Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

[John Schröder]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/06-2

Hondurans Pour into the Streets Demanding Zelaya’s Return

by Medea Benjamin

The day started out full of joy, as thousands of Hondurans converged in front of the National Institute of Pedagogy, intent on marching about three miles to the airport to greet the plane that was supposed to bring deposed President Zelaya back to Honduras.

"Our president's coming home today, this is going to be a great day," said Jose Rodriguez, a campesino who came from Santa Barbara with his farmer's group to join the anti-coup movement. The military tried to stop them from getting to the capital, so they had to divide up and take local buses from town to town. "It took us two days to get here, and we slept outside in the forest last night, but we had to be here," said Rodriguez.

A group of young girls came with their church from Olancho. They were determined to greet Zelaya, who they said was sent by God to be president. "The Cardinal is against our president, but he doesn't represent many of us in the religious community. Our pastor is against the coup and so are we," said Alejandra Fernandez, a 23-year-old university student.

I asked why she supported Manuel Zelaya, or "Mel", as his supporters call him. "The government said he broke the law and is guilty of 18 crimes," she said. "Do you know what they are?" She pulled out her cell phone and started to read from a list: He raised the minimum wage, gave out free school lunches, provided milk for the babies and pensions for the elderly, distributed energy-saving lightbulbs, decreased the price of public transportation, made more scholarships available for students." Suddenly a crowd gathered around us and started chiming in. "He fixed the roads," said one. "He put schools in remote rural areas, like my little village, that never had them before," added another. "He let anyone go into the Presidential Palace and converted it from an elite residence to the people's house," said another.

"You see?," Alejandra smiled. "He is guilty of even more then 18 crimes. That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back. This is really a class struggle."

The march wound its way through the streets of Tegucigalpa, gathering more and more people along the way. The massive crowd sang and chanted slogans like "No somos cinco, no somos cien. Prensa vendida, cuentenos bien" (We're not five, we're not 100, you sold-out press, count us well")-referring to the fact that the mainstream press has been ignoring or grossly undercounting the movement that had been holding street demonstrations every day since the June 28 coup.

"I've never had anything like this in my lifetime," said an ecstatic Miriam Nunez, a 46-year-old teacher from Tegucigalpa. "Look around you-you can't even see the beginning or the end of this march! It's full of teachers, students, campesinos, union workers, indigenous people. One thing the coup succeeded in doing is bringing together the social movements in a way that never exited before in this country."

What made the march particularly exciting is that as it approached the airport, there were rows and rows of soldiers and police in riot gear blocking their path. Each time the security forces tried to stop the crowd, there would be negotiations with the police, who would finally back down and allow the protesters to get closer and closer to the airport.

Luis Sosa, a university professor and anti-coup leader, was one of those negotiating with Police Commissioner Mendosa. "Mendosa and I went to school together 20 years ago and we play soccer together every Sunday. So he knows that if his men get rough with us, there will be hell to pay next Sunday," laughed Sosa. "But seriously, we're trying hard to maintain discipline among our ranks-taking sticks and rocks away from people who want to provoke violence-and the police say that as long as we are peaceful, they'll let us go all the way to the airport."

Sure enough, the crowd made it to the airport peacefully and waited patiently for Zelaya's plane to arrive. Suddenly, a plane flew in low and circled around the airport. The crowd went wild, cheering and jumping up and down, but became angry when they saw that the plane was not able to land. Military vehicles and soldiers were on the runway, making it impossible for the pilot to maneuver safely.

On the far end of the airport, a group of mostly young people tried to get through the fence to make their way to the tarmac. According to Al Jazeera cameramen Alfredo Delara, some of them started throwing stones and bottles at security forces. The troops responded by lobbying tear gas and then firing their weapons in the air. Suddenly, at least one soldier pointed his weapon directly at the crowd.

"A young boy was hit right in the head, his brains gushing out. He was killed instantly," said Delara. "His mother came running, screaming hysterically ‘My son, my son, they've killed my son.'" Others in the crowd were wounded and it was reported that another person was killed.

Between the violence and the fact that President Zelaya was forced to fly on to El Salvador, the crowd became despondent. The organizers tried to keep up their hopes. "Perhaps the United Nations will send peacekeepers," one of the leaders shouted through the sound system. The crowd cheered and yelled, "We want the blue helmuts, we want the blue helmuts."

"Can you believe this?," asked indigenous leader Berta Caceres, her eyes welling up with tears. "Now they are killing our people. Where will this end? We need the international community to step in and stop the crazy people who have stolen our country."

Meanwhile, another piece of news circulated-that the government had just moved up the curfew from 10pm to 6:30pm. The crowd rushed to disperse, fearing they could be arrested for violating the curfew. But they vowed to keep up the fight. "We will be marching again tomorrow, come join us," the leaders announced. "This struggle is not over."

"If they think that were are going to give up, they are badly mistaken," said Caceres. "The events of today make us more determined than ever to overthrow this terrible coup."

Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org) and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org <http://www.codepinkalert.org> ). She is part of a delegation an International Emergency Delegation to Honduras that includes members of Nonviolence International, Global Exchange, CODEPINK and Rights Action. For more information or to join the delegation, contact Andres@nvintl.net.

[John Schröder]

Seems to be some years old, but still interesting background information about Honduras:

http://globalexchange.org/countries/americas/honduras/

[Sweejak]

Thanks. I'm spending so much (too much, actually) time on this, it's encouraging to get some positive feedback.

I tend to go into overdrive on some issues myself, the Russia/Georgian War, Gaza and Iran for instance. Most of the time it's on lists and emails where I tend to wear out my welcome. This is great to have this on one thread, I've sent many people over for a look.

[StarmanSkye]

John's posted link to Global Exchange -- VERY informative in a brief overview.

The elite 1% of the population own 90% of the resources!
Holy CRIPES!

I've been spending a lot of time looking at blogs and vids on the Honduran coup, obsessively pointing-out again and again how unjust, rigged-game crooked and non-Democratic the coup-plotters and the Courts and Congress that 'voted' for it are. Butting heads with insular, arrogant thick-heads who use the same lame arguments that democracy and Constitution MUST be obeyed, or make the pathetic claim that as a Communist who 'palled around' with despot Chavez, the Hondurans HAD to depose Zelaya lest he rewrite the Constitution and become dictator for life.

Utterly, absolute IDIOCY, by people who can't be bothered knowing Honduras' history or how the US has betrayed & sabotaged the people. The lesson of neoliberal fraud SHOULD be stage-front considering the crisis of legitimacy and financial decay that we're in the middle of is due to neoliberal idealism and NOT the result of 'socialism'.

Or the braindead rightwingnuts goaded by Beck and Limbaugh, who obsess about Zelaya 'violating the Constitution' yet nary a peep out of them to indicate how outraged they were at Bush's FAR more egregious, deliberate, systematic revocations and damaging violation of the US very own Constitution. And several vid-forums that apparently are run as echo-chamber circle-jerk sites, where any contradicting or alternative viewpoints and info are censored, rather than risk confusing and distracting the one-voice diehards with pesky 'details'.

Pathetic.

Thanks for this great thread and info guys, esp. John!

I have great respect and solidarity for the Honduran people, some whom I met on a Central American vagabond trip when I was younger and footloose. I admire the working poor a LOT for their reserved dignity and hard-pressed honesty and generosity. I've had way more humble folks offer me a meal and place to stay than rich or even well-to-do folks. Like the ruling elites in Honduras, they just don't want to risk sharing their plenty with anyone else, cuz that means less for them!

Damn, US can squander trillions on making the rich richer and buying military junk to kill people deader, but can't provide basic funds for schools and clean water and sewage in Central America, and yet they then pay army dudes more billions to pillage and murder so suspected communists bringing needed reforms won't be a 'threat' to rich privelege?

Reagan and Bush and that whole bunch still have a LOT to answer for in Central America. A good place to begin would be cashiering the CIA, and then opening all the filing cabinets. Tho I think those at the very top should spend at least 99 years in prison, on account of I believe in being lenient because they were just, 'Following orders'. Tho sometimes the orders were little more than, 'Getter done!'

-S

[geogeo]

Here it is -- the words of that noble descendant of British royalty and merchant bankers, and wife of John Negroponte, one of the guys behind all this:

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/08/you-cant-go-home-again/

enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Villiers_Negroponte

[John Schröder]

http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/2518458858

I regret the military takeover in Honduras, but it's clear President Zelaya was in violation of his country’s constitution.

[dada]

"many major news outlets in the US, including the Miami Herald, Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, said an impetus for the coup was specifically Zelaya’s plans for a vote to allow him to extend his term in office"

http://counterpunch.org/dangl06302009.html

Bloomberg changed the term limit here in NY, and we weren't allowed a vote on it.

[JackRiddler]

"many major news outlets in the US, including the Miami Herald, Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, said an impetus for the coup was specifically Zelaya’s plans for a vote to allow him to extend his term in office"

http://counterpunch.org/dangl06302009.html

Bloomberg changed the term limit here in NY, and we weren't allowed a vote on it.

This is why the NYPD seized him in the middle of the night, bundled him on a bus to Elizabeth, and installed Derek Jeter as mayor.

[John Schröder]

http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl07082009.html

A Class Struggle Unfolds

High Stakes in Honduras

By BENJAMIN DANGL

When rallying in the streets of Tegucigalpa for the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Alejandra Fernandez, a 23-year-old university student told a journalist why she supported Zelaya: "He 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, made more scholarships available for students." Others gathered around to mention the roads and schools in rural areas the president had created.

"That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back," Alejandra explained. "This is really a class struggle."

But it's not just because of these relatively progressive reforms that Zelaya enacted that he deserves our support. Nor is it simply because this democratically-elected leader was ousted in a repressive coup led by right-wing oligarchs and military officials trained at the infamous torture and counterinsurgency school, the School of the Americas, now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, based in Georgia.

He also deserves our support because he was ultimately overthrown in response to his plans to organise a popular assembly to rewrite the country's constitution.

According to Central American political analyst Alberto Valiente Thoresen, Honduras's current constitution, written in 1982, "was the product of a context characterised by counter-insurgency policies supported by the US government, civil façade military governments and undemocratic policies." In an assembly made up of elected representatives from various political parties and social sectors, a new, likely more progressive and inclusive constitution could have a lasting impact on the country's corrupt politicians, powerful sweatshop owners and repressive military institutions.

Many commentators have said that Zelaya sought to re-write the constitution to extend his time in office. Yet nothing indicates that that was the case. Leading up to the coup, Zelaya was pushing for a referendum on 28 June in which the ballot question was to be: "Do you agree that, during the general elections of November 2009 there should be a fourth ballot to decide whether to hold a Constituent National Assembly that will approve a new political constitution?" This non-binding referendum - not plans from Zelaya to expand his power – was enough to push right wing and military leaders to organise a coup.

If the Honduran people approved the formation of a constitutional assembly in November, it would likely take years – as it did recently in Bolivia – to rewrite the document. Zelaya would not be president as he would not be running in the upcoming elections. His term in office finishes in January 2010, too short a time to complete a national assembly's rewriting of the constitution.

Given that it was the call for the constituent assembly that led to the coup, it appears that the coup leaders are more worried about an assembly in which the people could re-write their own constitution, than Zelaya himself. Clearly it's the Honduran oligarchs, rather than Zelaya, who are more interested in concentrating and conserving their own power.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Zelaya in Washington today, and one development was that Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias will act as mediator for the return of Zelaya. But there still is plenty of room for improvement in the US's stance. The Obama administration should listen to Zelaya's demands rather than impose preconditions for US support. And it should avoid bullying Zelaya into dropping his plans for the new constitution, or limiting any progressive reforms he may want to enact upon returning to office. The Honduran people should decide what course Zelaya should take, not the Obama administration and certainly not any right wing junta.

Although the Obama administration has been critical of the coup and relatively supportive of Zelaya, it should go much further. Some clear signs that Washington backs Zelaya would be withdrawing the US ambassador from the country, following in the footsteps of the other nations that have condemned the coup. The US should also cut off all of its aid to the rogue government, and end all military aid to the country. These actions would put pressure on the already weak military and send a clearer message to the region that, at this point, Washington is entirely against the coup, and willing to respect demands from Latin American leaders, all of whom have called for Zelaya's reinstatement.

This past Sunday, after his plane was turned back upon trying to land in Honduras, Zelaya told reporters: "the United States, which has tremendous power, should take action. Specifically, the strongest government in economic matters, in aspects of the sphere of the dollar, for us is the United States. If they decide to live with the coup, then democracy in the Americas is over."

Benjamin Dangl is currently based in Paraguay and is the author of "The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia" (AK Press). He edits UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. Email: Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.

[John Schröder]

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/disp ... m_telesur/

Telesur excels in Honduras coverage



As the coup in Honduras continues, few are seeing scenes from the turmoil due to heavy media censorship. Venezuelan news outlet Telesur is breaking through, but the coverage comes at a personal cost. Dan Grech explains.

TESS VIGELAND: Scenes from the coup in Honduras have been broadcast around the world. But increasingly the story out of the Central American nation is censorship. The military government has detained reporters, stormed TV stations and taken broadcasts off the air. Still, one news outlet has distinguished itself with its coverage: Telesur, a network financed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and his allies. From the Americas Desk at WLRN, Marketplace's Dan Grech has more.

DAN GRECH: Telesur was created five years ago as a leftist alternative to CNN En Espanol, the dominant network in the region. Telesur started out underfunded and understaffed.

But during the recent coup in Honduras, it has beat the competition with its up-to-date coverage. Marcelo Ballve is an editor at New America Media, a news service.

MARCELO BALLVE: This was the place to go if I wanted gritty, on the street footage from Honduras.

This anti-coup rally wasn't covered by many local media outlets, but it was on Telesur. Because of this kind of coverage, the military has blocked Telesur's signal inside Honduras.

But its newscasts can still be seen across Latin America. And Telesur videos have become the buzz on social media sites like Twitter and You Tube.

BALLVE: Before Telesur, you had CNN in Spanish, BBC in Spanish, but you didn't have a home-grown regional cable news channel. It introduces just another voice into the discourse.

Telesur relies on oil-rich Venezuela for most of its funding. But with Venezuela facing tight times, Telesur last month had to close bureaus in the US, Mexico and Brazil.

John Dinges is a journalism professor at Columbia University. He says Telesur's exposure in Honduras isn't likely to solve the network's financial woes.

JOHN DINGES: I don't know if it's going to make them any money. But it's certainly going to get them a bigger audience and a bigger slot on the cable networks that they appear on.

CNN remains the dominant network in the region, but Telesur may be catching up.

I'm Dan Grech for Marketplace.

[John Schröder]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4598

Venezuela: US Must Clarify its Position on Honduras

July 7th 2009, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Speaking on behalf of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on Monday, former Venezuelan interior minister, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín called on United States president Barack Obama to clarify his government's position on the coup d'etat in Honduras, in which democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya was ousted on June 28.

"There must be a categorical pronouncement and concrete actions by Obama in rejection of this coup d'etat," Rodríguez Chacín insisted, because it is "clear this coup is being supported by the military establishment of the United States."

Rodríguez Chacín argued that the coup must be understood in the context of increasing global political confrontation and as something that represents an attempt to destroy the progressive advances in Latin America signified by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA)

ALBA is a bloc of nine countries, spearheaded by Venezuela, which aims to promote an alternative development model in the region to the neoliberal model imposed by the US, based on economic and social justice, fair trade and participatory democracy.

While condemnation of the military coup has been near universal, the response of the United States government has been slow. The initial statement from the White House did not denounce the coup or call for the reinstatement of Zelaya but rather called for "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter".

Although US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have made statements condemning the ousting of Zelaya and calling for his return, the US State Department is yet to legally define the coup as a "coup."

A law passed by US congress forbids granting aid to any government that has come to power through a military coup. Under pressure from a united Latin America to reject the coup US State Department official Ian Kelly announced on July 2 that the US has "paused" economic aid "directly aiding the government" pending the outcome of its legal finding.

However, in a State Department press briefing on Monday, Kelly indicated that the majority of activities funded by the US would not be affected by the measure, including humanitarian aid and "democracy promotion" programs.

The US also continues to maintain diplomatic ties with the coup government of Roberto Micheletti, with US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Florens remaining in Tegulcigalpa, the Honduran capital, in an official capacity.

The BBC in Spanish also reported today that the Honduran Ambassador to the US, Roberto Flores, originally appointed by Zelaya but now a supporter of the coup, continues to retain official diplomatic accreditation from the White House and official access to US diplomats, despite being fired by the legitimate president after the coup.

US State Department officials have admitted that they knew about the coup plans for several months, but claimed they were trying to promote dialogue.

In a report today, US-Venezuelan human rights lawyer, Eva Golinger, documented links between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which grants $49 million annually to Honduras, and International Republican Institute (IRI), considered to be the international branch of the U.S. Republican Party, with groups involved in the Honduran coup.

Another "damning piece of evidence linking the IRI to the coup," Golinger argues, is a slideshow presentation by Susan Zelaya-Fenner, assistant program officer at IRI, on March 20, 2009, discussing the ‘good governance' program in Honduras during which she joked, "Coups are thought to be so three decades ago, until now (laughs, audience laughs), again."

"The majority of the recipients of [US AID] in Honduras, which comes in the form of funding, training, resources, strategic advice, communications counseling, political party strengthening and leadership training, are organizations directly linked to the recent coup d'etat," Golinger pointed out.

The organizations include the National Anti-corruption Council, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Private Enterprise Council (COHEP), the Council of University Deans, the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH), the National Convergence Forum, the Chamber of Commerce (FEDECAMARA), the Association of Private Media (AMC), the Peace and Democracy Group and the student group Generación X Change.

"These organizations form part of a coalition self-titled "Unión Cívica Democrática de Honduras" (Civil Democratic Union of Honduras) that has publicly backed the coup against President Zelaya," Golinger's report continued.

An indication of the US role is the extremely close military relationship between Washington and the Honduran military, US political analyst Michael Parenti argued.

"The Honduran military is trained, advised, equipped, indoctrinated, and financed by the United States national security state. The generals would never have dared to move without tacit consent from the White House or the Pentagon and CIA," he said.

Although the US has suspended "joint military operations" it continues to maintain around 600 military personnel in the Soto Cano airbase about 50km from Tegulcigalpa.

A press statement by the Honduran National Congress on Monday announced that a delegation of "Leading members of the Honduran National Congress and private sector and former members of the Honduran Judiciary will hold a press conference in Washington, D.C., to speak on recent events in Honduras."

"The delegation will be traveling to Washington for several days of meetings with United States policymakers to clarify any misunderstandings about Honduras' constitutional process and to discuss next steps to ensure the preservation of the country's democratic institutions," the statement continued.

Ian Kelly responded, "we don't know about a delegation coming here. So this is - if the delegation is from this de facto regime, the State Department wouldn't meet with them."

In Zelaya's highest-level talks with US officials since the coup he met with Hilary Clinton today in Washington. Clinton announced that Costa Rica's president, Oscar Arias would mediate talks between Zelaya and the de facto government.

"We are supporting the efforts that the OAS [Organisation of American States] has made but we think there needs to be a specific mediator," the US secretary of state said.

Speaking earlier from Russia, Obama said, "America supports now the restoration of the democratically elected president of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies".

Venezuelan political analyst and former vice-president José Vicente Rangel argued that the contradictory response of the US administration reflected two political lines in Honduras - a public one coming from Obama and the White House and the other from "the political machinery that remains in tact from the Bush administration," which is being apllied through the US military personal and advisors based in Honduras.

[John Schröder]

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21905

The Honduras Coup: Is Obama Innocent?

July 07, 2009 By Michael Parenti
Source: www.michelcollon.info

Is President Obama innocent of the events occurring in Honduras, specifically the coup launched by the Honduran military resulting in the abduction and forced deportation of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya? Obama has denounced the coup and demanded that the rules of democracy be honored. Still, several troubling questions remain.

First, almost all the senior Honduran military officers active in the coup are graduates of the Pentagon's School of the Americas (known to many of us as "School of the Assassins"). The Honduran military is trained, advised, equipped, indoctrinated, and financed by the United States national security state. The generals would never have dared to move without tacit consent from the White House or the Pentagon and CIA.

Second, if Obama was not directly involved, then he should be faulted for having no firm command over those US operatives who were. The US military must have known about the plot and US military intelligence must have known and must have reported it back to Washington. Why did Obama's people who had communicated with the coup leaders fail to blow the whistle on them? Why did they not expose and denounce the plot, thereby possibly foiling the entire venture? Instead the US kept quiet about it, a silence that in effect, even if not in intent, served as an act of complicity.

Third, immediately after the coup, Obama stated that he was against using violence to effect change and that it was up to the various parties in Honduras to resolve their differences. His remarks were a rather tepid and muted response to a gangster putsch.

Fourth, Obama never expected there would be an enormous uproar over the Honduras coup. He hastily joined the outcry against the perpetrators only when it became evident that opposition to the putschists was nearly universal throughout Latin America and elsewhere in the world.

Fifth, Obama still has had nothing to say about the many other acts of repression attendant with the coup perpetrated by Honduran military and police: kidnappings, beatings, disappearances, attacks on demonstrators, shutting down the internet and suppressing the few small critical media outlets that exist in Honduras.

Sixth, as James Petras reminded me, Obama has refused to meet with President Zelaya. He dislikes Zelaya mostly for his close and unexpected affiliation with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. And because of his egalitarian reformist efforts Zelaya is hated by the Honduran oligarchs, the same oligarchs who for many years have been close to and splendidly served by the US empire builders.

Seventh, under a law passed by the US Congress, any democratic government that is the victim of a military takeover is to be denied US military and economic aid. Obama still has not cut off the economic and military aid to Honduras as he is required to do under this law. This is perhaps the most telling datum regarding whose side he is on.

As president, Obama has considerable influence and immense resources that might well have thwarted the perpetrators and perhaps could still be applied against them with real effect. As of now his stance on Honduras is too little too late, as is the case with too many other things he does.

Michael Parenti's recent books include: Contrary Notions (City Lights); and God and His Demons (Prometheus, forthcoming). For further information, visit his website: www.michaelparenti.org.

[John Schröder]

http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot. ... s-and.html

Tragedy at Toncontin: Army Shoots and Kills Protesters

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
July 5th, 2009.



On the day when ousted President Manuel Zelaya was slated to return, thousands of supporters gathered at the Pedagogica University in order to march towards Toncontin Airport. Meanwhile, at the airport, some gathered early to await Mel’s arrival despite the suffocating presence of Honduran security forces.













It is estimated that at least 100,000 people marched towards Toncontin Airport to welcome “Mel”.























Even though the security forces held several check points to stop the march, the Police and Army decided to allow the march’s arrival to Toncontin. Until then, both sides had behaved remarkably respectful and peaceful.



The protesters even applauded the Police’s decision to let them through.



















Nevertheless, a few minutes later, on the far end of the landing strip, tensions brewed out of control. When protesters began trespassing the barbed-wire fence, the army responded by shooting tear gas and live rounds. One person was killed on the scene, dozens were injured, and overnight, at least three other people died in local hospitals.









“The armed forces have fired live rounds against unarmed civilians. For over five hours, the protesters behaved respectfully of the army and police. There had been no confrontations. No one had sticks or guns. The march’s organizers had even decommissioned stones from a few protesters. But the army shot at us just like that, in cold blood. There was no need to shoot! Yes, some had started to cut and remove the barbed-wire fence [so as to enter the landing strip], this cannot be denied. But it was not necessary to shoot civilians with live rounds. Once again, so that the people of Honduras will remain united: the blood of a martyr is the seed for many Hondurans who will stand up and remain firm against such de facto government – this government of delinquents. We are only following Article 3rd of our Constitution: ‘Nobody should obey a Government which has reached power by means of usurpation.’”
-Cesar Omar Silva, television journalist for State-owned Channel 8.











Manuel Zelaya’s airplane flew over Toncontin airport a couple of times before aborting landing attempts and headed for Managua, Nicaragua. The plane was not given permission to land as military personnel and vehicles blocked the runway. His plans for a return to Honduras are not yet known at this time.



BBC News has published the best video so far of the Army’s repression against the protesters. The army’s shooting can be clearly seen:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8135453.stm

Versión en español aquí.

This photo-essay was completed with the contribution of Angela J. Bunch C.

[John Schröder]

http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot. ... h-you.html

Mel, Our Friend, the People are with You!

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
July 4th, 2009.



Today, thousands of people marched through the streets of Tegucigalpa in a peaceful protest to the Coup d’Etat that took place last week, on June 28th. The march headed towards Toncontin airport as the mass march expected to welcome back forcibly removed President Manuel Zelaya, endearingly known as Mel.







The march was peaceful and no violent incidents were reported. Nevertheless, a nervous tension can be felt throughout the capital city.









Numerous flyovers by military helicopters raised tensions even higher.



The march condemned mainstream’s media bias in favor of the de-facto government: “We are neither five nor a hundred, sold-out media, count us appropriately!”























As the march arrived to the airport, heavy military and police presence awaited.



















Snipers were positioned on rooftops and the control tower.













“Mel’s problems began when he raised the minimum wage. The rich are against him because he reached into their pockets in order to share the wealth with the people. If the Constitution is reformed, business interests would lose some privileges.”





“Mel, Our Friend, the People are with You!”







Mel did not arrive today as was thought. He is expected to arrive tomorrow July 5th, when another massive march will resume and await his arrival.

Versión en español aquí.

* This photo-essay was completed with the contribution of Angela J. Bunch C.

[John Schröder]

http://www.soaw.org/presente/index.php? ... &Itemid=74

Update from Tegucigalpa, SOA Watch 7 in Honduras!

Written by Lisa Sullivan, SOA Watch Latin America Coordinator
Tuesday, 07 July 2009

Greetings from the quiet of the curfew here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The curfew has just begun, and the normal rattle of traffic outside this one-star hotel in the heart of the city is silenced.

Three of the seven of our delegation are tapping away at our computers, trying to put down some first impressions of this country that pulled our heart strings and brought us to Honduras, in spite of rather difficult odds of getting here. It took me 3 days from my home in Venezuela via Miami, San Salvador and lots of bus and taxi rides in the wee hours. Laura Slattery, former West Point graduate and SOA Watch prisoner of conscience bought her ticket to Honduras 2 hours after reading my email in California. Like all of us, she got stuck on Sunday when Honduras closed all its airports, as the president attempted, unsuccessfully, to return to his country. Never one to sit still for long, Laura then jumped on another plane to El Salvador to join me in coming over by land.

Kent Spriggs, human rights lawyer and SOAW activist from Florida made a similar quick decision to join us, and traveled from Atlanta together with Roy Bourgeois and Dan Kovalik of the United Steel Workers. They waited 2 days for the airport in Tegucigalpa to open, finally opted to fly to San Pedro Sula and go by land to the capital. Joe Mulligan, a Jesuit priest in Nicaragua and Tom Loudon of the Quixote Center, also gave up waiting for an air route, and left Managua at 4 a.m. to get here by bus this afternoon.

The 6-hour bus trip from that Laura and I took from San Salvador turned into 10+, due to military road checks and back ups at the entrance to this mountainous capital caused by blocked roads and marches. We got a flavor of the city with our first taxi ride from the bus station. Our driver, a gregarious and enterprising guy, piled several of us in to take us to 3 distant destinations. We got a good glimpse of the city and the massive amounts of graffiti on the walls:" fuera golpistas!" "no mas Pinochilettis," "Mel te esperamos." As soon as the middle class lady who told us she was grateful to the new president for saving them from communism disembarked, the taxi driver turned to us to say that she was probably mad since Zelaya had raised minimum wages by 60 percent. Welcome to Honduras, a country divided, wounded, stunned and defiant.

After converging in our little hotel, the seven of us headed to the Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) to meet with their director, Bertha Oliva, who has been keeping us in the loop by cell phone reports during this week. Her first words during our dinner were "This is a coup not only to Honduras, but to all of Latin America". Bertha narrated to us the days before the coup. It was becoming clear that winds of change were sweeping through the country, and many of those in power felt threatened.

Joe and I had sensed this only a month earlier, when we visited Honduras and met with Zelaya on an SOAW visit. We were invited to participate in what was, without a doubt, the most fascinating meeting of my 32 years in Latin America. It was a 6 hour frank and open dialogue between the president, several of his ministers and some 30 leaders of the social movement - peasants, workers, indigenous, human rights, women, in which deep issues such as whether to close the Palmarola base, to continue with the free trade agreement, to send troops to the SOA, etc. The president listened, debated, asked questions. I had never witnessed such frank dialogue between such a collection of high government officials and social movement leaders. When I returned to the states, I shared that - while most people were looking elsewhere - such as El Salvador, that Honduras was the most fascinating country in Latin America at the moment. Little did I know...

However, people like Bertha DID know that something was coming. On the night of June 25th, many leaders of the social movements gathered with the president. He was called to meet with four generals. Upon exiting the meeting, Zelaya told the close group of supporters, with a grave face, that he was going to announce the resignation of the Defense Minister, the destitution of the head of the armed forced (SOA grad Romeo Vasquez) and the cancellation of the consultative vote on the constitutional assembly, to be held on June 28th. The group insisted that he could not eliminate this consultation, that it belonged to the people. Betha said that she was one of them. While she said that as a human rights leader, it wasn't in her position to support or oppose a president, the consultation was something that had elevated the self esteem of the people. There was a sense, for the first time, that they were being taken into account in shaping the direction of their nation. The president agreed, and that night many knew that the coup was sealed. These powerful figures could not allow the consultation to win, as was clear would happen on June 28.

And, there are so many other stories, but bed calls us. Tomorrow we hope to meet with leaders of the social movements, participate in a scheduled march, try to meet with someone from the U.S.embassy and do some interviews. But mostly, we hope to get a better sense of what Hondurans are experiencing at this moment, and to ask how we can help.

I'll keep you posted, abrazos from Tegucigalpa, Lisa