No country is able to tolerate that a foreign embassy is used as a command base to generate violence and break tranquility like Mr. Zelaya has been doing in our country since his arrival," the statement said.

On Friday, Zelaya said he and supporters were victims of a "neurotoxic" gas attack that caused many people to have nose bleeds and breathing difficulties.

Micheletti said his government did not launch a gas attack on the embassy.

CNN's Kim Segal and Esprit Smith contributed to this report.

All AboutHonduras • Brazil • Jose Manuel Zelaya
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Honduras'
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Honduras
Watch Zelaya and Micheletti talk about the standoff »
#cnnSTCVideo
Honduras
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Honduras
Brazil
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Brazil
Jose Manuel Zelaya
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Jose_Manuel_Zelaya

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/27/honduras.president/index.html 

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Honduran Regime Suspends Civil Liberties

Monday , September 28, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556280,00.html?test=latestnews


Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, center, talks to journalists as supporters cheer inside the Brasilian embassy.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Interim government leaders have suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted President Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup.

Zelaya supporters said they would ignore the decree issued late Sunday and march in the streets as planned. Some already had arrived in the capital, Tegucigalpa, from outlying provinces.

The measures — announced just hours after Zelaya called on his backers to stage mass protest marches in what he called a "final offensive" against the government — are likely to draw harsh criticism from the international community, which has condemned the June 28 coup and urged that Zelaya be reinstated to the presidency and allowed to serve out his term, which ends in January.

Officials also issued an ultimatum to Brazil on Sunday, giving the South American country 10 days to decide whether to turn Zelaya over for arrest or grant him asylum and, presumably, take him out of Honduras. They did not specify what they would do after the 10 days were up.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded, saying that his government "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotters."

Interim President Roberto Micheletti has pledged not to raid the Brazilian Embassy building where Zelaya has been holed up with more than 60 supporters since he sneaked back into the country a week ago. The building is surrounded by armed police and soldiers. On Tuesday, the day after Zelaya's return, baton-wielding troops used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of his supporters.

Protesters say at least 10 people have been killed since the coup, while the government puts the toll at three.

Interim Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez has said that, because Brazil has broken off diplomatic relations with the interim government, it would have to remove the Brazilian flag and shield from the Embassy "and it (the building) becomes a private office."

The government's suspension of civil liberties violates rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution: The decree prohibits unauthorized gatherings and allows police to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others."

The Honduran Constitution forbids arrests without warrants except when a criminal is caught in the act.

The government measures also permit authorities to temporarily close news media outlets that "attack peace and public order."

In a nationally broadcast announcement, the government explained it took the steps it did "to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the calls for insurrection that Mr. Zelaya has publicly made."

There was no immediate reaction from Zelaya, who is demanding to be reinstated and has said that Micheletti's government "has to fall."

Zelaya's supporters pledged to ignore the restrictions and forge ahead with their scheduled demonstrations.

"The protest is on," said pro-Zelaya leader Juan Barahona. "Tomorrow we will be in the streets."

The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations that — while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup — had been allowed to operate freely, openly criticizing the interim government and broadcasting Zelaya's statements.

Under Sunday's order, authorities may now "prevent the transmission by any spoken, written or televised means, of statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law."

The decree states that the country's national telecommunications commission, known as Conatel, is authorized "through police and the armed forces ... to immediately suspend any radio station, cable or television network whose programming does not comply with these regulations."

Pro-Zelaya television station Channel 36 warned earlier Sunday that restrictions on the news media were coming and said they were part of a pattern by the interim government of quashing constitutional rights.

Micheletti's administration had previously bragged about the democratic atmosphere in the country, citing media outlets such as Channel 36 as proof. The station continued broadcasting without interruption Sunday night.

Talks between Zelaya and interim government officials aimed at resolving the political standoff have gotten nowhere. Prospects for success appeared even grimmer after the government expelled at least four members of an advance team from the Organization of American States who had arrived Sunday to re-establish negotiations.

Micheletti has previously said the OAS was welcome to come, but suggested that representatives begin arriving Monday. Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said that the team's arrival didn't come "at the right time ... because we are in the middle of internal conversations."

In addition, while many nations have announced they would send diplomatic representatives back to Honduras to support negotiations, the interim government said Sunday that it would not automatically accept ambassadors back from some nations that withdrew their envoys.

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Monday, September 28, 2009
05:06 Mecca time, 02:06 GMT 
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/200992723133276467.html
 
News Americas 
 
Honduras toughens stance on Zelaya 
 

The interim government has signalled a tougher stance against opposition to its rule [EPA]

 
The interim government of Honduras has threatened to revoke Brazil's diplomatic credentials for harbouring ousted president Manuel Zelaya in its embassy.

The warning on Sunday came as the interim Honduran government appeared to toughen its stance in the conflict, detaining or expelling members of an Organisation of American States delegation and clamping down on internal dissent.

"If the status of Zelaya is not defined within 10 days, the [Brazilian] embassy will lose its diplomatic condition," Carlos Lopez Contreras, the de facto foreign minister, told a news conference on Sunday.

But he added that "out of courtesy, an invasion of the site is not being considered".

The ultimatum comes just days after the interim government said it was willing to talk to Zelaya provided that he pledge to respect results of elections set to be held in November.

Brazil 'will not comply'

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, told reporters at a summit in Venezuela that Brazil would not agree to the demands by Roberto Micheletti, the interim Honduran president.
 

"Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup-mongers," Lula said, adding that international law protects Brazil's embassy.

Lula also demanded an apology from Micheletti.

Since last week, hundreds of soldiers and riot police have surrounded the embassy where protesters have held almost daily marches to demand Zelaya be reinstated.

The United Nations Security Council had condemned the purported harassment of the Brazilian embassy on Friday, after Brazilian officials complained it was "under siege".

Officials said food and supplies had only occasionally been allowed in and troops had blasted the building with high-frequency sounds.

Amid the ongoing political crisis in the central American country, the government issued a decree on Sunday allowing it to suspend freedom of speech, ban protests and suspend media groups because of "disturbances of the peace" since a June coup that toppled Zelaya, officials announced on Sunday.

Oscar Matute, the de facto interior minister, said media that "incite violence" should be regulated under the decree.

OAS blocked

The clampdown was announced hours after four members of the OAS were expelled and five members detained for six hours at the international airport in the capital Tegucigalpa on Sunday.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/9/23/2009923233440157884_3.jpg
 
Police and security forces have launched major crackdowns on demonstrations [AFP]

The interim government had just last week invited the OAS to the country to help lay the groundwork for a mediation effort between the interim government and Zelaya.

But on Sunday, it rejected nine of 10 delegates.

John Biehl, the only OAS official allowed to enter Honduras, told the AFP news agency that one member of the group was sent to the United States and the three others were sent to Costa Rica.

"We were detained at the airport. There were two Americans, two Canadians, one Colombian and myself in the group," said Biehl, an adviser to Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the pan-American body, who is expected to visit Honduras later this week.

"We were detained for six hours ... as a Chilean, I have to say that it brought back some bad memories," Biehl said, alluding to the government under former leader Augusto Pinochet.

Two officials from the Spanish embassy were also turned back at the airport on Sunday as they returned to Honduras after vacationing abroad, a diplomatic source told the AFP.

The interim government took control of Honduras after the military, backed by the supreme court and congress, removed Zelaya from power in late June at the height of a dispute over his attempts to amend the constitution.

Critics say his push for constitutional amendments was to pave the way for a change in presidential term limits, in order to extend his rule, an accusation Zelaya denies.

Zelaya demands to be restored to power, but the interim government has said that elections in November will resolve the crisis.
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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Monday, September 28, 2009
16:30 Mecca time, 13:30 GMT 
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/2009928124228951255.html
 
News Americas 
 
Troops close Honduras radio station 

 
The interim government on Sunday announced a ban on unauthorised gatherings on Sunday [AFP]
 
 
Honduran soldiers have raided a radio station aligned with Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, and shut down its operations.

David Romero, the director of Radio Globo de Tegucigalpa, said on Monday: "Soldiers assaulted the radio this morning, took over the station and took it off the air."

He said that all the staff had managed to "escape" and that no arrests had been made.

Radio Globo has a reporter inside the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya has been staying since he sneaked back into the country.

The move to close the station came a day after the interim government announced a media clampdown and a ban on unauthorised gatherings.

The restrictions were announced on the eve of what Zelaya has called a peaceful "final offensive" to mark the three-month anniversary of the coup which ousted him.

Supporters of Zelaya plan to gather in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, after the country's interim government threatened to close the Brazilian embassy for harbouring the ousted leader.
 
 Source: Agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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The Second Honduran Coup Came Today Because the First One Failed


by Al Giordano
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58378&hd=&size=1&l=e

 

D.R. 2009 Latuff, special to The Narco News Bulletin


September 28, 2009


On the morning of June 28, coup regime soldiers stomped into the offices of Radio Globo and Channel 36 in Tegucigalpa and silenced their transmitters. The two networks filed court orders to be able to get back on the air. And for the past three months they’ve each been subject to written orders from the Honduras regime to cease broadcasting (the journalists, in turn, refused to be censored) and to paramilitary attacks that poured acid on their transmitters, and yet they and their journalists heroically got themselves back on the air rapidly.

On this morning, three months later, it was déjà vu all over again, as those same military troops reenacted the battle of June 28, busting down the doors of both broadcasters and this time removing their transmitters and equipment. And soldiers have surrounded both houses of media to prevent the people from retaking them.

This time, due to yesterday’s coup decree, there is no legal recourse for the journalists. Under the decree, if a judge even looks at a motion from those media, he, too, can be rounded up, arrested and detained. And if another media reports what happened, it, too, can be invaded and silenced by force.

Today’s "do over" of the June 28 Honduras coup proves two big truths.

First: that the original coup failed to establish control over the country and its people. More than 90 days of nonviolent resistance have demolished what little support the coup regime had inside and outside of Honduras, and left them only with their small core of oligarchs and security forces to defend their putsch against the majority.

And second: That despite all the regime’s Orwellian talk of how it was a "legal" coup, how it was executed to defend the Constitution, and how the continued broadcasting of critical media proved it was not a dictatorship, its intention all along was far more sinister: to erase democracy and its most basic freedoms in order to establish autocratic control by a few over 7.5 million Honduran citizens and the lush natural and human resources in that land.

A significant portion of the Honduran population has gone underground overnight. Tipped off that last night their homes would be raided and they would be hauled off to the soccer stadium in Tegucigalpa where the regime already holds at least 75 citizens incommunicado – reports of the use of torture are all the more credible because the regime won’t allow any attorney, doctor or human rights observer inside the stadium to inspect – other rank-and-file Hondurans opened their homes to resistance organizers throughout the country. They are hiding from the regime, but they are in constant contact with each other, and with our reporters.

Another part of last night’s wave of state terror came in the form of this provocation: Key human rights leaders and attorneys were notified anonymously of an alleged roundup of dissidents at a particular police station in the capital. They rushed down to look for the detainees, only to be greeted by the very nervous and heavily armed station police who had, simultaneously, received an anonymous phone call telling them that a mob was on its way there to burn down the station. Fortunately, cooler minds prevailed and once the human rights attorneys explained to the police the message they had received, both sides figured out it was an attempt trick them into a violent confrontation.

That the regime has to try and fool and manipulate its own police forces provides an indication that not all of them are thrilled with the latest decree and events.

This is what the coup plotters always wanted: the prohibition of constitutional rights and total authoritarian power in their hands. They tried to have it both ways for three months – defending themselves to the world with their absurd "the coup is not a coup" doublespeak – but that failed. Now they’ve gone to Plan B, which unmasks them for what they are: terrorists, and enemies of democracy and freedom.

Their first coup failed in only three months. That’s why the date of September 28 now enters the history books as the second coup attempt in Honduras of 2009. The second resistance is out there, regrouping, figuring out its next moves, and when those moves come, probably soon, we’ll be reporting their words and deeds, despite the fact that the coup regime has also just made that reporting illegal, too.

Similarly, our longtime friend and colleague, the Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, author of the image above, doesn't take orders from golpistas either. Today he makes public his email address - carlos.latuff@gmail.com - and offers support and his talents at image-making to all members of the Honduran resistance as the next phase of the struggle begins.

The second coup - today's - came because the first one failed miserably, as this one will, too.

Update 11:26 a.m. in Tegucigalpa (1:26 p.m. ET): And another few rings fall away from the coup regime "onion" of support. The daily Tiempo reports that National Party presidential candidate Pepe Lobo - who leads in all polls for the November 29 "election" - has now spoken out against yesterday's coup decree and its 45-day suspension of constitutional rights and liberties:

The National Party presidential candidate, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, lamented what has happened in the political crisis and after calling upon Manuel Zelaya Rosales and Roberto Micheletti to sit down and dialogue, he criticized the Executive Decree published in the Gaceta that restricts various freedoms inherent to human beings.

Lobo made those statements after leaving a meeting that four presidential candidates, a former president of the nation and various businessmen had with US Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

The presidential frontrunner confirmed that, in addition to him, candidates Elvin Santos, Bernard Martínez and Felicito Avila of the Liberal, the Innovation and Unity, and the Christian Democratic parties, respectively.

Lobo Sosa questioned the military curfews and the emission of the Executive Decree against individual rights and news organizations because "they damage the image of the country abroad and directly harm the population."

The meeting with the US Ambassador from with Lobo emerged to make his first-ever public criticism of the coup d'etat and its repressive maneuvers was also attended by former Honduran President Carlos Flores Facussé, and business magnate Adolfo Facussé - both who had been original backers of the June 28 coup attempt. If either of them follow Lobo into denouncing the coup and its decree, the "coup onion" would lose one or more of its most inner and powerful layers of support.



 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2009 1:37 PM
 
Honduras Coup Regime Suspends Constitutional Rights, Closes Media, Threatens Brazil: Will Obama Administration Break Its Silence?

WASHINGTON - September 28 - The Honduran de facto regime suspended constitutional guarantees to civil liberties, including freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, for 45 days on the eve of mass protests planned to mark the three-month anniversary since the coup d'etat against President Manuel Zelaya took place. The regime has also shut down [2] Radio Globo, a prominent independent media outlet that has covered anti-coup activities and that reportedly has a journalist inside the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya is staying, and TV station Channel 36.

"After 90 days and not one word from the Obama administration on the abuses in Honduras, it looks an awful lot like a tacit endorsement of the repression by the U.S. government," said Mark Weisbrot [3], Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

"Certainly the de facto regime must have gotten the idea that they have a blank check from the Obama administration for any crimes that they commit. That's one reason they're doing this."

The suspension of civil liberties would last at least until just a few weeks before the scheduled November 29 elections, and is likely to further call into question the elections' legitimacy.

The regime also issued an ultimatum to Brazil over the weekend, warning the Brazilian government that it has 10 days to decide what to do about Zelaya, and a regime spokesperson warned that since Brazil broke off diplomatic relations with the coup government, it could remove the flag and shield from the Brazilian embassy, making it a "private office." Brazilian President Lula da Silva rejected the threats, saying that his government "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotters."

In the three months since President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown, the coup regime has committed numerous human right abuses, including thousands of arrests and detentions, beatings, and the closing down of independent media. This has been documented, reported, and denounced by major human rights organizations throughout the world: Amnesty International [4], the Center for Justice and International Law [5], Human Rights Watch [6], the Inter American Commission on Human Rights [7] and others. Some opponents of the regime have also been killed, tortured, and raped, and Honduran human rights groups have accused the government of responsibility for these crimes.

The Obama administration has not commented on any of these crimes or human rights violations.

Also, on Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that "condemned acts of intimidation against the Brazilian Embassy and called upon the de facto government of Honduras to cease harassing the Brazilian Embassy and to provide all necessary utilities and services including water, electricity, food and continuity of communications. Respect and protection of the inviolability of diplomatic premises is a universally accepted principle of international relations," according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

This was in response to the Honduran regime's violations of international law in its attacks on the Brazilian embassy with tear gas and other chemicals, cutting off food, water, and electricity, and other abuses. The U.S. government has not criticized the de facto regime for its violations of international law with respect to the Brazilian embassy.

###

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) [1] was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Links: Homepage [1]CEPR (Press Center) [8]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/28-1

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Launch a Military Coup, Hire a High-Power PR Firm and Represent Democracy!

Orwell would be proud ! !


By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on September 28, 2009, Printed on September 29, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142938/

I notice the major papers are now referring to the perpetrators of the military coup in Honduras as the "de facto" government. Quite a benign frame.

Contrary to the prevailing narrative, right-wing elements in Honduras and the United States -- including, according to reports swirling around Latin America, bloody veteran hands from Reagan's dirty wars, like Otto Reich -- had been laying the groundwork for deposing President Manuel Zelaya for several years.

Roberto Micheletti's coup government has done a fine job spinning away the fact that this was the kind of military coup that has been anything but par-for-the-course in recent years in an overwhelmingly democratic Latin America. They've done it with savvy lobbying and PR. Historian Greg Grandin wrote about debating former Clinton confidant Lanny Davis, now a lobbyist representing the coup government, among others:

The Honduras coup occurred on June 28, when soldiers working on behalf of a the small group of business and political elites who now control the country, kidnapped democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and sent him into exile.

Since then, the military-backed regime of Roberto Micheletti has argued to the world that it was acting constitutionally, even though nearly every country in Latin America, along with the European Union, isn't buying it.

Only in the U.S. is there a debate as to whether the Micheletti government is legal -- largely thanks to the lobbying efforts of Davis.

Not only is there debate in the U.S., it is surreal; consider right-wing lunatic Dana Rohrbacher's recent post on The Hill's blog arguing that through a right-wing military coup a "crisis was averted and the constitutional democracy in Honduras was preserved."

Expect much more of the same kind of nonsense in the immediate future:

 



The de facto government of Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya has hired a well-known public relations firm to bolster its image in Washington.

According to Justice Department documents, the Honduran government signed Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates to a four-month contract worth more than $290,000. Filed on Sept. 18 with Justice by the public relations firm, the documents say the company will “advance the level of communication, awareness and media/policy maker attention about the political situation in Honduras.”

The contract comes as the crisis in the Central American country has flared up again. Zelaya, who was exiled to Costa Rica by the Honduran military, has slipped back into the country to try to reclaim his position as president. He has taken shelter with family members in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, threatened with arrest if he leaves its grounds.

And how's that "democracy" working out? Well ...

The de facto government shut down two broadcasters on Monday and prevented a demonstration in support of the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, as sweeping restrictions on civil liberties took effect.

Masked police agents were perched from the windows of a television station, and soldiers formed a barricade around the headquarters of a radio station here after the government shut them down indefinitely.

The police closed off both sides of the street where several hundred demonstrators gathered Monday morning, effectively preventing them from starting their march. The protesters drifted away as it became clear that the march would not take place.

The other government measures, announced late Sunday, prohibit unauthorized public meetings and allow the police to arrest anyone deemed to be a threat.

 



© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142938/

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U.S. to Honduras: End emergency decree now


Story Highlights:

Roberto Micheletti said he would repeal decree but not be immediately

Decree clamps down on public gatherings, lets government close news media

Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted as president of Honduras three months ago

Zelaya has returned to Tegucigalpa and is holed up in Brazilian Embassy


Robert Micheletti, de facto president of Honduras, says he'll repeal an emergency decree, but not immediately.


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation.

"The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement late Monday night.

Earlier Monday, Roberto Micheletti announced he would repeal the law, but it would not be immediately. The decree will undergo a legal review, he said.

Still, Micheletti's announcement was an about-face. He had announced the policy less than 24 hours earlier in response to unrest that increased significantly after ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras on September 20 and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

The 45-day decree announced Sunday night forbids any unauthorized public gatherings, allows officials to make arrests without a judicial order and lets the government close down news media that threaten "peace and order."

Micheletti said he would consult with the supreme court to repeal the decree, after a meeting with the leading presidential candidates.

"This decision was made because (Zelaya) was calling for insurrection ... but I'm going to listen to the other powers of the state and we're going to make the most wise decision in the interests of Honduras," Micheletti said, according to the newspaper La Prensa.

Monday marked the three-month anniversary of Zelaya's ouster in a military-led coup on June 28.

In the wake of Micheletti's decree, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the OAS, said the Canal 36 TV station and Radio Globo were reported closed.

The owner of Canal 36, Esdras Amado Lopez, told CNN that 60 soldiers entered his station Monday morning to shut it down. They removed all of the equipment, he said.

"They say that we offended the dignity of the president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti," Lopez said, adding that he sees his station not as pro-Zelaya, but "pro-people."

Honduran soldiers were stationed in front of the shuttered TV and radio stations and would not allow anyone to enter.

The United Nations, the OAS and the European Union have condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has vowed that Zelaya will never return to power and has said the deposed president will be arrested if he comes out of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital.

Micheletti has accused Zelaya of using the embassy to instigate an insurrection and this weekend gave the Brazilian embassy 10 days to decide the ousted president's status. Brazil rejected the Honduran ultimatum.

On Monday night, Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone that his foreign minister held up at the podium.

A "serious crime is taking place when the voice of the people is silenced and when the people who are being repressed are likewise silenced," Zelaya said.


CNN's John Zarrella, Kim Segal and journalist Elvin Sandoval contributed to this report.

All AboutHonduras • Roberto Micheletti • Jose Manuel Zelaya
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Micheletti
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/roberto_micheletti
Honduras
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/honduras
Zelaya
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/jose_manuel_zelaya
Honduras
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Honduras
Roberto Micheletti
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Roberto_Micheletti
Jose Manuel Zelaya
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Jose_Manuel_Zelaya

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/29/honduras.ousted.president/index.html 
 

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US Ambassador Lew Amselem: A Ghoul from Horror Films Past

by Al Giordano

                                           
 

September 29, 2009
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58412&hd=&size=1&l=e


When a little over a week ago, Honduras’ elected president Manuel Zelaya landed in Tegucigalpa at the Brazilian embassy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it an "opportune" moment for the "dialogue" she’d been urging all summer.

Six days later, this past Sunday, US Ambassador Hugo Llorens had convened various Honduran political and business people in Tegucigalpa to talk about how to encourage that "dialogue" to resolve the country’s political crisis. Four presidential candidates were there, as were business magnates Adolfo Facusse and Carlos Flores (a former president), John Biehl (a special advisor to the Organization of American States) and human rights advocate Leo Valladares, who shared with Narco News this account of what happened.

In the middle of that Sunday meeting, Ambassador Llorens’ cell phone rang and he received the news that coup dictator Micheletti had issued the now infamous decree erasing basic Constitutional freedoms of assembly, transit, speech and due process. "The first reaction in the room was that it negatively affected the climate for negotiation," said Valladares.

Then, at dawn, coup troops invaded Radio Globo and Channel 36 TV, stealing their equipment and transmitters to silence them under the new powers Micheletti had decreed.

A few hours later came an Organization of American States meeting in Washington. The interim (or shall we say "de facto"?) US Ambassador, Lewis Amselem, a Bush administration holdover, focused only negligibly on the coup regime’s "state of siege" decree, instead launching into a tirade against the victims of it.

"Zelaya’s return to Honduras is irresponsible and foolish and it doesn’t serve to the interest of the people nor those who seek the restoration of democratic order in Honduras," Amselem crowed. "Everything will be better if all parties refrain from provoking and inciting violence."

According to Amselem, provoking or inciting violence is much worse than actually engaging in violence, as the coup regime had been doing all night and morning long prior to and during Amselem’s tirade. And instead of clearly placing the focus the only place it belonged – on the jack-booted regime’s latest wave of terror, in which Honduran lives were and are actually at stake – Amselem decided to play film critic rather than diplomat, taunting Zelaya: "The president should stop acting as though he were starring in an old movie."

Amselem’s outburst was quickly picked up by the pro-coup media in Honduras (which translated "foolish" as "idiota") and it not only served to obscure the more important story, that of the coup decree’s erasure of the Honduran Constitution, but it also boosted the morale of the very forces that had just descended into new levels of authoritarianism and actual violence.

And that was only the latest adventure in lack of message control displayed all summer long by a schizophrenic State Department and its erratic, almost drunken, driving that, time and time again, has given oxygen to a coup regime it says it opposes.

The State Department spent the rest of the day composing the following statement, one that reads like an admission that Amselem screwed up:

The United States views with grave concern the decree issued by the de facto regime in Honduras suspending fundamental civil and political rights.  In response to strong popular opposition, the regime has indicated that it is considering rescinding the decree. We call on the de facto regime to do so immediately.


The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people.

At this important moment in Honduran history, we urge all political leaders to commit themselves to a process of dialogue that will produce an enduring and peaceful resolution of the current crisis.

We also urge the de facto regime and President Zelaya to make use of the good will and solidarity extended by President Arias of Costa Rica, the Organization of American States, and other members of the international community to help facilitate, within the framework of the San Jose talks, such a resolution.

In this regard, we remind the de facto regime of its obligations under the Vienna Conventions to respect diplomatic premises and personnel, and those under their protection.  Abiding by these obligations is a necessary component of the dialogue between and among nations, and builds the practices of engagement, tolerance, and understanding necessary for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

But those who have followed Amselem’s diplomatic and military career – especially back in the day that he was political-military officer at the US embassy in Guatemala City (1988-92) and political affairs counselor for the US embassy in La Paz, Bolivia (1992-95) – suspect that Amselem’s sabotage yesterday of stated US policy was entirely predictable, and intentional, given his macabre history in the hemisphere.

Journalist Jeremy Bigwood, who was reporting from Guatemala during Amselem’s tenure there, remembers the diplomat for the same kind of outrageous behavior and statements over the years that he displayed yesterday in Washington. Amselem, according to Bigwood, "would put a positive spin on the extermination of a couple hundred thousand Guatemalan Indians. The guy should be sent to the International Criminal Court for abetting war crimes. He even arranged illegal supplies and airlifts to the Guatemalan Army after US military assistance had been banned.  I can't believe that he would be representing the Obama administration in the OAS."

Most amazing is that Amselem’s current boss, Secretary Clinton, should already know that he’s a loose cannon because she was, as First Lady in the 1990s, involved with one of Guatemala’s most notorious human rights abuse cases, that of Ursuline nun Dianna Ortiz, who was kidnapped and tortured there in 1989.

In 1995, a US federal judge ordered Guatemalan General Hector Gramajo to pay $47 million dollars in damages to Sister Ortiz and other plaintiffs for those crimes.

Human rights champion Kerry Kennedy has written, "Ortiz’s raw honesty and capacity to articulate the agony she suffered compelled the United States to declassify long-secret files on Guatemala, and shed light on some of the darkest moments of Guatemalan history and American foreign policy."

Well, guess who pops up in Sister Dianna’s memoirs? Lewis Amselem: and not in a good way. Ortiz wrote:

"…after a U.S. doctor had counted 111 cigarette burns on my back alone, the story changed. In January 1990, the Guatemalan defense minister publicly announced that I was a lesbian and had staged my abduction to cover up a tryst. The minister of the interior echoed this statement and then said he had heard it first from the U.S. embassy. According to a congressional aide, the political affairs officer at the U.S. embassy, Lew Amselem, was indeed spreading the same rumor.

"In the presence of Ambassador Thomas Stroock, this same human rights officer told a delegation of religious men and women concerned about my case that he was 'tired of these lesbian nuns coming down to Guatemala.’ The story would undergo other permutations. According to the Guatemalan press, the ambassador came up with another version: he told the Guatemalan defense minister that I was not abducted and tortured but simply 'had problems with [my] nerves.’"

So yesterday was not the first time that Amselem revealed a mean-spirited streak to blame the victims of human rights violations. Most disturbingly, Secretary Clinton – who met with Sister Dianna in the 1990s and expressed sympathy and solidarity – should already know this history.

That Clinton sends such a shady character to represent the US at the Organization of American States only guarantees such sabotage for as long as he is there. Amselem may object to what he terms Zelaya’s "acting as though he were starring in an old movie," but it is precisely Amselem who is a B-actor in an even older fright flick: that of US policy in Latin America and previous military and coup regimes. And this sordid tale demonstrates that now more than ever is the hour to disinfect the State Department from the bad actors – like Amselem – who haunt like ghouls from horror films past.

Up next: Faux-journalist Frances Robles of Oligarch's Daily The Miami Herald, who thinks harming Hondurans with chemical weapons is a big funny joke...



 

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Honduras Supreme Electoral Tribunal Comes Out Against Coup Decree

by Al Giordano
 

D.R. 2009 Latuff, Special to The Narco News Bulletin


September 30, 2009

The layers keep peeling away from "president" Roberto Micheletti's coup d'etat, which began with a consensus of most of upper class Honduras and its political institutions but in recent days has seen Congressional and business leaders begin looking for the EXIT sign.

It was Micheletti's authoritarian decree, announced on Sunday, that blasted away the glue that had previously held them all together, with its prohibitions on Constitutional rights of speech, press, assembly, transit and due process.

Today, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal joined the growing mob of former unconditional backers of the coup for whom Micheletti's decree went a step too far:

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE, in its Spanish initials) of Honduras today asked president Roberto Micheletti to cancel the decree that suspended constitutional rights because it harms the electoral process scheduled for November... and thus joined in similar demands made by Congress, presidential candidates and other sectors...

Micheletti said... that he would agree to analyze the request and insisted that the decree will be "cancelled in the opportune moment."

However, he said that he would continue to consult on the matter with the Supreme Court and other State organisms with the goal of making a "consensus" decision.

Those few paragraphs speak volumes about what is happening behind the curtain. Let me translate them.

On Sunday, Micheletti announced the authoritarian decree without having the aforementioned "consensus" of key coup players. Some seemed as surprised as the general public to find out about it. The decree already does not have any "consensus" even among the limited power players between whom the coup was negotiated and implemented. Now he is saying he needs "consensus" to remove it.

What does this tell us? It reveals that Micheletti himself isn't calling the shots here. He specifically mentions the Supreme Court, and his reference to "State organisms" most likely means the Armed Forces: the two real kingpins of the coup, for whom Micheletti is a mere marionette.

In typical style, he fools gullible reporters to repeat claims that he has already backed off the decree, while this morning military and police troops continued attacks on peaceful demonstrators that have maintained government agricultural offices occupied for three months now. Clearly, the real powers behind the decree - the Supreme Court and the military - want to make sure it meets its main goals before having to call it off.

What the electoral commissioners can clearly see that the inner trinity of coup power - the Army, the Court and Micheletti - don't seem to "get" is how the decree has destroyed any hope of convincing Hondurans or the world that the November 29 elections can be made free or fair. It's already too late. Smarter minds are seeing it, while the the Army, the Court and Micheletti push on out of an apparent belief that if they don't keep brutally repressing and silencing speech, the nonviolent civil resistance is going to roll right over the coup.

It's possible that both sectors are right about their analysis in this way: The coup "moderates" understand that their electoral "solution" is now screwed, thanks to the decree. While the "hard liners" understand that if they allow basic constitutional rights, they won't be able to hold back the tide of public opinion much longer. Meanwhile, by stalling on the requests by his former coup allies to cancel the decree, Micheletti is further isolating the Army, the Court and he from the support they previously enjoyed. And this is the part of the movie when the once invincible coup regime begins to divide and fall.


 



 

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Kerry's Attempt to Block DeMint's Honduras Trip Reveals Policy Feud

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 2, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/01/AR2009100105015_pf.html


A simmering feud over U.S. policy toward Latin America burst into the open Thursday when Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) tried to prevent a fact-finding trip to Honduras by a Republican senator who is blocking two important diplomatic appointments.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) denounced Kerry's move on the Senate floor and sought the intervention of the minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The Republican leader appealed to the Defense Department to provide an aircraft for DeMint's trip and the Pentagon agreed to do so, according to the South Carolina senator's office.

"These bullying tactics by the Obama administration and Senator Kerry must stop, and we must be allowed to get to the truth in Honduras," DeMint said in a statement. His spokesman, Wesley Denton, called Kerry's action "unprecedented."

Kerry fired back in a news release: "Senator DeMint's statement wins an A for 'audacity.' Thanks to his intransigence, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can't even hold hearings on our policy in Central and South America."

The statement, issued by Kerry's spokesman, Frederick Jones, added that when DeMint allows a vote on the appointment of the two diplomats, "the Committee will approve his travel to Honduras."

The clash showed the depths of animosity that have developed in Congress over Obama's policy toward Honduras since its leader was removed by its military in June and expelled from the country.

The administration, along with all other governments in the hemisphere, branded the action a "coup." It also cut off millions of dollars in aid and suspended the U.S. visas of Honduran officials. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped organize negotiations, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, that produced a plan to allow ousted president Manuel Zelaya to return to his post temporarily, with limited powers.

The de facto Honduran government, led by Roberto Micheletti, a former leader of the National Congress, has rejected that proposed settlement.

DeMint and a handful of other conservative Republicans have said Zelaya's removal was legal because he had violated a constitutional ban by trying to extend his presidential term. They have protested that the Obama administration is supporting a politician with close ties to Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Ch?vez.

For weeks, DeMint has held up a critical Senate vote on Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's choice to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the nominee to be ambassador to Brazil.

DeMint aides said he was preparing to travel to Honduras on Friday with three Republican House members -- Aaron Schock (Ill.), Peter Roskam (Ill.) and Doug Lamborn (Colo.) -- when they learned that the trip had been nixed by Kerry.

As head of the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry can withhold committee funds for travel and deny permission for the use of military aircraft. But he had never before used that power to block another senator's travel, his aides said.

DeMint's office said Thursday evening that thanks to McConnell's intervention, the trip would go forward. DeMint's statement accused the State Department of being part of the effort to block his trip.

But Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, denied that it had played any such role.

"We don't control congressional travel," he said.

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Coup backers mull reinstating Honduras' Zelaya

Mark Stevenson, Associated Press

Thursday, October 1, 2009

 (10-01) 04:00 PDT


Farmers protesting the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya are detained by riot police evicting them from the National Agrarian Institute in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.


Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- Business and political leaders who backed the coup overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya now are considering the unthinkable: returning him to office with limited powers.

The reversal, and Zelaya's decision to consider it, reflect the growing desperation to resolve a three-month standoff that has turned this Central American country upside down.

John Biehl, special adviser to the Organization of American States, said Wednesday that he sensed some movement toward talks.

"The moment has arrived for tempers to cool and reason to reign, and that's when errors will start being corrected," Biehl said. "I have found a strong willingness for dialogue," adding that he had heard about proposals to return Zelaya to office briefly.

The crisis sparked by the June 28 ousting of Zelaya has paralyzed the already impoverished nation.

Honduras has been bleeding millions of dollars a day, and many of its most prominent CEOs have had their visas revoked by the United States, hampering their efforts to do business. Nations have cut aid to demand the ousted leader's reinstatement while sporadic spikes in tensions have forced the closure of airports, border crossings and factories.

The final straw was the interim government's decision to impose a surprise emergency decree that suspended civil liberties this week and further damaged the administration's image at home and abroad.

Lawmakers immediately made clear Congress will revoke the emergency security crackdown if the interim government does not, said Rigoberto Chang, a congressman with the conservative National Party.

The disagreement over the decree was the biggest public rift between interim President Roberto Micheletti and the Congress that put him in power after soldiers forced Zelaya into exile.

After that happened, Honduras' powerful elite told Micheletti enough is enough, and backroom negotiations began on a powerful business chamber's proposition to put Zelaya back in office with limited powers.

Zelaya has said he was encouraged by the proposal. Its chief proponent, Adolfo Facusse, president of the National Industry Chamber, suggests sending 3,000 troops from conservative-led nations to Honduras if the leftist leader is restored to office to ensure he does not overstep his limited authority.

Facusse told the Associated Press that the force could be U.N. peacekeepers.

Micheletti on Wednesday called parts of the plan impossible but indicated he was analyzing some of its points.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/01/MN8419V8JJ.DTL

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OAS returns to seek deal on Honduras crisis

By Patrick Markey Patrick Markey
Fri Oct 2, 5:55 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091002/ts_nm/us_honduras


Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti (3rd R) talks with U.S. senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) (3rd L), as Carlos Lopez (R), representative for Micheletti, stands next to U.S. congressmen after a private meeting at the Presidential House in Tegucigalpa October 2, 2009. REUTERS/Henry Romero

 
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – An Organization of American States mission returned to Honduras on Friday to start work on negotiating an end to a standoff triggered when President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and exiled in a military coup.

Zelaya, who riled Honduran elites with his ties to Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, was toppled by a coup in June but sneaked back into Honduras last week and has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

De facto leader Roberto Micheletti says Zelaya must face charges and cannot return to power, while Zelaya insists on being reinstated to office.

Honduras refused entry on Sunday to an OAS advance mission but a team of diplomats flew back into Tegucigalpa on Friday to prepare ground for foreign ministers from the region who hope to broker a deal to break the deadlock.

"Naturally we have to be cautious in all this but we are reasonably optimistic," OAS mission chief Victor Rico told reporters at the airport.

The Honduran standoff is U.S. President Barack Obama's first key test in Latin America after he promised a new engagement with a region that often had testy ties with Washington when George W. Bush was in office.

Soldiers sent Zelaya into exile on June 28 after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest. Critics say he illegally sought to amend the constitution to lift term limits but Zelaya denies wanting to stay in power.

Troops have cordoned off the Brazilian embassy but protests have dwindled since the de facto government imposed a decree banning marches in support of Zelaya, a logging magnate whose cowboy hat has become a symbol of the opposition.

PRESSURE OVER DECREE

Micheletti, a veteran politician in Central America's No. 2 coffee grower, is under pressure to seek a deal and lift the decree that has curbed civil liberties and shut two media stations loyal to the deposed leader.

U.S. officials have pressed for Zelaya's restoration but criticized his surprise return. Washington has put pressure on Micheletti's supporters by cutting aid and revoking visas but shied away from tougher measures such as trade sanctions.

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint and some U.S. congressmen met Micheletti after the Republican lawmaker criticized the Obama administration for "blind support" of Zelaya's reinstatement.

Washington, the United Nations and even some of Micheletti's local backers have urged him to lift the decree but he has resisted as the standoff edges closer to a November 29 presidential election that he says will resolve the crisis.

Micheletti has backed off a threat to shut Brazil's embassy if it does not give Zelaya asylum or hand him over to face treason charges.

"He guaranteed there is no ultimatum. It has been lifted and they can stay until a solution is found," said Bruno Araujo, a Brazilian lawmaker who met Micheletti.

There are signs a compromise could emerge as both sides face demands to find a way out. One idea is a power-sharing deal.

"An agreement may now be possible given growing frustration with the lack of a solution, weakening support for (Micheletti) and a sense of urgency to ensure the viability of ... elections," said Eurasia Group analyst Heather Berkman.

Several countries have suggested they might not recognize the vote without a prior agreement involving Zelaya.

Honduran business leaders are proposing Zelaya be allowed back without executive power and put under house arrest until his term ends in January, when he would face corruption charges.

(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel and Miguel Angel Gutierrez in Tegucigalpa; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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Behind the Coup Regime Curtain

by Al Giordano
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58537&hd=&size=1&l=e




D.R. 2009 Latuff, Special to The Narco News Bulletin.


October 3, 2009


Reading the international press wires from Honduras in recent days, too many give the impression that Honduras coup "president" Roberto Micheletti has lifted last Sunday’s decree that suspended constitutional rights of free speech, press, assembly, transit and due process.

No such thing has happened. The decree, in all its repressive brutality, is still in full force.

While a handful of far right wingnut US Congressmen visited the coup regime in Tegucigalpa yesterday blabbering about "democracy" and "freedom," their favored regime's troops were busting up even the smallest nonviolent expressions of free speech a few blocks away in Tegucigalpa.

Here’s a ground-level report from yesterday by journalist (and Narco News contributor) Diego Osorno, who landed in Honduras this week as correspondent for the daily Milenio of Mexico City:

"One by one they gather until there are nineteen of them. If they become twenty, they would be violating the 'State of Siege’ decree that has been law here in Honduras since last Sunday. That law punishes, with prison, all public demonstrations and criticisms of the de facto government.

"All of them are women, carring placards with grievances against Roberto Micheletti… This was a symbolic protest at one of the five barricades that the Honduran Army erected around the Brazilian embassy, where President Manuel Zelaya has refuge. Some of the nineteen women are farmers and others are students…

"Ten minutes later thirty police officers, who seemed to be looking for war, interrupted them. They carried firearms, tear gas grenade launchers, bulletproof vests, masks, shields and sticks to combat the modest demonstration.

"’Get out of here,’ the commander ordered.

"There are fewer than twenty of us, you can’t tell us to go,’ said one of the women…

"’Get out already, Señora, out of here.’

"A dozen of the police placed themselves behind the women and began to push them toward the avenue, recriminated for violating the 'presidential decree,’ a euphemism for the restriction of civil rights throughout the country…"

Providing an example of what else these citizens in civil resistance are up against, the pro-coup media then takes the demonstrators’ attempt to remain within the coup decree’s 20-person limit on public assemblies, and portrays it as a sign that the resistance has lost steam. The daily Heraldo, for example, covered that same demonstration with these dishonest words:

"The security lines remain, and an important number of national and international journalists, and, of course, demonstrations, which are already almost insignificant for the number of participants.

"In yesterday’s case, in the morning hours, about ten members of feminist groups placed themselves in front of the Brazilian embassy, and the National Police asked them to voluntarily leave the area."

The difference between those two conflicting news reports marks the distinction between a simulating media and authentic journalism. Because we already know the work of journalist Osorno, his faithfulness to the true facts, his attention to detail, his ability to count, and his long experience reporting from conflict zones such as the one outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, it’s crystal clear to us which of those versions more accurately portrayed what happened.

The daily newspapers owned by the coup-plotting oligarchs - in the daily Heraldo’s case it is owned by Jorge Canahuati Larach, who also heads the same Latin American Business Council (CEAL, in its Spanish initials) that hired US lobbyist Lanny Davis to lie and spin in defense of the coup regime from Washington, DC – every day’s publication brings another sick joke: a new way of distorting the events on the ground. In today’s Heraldo the efforts by members of the civil resistance to stay within the twenty-person limit on public assemblies imposed by the coup dictatorship is thus portrayed as supposed evidence of dwindling opposition.

Got it? A regime limits public assemblies to less than twenty participants, and when participants in the civil resistance attempt to creatively work around that limit, the regime's simulating media portrays their obedience to the letter of the decree as reflective of an alleged lack of support.

And yet the mere existence and continuance of the decree indicates that public opposition to the coup regime is so wide and overwhelming to it that only by suspending basic freedoms is the regime able to hang on to power for a little bit longer.

Most of the international media isn’t much better. Headlines in recent days have implied that the totalitarian decree has already been lifted. BBC: "Honduras Thaw Paves Way for Talks." AP: "Signs of thaw in Honduras standoff." Fox: "Honduras Regime Says It Will Restore Rights." These headlines and many others like them have been going on for five days now, and yet the decree remains in place. As with the doublespeak that shouts "the coup is not a coup," now we have the latest version: "the decree is not a decree." The sheer gullibility of the international media organizations that take dictation from a regime that has over more than three months demonstrated that it almost never does what it says it is doing provides yet another example of why journalism is in a crisis of credibility, and why its official outlets, having lost public trust, are increasingly an endangered species.

It’s possible that in the coming days, the coup regime may announce cancellation of the decree, in order to give one last dying gasp push to the illegitimate "elections" it has scheduled for November 29, but the smart reporters – in contrast to the dishonest or gullible ones - will look at the regime's deeds, not its hollow words, when assessing how to report the next media stunt.

Unless that announcement is accompanied by the immediate physical return of the transmitters and equipment of the TV and radio stations that the regime seized last Monday morning, the withdrawal of the police and military troops occupying those media offices, and the release of the political prisoners rounded up in the days since then, any announced cancellation of the decree will likewise be nothing but empty words.

Nothing suggests that the official media outlets will have learned by then to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But – because you make it possible - authentic journalists will still be on the ground, breaking the information blockade, letting you know what is really happening behind the coup regime curtain.



 

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Poll: Wide Majority of Hondurans Oppose Coup d’Etat, Want Zelaya Back

by AL GIORDANO

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58680&hd=&size=1&l=e

October 7, 2009





Finally, hard and reliable data - by a legally certified Honduran polling company – provides a clear measurement of how the Honduran people view the June 28 coup d'etat, its "president" Roberto Micheletti, President Manuel Zelaya and the national civil resistance.

The polling data – which we make public for the first time here - shows that Hondurans widely (by a margin of 3 to 1) oppose the coup, oppose coup "president" Micheletti by a margin of 3 to 1 and favor the reinstatement of their elected President Manuel Zelaya by a clear majority of 3 to 2.

On February 9 of this year, the Gaceta Oficial of the government of Honduras published the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s certification of a Tegucigalpa polling company, COIMER & OP (Consultants in Investigation of Markets and Public Opinion), as a legally authorized pollster for the November 29 elections. The Tribunal inspected the company’s polling methodology, its offices, its staff, gave it the stamp of approval and the green light to survey the Honduran electorate.

The Field has obtained the full results of a recent COIMER & OP survey of 1,470 Honduran citizens over 18 years of age at randomly selected homes (no more than one respondent allowed from each home) proportional to national, state and municipal population and matching other demographic measurements (gender, age, etcetera) in the country, from August 23 to 29 of this year. The poll has a margin of error of four percent.

This is the first survey to be made public since a July Gallup poll showed a plurality of Hondurans opposed the coup d’etat and Roberto Micheletti, and a plurality wanted Zelaya back as president. What is interesting from this survey is that opposition to Micheletti and the coup increased between early July and late August from mere pluralities to a punishing majority: evidence that the nonviolent civil resistance movement has worked effectively to strip legitimacy from the coup regime. As of late August, only 17.4 percent of Hondurans favor the coup d’etat, only 22.2 percent believe Micheletti should remain as president, and only 33 percent oppose the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya.

And those were the numbers before Micheletti’s very unpopular "state of siege" decree of September 29 began to divide his supporters even further.

For Spanish-language readers, political reporters and analysts, The Field and Narco News today make available the full survey and all its cross-tabulations for your analysis.

For English speakers, we will translate the survey questions and the results here, adding some analysis:

Are you in favor of the June 28 coup d’etat against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales?

In favor of coup: 17.4 percent

Opposed to coup: 52.7 percent

No response: 29.9 percent

Strip away the "no response" and the percentages among those with an opinion reveal a stunning 75 percent percent against the coup with only 25 percent in favor: an anti-coup margin of 3 to 1.

Meanwhile, coup "president" Micheletti remains a very unpopular man among Hondurans:

Should Micheletti stay in power or leave the current government?

Micheletti should stay: 22.2 percent

Micheletti should leave: 60.1 percent

No response: 17.7 percent

Among those who express an opinion, Micheletti’s opponents outnumber his supporters by a margin of nearly 3 to 1.

A clear majority supports Manuel Zelaya’s return to the presidency – 60 percent of those who express an opinion:

Do you support the return of Manuel Zelaya Rosales to the Presidency of the Republic?

Support Zelaya’s return: 51.6 percent

Oppose Zelaya’s return: 33 percent

No response: 15.4 percent

Even the National Civil Resistance - maligned daily in the pro-coup media, portrayed sensationally as lawless and threatening of the civil order - enjoys a plurality of support from the Honduran population:

Do you agree or disagree with the marches by the national resistance throughout the country against the coup d’etat?

Support the marches: 45.5 percent

Oppose the marches: 41.8 percent

No response: 12.7 percent

By a more than 2 to 1 margin, Hondurans view the police and military as overly repressive against the national resistance:

Do you think that the Armed Forces and National Police are engaging in repression or not against the National Resistance?

Yes, there is repression: 54.5 percent

No, there is not repression: 21.8 percent

No response: 23.7 percent

When asked their opinion about that repression, an overwhelming majority of Hondurans opposes that repression:

Do you agree with the repression or condemn the repression that the Armed Forces and National Police have engaged in against the National Resistance?

Against repression: 65.4 percent

For repression: 8 percent

No response: 26.4 percent

Strip away the non respondents, and a whopping 89 percent oppose the repression against the civil resistance, including many Hondurans that do not themselves support the resistance marches.

Here’s another interesting question and result:

Who promoted and financed the coup d’etat that toppled President Manuel Zelaya Rosales? Among the political, business, military sectors or foreign capital, which was behind the coup?

All of the above: 23.6 percent

Business sector: 16.8 percent

Political sector: 15 percent

None of the above: 9.5 percent

Military sector: 6.7 percent

International capital: 2.4 percent

No response: 26.8 percent

The COIMER & OP survey also reveals a chilling fact regarding freedom of the press under the coup regime: that the two national TV and radio stations shut down by the coup regime happen to be the most trusted news sources in the entire country, out rating all other media outlets:

Which radio news do you prefer to inform you of events in the country?

Radio Globo: 23.4 percent

HRN: 22.4 percent

Radio América: 13.7 percent

Radio Cadena voces: 0.7 percent

Local station: 10.3 percent

No answer: 29.5

 

Which television news program do you prefer to inform you about the happenings in the country regarding the coup d’etat against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales?

Channel 36 Cholusat: 18 percent

Channel 6: 16.9 percent

TNS: 15.7

Abriendo Brecha: 10.7

Hable como Habla: 7.8

TVC: 7.3

Once Noticias: 3.7

Local and regional channels: 9.5

No response: 11.4

The survey also shows that only 53.9 percent of Hondurans read daily newspapers, and that only 55.2 percent prefer any newspaper at all to inform them of happenings in the country:

Which newspaper do you prefer to inform you about the happenings in the country regarding the coup d’etat against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales?

No response: 44.8 percent

La Prensa: 22.6 percent

La Tribuna: 12.2 percent

Tiempo: 9.9 percent

El Heraldo: 9.3 percent

El Libertador: 1.2 percent

Interestingly, prior to June 28, the daily Tiempo of San Pedro Sula was the fourth most read paper in the country. Since the coup it has now surpassed the daily Heraldo and is catching up on second place La Tribuna – both of Tegucigalpa – and Tiempo is in striking distance for second position. Tiempo is the only newspaper of the four that has not offered extremely dishonest pro-coup spin.

The results of the next question should indicate why the Micheletti regime keeps talking so loudly about the November 29 elections which the rest of the world has said cannot be recognized as fair or free under the repressive conditions imposed by the coup regime. However, a strong majority of Hondurans still favor those elections:

Should the general elections organized by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for November 19 happen even if the institutional crisis isn’t resolved?

Yes, have elections: 66.4 percent

No, don’t have them: 23.8 percent

No response: 2.9 percent

The 23.8 percent that oppose holding the elections before the crisis is resolved is actually a very high number compared to general public opinion: Elections are like mom and apple pie. Only a very highly politically conscious citizen would make the leap of understanding that elections are not fair and free under a coup regime and therefore openly oppose them happening. I would venture an estimation that that number of 23.8 percent represents participants in the Civil Resistance movements, who have universally argued that the conditions do not exist to hold free elections given what the coup regime has done to censor and violently repress all dissent. That would represent an unusually strong base from which to continue organizing.

Here are some questions about those elections:

What political party do you belong to or sympathize with?

Liberal: 38.5 percent

National: 28.5

Democratic Unification: 1.4

PINU: 1.1

DC: 0.9

Independent Candidate: 2.9

None: 21.5

No response: 5.0

 

Will you vote in the General Elections to elect President, members of Congress and Mayors?

Yes: 53.8 percent

No: 18.8 percent

Maybe: 12.5 percent

Don’t know: 9 percent

No response: 3.5 percent

 

What is your opinion of Independent Candidates?

Good opinion: 51 percent

Bad opinion: 16.2 percent

No response: 32.8 percent

 

If the elections were held today for President, who would you vote for:

Pepe Lobo (National Party): 28.2 percent

Elvin Santos (Liberal Party): 14.4 percent

Carlos H. Reyes (Independent): 12 percent

César Ham (Democratic Unification): 2.2 percent

Bernard Martinez (PINU): 1.2 percent

Felipe Avila (Christian Democrat): 1 percent

None of the above: 24.7 percent

No response: 16.3 percent

We can see from those combined numbers that while Zelaya’s Liberal Party remains the most popular, its pro-coup nominee Elvin Santos is rejected by about two-thirds of his own party members. We can also see very low interest in participation by voters, with only 53.8 percent saying they will definitely vote. And – should there be a negotiated solution in time for the resistance movements to participate in clean elections (a very big "if") – Independent candidate Carlos H. Reyes is very well positioned to supplant the Liberal Party nominee to become one of the top two candidates, the most viable alternative to Lobo, especially if, as has been talked a lot about, the Democratic Unification Party of candidate Cesar Ham joins in coalition behind Reyes.

But, of course, such talk is way premature, since conditions do not at present exist for fair and free elections, and its not clear there is enough time in the next 53 days to fix that.

This chart measures the popularity ("Excelente y Buena opinion") against the negative rating ("Mala opinion") along with the middle category of "regular opinion" and "don’t know or no response"):



The most popular political figures in the country are:

President Manuel Zelaya: 44.7 percent (to 25.7 percent negative)

And…

First Lady Xiomara Castro de Zelaya: 42.6 percent (to 17.9 percent negative)

That they enjoy the highest favorability compared to any other national figure - after a massive PR ad campaign all summer long on TV, radio and in the pro-coup dailies to portray Zelaya as a national villain - is also an indication of the pro-coup media's own crisis of credibility with the public.

The least popular political figures in Honduras are those perceived as coup leaders:

Coup "president" Roberto Micheletti: 56.5 percent negative (to just 16.2 percent positive)

Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos: 45.2 percent negative (to 18.6 percent positive)

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez: 42.6 percent (to 26.1 percent positive)

General Romeo Vasquez: 40 percent negative (to 19.1 percent positive)

National Party candidate Pepe Lobo: 34.1 percent negative (to 30.5 percent positive)

Interestingly, Independent and anti-coup presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes is more popular (24.6 percent) than unpopular (14.1 percent) as are anti-coup media voices like Radio Globo’s Eduardo Maldonado (31.4 percent positive to 23.2 percent negative) and Channel 36’s Esdras Amado Lopez (23.5 percent positive to 17.3 percent negative). They are, along with the Zelayas, the only national public figures to enjoy a significantly more favorable rating from Hondurans than negative.

The bottom line: A majority of the Honduran people oppose the coup, oppose Micheletti and a wide majority oppose the regime’s repression against the national resistance. And a plurality openly support the civil resistance movement.

So when Republican US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen yesterday issued a "Twitter communiqué" claiming that "nobody wants Zelaya back," she was blowing smoke out of the wrong air hole. All those - from the regime, to the oligarch diaspora to Lanny Davis and the US political consultants they hire, to the spoiled brat class of some (but not all) gringo expats in Honduras that repeated unsupported claims  that a majority of Hondurans favor the coup, or support Micheletti, or oppose Zelaya’s return, now end with egg on their faces, their credibility shot. They just made it up and thought you would be gullible enough to believe them. But here we’ve given you, finally, the hard numbers, now available in full public view.

What’s more is that these results explain why the coup regime and its chambers of commerce and other big business organizations – the forces in the country that can afford to hire pollsters - have not released any of their own internal polling data to the public: Because they, too, know that a majority of Hondurans oppose them, and they are less popular even than the national nonviolent civil resistance movement that they treat with such disdain.



 

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Honduras - 100 Days of Repression and Resistance

by Tom Loudon

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58685&hd=&size=1&l=e

t r u t h o u t , October 6, 2009

Today marks 100 days since a military coup was carried out against President Zelaya in Honduras. It also marks 100 days of massive, sustained, nonviolent resistance on the part of the Honduran people who are saying no to this brazen attempt to return to the days of dictators.

    In the face of uncontainable resistance, the coup regime has employed increasingly draconian measures. Most disturbing includes a resurgence of death squad activity, wholesale suspension of constitutional rights and the criminalization of social protest. Currently, over 80 people are detained and face charges of sedition. Conservative estimates document 14 murders in the last 14 weeks; two of those occurred during the last week.

    Two weeks ago, on September 21, President Zelaya suddenly surfaced inside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Tens of thousands of supporters immediately flocked to the Embassy from all over the country to celebrate his return. The coup President Micheletti responded by imposing a 5 PM curfew, which thousands of people ignored, holding an all-night vigil in front of the Embassy. At 5:30 the next morning, police and military attacked the crowd with batons, tear gas, and other weapons. Two people were killed and many were injured, including broken arms and legs. Those arrested were taken to a sports stadium, where they were held for extended periods without food or water.

    Twenty-four hour curfews were enforced for several days, making it illegal for anyone but authorized individuals to leave their homes. People responded to the curfew by staging neighborhood-based protests. These, too, were repressed, as police and Army went into neighborhoods, firing tear gas and chasing people down inside the homes where they fled.

    Infuriated by Zelaya's return, Micheletti mounted a heavy military cordon around the Brazilian Embassy, cut off lights and water and subjected those inside the Embassy and surrounding areas to "sound terrorism." The government of Brazil protested the use of the long-range acoustic device used to send deafening sound waves and provoke hysteria, and demanded the restoration of electricity and water.

    Micheletti then gave the Brazilian government a ten-day ultimatum, after which he promised to invade and capture Zelaya. Brazilian President Lula da Silva responded by reminding Micheletti that such an act on the part of the coup government would be considered an act of war. The president of Brazil also called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis in Honduras. Micheletti later recanted on his threats to invade the Embassy and in an apparent attempt at damage control said that he would like to give President Lula "a big hug."

    However, in what now appears to have been a targeted attack on individuals inside the Embassy, on Friday, September 25, several people reported similar symptoms: nasal bleeding, blood in stools, coughing up blood and severe throat irritations. It was first suspected that this may have been the result of a chemical weapon, however, symptoms did not affect everyone inside the Embassy. Further investigation suggested that these symptoms may have been caused by a sophisticated experimental weapon called a Maser. Apparently, this weapon sends a microwave beam, similar to a laser beam, that impacts the cell functioning of those exposed to its effects.

    On Sunday, September 27, four of the five OAS officials who had come as an advance team to begin a dialogue process were expelled. Later that day, faced with increasing inability to contain mounting protests or to control the country, coup President Micheletti issued an executive decree suspending all fundamental constitutional guarantees for 45 days. Rights suspended include the right to assemble, freedom of expression and freedom of movement. The coup regime also granted itself the right to arrest anyone at any moment without reason or an arrest warrant.

    At 5:30 AM the next morning, in what the resistance movement now calls "Operation Silence," troops surrounded and entered Radio Globo and Channel 36, the radio and TV stations with national coverage, and confiscated their equipment. The following day, the coup regime announced the suspension of Radio Globo's operating license, severely limiting national news about what is really happening in the country.

    The same day that Honduran media outlets were being raided, an emergency meeting of the OAS on Honduras, scheduled to last one hour, ended ten hours later without reaching consensus, largely due to the intransigent position of the United States. The stalemate resulted from the US insistence that elections be held in November, while most countries in the hemisphere believe that conditions do not exist for free and fair elections in Honduras. Interim representative to the OAS, Lewis Amselem, stated that Zelaya's return was "irresponsible" and had "not served" the diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis resulting from the June 28 coup. Amselem repeated these statements to the press subsequent to the meeting, making it clear that his statements were not just made "in the heat of the moment," but apparently reflect the view of the Obama administration.

    Amselem's statements lend support to many who suspect that the State Department continues to be unduly influenced by ultra-conservative forces (inside the Department), who, from the beginning, have supported the coup in Honduras. The failure to actually declare it a coup and lack of serious measures against the putsch government certainly indicate at best an ambiguous position, and, more probably, active support for the coup from within the US State Department.

    In this context, pro-coup sectors are calling for a dialogue in the interest of reaching a resolution in order to move forward with the elections scheduled for November 29. On Friday, October 2, the advance team from the OAS was finally allowed into the country. Plans are in place for a high level OAS delegation, including Secretary General Insulza and as many as ten foreign ministers to arrive next Wednesday. It was reported in some media outlets that Ambassador Llorens conducted a meeting last week at the Pomerola Air Base outside of Tegucigalpa with "significant actors," including Secretary General Insulza of the OAS.

    A number of informal proposals have already been put forward, including scenarios where neither Micheletti nor Zelaya are leading the country, a permanent seat in Congress for Micheletti, a blanket amnesty for all crimes committed by the coup government and a laundry list of things which are largely unacceptable to the tens of thousands of people who have put their lives on the line to insure that constitutional order be restored in their country. Despite an intense media campaign giving the impression that negotiations are underway, according to informed sources inside the Brazilian Embassy, Zelaya has not been a party to any formal negotiations.

    Leaders of the majority of countries in the Hemisphere have stated that conditions do not exist for elections to happen in Honduras in less than two months. The independent party candidate, Carlos H. Reyes, who was attacked by police and had his arm broken, had surgery just this past week, and is far from being able to campaign even if the current state of siege ended tomorrow.

    The only viable option to increase the possibility of resolving the crisis in Honduras is a negotiated solution that is acceptable to all parties, followed by a period where some level of normalcy is achieved. Only after this kind of cooling off period is it conceivable to think of holding elections. Elections under current conditions would insure that the regression to military rule, which happened in Honduras on June 28, becomes semi-permanent, and that the resistance and subsequent repression would continue.



 

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Vile Bodies: Reagan Revenants Return to Enforce Empire's Agenda

by Chris Floyd

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58690&hd=&size=1&l=e

October 8, 2009

They avidly, eagerly helped perpetuate militarist tyranny, torture, death squads and corruption in Latin America during the high and palmy days of the Reagan-Bush years – and now they're back in the saddle, riding as hired guns for the democracy-killing coup-coup birds in Honduras: Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists (New York Times):



In the months since soldiers ousted the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government and its supporters have resisted demands from the United States that he be restored to power. Arguing that the left-leaning Mr. Zelaya posed a threat to their country’s fragile democracy by trying to extend his time in office illegally, they have made their case in Washington in the customary way: by starting a high-profile lobbying campaign.

The campaign has had the effect of forcing the administration to send mixed signals about its position to the de facto government, which reads them as signs of encouragement. It also has delayed two key State Department appointments in the region.


As the Times note, these retreads from the genocidal policies spawned and embraced by that beloved old pixie with a twinkle in his eyes, Ronald "Why No, This Isn't Rouge, I'm Just Flushed With Love for America" Reagan, are being joined by fresh (well, fresher) meat recruited from the courtiers who flit around imperial factionists Hillary Clinton and John McCain. (Bipartisan foreign policy in action!):



The campaign has involved law firms and public relations agencies with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain, a leading Republican voice on foreign affairs.

It has also drawn support from several former high-ranking officials who were responsible for setting United States policy in Central America in the 1980s and ’90s, when the region was struggling to break with the military dictatorships and guerrilla insurgencies that defined the cold war. Two decades later, those former officials — including Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Daniel W. Fisk — view Honduras as the principal battleground in a proxy fight with Cuba and Venezuela, which they characterize as threats to stability in the region in language similar to that once used to describe the designs of the Soviet Union.


Naturally, the Obama Administration has been completely cowed by this fluttering of batwings from the far-right cave, and has continually diluted its already tepid opposition to the coup, no doubt in the earnest search of achieving "consensus" on Honduras policy:



...to placate its opponents in Congress, and have its nominations approved, the State Department has sometimes sent back-channel messages to legislators expressing its support for Mr. Zelaya in more equivocal terms.

"There’s been a leadership vacuum on Honduras in the administration, and these are the people who’ve filled it," said [Chris Sabatini, editor of Americas Quarterly] of the Micheletti government’s backers. "They haven’t gotten a lot of support, but enough to hold the administration’s policy hostage for now."


It is remarkable to see how in every case, the Obama Administration acts as if it is a minority government which won the White House by the slimmest of margins, and now must appease a powerful opposition party in control of Congress in order to get even watered-down fragments of its putative agenda passed – when in fact it was swept into office by one of the largest electoral margins in recent years and enjoys a comfortable majority control of both houses of Congress.

If Obama and crew actually had an agenda – as the hyper-militarist Dick Cheney had, when he and his front-man seized power in 2000 – then they could have pushed through any number of genuine, substantive reforms, with strong public support. But it should be clear to anyone by now that Obama, like Clinton before him, has no real idea of what he wants to do in government, or what he wants government to do: he just wants to enjoy the props and perks of power for awhile, to play the role of president, like Michael Douglas or Martin Sheen in a Aaron Sorkin fantasy, then bask in celebrityhood the rest of his days. The only real agenda of the Obama Administration is keeping Democrats in office, as Joe Biden revealed the other day, and winning a second term for the Prez. And then? Big book contracts, lucrative speaking engagements, corporate directorships, some charity PR....whatever.

The main thing is not to upset the golden applecart of the Empire and its Establishment. Thus the appearance of "weakness" consistently shown by the Administration is not due (or not solely due) to its own pusillanimousness; rather it comes from the inherent disconnect between the vague rhetoric of reform that it was forced to adopt to win popular support, and its real business: servicing the most powerful elements of a militarized, oligarchic state.

Try and name any powerful interest that Obama has taken on. The Pentagon? Whatever minor internal squabbles there may be about the exact details of escalating the "Af-Pak" war (which Obama firmly assures us will go on and on, apparently forever; pulling out is "not an option," he says), the American war machine (and the mercenaries and servicing industries that augment it) continues to grow unchecked -- in terms of size, scope, budget, destructive power and political influence. The health-care conglomerates, bane of most ordinary Americans? We all know that Obama has cut a cynical deal with these barracudas, pledging to protect (and expand) their profit margins in exchange for vast wads of cash for Democrats. The security organs? Obama has been steadfast in his support and protection of the torturers, death-squadders and black-opsters of the intelligence services, and his legal minions are constantly in the courts, seeking to uphold and expand the authoritarian encroachments of the Bush Regime. Wall Street? Please. In his cabinet choices and his "bailout" policies, Obama has given Wall Street the keys to the Treasury, to use as they please to cover up – and continue – the criminal recklessness that has plunged millions of people into misery around the world.

But let's give credit where it is due. Obama has bravely taken on one very powerful faction which exercises enormous, dominant sway over American society: poor blacks. Time and again, he has used the "bully pulpit" to admonish black men for being bad fathers, and to exhort black folk in general to quit whining about the deeply ingrained, systemic injustice and inequality of American society, which perpetuates an ever-deepening cycle of deprivation and abandonment that undermines generation after generation. They should get over this already, he says – while his wars and his Wall Street bailouts and his health-care corporate aggrandizement plans drain billions upon billions of dollars that could go to, oh, say, supporting education, nutrition, economic opportunity, neighborhood security, transportation, infrastructure legal aid, prison reform, recreation, culture and much else that could that could improve the lives and chances of the poor, of whatever race – as well as everyone else outside the tiny golden circle of the elite and their sycophants.

No, he's not afraid to stand up to African-Americans and tell them to get their own house in order. But to the Pentagon, Wall Street, war criminals, and corporate barracudas, the only message is: "Can I take your order? What do you need? Here's a blank check; just fill it in."

Thus it is not surprising to see the Administration waffling and dithering over the militarist coup in Honduras -- where the president, a wealthy businessman and member of the elite, made some noises about addressing, in some measure, a few of the immense inequalities of his society and was immediately branded a dangerous, radical Marxist whose extremism threatened the very soul and existence of the nation. Our own militarists and oligarchs (miligarchs?) have always reacted in the same way to even the slightest attempt to begin to think about the possibility of potentially taking some tiny steps toward finding a way to consider at some point in the distant future a few minor measures of limited scope and brief duration that could possibly be seen as trying to ameliorate slightly some of the deprivations of the useless and undeserving poor.

Indeed, because of the very, very faint noises that Obama himself made in this direction during his campaign, he too has faced identical charges from the Homeland miligarchs and their Fox-fed shock troops: a rich and bitter irony for a man whose obsequious services to the High Commanders of militarized Crony Capitalism are second to none.

But such charges, ludicrous as they are, do their job: they give fair warning to the current Oval Office occupant that he is there on sufferance, and that he must take the greatest pains to avoid any substantive deviation from the miligarch agenda. And so the little criminals of the Reagan-Bush years have re-emerged to re-assert the standard militarist line on Latin America: Coups R Us.

But "re-emerge" is perhaps the wrong term. These people never really go away; they are permanent representatives of the permanent American power structure: dull-witted, hard-hearted, cold-blooded apparatchiks of empire. 




 

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Obama’s Test: Democracy or Chaos in Latin America




By Ramzy Baroud
 
Global Research, October 8, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15596

Latin America stands at the threshold of a new era: one that promises a return to political uncertainty, violence and chaos or one of political stability and economic prosperity. Honduras is a crucial indicator.

 

The possible outcomes of the Honduran crisis are likely to define the coming era for Latin America and the US future role in that hemisphere, and, in fact, beyond it. Indeed, the story is much more elaborate than a daring president holed up in a foreign embassy in his own country.

 

In her second visit to Asia as US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton declared on July 21 in Bangkok , “The US is back.” The declaration was disconcerting to many Asian countries, despite Clinton ’s indistinct qualifications afterwards. Asian countries, exploring regional unity and economic cooperation are well aware of the subtle meaning of the term. However, it’s unlikely that politically stable and economically prospering Asia countries would allow for unwarranted outside interferences, especially with the growing Chinese regional influence and the election of Yukio Hatoyama the prime minister of Japan .

 

But how would Latin America feel about the US interference? The outcome of the Honduran coup should sufficiently answer this question. 

 

Since the introduction of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the politics and economic structures of Latin American countries subsisted as a component of US foreign policies, regardless of who presided in the White House. The region’s economies seemed, at times, a laboratory for economic theories hatched at various US academic institutions. Many Latin American countries existed, and a meager existence at that, between US interventions, self-seeking local oligarchy and wilderness and chaos wrought by military dictatorships. In many instances, these three components were intrinsically linked.

 

But US influence in that region, as in the rest of the world, began to fade. The neoconservative wars in the Middle East and South Asia were but desperate, now failed attempts at salvaging some of the dwindling influence.

 

The former Bush Administration left Latin America to its own devises as US military adventures elsewhere took a toll on the country, militarily, economically and politically, at home and abroad. But as Clinton promised a return to Asia, the Obama administration attempted a return to Latin America as well, a region that is significantly different from yesteryear, as a new form of popular socialism was taking hold (in Venezuela, Bolivia, and elsewhere) without wholly disturbing the economic patterns that long governed these countries. While many didn’t welcome President Hugo Chavez’s outspokenness, few in Latin America , except for a few remaining US allies, considered him a threat. To the contrary, the new age has promised greater cooperation among all economic sectors between Latin American countries than any other period in the past. A new Latin America was making its debut, more equitable than before, politically stable, and economically promising, if not, in some cases, prosperous.

 

Indeed, the US returned to a different reality, a return that, at first was welcomed, even by Chavez himself. Obama spoke a language that soothed much fears and fostered a sense of promise.

 

“At times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values,” declared Obama on April 19, at the Summit of the Americas , to the pleasure and relief of his audience.

 

Did that mean no more coups, military interventions, economic sanctions, political intimidation and all forms of coercion that defined much of the two hemispheres’ relationship of many years? Certainly, Latin American leaders, or most of them, hoped so.

 

But then, the democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya was overthrown on June 28. It was a classic Latin American junta move. The popular leader was escorted in his pajamas and deported to another country. The coup leader, Roberto Micheletti lead a series of draconian measures, starting with the installation of a new government of allies and cronies – with the blessing of the local oligarchy – and ending with the declaration of emergency decree limiting civil liberties. After several attempts and many dramatic episodes, Zelaya returned to his country and was holed up in the Brazilian embassy, in Tegucigalpa , surrounded by a military that merely represent the very poor country’s very rich rulers: the oligarchs and the generals.

 

In some way, the coup in Honduras helped highlight the new order in the continent, as displayed in the unity of many Latin American countries, the steadfastness of its regional organizations, and the growing influence of the democratically elected governments. But it also highlighted the precarious position of the US administration: condemning the coup on one hand (as did President Obama, and clearly so) and condemning Zelaya’s courageous action (as did Hillary Clinton, and clearly so.) Clinton described Zelaya’s action as “reckless.” She was not alone, of course as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Lewis Amselem said Zelaya’s return was “irresponsible and foolish.” Zelaya should stop “acting as though he were starring in an old movie,” he counseled. Worse, US Republicans, who see the coup leaders as trusty allies reminiscent of their allies of the past, are flocking to the Honduran capital in dangerous attempts at validating the coup leaders as legitimate statesmen.

 

Between Obama’s anti-coup stance, and his own Department of State’s anti-Zelaya rhetoric (and Republican giddiness over the prospects of their country’s ‘return’ to Latin America), the US position lacks clarity, a dangerous notion at a time when Latin America expected a clear US divorce from the past, and “engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values.” President Obama may be sincere, but he must ensure that he acts upon his promises, not for Latin America ’s sake, but for his own country’s future relationship with that part of the world. As for Latin America itself, the repercussions of the Brazilian embassy’s siege, and the future of democracy in Honduras will either set a terrible precedent in an age of hope, or serve as further proof that the ghosts of the past will no longer haunt Latin America , no matter how much the reviled generals toil.

 

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers, journals and anthologies around the world. His latest book is, "The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle" (Pluto Press, London ), and his forthcoming book is, “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza ’s Untold Story” (Pluto Press, London ), now available for pre-orders on Amazon.com.

 
 

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Published on Friday, October 9, 2009 by The Nation


Honduran Coup Regime in Crisis

by Greg Grandin

How long can the Honduran crisis drag on, with President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a military coup more than three months ago, trapped in Tegucigalpa's Brazilian Embassy? Well, in early 1949 in Peru, Víctor Haya de la Torre--one of last century's most important Latin American politicians--sought asylum in the Colombian Embassy in Lima, also following a military coup. There he remained for nearly six years, playing chess, baking cakes for the embassy staff's children and writing books. Soldiers surrounded the building for the duration, with Peru's authoritarian regime ignoring calls from the international community to end the siege, which was condemned by the Washington Post as a "canker in hemisphere relations."
So far Roberto Micheletti, installed by the coup as president, is showing the same obstinacy. Shortly after Zelaya's surprise appearance in the Brazilian Embassy on September 21 after having entered the country unnoticed, probably from El Salvador or Nicaragua, the de facto president ordered troops to violently disperse a large crowd that had gathered around the embassy, using tear gas, clubs and rubber bullets, killing a number of protesters and wounding many. Amnesty International has documented [1] a "sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators, and intimidation of human rights defenders" since Zelaya's return.

The government has suspended civil liberties and shut down independent sources of news, including the TV station Cholusat Sur and Radio Globo. In response to rolling protests throughout Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, security forces continue to round up demonstrators, holding some of the detained in soccer stadiums--evoking Chile in 1973, after Augusto Pinochet's junta overthrew Salvador Allende, when security forces turned Santiago's National Stadium into a torture chamber. The Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH) says [2] Hondurans are indeed being tortured, burned with cigarettes and sodomized by batons, and that some of the torturers are veterans of Battalion 316, an infamous Honduran death squad from the 1980s. Police and soldiers raided the offices of the National Agrarian Institute, capturing dozens of peasant activists who had been occupying the building. Police also fired tear gas into COFADEH's office, which at the time was filled with about a hundred people, many of them women and children, denouncing the repression that had earlier taken place in front of the embassy. "Honduras risks spiraling into a state of lawlessness, where police and military act with no regard for human rights or the rule of law," said Susan Lee, Americas director at Amnesty International [3].

Back at the embassy, Honduran troops have tormented Zelaya and his accompaniers [4], including the Catholic priest Father Andres Tamayo, with tear gas, other chemical weapons and sonic devices that emit high-pitched and extreme-pain-inducing sounds. This high-tech assault has largely been ignored by the international media, though George W. Bush's former ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told Fox News that Zelaya's description of this harassment indicated "delusional behavior." [5]

Fourteen people--all opposed to the coup--have been murdered since Zelaya's overthrow, according to a tally released early last week by COFADEH [6]. Then on October 2 two more Zelaya supporters were executed [7].

Micheletti seems increasingly isolated, facing criticism from his own supporters due to his heavy-handed response. Just a few days ago, a poll revealed [8] that a large majority of Hondurans oppose the coup and Micheletti while favoring Zelaya's restoration. Prominent conservative businessmen, religious and military leaders, and politicians are now offering their services as mediators between Micheletti and Zelaya, an indication that support for the coup may be evaporating [9], though their proposals so far seem more like stalling tactics than serious attempts to open negotiation. Industrialist Adolfo Facussé, for instance, proposed [10] making Micheletti a senator for life--similar to the honor bestowed on Pinochet when he exited the Chilean presidency--while returning Zelaya to office under conditions greatly more restricted than those laid out by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who had previously been tapped by the US State Department to arbitrate the crisis.

Confronted with growing opposition in and outside of Honduras, Micheletti has restored some civil liberties--though violence against Zelaya supporters and media censorship continues--and this week he allowed a delegation from the Organization of American States to enter the country to try to jump-start negotiations between the two sides. But after promising to engage in a "new spirit" of dialogue, Micheletti lashed out at the OAS delegates. "We are not afraid of the United States, nor of the State Department, nor of Mexico or Brazil," he said defiantly [11].

With his coup coalition apparently unraveling, Micheletti has doubled down on his bid to present himself as a backstop against Hugo Chávez-style populism. He told an Argentine reporter [12] that he led the overthrow of Zelaya because the Honduran president "turned left." "He became friends," Micheletti said, "with Daniel Ortega, Chávez, Correa, Evo Morales"--that is, with the internationally recognized leaders of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. And the day after Zelaya's return, perhaps fancying himself a latter-day Garibaldi, Micheletti went on TV [13] and called on Venezuelans to rise up against the "dictator" Chávez.

Whatever the outcome of Zelaya's current situation--and let's hope it won't last as long as Haya de la Torre's nearly six-year asylum--those who carried out the coup have managed to achieve what they accuse Zelaya of trying to do: they have polarized society, delegitimized political institutions, bankrupted the treasury and empowered social movements. The coalition of workers, peasants, progressive religious folk, environmentalists, students, feminists and gay and lesbian activists that has emerged to demand the restoration of democracy has so far not been able to return Zelaya to the presidency, yet it has prevented the consolidation of the coup regime.

In retrospect, it is hard to understand what Micheletti and his allies had hoped to achieve with Zelaya's overthrow, which took place just five months before regularly scheduled presidential elections, still set for November 29. Before the coup, it was expected that a candidate from either the Liberal or National Party--both conservative--would win the vote, dousing whatever popular restlessness was unleashed by Zelaya's turn left.

But the coup--along with Zelaya's surprise return--has created a lose-lose situation for Honduran elites. If they yield to international pressure and negotiate Zelaya's symbolic restoration, it would legitimize the November elections but would also embolden the left and discredit the coup plotters--that is, nearly all of Honduras' governing class. If they force Zelaya back into exile, arrest him or keep him holed up in the Brazilian Embassy, then the popular movement that has gained momentum over the past three months will demand a constitutional convention as the only solution to re-establish legitimacy. In other words, the very issue that served as the spark of the crisis--Zelaya's attempt to build support for a constituent assembly to reform Honduras' notoriously undemocratic charter--may be the only way to settle it.

Even Costa Rican President Ocar Arias has suggested as much. He recently called the Honduran constitution the "worst in the entire world," an "invitation to coups." "This is something that will have to be resolved," he said [14], "and the best way to do this is, if we can't have a constitutional election, is to have certain reforms so this Honduran constitution ceases to be the worst in the entire world."

Micheletti's crackdown reveals more than his own desperation. It suggests the larger dilemma of Latin American conservatives. Over the past few years, those opposed to the region's left turn, like Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa and his son Alvaro Vargas Llosa, have tried to represent themselves as democratic modernizers who have rejected the authoritarianism of the region's old cold war right. This is exactly the image Micheletti's coup hoped to project to the rest of the world--even hiring US lobbyists [15] and public relations firms [16] to do so.

But in Honduras, as in most of Latin America, there is no social base to create something along the lines of, say, Europe's new conservatism. Clinging to a discredited free-market economic model, their political program is based nearly exclusively on "anti-Chavismo." And in a country as poor and economically stratified as Honduras, that means a reliance on increasing doses of violence to maintain order and a resurrection of the same revanchist sectors of the military, the Catholic and evangelical churches, and the oligarchy that powered anticommunist authoritarianism. Micheletti's government, after all, included Enrique Ortez as foreign minister, who was barely installed in his new office when he called Barack Obama a "negrito" who didn't "even know where Tegucigalpa was"--a sentiment that wouldn't be out of place on some of the placards on display at our own tea-party demonstrations. Given a chance to defend himself [17]--negrito in Spanish is not necessarily a derogatory term--Ortez, who has since resigned, dug deeper: "I've negotiated with fags, prostitutes, commies, blacks and whites.... I'm not racially prejudiced; I like the plantation negro who is running the United States."

Honduras may very well be the "first reversal in the drive to spread '21st Century Socialism' in the region," as Iran/Contra veteran Otto Reich, a prominent US backer of the coup, recently wrote [18]. Yet that reversal--if it holds--comes at the cost of revealing the lie behind the idea that there is a progressive alternative to the contemporary Latin American left.

Copyright © 2009 The Nation
Greg Grandin, a professor of history at New York University, is the author, most recently, of Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City [19] (Metropolitan). He serves on the editorial committee of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) [20].


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Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/09-0

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Use of mercenaries in Honduras on the rise, U.N. panel says

Story Highlights :

U.N. panel: 40 ex-Colombian paramilitaries hired since June 28 coup

International Convention prohibits use of mercenaries, panel of experts notes

Rights group demands opposition journalists be allowed to broadcast


Roberto Micheletti has insisted the June ouster was accomplished through constitutional means.

(CNN) -- A group of independent U.N. experts expressed concern Friday over the increased use of mercenaries in Honduras, where a de facto president has been in power since a military-led coup in June.

The U.N. panel said it received reports that 40 former Colombian paramilitaries had been hired to protect properties and individuals in Honduras since the June 28 coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The panel also heard reports that 120 mercenaries from various Latin American countries had been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as president hours after Zelaya's removal.

"We urge the Honduran authorities to take all practical measures to prevent the use of mercenaries within its territory and to fully investigate allegations concerning their presence and activities," the U.N. panel said in a news release.

The U.N. experts accused the Honduran government of indiscriminately using sound-generating devices against Zelaya and his supporters at the embassy.

The experts noted that the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries is prohibited under the International Convention on the issue, which Honduras has signed. The panel was established in 2005 by the Commission on Human Rights, which has since been succeeded by the Human Rights Council.

It consists of five members: Shaista Shameem of Fiji, Najat al-Hajjaji of Libya, Amada Benavides de Perez of Colombia, Jose Luis Gomez del Prado of Spain and Alexander Nikitin of Russia.

The United Nations and the European Union have condemned the coup and have refused to recognize Micheletti, who has insisted that Zelaya, who was elected president in January 2006, was not overthrown but was replaced through constitutional means.

The political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution, even though the country's congress had outlawed the vote and the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled it illegal.

Zelaya, who was flown out of the country the day of the coup, secretly returned to Honduras on September 21 and has taken refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital.

In another development Friday, the Amnesty International human rights group said Honduras must allow opposition journalists to broadcast during negotiations over the country's political future.

Radio Globo and the Canal 36 TV station have been closed since September 28, when Micheletti suspended many of the nation's civil liberties.

Micheletti said Monday he was lifting the emergency measures, but Amnesty International says security forces continue to hold equipment from both media outlets.

"There's no legal reason for Radio Globo and Canal 36 to remain closed," said Susan Lee, the Americas director at Amnesty International.

Police have told legal representatives of the radio and TV station that the confiscated equipment was required for an investigation, Amnesty International said in a news release.

A delegation from the Organization of American States arrived in Honduras on Wednesday and met separately with Zelaya and Micheletti. The OAS group left Thursday without any agreement being reached.

An accord forged by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias calls for Zelaya to be reinstated, but Micheletti has vowed that the ousted president will never return to power.

All AboutHonduras • Organization of American States • United Nations
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

United Nations
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/united_nations
Honduran
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/honduras
Organization of American States
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/organization_of_american_states
Honduras
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Honduras
Organization of American States
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Organization_of_American_States
United Nations
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/United_Nations

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/09/honduras.mercenaries/index.html 
 

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Reporter's Notebook: Protesters in Honduras Criticize U.S. Response to Crisis 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/latin_america/july-dec09/honduras-rep_10-10.html
 
In late June, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in the middle of the night by an opposition angered by his efforts to extend presidential terms. Marcelo Ballve of New America Media reports from Honduras on tensions within the country.
 
 
   
 
In politically divided Honduras, where two men claim the presidency, all sides appear to agree on at least one point: No one seems happy with how U.S. President Barack Obama has handled the crisis so far.

I spent my first morning in Honduras reporting on a protest organized at the teachers college in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Outside the gates of the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan, supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya massed together, preparing to march. They were confronted, across an avenue, by soldiers in camouflage and police in riot gear.

The protesters unfurled flags and signs denouncing the government of interim President Roberto Micheletti, but dared not begin their march within view of the security forces. Female vendors with cardboard trays of candy balanced on their heads milled about. Cars cruised past. A few honked their horns in support of the protesters.

In the middle of this gathering, which somehow seemed tense and festive simultaneously, President Obama's name was mentioned often, since he had won the Nobel peace prize earlier that day. But far from heaping praise on the U.S. leader, the protesters criticized his White House for being slow to condemn the June 28 coup in strong terms and then being hesitant about advocating for Zelaya's return to the presidency.

Zelaya's supporters often point out it took nearly two months before the United States imposed meaningful sanctions on the de-facto Honduran government

Obama has done "almost nothing" to help Honduras, said Eulogio Chavez, a prominent Zelaya supporter and president of the Honduran middle school teachers' union. Asked about President Obama's Nobel prize, he said, "If you look at his attitude toward Honduras, he didn't deserve the Nobel. It almost feels like he's more on the side of the coup leaders."

Rafael Alegria, another pro-Zelaya organizer who represents the Via Campesina peasant movement, grumbled about what he considered U.S. dithering. Obama "has to redouble his efforts for peace in Latin America," said Alegria. "The constitutional order was broken in Honduras. There are 200 police and soldiers right there who won't let us march."

Zelaya supporters might believe Obama has not embraced their side strongly enough. But Micheletti's people feel the Obama White House has backed the wrong side in the dispute, and has also been heavy-handed. Micheletti allies complain the United States cut aid to Tegucigalpa even though Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere.

It's an interesting role reversal, said political pundit Matias Funez, speaking the same night on Dialogos de Altura, a talk show on local channel TV 12.

Zelaya sympathizers, who are left-leaning, want more energetic U.S. involvement. Micheletti's people, more to the right, seem to want the U.S. to stay out of the dispute altogether. In the not-so-distant past, left and right would have had opposite stances, Funez said.

After the protest, I jumped in a taxi, which made its way through the verdant, mountain-ringed capital to a six-story government building, where I met with Martha Lorena Alvarado, the deputy foreign minister.

Obama's administration blundered when it opposed Zelaya's ouster and demanded his reinstatement, she said. Alvarado believes the White House was taken by surprise by the events in Honduras, and so quickly ceded leadership on Honduras to the Organization of American States.

She said the OAS rushed to condemn Micheletti, but did not understand the events leading to Zelaya's ouster. She painted Zelaya as an undemocratic rogue, who trampled Honduran laws in his effort to push through a referendum that would have asked voters whether they wanted to elect an assembly to rewrite the constitution. Zelaya, Alvarado said, desired a new constitution to be able to seek re-election, which is forbidden under Honduran law. (Zelaya denies he wanted re-election.)

Later in the day, the protesters at the teachers college secretly stole away in twos and threes so as to not attract attention, and gradually reassembled in front of the hotel where negotiators allied with Micheletti and Zelaya have been trying to hammer out a solution to the crisis (the main sticking point is Zelaya's reinstatement as president). Eventually, the police and soldiers caught up with the protesters, and dispersed them with tear gas and a high-pressure water hose.

The Honduran political crisis escalated rapidly in late September after Zelaya snuck back into the country to rally his supporters. He ended up seeking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy.

Zelaya's negotiators give an Oct. 15 deadline for a solution to the standoff. After that, they say they'll take to the streets and stage protests. Previously scheduled Nov. 29 presidential elections seem up in the air for now, though Micheletti insists they'll go forward.

The United States has threatened to withhold recognition of that election if the dispute isn't resolved.


-- By Marcelo Ballve for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
 
 

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Landowners in Honduras hired Colombian paramilitaries, UN saysMembers of the AUC, classified as a terrorist organisation by the US, reportedly hired to offer protection for landowners


Associated Press
 Friday 9 October 2009 14.50 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/09/honduras-colombia-auc-landowners

Honduran landowners have reportedly hired former Colombian paramilitaries as mercenaries to protect them against possible violence stemming from government tensions, a UN panel said today.

The UN working group on mercenaries said that it has received reports that some 40 former members of United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The US government classifies the AUC as a terrorist organisation.

They will protect properties and individuals "from further violence between supporters of the de facto government and those of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya," it said.

Separately, a 120-person group of paramilitaries from several countries in that region was reportedly created to support the coup in Honduras, the panel said.

Honduras is a party to the international convention against the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries, the group said.

The panel is composed of Shaista Shameem of Fiji, Najat al-Hajjaji of Libya, Amada Benavides de Perez of Colombia, Jose Luis Gomez del Prado of Spain and Alexander Nikitin of Russia.

The group also alleged that Honduran police and the mercenaries indiscriminately used "long range acoustic devices" against Zelaya and his supporters taking refuge at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

The device can blast sounds by concentrating voice commands and a car alarm-like noise that can be heard nearly two miles away.

"We urge the Honduran authorities to take all practical measures to prevent the use of mercenaries within its territory and to fully investigate allegations concerning their presence and activities," the group said.

Zelaya was toppled in the 28 June military-backed coup that has paralysed the impoverished Central American nation with street protests, the suspension of foreign aid, diplomatic isolation and a standoff between the rival claimants to the presidency. The crisis deepened when Zelaya slipped back into the country in late September and took refuge with dozens of supporters in the Brazilian embassy.

Governments throughout the world insist the ousted president serve out the final months of his term and be restored to his office in time to prepare for the November election.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
11:57 Mecca time, 08:57 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009102135257372665.html
   
News Americas 
 
Honduras lifts opposition media ban 

 
Honduras has been in political crisis since the coup in June [AFP]
 
The de-facto Honduran government has lifted a three-week-old ban on opposition radio and television stations.

Radio Globo and Channel 36 were back on air on Tuesday hours after Roberto Micheletti's administration removed a decree that limited constitutional guarantees including freedom of the press and freedom of assembly.

Micheletti's representatives also met with Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, on Tuesday in an attempt to kick-start talks on the nation's political crisis that had stalled.

Arturo Corrales, an aide to Micheletti, said he met with Zelaya "unofficially" as the latter had some questions about the talks.

He would not comment further on what he discussed with Zelaya.

Stalled negotiations

Honduras has been in crisis since a coup in June - the first in Central America for more than a decade - ousted Zelaya as he pushed forward plans to hold a public-consultation on whether to change the constitution.


in depth :


  Fault Lines: Honduras - 100 days of resistance
  More on Fault Lines
  Listening Post: Covering the Honduran coup

 
The military expelled him from power by force and he spent almost three months in exile in Nicaragua, before returning to Honduras where he has used the Brazilian embassy as a base.

Since his return, Zelaya's representatives have held talks with the Micheletti camp  without any success.

Zelaya's team said that they would not return to the debating table until the coup-installed government provided more "constructive proposals".

They accused Micheletti's government of attempting to obstruct talks by insisting that Congress and the Supreme Court be consulted on Zelaya's potential return.

Congress installed Micheletti as president after the coup and the Supreme Court has already said that Zelaya should not be allowed to re-take power.

"The dialogue has been obstructed," Zelaya said.

'Delaying tactics'

Zelaya's team has said that Micheletti is attempting to stay in power until the elections planned for November 29.

Vilma Morales, a spokeswoman for the de-facto government, has requested Zelaya's team to resume talks.

"We have to sit down at the table to come up with different alternatives and options,'' Morales said.

The political crisis has compounded economic woes in the nation of some 7.6 million people.
 
 Source: Agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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Brazil, at Organization of American States, Accuses Honduran Coup Regime of "Torture"

WASHINGTON - October 21 - The Brazilian government's Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Ruy de Lima Casaes e Silva, accused the Honduran coup regime of "torture" [2] in its ongoing attacks on Brazil's embassy in Honduras.

Ambassador Lima Casaes described an elaborate series of measures taken by the Honduran security forces surrounding the Embassy to cause sleep deprivation among those inside. These included ultra-high-intensity lights, high-decibel sound, and other measures.

He also mentioned other attacks including tear gas and attacks with unidentified gases, and other forms of harassment and violations of international law including restricting food deliveries.

All of these are serious violations of international law, and have already been condemned [3] on September 25 by the Security Council of the United Nations. Today OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza also condemned [4] the ongoing "harassment" of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

"These ongoing violations indicate that the coup regime in Honduras has no interest in dialogue or a mediated solution to the Honduran crisis," said Mark Weisbrot [5], Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "The also indicate an astounding lack of regard for international law, unusual even in the history of military coups over the last century."

###

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) [1] was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Links: Homepage [1]CEPR (Press Center) [6]

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Honduran crisis talks 'dead'  

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/200910238342573311.html

 
It is the second time talks have broken down
after 16 days of discussions [AFP]
 
Talks to end the political crisis in Honduras have again failed and are now dead, negotiators for Manuel Zelaya, the country's deposed leader, say.

His representatives had set a deadline of midnight on Thursday for the military-backed government of Roberto Micheletti to reinstate his presidency.

But subsequently they released a statement announcing that the discussions were over.

"As of now we see this phase as finished. We cannot continue to give deadlines," Mayra Mejia, one of Zelaya's envoys said, referring to the dialogue shortly after midnight (0200 GMT).

"The fundamental point is the reinstatement of President Zelaya and for this, there was no political will."

The statement came after 16 days of talks, which have failed to reach a settlement once before.

Zelaya was ousted from power in a coup - the first in a decade in Central America - on June 28.

He returned from exile in Nicaragua almost three months later to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, which he is using as a base.

'Delaying tactics'

Majia said that Zelaya would now discuss with his team in the Brazilian embassy how to work out their next move.
 
Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president, supported by the Organisation of American States, negotiated the initial talks, which ended in stalemate.

Arias had proposed the San Jose Accord, whereby Zelaya would have been allowed to return to the presidency until the end of his term in January.

This was rejected by Micheletti's side.

Zelaya's negotiators have accused their rivals of delaying tactics in holding up the talks in order to keep Micheletti in power until previously scheduled elections on November 29.

However, Vilma Morales, a Micheletti negotiator, dismissed the accusations.

"This committee, having categorically rejected the 12 midnight ultimatum ... states that our answer or counteroffer will be presented tomorrow at 10am [1600 GMT] Friday," Morales said.

Regional tension

Regional governments, including the US, have said that they will not recognise the November poll unless Zelaya is returned to power.

The putsch against Zelaya came as he pushed forward plans to hold a public-consultation on whether to change the constitution.

The Honduran congress, courts and military had opposed Zelaya's attempt to hold the public vote, accusing him of trying to win support for an extension to presidential term limits.

Zelaya has defended his effort to hold the referendum, saying that it was aimed at improving the lives of the poor in Honduras.

The protracted political impasse has taken a grim economic toll on the country's 7.6 million-strong population.
 
 Source: Agencies 
 

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October 27, 2009
http://www.counterpunch.org/lawrence10272009.html

New Reports Demolish Justifications for Ouster of Zelaya

Honduran Coup Myths Dispelled


By STEWART J. LAWRENCE

Two new reports dealing with the June 28 military coup in Honduras have demolished the arguments of the current de facto government and its foreign apologists that the coup was consistent with the Honduran constitution and that most Hondurans welcomed the illegal ouster of the country’s democratically elected president, Mel Zelaya. 

In a recent commentary published on the Forbes Magazine web site, two veteran human rights lawyers, Juan Mendez and Viviana Krsticevic, take to task the authors of a recent analysis prepared for the US Congress that suggested that the Honduran constitution allowed the Honduran Congress to remove Zelaya from office.  In fact, the Honduran Congress has no formal impeachment power and the vote to remove Zelaya was merely a legislative decree that was of dubious legality, the authors note.   In 2003, the Honduran Supreme Court had struck down the efforts of the Honduran legislature to assert its independent authority – but according to the authors, that didn’t keep the legislature from invoking this same authority to try – wrongly - to justify legal action against Zelaya..

The Honduran Supreme Court was also complicit in violating the Honduran Constitution, Mendez and Krsticevic note.  Most notably, the Court ordered the armed forces to capture Zelaya and search the presidential residence, despite the fact that article 293 of the Constitution explicitly establishes that the national police, not the army, execute all legal decisions and resolutions, in accordance with the principle of civilian rule. There were also due process violations that occurred throughout the criminal proceedings against Zelaya.   Zelaya was never read his rights, informed of the charges against him, or provided access to his lawyers while being detained, then forcibly expelled from the country.

And then there is the matter of the expulsion itself, which as Mendez and Krsticevic note, has no grounding whatsoever in Honduran law.   In theory, Zelaya should have been held for trial, or arrested and then released, pending trial.  Amazingly, the Supreme Court cited the threat of a “flight risk” to justify an indefinite detention of Zelaya – as if Zelaya had any interest in leaving office, much less the country. 

The only “flight” that occurred, in fact, was the airplane trip that Zelaya took into exile courtesy of the armed forces. They rousted him at night in his pajamas and at the point of a bayonet, demanded that he leave – or else.   Some “democracy.”

The aftermath of the coup has also given rise to speculation, and charges, that whatever the legality of Zelaya’s ouster, most Hondurans were fed up with his rule, and were happy to see him go.   Conservatives have noted that protests on Zelaya’s behalf have been fairly limited, while Zelaya’s supporters, and international human rights observers, have pointed to post-coup military repression, including extra-judicial killings, and other military abuses, as the primary reason for cautious popular protest.   

Now, a recent polling survey conducted by the highly respected polling firm Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner thoroughly debunks the latest conservative propaganda.  According to the poll, conducted just two weeks ago, 60% of Hondurans still oppose Zelaya’s ouster, and just 38% support it.  19% say Zelaya had performed “excellently” in office while 48% say his performance was “good” (a total of 67%).

By contrast, by a margin of 2-1, Hondurans say they have a negative opinion of the coup plotter who supplanted Zelaya, Roberto Micheletti, the current de facto president.

The survey also found that contrary to conservative propaganda, most Hondurans (by a 53% to 43% margin) support amending the country’s Constitution to allow the president to be re-elected – the very issue that became the pretext for Zelaya’s illegal ouster.  Zelaya, of course, never actually tried to stand for re-election.  He was accused of “high treason” and overthrown merely for suggesting that ordinary Hondurans be polled on the matter in a strictly non-binding referendum. 

Therefore, the pollsters at Greenberg, Rosner and Quinlan polling should probably consider themselves lucky.  In the US, clients sometimes fire you when a poll brings them bad news.  In Honduras, they throw you in jail, tear gas you – or worse.

Stewart Lawrence is a recognized specialist in Latino and Latin American affairs, and author of numerous policy reports and publications.   He can be reached at stewlaw2009@gmail.com

 

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Honduras's 'Bloodless Coup': What You're Not Seeing on TV

The coup regime in Honduras is winning. Without action from Washington, the the backers of the coup will go unpunished.

By Avi Lewis, Al Jazeera English
Posted on October 27, 2009, Printed on October 28, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://english.aljazeera.net//143538/

This video is a trailer for the Fault Lines' coverage of the coup in Honduras. Watch Part One and Part Two of the full version of Fault Lines: 100 Days of Resistance.
Trailer :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDk3wIXchYM&feature=player_embedded

PART 1 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYY4vj9ROC0

PART 2 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?=upMu_oR2YUU

I arrived in Honduras one week after ousted president Manuel Zelaya returned to begin his long spell of internal exile in the Brazilian embassy. With my crew from Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English TV, I went straight from the airport to a funeral. A week later, on our last night of filming, we attended another funeral. The first was for a 24-year-old woman, the second for a 50-year-old schoolteacher, and both active in the resistance to the coup. According to their families, both were killed for it.

The coup regime in Honduras is winning. Tepid pressure from the Obama administration is making it easy for the de facto government to run out the clock until the highly compromised elections in just five weeks. Whether or not international observers bless that vote, a new government will take power in Honduras and declare the stain of the coup removed, democracy restored. Absent the kind of meaningful sanctions Washington has so far been unwilling to impose, the status quo will triumph: the backers of the coup will go unpunished.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. mainstream media is not reporting the story of what is really going on in Honduras. The de facto government and its backers invested $400,000 (that we know of) in bipartisan lobbying, and succeeded in implanting a deeply distorted narrative of events -- a nouveau cold war story starring Hugo Chávez as puppet master and Zelaya as marionette. Meanwhile, the voice of the social movement struggling to reform its country's constitution in the second poorest nation in the hemisphere has been all but ignored.



And the killing continues. Two more alleged political murders in the last two weeks while what scant reporting there was fixated on the negotiations between Micheletti and Zelaya, a surface story that serves the coup regime's strategy and is largely irrelevant to the deeper issues at play.

In Honduras, people are dying while the world looks the other way. Real international pressure -- especially from the United States -- is the only force that could stop that now. But time is running out.

Watch Part One and Part Two of the full version of Fault Lines: 100 Days of Resistance.


Avi Lewis is the presenter of Fault Lines -- a fortnightly show that digs deeper into what is driving the big news stories of the day.

© 2009 Al Jazeera English All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://english.aljazeera.net//143538/

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Friday, October 30, 2009
13:10 Mecca time, 10:10 GMT 
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009103044151732923.html
 
News Americas 
 
Honduran rivals agree on deal 

 
Zelaya appealed for calm on Thursday after some of his supporters were hurt in protests [AFP]


 
Roberto Micheletti, Honduras's de facto leader, has agreed to reinstate Manuel Zelaya, the country's ousted president, as part of a deal aimed at ending a political crisis.

The two sides have been at odds for four months over whether Zelaya should be reinstated as president before presidential elections.

"I am pleased to announce ... my negotiating team signed an agreement that marks the beginning of the end of the country's political situation," Micheletti said in a statement on Thursday.

"With regard to the most contentious subject in the deal, the possible restitution of Zelaya to the presidency" would be included.

For his part, Zelaya told Radio Globo: "Tomorrow [Friday] will be the day that the plan will be signed to restore democracy to the country."

Micheletti said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and
bind both sides to recognise the November 29 presidential elections.

Congress to decide

The decision on whether Zelaya will be reinstated is in the hands of the Honduran supreme court and congress.

Antonio Rivera, a Honduran senator, told Al Jazeera the deal does not necessarily mean Zelaya will be reinstated as president.


Timeline
 June 28: Military coup forces Manuel Zelaya out of Honduras. Roberto Micheletti is appointed interim leader.
 July 5: Plane carrying Zelaya is blocked from landing in the capital, Tegucigalpa, sparking clashes between army and his supporters.
 Oscar Arias, Costa Rican president, is named chief negotiations mediator.
 September 21: Zelaya sneaks into Honduras, hiding in Brazil's embassy.
 September 22: Thousands of Zelaya supporters demand his return to power.
 
"One-hundred and twenty-eight congressmen from five political parties are going to make the decision," Rivera said.

"Before that, congress is going to ask the opinion of the supreme court, the general attorney and the elections tribunal.

"Micheletti and Zelaya will have to accept the decision."

Zelaya, who was forced from power in June, and Micheletti held talks separately on Thursday with Tom Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state, and Dan Restrepo, Washington's special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Monica Villamizar, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said the international community, especially the US, is really stepping up pressure to put an end to the crisis and move forward.

"It is no longer about the dispute between two men - Micheletti and Zelaya.

"But about the Honduran people and what is going to happen to the second poorest country in the Americas, which has been greatly affected by all the months of political instability and turmoil," she said.

Sticking point

Zelaya remains holed up at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa after re-entering the country in late September, two months after he was forced from the presidential palace and into exile.

As the US representatives met the Honduran rivals, a rally by hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters in Tegucigalpa was broken up by police who fired tear gas.


In depth

 
-  Fault Lines: Honduras - 100 days of resistance
-  Listening Post: Covering the Honduran coup
-  Video: Aid cuts hit Honduran poor
-  Honduras: The way forward
-  The life and death of democracy

 
Barack Obama, the US president, faced criticism from human-rights groups who said Washington should do more to pressure Micheletti.

At one point in the crisis, Micheletti ordered restrictions on civil liberties to be imposed, during which time media stations supportive of Zelaya were taken off-air.

The resumption in negotiations on Thursday came a day after Honduras's military-backed government, which is not recognised internationally, lodged legal proceedings against Brazil at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The interim government accused Brazil of interfering in Honduras's internal affairs by sheltering Zelaya at its embassy, claims dismissed by the Brazilian government.

"The de facto Honduran government has no legitimacy to lodge a law suit in the International Court of Justice," a spokesman for Brazil's foreign ministry said.

Zelaya was forced from power on June 28, the same day that he planned to hold a non-binding referendum on the constitution that had been declared illegal by the Honduran congress and supreme court.

Opponents of Zelaya say that the public vote was aimed at winning support for an extension to presidential term limits, claims that he has denied.
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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Honduran Accord Solidifies Coup D'Etat Rule

by Stephen Lendman

http://uruknet.com/index.php?p=m59787&hd=&size=1&l=e

November 6, 2009

On October 29, Honduran coup d'etat "president" Roberto Micheletti announced that:

"....a few minutes ago I authorized my negotiating team to sign a final agreement" to let Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) decide whether or not deposed President Manuel Zelaya may return to office and complete the remaining weeks of his term, expiring on January 27. If he does, will it matter?

Zelaya is a wealthy businessman, a member of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), a former National Congress Deputy from 1985 - 1998, a former PL Minster for Investment, and president from January 27, 2006 to when he was deposed on June 28.

His 2005 presidential campaign was largely on a law-and-order platform with pledges that, if elected, he'd address Honduras' crime problem with more police programs against and reeducation ones for violent international and local street gang members.

Zelaya also joined Venezuela's Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) based on fair, not one-sided "free" trade; complementarity, not competition; solidarity, not domination; cooperation, not exploitation; and respect for each nation's sovereign freedom from corporate control.

According to supporters like Alejandra Fernandez, a Honduran student, he also:

"raised the minimum wage, gave out free school lunches, provided milk for the babies and pensions for the elderly, distributed energy-saving light bulbs, decreased the price of public transportation, (and) made more scholarships available for students." In addition, he built roads and schools in rural areas. "That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back. This is really a class struggle." One the Resistance is detemined to win and hardliners aim to crush.

The Coup d' Etat

On June 28, dozens of Honduran soldiers stormed Zelaya's residence at night, arrested him in his pajamas at gunpoint, and exiled him to Costa Rica in violation of the 1982 Constitution that states:

"No Honduran may be expatriated nor delivered by the authorities to a foreign state," nor may a democratically elected leader be deposed.

On July 3, the Honduran army's top lawyer, Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, admitted as much in a Miami Herald interview saying:

"We know there was a crime there. In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there is a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us."

He meant protection from the Constitution's Article 239 (crafted by a military government to subordinate civilians to repressive rule) that states:

"No citizen that has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President.

Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years."

Also, Article 374 stating:

"It is not possible to reform, in any case, the preceding article, the present article, the constitutional articles referring to the form of government, to the national territory, to the presidential period, the prohibition to serve again as President of the Republic, the citizen who has performed under any title in consequence of which she/he cannot be President of the Republic in the subsequent period."

Zelaya didn't suggest it or break the law in calling for a simple non-binding June 28 "yes" or "no" referendum on one question:

"Do you think that the November 2009 general elections should include a fourth ballot box (the other three being for candidates) in order to make a decision about the creation of a National Constituent Assembly that would approve a new Constitution?"

The Honduran Congress and military opposed it. The CSJ illegally ruled it unconstitutional, ordered no distribution of ballot boxes, and threatened those doing it with 8 - 12 years in prison for "abuse of authority." The High Court and Congress are stacked with right-wing ideologues. In addition, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs calls the CSJ "one of the most corrupt institutions in Latin America."

So is the military whose officers from captain on up have been trained for decades at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISEC), where they're taught the latest ways to kill, maim, torture, oppress, exterminate poor and indigenous people, overthrow democratically elected governments, assassinate targeted leaders, suppress popular resistance when it erupts, and work cooperatively with Washington to solidify hard-right rule, intolerant of progressive change - familiar tactics since June 28.

The day before, the military set off a chain of events. Reports said Zelaya fired Joint Chiefs Head General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez for refusing to distribute ballot boxes. He denied it. Velasquez may have resigned on his own. So did Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana and several military commanders. Nonetheless, the CSJ and Congress called Velasquez's dismissal illegal. Military forces deployed around Tegucigalpa, surrounded the Presidential Palace, and took over the airport and borders in advance of the planned coup, made in Washington, of course, like numerous others for decades.

Zelaya, nonetheless, ordered ballot boxes distributed. Congress recommended removing him. The Federal Prosecutor's Office announced that anyone setting up polling stations or promoting the referendum would be prosecuted. Anti-Zelaya forces urged a boycott.

Right-wing media hype called the vote illegal, a ploy to re-elect Zelaya, a way to shift his conservative Liberal Party far-left, a scheme to solidify his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) membership and let Chavez make Honduras socialist. In a pro forma June 29 pronouncement, the CSJ reinstated Velasquez. The Catholic Church backed the coup government. Months of terror followed, including:

-- imposing military rule, martial law, and a state of siege;

-- deploying combat troops on city streets;

-- suspending civil liberties, including habeas, the right of assembly, free movement and free expression;

-- committing thousands of human rights violations;

-- thousands more illegal arrests;

-- dozens of killings, beatings, kidnappings, and nationwide intimidation;

-- according to the human rights NGO Comite de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared - COFADEH), torturing and sodomizing men and gang-raping women;

-- reactivating the infamous Battalion 316, the CIA-created death squads that disappeared, tortured, and exterminated regime opponents in the 1980s;

-- silencing the independent media; and

-- harassing and arresting Honduran and foreign journalists; at least one was murdered, Gabriel Fino Noreiga on July 3.

Barack Obama ignored the worst of state terror in support of coup d'etat rule - no surprise from a president calling the fraudulent Afghan election "a step forward...to advance democracy, peace and justice....in "the interests of the Afghan people (and) a reflection of a commitment to the rule of law."

Post-coup on Veneuela's TV Telesur, Zelaya called his ouster:

a "kidnapping. An extortion of the Honduran democratic system. And I will ask the presidents of the Americas, including the US president - I want to hear the US Ambassador Hugo Llorens in Tegucigalpa if they are behind this, and if not, clear it up, because if the US is not behind this coup, they won't be able to stay there forty-eight hours."

For over 100 years, Washington repeatedly intervened in Central and Latin American affairs - by invasions, bombings, occupations, assassinations, countless episodes of destabilization and election rigging, and numerous coup d'etats against leaders it wished to depose.

Zelaya was the latest, confirmed by the Obama administration's refusal to cut diplomatic ties, halt military aid, impose sanctions as US law requires, or call the ouster a coup.

Announced Deal

On October 30, New York Times writers Ginger Thompson and Elisabeth Malkin headlined, "Deal Set to Restore Ousted Honduran President." To what given the agreed on terms. On October 29, AP reported that:

"opposing political factions resumed talks (today in hopes of reaching a deal) to end the power crisis that has paralyzed the country" since June 28. "The two sides returned to the negotiating table a day after visiting US diplomats urged both factions to be more flexible and find a solution (ahead of) scheduled" November 29 presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections.

Terms of the So-Called Agreement/Accord

Signed on October 30, it's for Congress and the CSJ to approve it. Titled "Accord for National Reconciliation and the Strengthening of Democracy in Democracy," it's as Orwellian as "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

Post-coup, The Hill.com reported that the far-right Business Council of Latin America (CEAL) hired former Bill Clinton special counsel, Lanny Davis' firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, to lobby Congress and conduct a supportive PR campaign for its leaders. Lobbyist Bennett Ratcliff was enlisted to work with Davis, and according to an unnamed source in The New York Times, the Micheletti government hasn't made a move without first consulting him.

These men, their associates, and legal staff prepared the Accord, the way business sectors craft all Washington legislation affecting them.

It begins saying:

"We, Honduran citizens, men and women, convinced of the need to strengthen the rule of law, protect our Constitution and the laws of our Republic, deepen democracy and ensure a climate of peace and tranquility for our people, have carried out an intense and frank process of political dialogue to seek a peaceful and negotiated solution to the crisis in which our country has been submerged in recent months."

Terms include:

1. Forming a "National Unity and Reconciliation Government."

Fact Check

Only hardliners need apply, and if reinstated, Zelaya will finish his term as an impotent puppet head of state.

2. Renouncing "a Call for a National Constituent Assembly and Amending the Unamendable Articles of the Constitution."

Fact Check

According to Article 5 of the 2006 Honduran "Civil Participation Act," government officials may hold non-binding inquiries (referenda) to determine popular support for proposed measures. Gauging sentiment for a National Constituent Assembly for a new Constitution is legal. Illegally, Washington and Honduran hardliners stopped it.

3. The coup regime calls on Hondurans to "peacefully participate in the coming general election and to avoid any type of demonstrations that oppose the elections of their results, or promote insurrection, unlawful conduct, civil disobedience or other acts that could result in violent confrontations or transgressions of the law."

Fact Check

Honduran coup opponents called for an election boycott. On September 15, so did Zelaya saying:

"One cannot talk about the elections where there are no guarantees that the will of the people is going to be respected."

On October 24, 300 members of the two dominant parties, the National Party (PL) and Liberal Party (PL), announced they'll refuse to participate. Will they now after the Accord was signed?

If some reports are accurate, Zelaya capitulated to coup d'etat terms by calling the Accord a democratic "triumph" - even though trade unionist independent candidate and National Resistance Front member Carlos Reyes and legislative deputy Cesar Ham of the small leftist Democratic Unification (UD) party dropped out of the presidential race on September 9. Most of the remaining PN and PL candidates are conservative hardliners who'll assure no possibility of democratic change.

The elections will fill 2,896 positions, including the presidency, all 128 National Congress deputies, 20 others to represent Honduras in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), 298 mayors and another 2,000 municipal officials.

4. The Honduran military and police will be "placed at the disposition of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal from one month before the general elections for the purpose of guaranteeing the free exercise of suffrage, the custody, transport and surveillance of electoral materials and other security aspects of the process."

Fact Check

Hardline security forces will subvert democratic change. Hondurans will be disenfranchised if they back the charade. In betraying his supporters, Zelaya capitulated, meaning he'll support coup d'etat authority.

5. The CSJ and Congress will "resolve the issue regarding 'restoring possession of the Executive Power to its status prior to June 28 until conclusion (of) the current governmental period on January 27, 2010."

Fact Check

Two hard-right bodies will decide IF Zelaya is reinstated and on what terms. He'll be impotent by agreeing to the charade.

6. A "Verification Commission" will be created "to verify commitments made under this Accord and those deriving from it....composed of two (coup lackey) members of the international community and two members of the national community, the last two to be chosen, one each, by" Micheletti and Zelaya.

Fact Check

Staunch Washington ally, Ricardo Lagos, former Chilean president, and Obama's Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, will represent the international community along with Jorge Eduardo Idiaquez, Zelaya's UN ambassador, and coup lackey, Arturo Corrales Alvarez. A three to one edge assures no chance for democratic change.

7. The coup regime calls for "Normalization of Relations between the Republic of Honduras and the International Community" to restore the status quo.

Fact Check

The regime wants international recognition for its illegitimacy, continued hardline policies, and apparently will get it.

8. The Verification Commission will handle "differences regarding interpretation or application of this Accord..."

Fact Check

Hardliners want rubber stamp approval. Commission members chosen will assure it.

9. The Accord is effective on signing. The "following calender for compliance" was agreed on:

(1) On October 30, signing the Accord into effect, delivering it to Congress, and having it rule on Point 5, "Regarding the Executive Power."

(2) On November 2 or no later than November 5, forming the Verification Commission and establishing the "National Unity and Reconciliation Government."

(3) On January 27, "celebrating the transfer of government."

The Accord was agreed to by Micheletti and Zelaya representatives, Thomas Shannon, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Obama's yet-to-be confirmed ambassador to Brazil. Ostensibly, it will return Zelaya to office in exchange for international support for subverting democracy and continuity under far-right officials taking over in January.

It also assures his impotence. Hardliners will be empowered. Constitutional change will be prohibited. Democracy will be subverted. Zelaya must distance himself from Hugo Chavez. Perhaps other regional center-leftists as well. Coup plotters will get amnesty, and Zelaya may still be tried for treason for ordering a legitimate referendum.

What's Next?

With elections in a few weeks, hardliners may stall, obstruct, and from what Micheletti advisor, Marcia Facusse de Villeda, told Bloomberg News maintain the status quo until new officials take office in January.

"Zelaya won't be restored," she said. Further, "just by signing this agreement we already have the recognition of the international community for the elections." From Washington for sure according to Thomas Shannon. On November 4, Al Jazeera reported that he:

"told CNN en Espanol (on November 3) that the US will recognise the November 29 elections even if the Honduran congress votes against Zelaya's return to power before the vote."

No surprise, and according to Micheletti aide, Arturo Corrales, Congress isn't in session so approving the Accord will come "after the elections." Yet, according to hondurasthisweek.com, the congressional Executive Committee (Junta Directiva) met on November 3 to evaluate the Accord, but what's next is anyone's guess as Congress president, Jose Alfredo Saavedra, hasn't convened an extraordinary legislative session to decide on reinstatement. Nor has the CSJ ruled, yet the November 5 midnight deadline came and passed.

Zelaya Reacts

Still holed up at the Brazilian embassy under threat of arrest, Zelaya told Radio Globo: "There's no sense in deceiving Hondurans." His negotiator, Jorge Reina, said the Accord is dead because Congress failed to vote by the agreed on date and added:

"The de facto regime has failed to live up to the promise that, by this date (November 5), the national (unity) government would be installed. And by law, it should be presided by the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya." Reina accused Micheletti of arranging "a great electoral fraud this November. We completely do not recognize this electoral process. Elections under a dictatorship are a fraud for the people."

According to AP:

"Shortly before midnight, Micheletti announced that a unity government had been created even though Zelaya had not submitted his own list of members. Micheletti said the new government was composed of candidates proposed by political parties and civic groups."

In other words, mostly hardliners to solidify coup d'etat rule even though earlier hondurasthisweek.com cited a November 1 Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia report saying Tegucigalpa diplomatic sources told the paper that Thomas Shannon forced Zelaya's compliance or risk his son, Hector's, prosecution on drugs trafficking. He lives in America. Zelaya complied, but as of November 6 no longer. Nonetheless, events are fast moving with likely new developments in the hours and days ahead.

At issue is how the international community will react if a fake national unity government is established and elections precede a vote on Zelaya's reinstatement.

The Organization of American States' (OAS) Secretary-General, Jose Miguel Insulza, said he's creating a "mission" to assure compliance, meaning Zelaya must be reinstated once Congress and the CSJ agree. However, no deadlines are set, so hardliners may run out the clock and declare victory. They've already won even though The New York Times reported that:

"As news of the agreement spread, residents poured from their homes and workplaces across Tegucigalpa, the capital, to celebrate. Jubilation broke out in streets," with more likely if Zelaya's reinstated. It's not assured. Neither is what's next if it comes. What if delay and obstruction follow, and what if Venezuelan lawyer, author, and close Chavez confidant, Eva Golinger, is right about more Washington-instigated "coups in Paraguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela, where subversion, counterinsurgency and destabilization increase daily."

Latin America is being more militarized, the result of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe giving the Pentagon access to seven new military bases with US forces currently on nine others, supplemented by the April 2008's Fourth Fleet's reactivation after a 60 year hiatus. Now the Honduran coup suggests other regimes outside the US orbit or not enough in it may be targeted. Add Bolivia to Golinger's list and still more if center-left regimes take over.

The Honduran Resistance Reacts

In an October 1 interview, National Resistance Front leader, Juan Barahona, said:

"We will not stop. We will continue to be against the coup until the last day they are in power. After the June coup, the level of consciousness has greatly risen. There has been a parting of waters. This is a struggle between classes: on one side the exploited people, and on the other the capitalists, the large capitalists that dominate this country. (It's a) struggle of the poor against the rich...." Overwhelming public sentiment wants a referendum calling for a National Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution.

Will popular resistance demand it? On November 5, two of its leaders appeared in Washington at an event to restore democracy and human rights in Honduras - Bertha Oliva, COFADEH founder, and Jessica Sanchez of the National Alliance of Honduran Feminists in Resistance.

On November 4, a London protest was held at the US Embassy for the same purpose. It also stressed "end(ing) all US economic, political and military support to" the Honduran dictatorship. Speakers included trade unionist leader Tony Burke, other activists, and Jeremy Corbyn MP.

The UK Trades Union Congress (TUC), "the voice of Britain at work (with) 58 affiliated unions representing nearly seven million working people," called on MP David Miliband, Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, "to increase pressure" on hardliners "to restore democracy and to strongly condemn the series of human rights violations" post-coup.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), representing 170 million workers in 158 countries, unanimously passed a resolution at its recent Berlin General Council meeting calling for:

-- suspending Honduran trade preferences and financial aid and cooperation until democracy is fully restored; and

-- not cooperating with the bogus November elections by sending observers.

On October 31, the National Resistance Front told Hondurans:

-- "We celebrate the upcoming restoration of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales as a popular victory over the narrow interests of the coup oligarchy;"

-- the Accord mandates "returning the holder of executive power to its pre-June 28 state (and assuring) a democratic framework in which the people can exercise their right to transform society;"

-- the Accord must "be processed in an expedited fashion by the National Congress; we alert all our comrades....to pressure for the immediate compliance;"

-- "We reiterate that a National Constituent Assembly is an unrenounceable aspiration of the Honduran people and a non-negotiable right for which we will continue struggling in the streets, until we achieve the re-founding of our society to convert it into one that is just, egalitarian and truly democratic....(After over four months) of struggle, nobody here surrenders!"

One of its leaders, Rafeal Alegria, told Prensa Latina: "The people will not approve the electoral farce the putschists are preparing. The only solution to the conflict is the restitution of democratic legality and the president elected by the people."

Key now is follow-through, persistence, and staying mobilized for the long haul. Popular victories come only at great cost after years of struggle the way noted journalist IF Stone explained:

"The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins...."

It's for Hondurans and oppressed people everywhere to understand, persevere, and endure, no matter what.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.





 

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Honduras: Republicans praise Obama for “reversing” policy

By Bill Van Auken

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m59879&hd=&size=1&l=e

WSWS, November 9, 2009

Republicans in the US Senate signaled their satisfaction over the Obama administration’s recent diplomatic initiative in Honduras by lifting their months-long block on the nominations for key State Department posts related to Latin America.

The move came a week after a US diplomatic team led by the State Department’s top official on Latin American, Tom Shannon—a holdover from the Bush administration—brokered an agreement in Tegucigalpa between President Manuel Zelaya, who was toppled by a coup and forced out of the country last June 28, and the coup regime headed by Roberto Micheletti.

As has become clear over the past week, this deal has served to legitimize the principal aims of the June coup, while betraying the demands of the broad mass of workers, peasants and students that has resisted the dictatorial regime for the past four and a half months.

The agreement committed both sides—those who led the coup and those whom they overthrew—to forming a government of "national unity and reconciliation," while making no stipulation as to who would head it.

Moreover, there was one major difference in the substance of this deal, dubbed the Tegucigalpa Accord, from an abortive agreement drafted months ago by a US-backed mediator, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias. It dropped an explicit statement that the agreement "implies the return of José Manuel Zelaya Rosales to the Presidency of the Republic until the conclusion of the present governmental term, January 27, 2010."

Instead, it left it in the hands of the Honduran Congress, which had supported the coup, to decide in consultation with the Supreme Court, which gave the overthrow its legal blessing, whether to return the elected president to office. Also, it placed no deadlines for a vote on the question.

In giving his negotiators instructions to sign this agreement, Zelaya placed his fate in the hands of the Obama administration in Washington, to which he has appealed incessantly since being overthrown last June to restore him to power.

To secure the supposed aid of Washington, the ousted president agreed to drop a principal demand of the mass protests against the coup regime—the convening of a national constituent assembly to redraft the Honduran constitution, a document imposed upon the country by the outgoing military dictatorship in consultation with the US Embassy some 27 years ago.

Zelaya pledged to discourage any popular opposition to an upcoming election that will be held under conditions of political repression and under the control of the coup regime and the country’s military.

The Tegucigalpa accord commits Zelaya to "call upon the Honduran people to participate peacefully in the next general elections and avoid any type of demonstrations that oppose the elections or their results, or promote insurrection, anti-juridical conduct, civil disobedience or other acts that could produce violent confrontations or transgressions of the law."

The political results of this accord were entirely predictable. Micheletti last week announced the formation of a government of "national unity and reconciliation"—without bringing Zelaya back to the presidential palace or naming a single one his supporters to the cabinet.

The Honduran Congress has given no indication that it will come back into session to consider the accord and take a vote on whether to bring Zelaya back—even as a powerless figurehead for less than three months. A congressional committee voted not to convene a congressional session until the Supreme Court has offered its legal findings. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has stated that it has yet to receive a request for its recommendation.

Meanwhile, the chief US negotiator in producing the agreement in Tegucigalpa, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, clarified that Zelaya’s return to office is not a precondition for Washington recognizing the November 29 vote as legitimate. Rather, the mere signing of the accord legitimized the elections.

This position was confirmed in the action of US Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who dropped his opposition to the Obama administration’s nomination of Arturo Valenzuela to become assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, replacing Shannon, who is to become US ambassador to Brazil.

DeMint, a right-wing Republican and fervent backer of the Honduran coup regime, had held up the nominations as an act of protest against what he saw as the Obama administration’s support for Zelaya’s return to power.

In announcing his shift on the nominations last Thursday, DeMint stated on the floor of the Senate that he was "happy to report the Obama administration has finally reversed its misguided Honduran policy and will fully recognize the November 29 election.

DeMint continued, "Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Shannon have assured me that the US will recognize the outcome of the Honduran elections regardless of whether Manuel Zelaya is reinstated. I take our administration at their word that they will now side with the Honduran people and end their focus on the disgraced Zelaya."

At a press briefing the next day, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed that Clinton and Shannon had spoken to DeMint. Kelly reiterated that Washington has agreed to "support the electoral process" and would make no statement regarding the reinstatement of Zelaya.

Zelaya has indicated that he would prefer that a "verification commission" formed under the accord, consisting of US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, choose the interim government.

At the same time, he has written to Secretary of State Clinton demanding to know whether Washington’s "position condemning the coup d’etat has been changed or modified." The State Department spokesman said that Clinton has made no reply.




 

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Published on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by YES! Magazine

The Power of Nonviolent Action in Honduras

The massive nonviolent movement that put pressure on the coup government may be only the first chapter of an important and prolonged struggle for justice in one of Latin America’s poorest and most inequitable countries.

by Stephen Zunes

The decision by Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti to renege on his October 30 agreement to allow democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya to return to power was a severe blow to pro-democracy forces who have been struggling against the illegitimate regime since it seized power four months ago. The disappointment has been compounded by the Obama administration's apparent willingness-in a break with Latin American leaders and much of the rest of the international community-to recognize the forthcoming presidential elections being held under the de facto government's repressive rule.

Still, there are reasons to hope that democracy can be restored to this Central American nation.

The primary reason the de facto government was willing to negotiate at all was the ongoing nonviolent resistance campaign by Honduran pro-democracy forces. The role of popular nonviolent action has not been as massive, dramatic, or strategically sophisticated as the movements that have overthrown some other autocratic regimes in recent decades [1]. There were no scenes of hundreds of thousands of people filling the streets and completely shutting down state functions, as there were in the people power movements that brought down Marcos in the Philippines or Milosevic in Serbia.

Nevertheless, the nonviolent struggle has been of critical importance.



The sustained nonviolent resistance movement has prevented the provisional government, which was formed after the June 28 coup, from establishing a sense of normalcy. What the movement has lacked in well-organized, strategic focus, has been made up for with feisty and determined acts of resistance that have forced the provisional government into clumsy but ultimately futile efforts at repression-exposing the pretense of the junta's supposed good intentions.

Sometimes a resistance movement just has to stay alive to make its point. Day after day, thousands of Hondurans from all walks of life have gathered in the streets of Tegucigalpa and elsewhere, demanding the restoration of their democratically-elected government. Every day they have been met by tear gas and truncheons. Over a dozen pro-democracy activists were murdered, but rather than let these assassinations frighten people into submission, the opposition turned the martyrs' funerals into political rallies. Their persistence gradually has torn away the outlaw regime's claims of legitimacy. Rather than establishing themselves as a legitimate government, de facto president Micheletti and his allied military officers have been made to look like little more than a gang of thugs who took over an Old West town and threw out the sheriff.

Since the return of the exiled President Zelaya to Tegucigalpa [2] (he successfully sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy), the pro-democracy movement has surged. Micheletti and his henchman initially panicked-suspending basic civil liberties, shutting down opposition radio and television stations, and declaring a 24-hour curfew. This disruption caused the business community's support for the de facto government to wane; the Obama State Department, which had been somewhat timid in pressing the junta up to that point, began to push harder for a deal.



It has been a great credit to the pro-democracy forces that, save for occasional small-scale rioting, the movement has largely maintained its nonviolent discipline. It would have been easy to launch a guerrilla war. Much of Honduras consists of farming and ranching country where many people own guns. The neighboring countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have experienced bloody revolutionary struggles in recent decades. Yet, despite serious provocations by police and soldiers loyal to the provisional government, the movement has recognized that armed resistance would have been utterly futile and counter-productive. Indeed, they recognize that their greatest strength is in maintaining their commitment to nonviolence [3].

Those who have engaged in these courageous acts of resistance will feel betrayed, however, if the Obama administration is indeed ready to defy the international community by allowing Micheletti to stay in office and to recognize the results of an election held under such repressive conditions. The United States does have the power to force the illegitimate regime out and to facilitate the return of the country's democratically-elected president to power if the Obama administration chose to use it. Indeed, there are few countries in the world as dependent on trade with the United States as Honduras.

As for those of us in the United States, it is not enough to cheer from the sidelines at courageous acts of nonviolent action by the people of Honduras. We must be willing to challenge our own government-through engaging in nonviolent direct action ourselves, if necessary-to support democracy in Honduras.

However, even if the Obama administration refuses to take a more responsible position and the coup is allowed to stand, the struggle will not have been for naught.

The Honduran opposition movement consists of a hodgepodge of trade unionists, campensinos from the countryside, Afro-Hondurans, teachers, feminists, students, and others who, along with insisting on the right of their elected president to return to office, are determined to build a more just society. Prior to the coup this summer, there had never been a national mobilization in Honduras lasting for more than a week, much less four months. The protracted struggle against Micheletti may have served as a vaccination: Popular forces may now have developed the antibodies to engage in a sustained struggle for social justice, deepening the capacity for radical change in a society that has a rather weak tradition of social movements relative to much of the rest of Latin America [4].



Regardless of who occupies the Honduran presidential palace, there is a critical need to replace the old constitution, imposed by the outgoing military junta in 1981, which minimizes the participation of ordinary citizens in political decisions and effectively suppresses popular social movements. It must be replaced by one in which members of the country's poor majority will have more of a say in determining their future. It was the movement for a popular, non-binding referendum to gauge support for a Constitutional convention that prompted the coup last June.

This struggle may be only the first chapter of an important and prolonged struggle for justice in one of Latin America's poorest and most inequitable countries. It is important that the people of North America become engaged as active allies.


YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps [5].
Zunes, S. (2009, November 03). The Power of Nonviolent Action in Honduras. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from YES! Magazine Web site: http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/the-power-of-nonviolent-action-in-honduras. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License [6]  [6]
 

Stephen Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy In Focus [7]. He is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism [8] (Common Courage Press, 2003.)



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Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/10-9

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November 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/americas/11honduras.html?_r=1&ref=world

U.S. Tries to Salvage Honduras Accord


By GINGER THOMPSON

WASHINGTON — Under fire from allies in Latin America and on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration moved Tuesday to try to salvage the American-brokered agreement that had been billed as paving the way for a peaceful end to the coup in Honduras. Instead, the accord seems to have provided the country’s de facto government with a way to stay in power until a presidential election scheduled for the end of this month.

The State Department sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly to Honduras on Tuesday for meetings with Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from power as president more than four months ago, and with the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti.

Senior administration officials said Mr. Kelly would try to get both men to abide by the terms of an Oct. 30 agreement that called on them to form a coalition government to run the country while the Honduran Congress prepares for a vote on whether to return Mr. Zelaya to power.

The deal began to unravel last week when the Congress announced it would postpone a vote on Mr. Zelaya’s return to power until after the election. In protest, Mr. Zelaya then refused to submit names for the coalition government. And the United States, breaking with its allies in Latin America, announced it would recognize the results of the coming presidential election, even if Mr. Zelaya were not reinstated.

While the announcement was celebrated by Republicans as a “reversal” of the administration’s policy, it ignited a storm of criticism from Mr. Obama’s allies at home and across Latin America.

Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, telephoned Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg to express his concerns about the administration’s handling of Honduran crisis. An aide to the congressman said, “It was not a feel-good phone call.”

Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the senator believed that the State Department’s “abrupt change” of policy toward Honduras “caused the collapse of an accord it helped negotiate.”

On Tuesday, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said that he would not send observers to monitor the presidential election, scheduled for Nov. 29. And many of the organization’s 34 members said they would not recognize the election winner unless Mr. Zelaya was reinstated to complete his term.

“Paraguay is not only not going to accept the outcome of the elections, it will not even accept that the elections are held,” said Hugo Saguier Caballero, Paraguay’s ambassador to the O.A.S. “These elections for us simply will not exist.”

Ruy de Lima Casaes e Silva, Brazil’s ambassador to the organization, said the situation in Honduras seemed like a “badly written soap opera, with sinister characters played by the de facto regime, which history will judge.”

The Obama administration’s representative to the O.A.S., W. Lewis Amselem, said that the agreement signed in Honduras two weeks ago did not guarantee Mr. Zelaya’s reinstatement, but put that decision in the hands of the Honduran Congress.

Mr. Amselem said it was not possible to translate Latin America’s position on the coup into policy, noting that most of its countries had used elections to establish democratic order after coups. And he urgently pressed for a more pragmatic line.

“I’ve heard many in this room say that they will not recognize the elections in Honduras,” Mr. Amselem said at an O.A.S. meeting in Washington. “I’m not trying to be a wiseguy, but what does that mean? What does that mean in the real world, not in the world of magical realism?”

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Honduran Elections: Over 240 Academics and Experts on Latin America
Call on Obama to Denounce Human Rights Abuses by Honduran Dictatorship
Free and Fair Elections Are Possible Only After the Coup is Reversed, They Say



CLAREMONT, Calif. - November 12 - Over 240 academics and experts on Latin America sent a letter to President Obama yesterday urging him to denounce the ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by the coup regime in Honduras ahead of the planned November 29 elections. They also urged him to demand the immediate restitution of President Manuel Zelaya and to support a full three months of electoral campaigning after the coup has been overturned and "debating, organizing, and all other aspects of election campaigns can be conducted in an atmosphere that is free from fear; in which all views and parties are free to make their voices heard - not just those that are allowed under an illegal military occupation." This would mean that this month's elections - which Latin America and the European Union have said they will not recognize - would need to be rescheduled.

"With only days left before the scheduled November 29 elections, the U.S. government must make a choice," the letter states. "It can either side with democracy, along with every government in Latin America, or it can side with the coup regime, and further isolate the United States in the hemisphere."

Last Thursday, the Rio Group, which includes all of Latin America and most of the Caribbean, issued a statement [3] declaring that they would consider the November 29 elections to be illegitimate if Zelaya is not first reinstated.

The current letter continues: "Moreover, the U.S. cannot afford to maintain its deafening silence regarding the innumerable and grave human rights abuses committed by the coup government in Honduras - a silence that has become a conspicuous international embarrassment."

Numerous press reports have described human rights abuses and violations of civil liberties during the three-month period in which electoral campaigning is allowed under Honduran law, including illegal mass arrests, beatings, torture, and shootings by state security forces, attacks on the freedoms of assembly, speech, and of the press. This repression has been widely documented and denounced by Honduran and international human rights organizations, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

Despite this, the Obama administration has yet to condemn the human rights violations, or to threaten sanctions or other strong action to force the coup regime to stop them.

Last week, Bertha Oliva, the head of Honduras' most well-known and respected human rights organization, the Committee for Families of the Disappeared and Detained in Honduras (COFADEH), also called on [4] the Obama administration to denounce the "grave human rights violations" in Honduras, and declared that "It's too late to have elections on November 29."

The full text of the letter follows:

_______________________________________

November 11, 2009

President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

Cc.: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Dan Restrepo, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Western Hemisphere Affairs, National Security Council

Dear President Barack Obama,

We are writing to urge you to stand with democracy and human rights in Honduras. With only days left before the scheduled November 29 elections the U.S. government must make a choice: it can either side with democracy, along with every government in Latin America, or it can side with the coup regime, and remain isolated. Moreover, the U.S. cannot afford to maintain its deafening silence regarding the innumerable and grave human rights abuses committed by the coup government in Honduras - a silence that has become a conspicuous international embarrassment. The U.S. must forcefully denounce these abuses, and match its words with action as well. It must make the coup regime understand that the United States government will no longer tolerate the violence and repression that the Micheletti government has practiced against the Honduran people since seizing power on June 28, 2009.

Honduras now stands at the edge of a dangerous precipice. The coup regime remains determined - in the absence of significant pressure from the U.S. government - to move forward with the elections, in the hopes that the international community will eventually recognize the results. In so doing, they hope to legitimize their illegal and unconstitutional government.

Free and fair elections on November 29 are already impossible, as more than two-thirds of the campaign period allowed under Honduran law has already passed, under conditions in which freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press have all been under attack throughout the country. This repression has been widely documented and denounced by Honduran and international human rights organizations, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

The Rio Group of 23 nations, which includes nearly all of Latin America and much of the Caribbean, had forcefully declared that it will not recognize the November 29th elections if President Zelaya is not first re-instated. Thus the United States is at odds with the rest of the Hemisphere in its stated willingness to recognize these illegitimate elections.

Free and fair elections can only be carried out in a climate in which debating, organizing, and all other aspects of election campaigns can be conducted in an atmosphere that is free from fear; in which all views and parties are free to make their voices heard - not just those that are allowed under an illegal military occupation. We therefore call on the U.S. government to support an electoral process in Honduras that allows for a full three months - as mandated under Honduran law - for electoral campaigning, to take place after the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya. Only in this way can the electoral process achieve legitimacy in both the eyes of the Honduran people and the international community.

In the months that have transpired since the April Summit of the Americas, we are saddened to see that your promise of treating Latin American nations as equals is evaporating. You declared at that time, "I just want to make absolutely clear that I am absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments, wherever it happens in the hemisphere." In remarks that were recorded, cited, and broadcast all over the world, you asserted: "The test for all of us is not simply words, but also deeds." Since then, your government has failed to match these words with deeds regarding the coup d'état in Honduras. As a result, the United States is once again isolating itself in the Americas.   The U.S. must also match its rhetorical commitment to democracy with concrete deeds, and support the immediate restoration of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras and full guarantees of a free and fair election.

Sincerely,

Thomas A. Abercrombie New York University

Leisy Abrego, University of California, Irvine

Alexis Aguilar, Salisbury University

Jordi Aladro, University of California, Santa Cruz

Ece Algan, California State University, San Bernardino

Paul Almeida, Texas A&M University

Mark Anderson, University of California, Santa Cruz

Tim Anderson, University of Sydney (Australia)

Tom Angotti, Hunter College/City University of New York

Craig Auchter, Butler University

William Avilés, University of Nebraska at Kearney

César J. Ayala, University of California, Los Angeles

Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director, Grassroots International

Beth Baker-Cristales, California State University, Los Angeles

Teo Ballvé, North American Congress on Latin America

Rosemary A. Barbera, Monmouth University

Francisco J. Barbosa, University of Colorado, Boulder

John Beverley, University of Pittsburgh

Michelle Bigenho, Hampshire College

Maylei Blackwell, University of California, Los Angeles

Andy Bliss, University of California, Berkeley

Aaron Bobrow-Strain, Whitman College

Blasé Bonpane, Office of the Americas

Jules Boykoff, Pacific University

Rachel Brahinsky, University of California, Berkeley

Rosalind Bresnahan, Latin American Perspectives

Laura Briggs, University of Arizona

Sandy Brown, University of California, Berkeley

Joe Bryan, University of Colorado, Boulder

Alicia del Campo, California State University Long Beach

Frankie Cardamone, Prescott College

Barry Carr, University of California, Berkeley

Jennifer Casolo, University of California, Berkeley

Julie A. Charlip, Whitman College

Ronald Chilcote, University of California, Riverside

Aviva Chomsky, Salem State College

George Ciccariello-Maher, University of California, Berkeley

Christopher Clement, Pomona College

Nathan Clough, The University of Minnesota

Fernando Coronil, City University of New York, Graduate Center

Dominic Corva, Sarah Lawrence College

Raymond B. Craib, Cornell University

Altha Cravey, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Julie Cupples, University of Canterbury

Antonia Darder, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign

Juanita Darling, San Francisco State University

Pablo Delano, Trinity College

Guillermo Delgado-P., University of California, Santa Cruz

Jennifer Devine, University of California, Berkeley

Mônica Dias Martins, State University of Ceara, Brasil 

Paul Dosh, Macalester College

Alex Dupuy, Wesleyan University

Jordana Dym, Skidmore College

Marc Edelman, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Steve Ellner, University of Oriente (Venezuela)

Ben Ehrenreich, Journalist and Author

Laura Enriquez, University of California, Berkeley

Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina

Alicia Estrada, California State University, Northridge

Nicole Fabricant, University of South Florida

Mario Fenyo, Bowie State University

Sujatha Fernandes, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Raul Fernández, University of California, Irvine

Ada Ferrer, New York University

John Finn, Arizona State University

Allan Fisher, City College of San Francisco   Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com

Cindy Forster, Scripps College

Jonathan Fox, University of California, Santa Cruz

Dana Frank, University of California, Santa Cruz

John D. French, Duke University

Gavin Fridell, Trent University, Ontario, Canada

Victoria Furio, Conference Interpreter & Translator

Alberto J. Garcia, California State University, Northridge California

Kim Geron, California State University East Bay

Asher Ghertner, University of California, Berkeley

Shannon Gleeson, University of California, Santa Cruz

Michel Gobat, University of Iowa

Marcial Godoy-Anativia, New York University

Walter L. Goldfrank, University of California, Santa Cruz

Armando González Caban, Latin American Perspectives

Gilbert Gonzalez, University of California, Irvine

Evelyn Gonzalez-Mills, Montgomery College

Jeffrey L. Gould, Indiana University

Daniel Graham, University of California, Berkeley

Laura R. Graham, University of Iowa

Greg Grandin, New York University

Richard Grossman, Northeastern Illinois University

Peter Hallward, Middlesex University (U.K.)

Nora Hamilton, University of Southern California

Zoe Hammer, Prescott College

John L. Hammond, City University of New York

Tom Hayden, Author

Mark Healey, University of California, Berkeley

Daniel Hellinger, Webster University

Adam Henne, University of Wyoming

Luis A. Hernández, School District of Philadelphia

Eric Hershberg, Simon Fraser University

Doug Hertzler, Eastern Mennonite University, Washington Community Scholars' Center

Derrick Hindery, University of Oregon

Raul Hinojosa, University of California, Los Angeles

Katherine Hite, Vassar College

Jen Hofer, poet, translator, interpreter

Aaron Hogue, Salisbury University

Katherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network

Forrest Hylton, Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá)

Dale L. Johnson, PhD

David Johnson, Xavier University

Susanne Jonas, University of California, Santa Cruz

James Jordan, Campaign for Labor Rights

Gilbert Joseph, Yale University

Nadine Jubb, York University

Karen Kampwirth, Knox College

David Kane, Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns

Chuck Kaufman, Alliance for Global Justice

Robin D. G. Kelly, University of Southern California

Norma Klahn, University of California, Santa Cruz

Sara Koopman, University of British Columbia

Glen David Kuecker, DePauw University

David Kunzle, University of California, Los Angeles

Victoria Langland, University of California, Davis

John Lear, University of Puget Sound

George Leddy, Los Angeles Valley College

Winnie Lem, Trent University

Sidney Lemelle, Pomona College

Deborah Levenson, Boston College

David Lloyd, University of Southern California

Rick Lopez, Amherst College

Tehama Lopez, Duke University

Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, University of Chicago

Sharon Luk, University of Southern California

Sheryl Lutjens, California State University, San Marcos

Milton Ricardo Machuca, Pitzer College

Kathleen A. Mahoney-Norris, Air Command and Staff College

Maya Manzi, Clark University

Greta Marchesi, University of California, Berkeley

Peter E. Marchetti, Researcher, AVANCSO, Guatemala

Lourdes Martinez-Echazabel, University of California, Santa Cruz

Kathleen McAfee, San Francisco State University

Kendra McSweeney, The Ohio State University

Breny Mendoza, California State University, Northridge

Frederick B. Mills, Bowie State University

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, University of California, Berkeley

Ellen Moodie, University of Illinois

Stephanie Moore, Salisbury University

Dorinda Moreno, Hitec Aztec Communications/FM Global

Lena Mortensen, University of Toronto Scarborough

Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy

Guillermo Narvaez, University of California-Irvine

Joseph Nevins, Vassar College

Enrique Ochoa, California State University, Los Angeles

Gilda L. Ochoa, Pomona College

Elizabeth Oglesby, University of Arizona

Almerindo E. Ojeda, University of California at Davis

Andrew Orta, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Paul Ortiz, University of Florida

Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, University of Connecticut

Tanalis Padilla, Dartmouth College

Yajaira M. Padilla, The University of Kansas

Pramod Parajuli, Prescott College

Sirena Pellarolo, California State University, Northridge

Anthony Pereira, Tulane University

Héctor Perla, University of California, Santa Cruz

Brandt Peterson, Michigan State University

Adrienne Pine, American University

Martín Plot, California Institute of the Arts

Aaron Pollack, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora

Deborah Poole, Johns Hopkins University

Suyapa Portillo, Pomona College

Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology

Vijay Prashad, Trinity College

Mary Louise Pratt, New York University

Marina Prieto-Carrron, University of Portsmouth

Sean Purdy, Universidade de São Paulo

Kathryn S. Quick, University of California, Irvine

Marie Phillips Rayanne, Prescott College

Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh

Daniel Reichman, University of Rochester

Gerardo Renique, City College of the City University of New York

Kenneth Roberts, Cornell University

William I. Robinson, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dylan Rodríguez, University of California, Riverside

Victor M. Rodriguez, California State University, Long Beach

Cristina Rojas, Carleton University

Sarah T. Romano, University of California, Santa Cruz

Renato Rosaldo, New York University

Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt, University of Maryland

Jan Rus, Latin American Perspectives

Ricardo Daniel Sánchez Cárdenas, Northwestern University

Rosaura Sanchez, University of California, San Diego

Mario Santana, The University of Chicago

Felicity Schaeffer-Grabiel, University of California, Santa Cruz

Ellen Sharp, University of California, Los Angeles

Freya Schiwy, University of California, Riverside

Aaron Schneider, Tulane University

Tammi J. Schneider, Claremont Graduate University

T.M. Scruggs, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa

Adam Shapiro, Prescott College

Ellen Sharp, University of California, Los Angeles

Kirsten Silva Gruesz, University of California, Santa Cruz

Victor Silverman, Pomona College

Richard Simpson, Stanford University

Julie Skurski, City University of New York, Graduate Center

Darryl A. Smith, Pomona College

John Soluri, Carnegie Mellon University

Dale Sorenson, Director, Interfaith Task Force of the Americas

Rose Spalding, DePaul University

Susan Spronk, University of Ottawa

Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University

Lynn Stephen, University of Oregon         

William S. Stewart, California State University, Chico

Steve Striffler, University of New Orleans

Estelle Tarica, University of California, Berkeley

Diana Taylor, New York University

Miguel Tinker Salas, Pomona College

Sinclair Thomson, New York University

Steven Topik, University of California, Irvine

Mayo C. Toruno, California State University, San Bernardino

David J. Vázquez, University of Oregon

Jocelyn S. Viterna, Harvard University

Steven S. Volk, Oberlin College

Hendrik Voss, School of the Americas Watch

Christine J. Wade, Washington College

Diana B. Waters, Goddard College

Penny Waterstone, University of Arizona

Jamie Way, Venezuela Solidarity Campaign

Jeffery R. Webber, University of Regina, Canada

Barbara Weinstein, New York University

Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Kimberly Welch, University of Redland

Allen Wells, Bowdoin College

Marion Werner, University of Minnesota

Eliza Willis, Grinnell College

Tamar Diana Wilson, Independent Scholar

Sonja Wolf, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Justin Wolfe, Tulane University

John Womack, Harvard University

Megan Ybarra, University of California, Berkeley

Susy Zepeda, University of California, Santa Cruz

Chris Zepeda-Millan, Cornell University

Marc Zimmerman, University of Houston

* Institutions listed only for identification

###


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Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/11/12-7

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US does 'about-turn' over Honduras

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:46:52 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=111176&sectionid=351020706

 
 
As presidential elections draw closer in Honduras, the deposed president has blamed the US for changing its course towards the country's political crisis.

Manuel Zelaya said on Thursday that US officials "have suddenly declared they are going to wait for the elections because they changed their position midstream."

Washington sent Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, for the presidential poll.

Kelly is to push for "a free and fair election and the seating of a new government in Honduras," according to the US State Department.

The de facto government has announced that it would welcome the new US bid.

This is while another US-brokered agreement formulated to end the crisis failed last week when the Honduran Congress refused to vote to reinstate Zelaya.

Zelaya declared the deal a failure when Micheletti announced the creation of a national unity government even though Zelaya had not proposed any candidates.

"The United States weakened in the face of the dictator," Zelaya told Radio Globo, referring to de facto leader Roberto Micheletti.

Zelaya, a leftist president who was ousted after a military coup, has demanded he be reinstated before the November 29th presidential elections. He is urging the international community not to recognize the outcome of the election.

The US initially announced that it would not recognize the vote if Zelaya were not reinstated first. However, after brokering the pact, US diplomats indicated Washington would support the elections.

AGB/MTM/DT

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November 12, 2009
http://www.counterpunch.org/belen11122009.html

Traveling Like Crazy in Support of Coup Government?

Tourists of the Honduran Counter-Revolution


By BÉLEN FERNÁNDEZ

Tugucigalpa.

A Time magazine article of 24 October entitled “Honduran Tourism: Selling Against a Coup” explains that the post-coup decrease in foreign visitors to Honduras has led the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti to promote internal tourism:

“Working with resorts and hotels on Roatán Island, a popular Caribbean dive spot off Honduras' northern coast, the de facto tourism board is promoting special two-for-one vacation deals. Many Hondurans have taken the bait, flocking to the white sands of Roatán and filling hotel rooms that were once occupied by U.S. and European travelers. Hondurans who support the de facto regime, such as tour operator Vilma Sauceda of Rema Tours, says the fact that Hondurans are ‘traveling like crazy’ is a sign of support for the Micheletti government.”

Sauceda’s interpretation of Honduran migratory patterns was somewhat contradicted by an informal survey I conducted in the Guanacaste neighborhood of Tegucigalpa yesterday afternoon, the results of which suggest that Honduran trips to Roatán are still less frequent than Honduran trips to the Mexico-Texas border – with return trips often courtesy of the United States government. A recent deportee currently selling cheese on the street while planning his next journey north stated that he harbored no resentment toward the US for jailing him for 3 months and that he recognized the importance of defending national borders; as for resentment and border permeability elsewhere, Micheletti continues to waver between accusing the international community of interfering in internal Honduran affairs and insisting that said community come to Honduras to understand what is really going on.

Although Micheletti’s invitation has already been heeded by a number of US Congress and State Department members, tour operator Sauceda is quoted in the Time article as blaming the otherwise low influx of tourists on a “media conspiracy” and “disinformation campaign” waged by followers of legitimate Honduran President Mel Zelaya. Not explained is how the latter practice has been deemed Zelaya’s domain when he is not the one hiring US lobbying firms; as for more credible applications of the term “media conspiracy,” these might include the tendency of pro-coup Honduran newspapers to publish headlines such as that Bolivia has declared Evo Morales president for the next 50 years and to then concede in the text of the article that this is not the case – or the tendency of The Wall Street Journal to publish articles on Honduras by Mary Anastasia O’Grady.

In a  November 1 article entitled “Hillary’s Honduran Exit Strategy,” O’Grady not only alerts readers to US meddling in Honduras and Barack Obama’s desire to join the Chávez-Castro club but also manages to outdo the golpistas by claiming that recent incidents such as the murder of an army colonel were the work of supporters of Zelaya, something that not even the Honduran armed forces have claimed. The Wall Street Journal has, however, demonstrated a superior talent for coming up with headlines, and has refrained from titling O’Grady’s article “Hugo Llorens transferred to diplomatic post in Cuba” – one of the writer’s suggestions as to appropriate destinations for the US ambassador to Honduras despite the fact that Llorens has seconded Obama’s contention that the US cannot simply push a button to restore Zelaya to power. It apparently does not occur to O’Grady that Llorens should instead be encouraged to travel like crazy within Honduras so as to contribute to economic regeneration; insistence on perceiving allies as enemies meanwhile provides ample excuses to avoid resolving political crises.

Honduran lawyer and human rights defender Dr. Juan Almendares addressed different forms of resolution avoidance over breakfast the other morning, when he declared that reducing the Honduran crisis to the question of Zelaya’s fate was an intelligent way of skirting less superficial issues such as torture of civilians by the coup regime. Honduras-based journalist Jeremy Kryt has additionally pointed out the dangers of passing off superficial solutions as genuine, one example being the upcoming inauguration of a Carnival Cruise Lines tourism dock in Roatán, the bulk of the revenue from which Kryt reports will go not to the community but to golpista congressman Jerry Hynds, who owns the property on which the port is being constructed.

The new port is invoked by Zelaya’s ousted Tourism Minister Ricardo Martínez in the October Time article, in which he is described as believing that “tourism will help pull [Honduras] out of the hole.” The infeasibility of removal from the hole without a prior restitution of Zelaya is however suggested by Martínez’ appearance last month at a tourism convention in El Salvador, where his publicity for Honduras consisted of a video of encounters between Honduran riot police and anti-coup protesters in Tegucigalpa and an apology that it was not realistic for him to “tell everyone to come to Honduras and that it’s a tranquil place and everything is beautiful.” Real video footage may thus be one of the components of the “media conspiracy” and “disinformation campaign” allegedly conducted by followers of Zelaya.

According to Martínez’ October calculation, tourism had dropped 70 percent since the June 28 coup – a drop the pro-coup press had briefly attempted to combat by announcing that Salvadoran tourists were flocking to Honduras in the thousands. The brevity of the Salvadoran campaign was perhaps due to the fact that said nationality was also one of those regularly accused of posing as Honduran at anti-coup rallies; as for unimagined attempts at foreign dictation of Honduran aspirations, these included a September interview given to Fox News by American Mitch Cummins, owner of a computer store on Roatán and self-proclaimed spokesman for the ex-pat community.

After reviewing the obligatory Zelaya-Chávez-Morales-Ortega-Castro-and-now-Obama axis, Cummins confesses to Fox that prior to June 28 he had been worried about a potential nationalization of his properties and that the coup was thus the best thing that could have happened to Honduras. Cummins had attempted to ensure continued good things for Honduras by visiting Ambassador Llorens two weeks after the coup with five other ex-pats who “just totally disagreed” with the alleged US position that Zelaya required reinstatement; he reports additional disagreement with the notion that the president had been “doing a lot of things for the poor,” an argument he claims does not make sense to him although he does not endeavor to make his own argument make any more sense.

Cummins further interprets the needs of the Honduran poor by bemoaning the US travel advisory to Honduras, which he deems unjust based on the fact that there are no wars on Roatán, and adds the statistic that the lower classes are also hurt by the fact that “our companies are losing money.” His proposed solution to the injustice is for Fox viewers to “buy a ticket and come down” to Honduras; he meanwhile fails to grasp that Zelaya is not the cause of his current financial predicament and that more valid interpretations of national economic success might involve a 60-percent increase in the minimum wage, one achievement of the ousted administration.

Honduran Tourism Minister Martínez is quoted in Time as predicting that the “recuperation of our international image… can happen overnight — just the same way we moved from positive to negative, we can jump from negative to positive.” An even swifter transition is predicted by the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which has guaranteed that the world will know the name of the next president of Honduras a few hours after the polls close on 29 November but has not explained why international image recuperation is more important than domestic.

Belén Fernández can be reached at belengarciabernal@gmail.com


 

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Washington Stresses Urgency of Honduran Unity Government

Posted By Jim Lobe On November 14, 2009 @ 9:59 pm

In a renewed effort to save a U.S.-sponsored accord to resolve the five-month-old political crisis in Honduras, the U.S. State Department Friday called on both sides to create a government of national unity "without delay" and on the Honduran Congress to "swiftly" consider the restoration of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Failure to do so would make it less likely that the elections currently scheduled to take place Nov. 29 will gain international recognition, warned a State Department spokesperson.

"Both sides need to return to the table and negotiate the formation of a government of national unity," the spokesperson told IPS. "Both sides need to adhere to the spirit and letter of the accord that they signed, including on the issue of President Zelaya’s restitution."

"The Tegucigalpa/San Jose Agreement provides a pathway to free and fair elections, the outcome of which, if handled accordingly, will be widely accepted both within Honduras and abroad," she said.

"Failure to implement the accord could jeopardize recognition of the election by the international community," she stressed, adding that Washington is pressing the de facto regime headed by Roberto Micheletti and other actors in Honduras to avoid "taking actions that would impede the carrying out of free, fair and transparent elections, such as [recent] decrees [by the de facto government] that restricted civil liberties and closed certain opposition media outlets."

She also noted for the first time since the Jun. 29 coup that ousted Zelaya and sent him into exile that Washington has been and remains "concerned" about the human rights situation in Honduras under the de facto regime.

The spokesperson’s statement, which followed an intense, 48-hour mediation effort in Tegucigalpa by Deputy Assistant Secretary Craig Kelly, appeared designed to add pressure on all parties in Honduras to implement the Oct. 30 accord and to move Washington closer to the position taken by the Rio Group of 24 Latin American and Caribbean nations which earlier this week declared they would not recognize the results of the impending elections unless Zelaya was immediately restored to office.

"The Obama administration is ramping up pressure on the Honduran Congress to fulfill the spirit of the accord and vote for Zelaya’s return," said Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), a Washington-based a hemispheric think tank.

"The statement is also signaling that, even if Washington recognizes the election results, the new Honduran government is going to face real problems in dealing with the rest of the international community," he added. "And without backing away from its position, the State Department is now trying to bridge the gap between Washington and the rest of the hemisphere on the Honduras question."

The original accord provided for a step-by-step process to restore the constitutional order in Honduras, beginning with the formation of a unity government and ending in the Nov. 29 elections for a new Congress and president that would assume their positions in January.

Brokered by the U.S., the accord was backed by the Organization of American States (OAS) and its member countries.

But Latin American leaders and some U.S. Democratic lawmakers were shocked when, on Nov. 4, Washington’s chief negotiator on Honduras, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, told a CNN interviewer that the U.S. would recognize the results of the election regardless of whether Zelaya was restored to the presidency.

U.S. officials – most recently Washington’s representative to the OAS, Lewis Anselem, during a debate earlier this week – pointed out that the literal terms of the accord did not require Zelaya’s restoration but instead left it to the Honduran Congress to decide his fate.

Shannon’s position – apparently the result of a deal with right-wing Republican senators who until then had held hostage a number of appointments to key positions in the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Bureau – provoked cries of betrayal by Zelaya, and his supporters and consternation in the OAS and throughout Latin America, particularly Brazil whose embassy in Tegucigalpa has served as Zelaya’s refuge since he snuck back into the country in September.

It also helped precipitate the apparent collapse of the accord, as the leadership of the Honduran Congress said they intended to delay a vote on Zelaya’s restoration at least until after the elections and Micheletti announced that he had put together a unity government without any input from Zelaya.

Meeting in Jamaica Nov. 5, the Rio Group of 24 Latin American and Caribbean foreign minister issued a communiqué insisting that its members would not recognize the outcome of the Nov. 29 elections unless Zelaya was immediately returned to office. OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza issued a similar statement and announced that the hemispheric group would not send observers to the upcoming elections.

It is in this context that Friday’s statement – and particularly its exhortation addressed to both sides to adhere to the "spirit," as well as the "letter" of the accord, including on the issue of President Zelaya’s restitution" – offers a potentially significant, if subtle, change in Washington’s stance.

In another passage of the extensive guidance prepared by the State Department, the spokesperson conceded that "The accord does not have an exact timeline for a Congressional decision. However, the spirit of the Accord suggests that the Congress should deal with the issue in the most expeditious manner possible. We urge the Congress to move swiftly on this matter," she said.

"The Obama administration may have lost its leverage (with Shannon’s Nov. 4 statement)," said Shifter, "but it does not want to let the Honduran Congress off the hook."

"It’s a hopeful move, both because it recognizes for the first time that human rights violations have taken place and that elections will not be recognized internationally unless the spirit, as well as the letter, of the accord is complied with," agreed Vicki Gass, a Honduras specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). "It’s clear that the administration is trying to repair the damage it has inflicted over the last ten days."

Gass, however, expressed doubt that the Nov. 29 elections could still be considered legitimate even if Micheletti and the Congress heed Washington’s new message and restore Zelaya to office. Fifty-five of 128 Congressional candidates, and more than 100 of 298 mayoral candidates, including the incumbent of Honduras’ second largest city, San Pedro Sula, have withdrawn from their races, she said, as has Carlos H. Reyes, an independent candidate who has been running third of five decided among five candidates in recent polling.

And, as the State Department spokesperson noted, pro-Zelaya broadcast stations that were closed earlier this fall are still facing interrupted service on certain news programs, while an Oct. 5 decree providing for the revocation of the operating licenses of media outlets deemed to violate national security and public order remains in effect.

While Washington supports the elections, she said, "it is self-evident … that while [they] are a necessary element to restoring democratic and constitutional order in Honduras, they are insufficient by themselves to achieving reconciliation in Honduras and fully restoring the democratic order."


Read more by Jim Lobe
Obama’s International Political Capital Fading Fast – November 12th, 2009
Obama’s Outreach to Muslim World Teetering – November 3rd, 2009
Kerry Argues for Counterinsurgency Lite – October 26th, 2009
Clinton Calls for Strengthened IAEA Powers – October 21st, 2009
Congress Begins Pressing Iran Sanctions Legislation – October 16th, 2009

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Article printed from Antiwar.com Original: http://original.antiwar.com

URL to article: http://original.antiwar.com/lobe/2009/11/14/washington-stresses-urgency-of-honduran-unity-government/

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Published on Friday, November 20, 2009 by The Sacramento Bee


Honduran Dictatorship Is A Threat to Democracy In the Hemisphere


by Mark Weisbrot

A small group of rich people who own most of Honduras and its politicians enlist the military to kidnap the elected president at gunpoint and take him into exile. They then arrest thousands of people opposed to the coup, shut down and intimidate independent media, shoot and kill some demonstrators, torture and beat many others. This goes on for more than four months, including more than two of the three months legally designated for electoral campaigning. Then the dictatorship holds an "election."

Should other countries recognize the results of such an election, to be held on November 29th? Latin America says absolutely not; the United States is saying, well, "yes we can"- if we can get away with it.

"There has been a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders," since President Zelaya slipped back into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, wrote Amnesty International [1]. Human Rights Watch [2], the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [3], and human rights groups worldwide have also condemned the violence and repression perpetrated by the Honduran dictatorship.

On November 5, the 25 nations of the Rio Group, which includes virtually all of Latin America, declared that they would not recognize [4] the results of the November 29th elections in Honduras if the elected President Manuel Zelaya were not first restored.

Why is it that Latin American governments can recognize this threat to democracy but Washington cannot? One reason is that many of the governments are run by people who have lived under dictatorships. President Lula da Silva of Brazil was imprisoned by the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1980s. President Michele Bachelet of Chile was tortured in prison under the brutal Pinochet dictatorship that was installed with the help of the Nixon administration. The presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Guatemala, and others have all lived through the repression of right-wing dictatorships.

Nor is this threat merely a thing of the past. Just two weeks ago the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, had to fire most of the military leadership because of credible evidence that they were conspiring with the political opposition. This is one of the consequences of not reversing the Honduran military coup of June 28th.

Here in the United States we have been subjected to a relentless campaign of lies and distortions intended to justify the coup, which have been taken up by Republican supporters of the dictatorship, as well as by hired guns like Lanny Davis, a close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the biggest lie, repeated thousands of times in the news reporting and op-eds of the major media, was that Zelaya was overthrown because he was trying to extend his term of office. In fact, the non-binding referendum that Zelaya proposed had nothing to do with term limits. And even if this poll of the electorate had led eventually to a new constitution, any legal changes would have been far too late for Zelaya to stay in office beyond January 29.

Another surreal part of the whole political discussion has been the attempt to portray Zelaya, who was merely delivering on his campaign promises to the Honduran electorate, as a pawn of some foreign power - conveniently chosen to be the much-demonized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The anti-communist hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism is still the model for these uncreative political hacks.

What a disgrace it will be to our country if the Obama team follows through on its current strategy and recognizes these "elections!"  It's hard to imagine a stronger statement than that human rights and democracy in this hemisphere count for zero in the political calculations of this administration.

© 2009 McClatchy Newspapers
Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research [5] (CEPR), in Washington, DC.


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