Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

[John Schröder]

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2117/1/

The Road to Zelaya’s Return: Money, Guns and Social Movements in Honduras

Written by Benjamin Dangl
Monday, 21 September 2009



Nearly three months after being overthrown by a violent military coup, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras. "I am here in Tegucigalpa. I am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue," he told reporters. The embattled road to his return tested regional diplomacy, challenged Washington and galvanized Honduran social movements.

During a recent beach-side interview, with tropical breezes blowing along a sandy shore in the background, Honduran coup leader Roberto Michelleti told a Fox News reporter, “This is a quiet country, and a happy country.”(1) However, since Michelleti took over on June 28, Honduras been anything but quiet and content.

Michelleti’s de-facto regime has ruled the country with an iron fist while popular movements for democracy have gained steam with nearly constant strikes, road blockades and massive street protests. The coup inspired a movement that is now seeking more than just the reinstatement of Zelaya, but the transformation of the country through a new constitution. Michelleti says presidential elections in November will proceed as planned, though few Hondurans, governments and international institutions say they will recognize the results given the violent situation in the country.

At least 11 anti-coup activists have been killed since Zelaya was ousted.(2) Following the coup, approximately 1,500 people have been jailed for political purposes, and many Zelaya supporters have been beaten.(3) Via Campesina offices have been attacked, and the Feminists of Honduras in Resistance said that there have been 19 documented cases of rape by police officers since the coup took place.(4) The newspaper El Tiempo reported that armed groups in Colombia have been recruiting demobilized paramilitaries for mercenary work in Honduras. Honduras business leaders are hiring these paramilitaries for their own private security.(5)

Though Zelaya was a relatively moderate president, his policies challenged the elite enough to inspire a right wing coup. While in office, he passed a 60% increase in minimum wage, bringing income up from around $6 a day to $9.60 a day.(6) Zelaya also gave subsidies to small farmers, cut bank interest rates and reduced poverty.(7) Salvador Zuniga, a leader of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) said, "One of the things that provoked the coup d'etat was that the president accepted a petition from the feminist movement regarding the day-after pill. Opus Dei mobilized, the fundamentalist evangelical churches mobilized, along with all the reactionary groups."(8)

“Maybe he made mistakes,” Honduran school teacher Hedme Castro said of Zelaya, “but he always erred on the side of the poor. That is why they will fight to the end for him.” She continued, “This is not about President Zelaya. This is about my country. Many people gave their lives so that we could have a democracy. And we cannot let a group of elites take that away.”(9)

Ignoring the relevance of the Organization of American States, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Zelaya and Michelleti to meet with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to work out a solution to the crisis. Many believe Clinton made the move to impose conditions on Zelaya’s return and kill time as the November elections neared. Zelaya has accepted Arias’ proposed solution, which entails his return to the presidency with limited powers, plus amnesty for those who have committed political crimes in the country. Micheletti rejected the Arias’ solution.(10)

While repression of anti-coup activists increases, so does the movement for democracy in Honduras. This broad coalition of activists has the support of many of the governments in the hemisphere, and has the backing of the country’s 1982 constitution, which explains, "No one owes obedience to a government which usurps power nor those who assume public functions or employment through the use of arms.... The people [of this country] have the right to recur to insurrection in defense of constitutional order."(11) This insurrection is taking place right now.

Voices of the Resistance in Honduras

Protests, strikes and road blockades have been going on in the country almost daily since Zelaya was ousted. Many of the interviews with activists participating in these protests offer insight into the relationship between Zelaya and the movement, and what might lie ahead for the country.

"This struggle is peaceful, organized, and is not getting desperate. The coup leaders are getting desperate—they haven't been able to govern a single day in tranquility and we will defeat them," said Israel Salinas, a leader of the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras and member of the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers.(12)

Honduran women’s right activist Marielena spoke of the current reality under the Michelleti regime, "Today's not the same as the 80s because there's a popular movement that the coup leaders never imagined … What Zelaya has done is symbolize the popular discontent accumulated over the years."(13)

Bertha Cáceres, a leader of COPINH, the Front Against the Coup, and a mother of four children, spoke of the importance of the constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution. It was partly this push for constitutional reform, which Zelaya backed along with broad support from the Honduran people, that led to the coup. When speaking of the assembly, Cáceres says, "For the first time we would be able to establish a precedent for the emancipation of women, to begin to break these forms of domination. The current constitution never mentions women, not once, so to establish our human rights, our reproductive, sexual, political, social, and economic rights as women would be to really confront this system of domination."(14)

Cáceres discussed the work of the women’s movement for the new constitution “to dismantle this belief that others have the right to make decisions about our bodies, to start guaranteeing that women are the owners and have autonomous rights to their bodies. It is a political act; a political proposal. … The ability to have and guarantee access to land, territories, cultures, health, education, art, dignified and decent employment for women, and many other things, are elements that we must guarantee in this process of a new constitutional assembly that leads to a real process of liberation.”(15)

Gilberto Rios, from the Front Against the Coup spoke of how the coup has galvanized a broad movement in the country. “In the past, when we called for people to protest in the streets, they came out, but not in the same numbers as what is happening now. In recent days, we have had protests that start in the morning and stay in the streets all day. At night, there are convoys of cars in major cities. It shows that the workers are participating, and the middle class is also coming out.” He also affirmed that the movement is entirely grassroots. “The leftist political parties recognize they do not control any part of the popular movement.”(16)

Leticia Salomón, the Director of Scientific Research for the National Autonomous University of Honduras said, “It doesn't matter who wins the elections in November, the next government will have to deal with this important social force if it hopes to even minimally govern the country.”(17)

World Isolates Coup Regime

At the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico in August, President Barack Obama said "critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You can't have it both ways."(18) But as New York University history professor and author Greg Grandin points out, all many are asking is for the US to act multilaterally with the OAS – it did the opposite by defying the OAS and appointing Arias as the mediator between Michelleti and Zelaya. In addition, through its financial support to the regime, the US has been far from taking a neutral stance.(19) Indeed, Washington has been acting unilaterally since the beginning by not refusing to follow the lead of other nations in putting more pressure on the coup government.(20)

However, US State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said on September 3rd that “At this moment, we would not be able to support the outcome of the [November] elections [in Honduras].”(21) Zelaya was happy to hear this news from Washington. He said the move "puts the United States in line with Latin America, because it was not said before."(22)

In addition to the US, the EU, the OAS, union leaders in Honduras and members of the Front Against the Coup say they will not recognize the election results.(23) Honduras business owners have devised their own plan to increase voting; they’ll be giving discounts to everyone who casts a ballot and then comes into their business with ink on their fingers, showing that they’ve voted.(24)

The US State Department did end up revoking the US visas of over a dozen officials in the coup government, including Michelleti.(25) But the US could go further by blocking members of the regime from using US banks.(26)

Various levels of funding to Honduras from the US and other governments and institutions have been cut since the coup took place. “On Sept. 3, the State Department announced the termination of $33 million dollars, including $11 million in Millennium Challenge Funds and approximately $22 million in State Department funds,” according to Latin American analyst Laura Carlsen. The IMF said that due to the coup, Honduras won’t have access to $150 million in assistance.(27) A spokesperson from the IMF said the institution cut off all aid to the country three days after the coup.(28)

On July 2, the US cut the following spending: $1.9 million from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and $16.5 million in military funding.(29) The Inter-American Development Bank, and the Central American Bank of Economic Integration all cut lending to the Honduran government.(30) The UN has cut off various forms of aid to Honduras.(31) In addition, the EU froze $92 million in aid and the OAS froze aid and began trade blocks against the coup government.(32)

However, “For legalistic reasons, [the US State Department] continued to fall short of calling the coup a ‘military’ coup,” explained Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy. “This means that some anti-poverty aid is being maintained, soldiers whose training was already paid for won't be sent back to Honduras, and State can flexibly restore aid once democracy returns.”(33)

“State Department officials closed the door on determining legally that a military coup took place in Honduras and requiring application of Section 7008 of the Foreign Operations law,” Carlsen explained. “They assured reporters that all funds that could be suspended under Section 7008 have now been suspended … The State Department has admitted that $70 million in aid—over twice the amount suspended—will still flow to the coup.”(34)

The Kansas City-based Cross-Border Network went on a delegation to Honduras after the coup and reported that "We met the U.S Ambassador who agreed it was a military coup even though the State Department won't call it that, thus invoking the law requiring cut off of all remaining aid."(35)

Declaring the coup a coup, according to Grandin, “would automatically trigger certain cutoffs, financial cutoffs, it also would have to be certified by Congress. And that’s a fight that I think Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton don’t want, because the Republicans, led by Connie Mack and other foreign policy conservatives, regime change conservatives, Republicans, have seized on this issue to basically try to link Obama with Hugo Chavez and the Latin American left. And they certainly don’t want to kick it into Congress, where it’ll be debated, because to call it a coup would have to be certified by Congress.”(36)

But the Obama administration needs to understand that what’s at stake is more important than winning a political fight in Washington. The future of a nation, and perhaps the entire region, hangs in the balance.

"The true significance of the coup, in one of the poorest and weakest countries in the hemisphere ... lies in the test it poses to the inter-American system," says Jorge Heine of the Balsillie School of International Affairs. "If the latter cannot succeed in restoring democracy in Honduras, it cannot do so anywhere. The message would thus be crystal clear: coup-makers can act with impunity."(37)

Washington’s Ties to the Coup

Washington has played a bloody role in Central America for years and this coup carries on that legacy while setting some new precedents. Fernando "Billy" Joya has returned to the stage in Honduras as Michelleti’s security advisor after serving in Battalion 316 in the 1980s, according to Grandin. Battalion 316 was a paramilitary unit that disappeared hundreds of people.(38) Joya was trained in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship by Chilean police, and his Battalion 316 was created by the CIA to apply the repressive techniques used against “subversives” in Argentina and Chile.(39)

In 1981, John Negroponte arrived in Honduras as the US ambassador. While there, the military budget in the country rose from $3.6 million in 1981 to $77.8 million in 1985 “when his mission was completed—having created the Contras in Nicaragua and protected the El Salvadoran dictatorship,” according to Honduras-based reporter Dick Emanuelsson.(40) Negroponte met with Michelleti before the June 28 coup on a trip made primarily to convince Zelaya not to transform a US airbase in Palmerola, Honduras into an airport for civilians.(41)

Venezuelan Robert Carmona-Borjas has also joined the coup government in Honduras. He was involved in the attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002. Carmona-Borjas’ Arcadio Foundation began a media campaign against Zelaya in 2007.(42)

Lanny Davis, a lawyer to Bill Clinton and campaign advisor to Hillary Clinton, has been lobbying in Washington for Honduran coup leaders and elites. Some of the businesses that support the coup in Honduras that Davis is representing in DC are US companies such as Russell, Fruit of the Loom and Hanes – all of which have benefited from the low wages, neoliberal policies and crackdowns on union rights in the country.(43) Davis recently testified before Congress on behalf of the coup leaders and backers, and has helped to get media on the coup’s side.(44)

The week before the coup, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs Thomas Shannon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly met with Honduran figures that ended up participating in the coup.(45) Days before the coup took place, John McCain and leaders from the International Republican Institute, invited future leaders of the coup to meetings in Washington.(46)

US businesses also hold a considerable amount of weight in the country: in 2006, 70% of exports from Honduras went to the US, and 52% of imports were from the US. That same year, US investments in the country totaled more than $568 million, two thirds of foreign investment.(47)

A Movement Larger Than Zelaya

Just as the coup may change the geopolitical landscape of the region, the grassroots fervor in Honduras will likely alter the country forever. And that might be Michelleti’s legacy – that in ousting a moderate president, he inspired a revolution.

When trying to break the political impasse Honduras finds itself in, Zelaya admits that much depends on the anti-coup movement of Honduras. "This movement is now very strong. It can never be destroyed," he said.(48)

The coup leaders “were wrong here, they miscalculated,” Honduran activist Bertha Cáceres of the Front Against the Coup and COPINH explained. “They said it would be two days of resistance, and they were wrong. This population has demonstrated that we are capable of … a much longer struggle.”(49)

Gilberto Rios, from the Front Against the Coup, spoke of the similarities this coup has to others throughout the last century that still haunt the region: “The oligarchy made the coup with an old manual, but the people have changed and the world has changed.”(50)

***

Benjamin Dangl is the author of the forthcoming book, Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America, (AK Press, 2010). He edits TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events and UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America. Email Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com. Photo from Indymedia.org

Notes:

1. Interview with Roberto Michelleti, Fox News, (September 17, 2009), http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m ... micheletti.

2. Greg Grandin, “The Battle for Honduras and the Region,” The Nation, (August 12, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/grandin/print.

3. Daniel Luban, “US-Honduras: State Dept Condemns ‘Coup d'Etat’, Curtails Aid,” IPS News, (September 3, 2009), http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48323.

4. “Group Says Honduran Cops on Rape Spree Since Coup,” Latin American Herald Tribune, http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Article ... ryId=23558

5. Unidad Investigativa, “Estarían reclutando ex paramilitares para que viajen como mercenarios a Honduras,” El Tiempo, http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justic ... _6086547-1

6. Ginger Thompson, “President’s Ouster Highlights a Divide in Honduras,” The New York Times, (August 8, 2009), http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/world ... nted=print

7. Tom Hayden, “Zelaya Speaks,” The Nation, (September 4, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/hayden_zelaya

8. Laura Carlsen, “Coup Catalyzes Honduran Women’s Movement,” America Program, (August 20, 2009) http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6369

9. Ginger Thompson, “President’s Ouster Highlights a Divide in Honduras,” The New York Times, (August 8, 2009), http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/world ... nted=print

10. Juan Ramón Durán, “Honduras: Vote to Go Ahead Despite Int'l Refusal to Recognise,” IPS News, (September 9, 2009), http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48385

11. Jennifer Moore, “Honduras’ Historic Two Months,” América Latina en Movimiento, (August 28,. 2009) http://alainet.org/active/32686ã

12. Dick Emanuelsson, “Military Forces Sow Terror and Fear in Honduras,“ Americas Program, (August 13, 2009), http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6354

13. Laura Carlsen, “Coup Catalyzes Honduran Women’s Movement,” America Program, (August 20, 2009) http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6369

14. Ibid.

15. Laura Carlsen and Sara Lovera, “Honduran Constitutional Assembly Would Be a Step Toward the Emancipation of Women,” Americas Program, (August 19, 2009), http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6392

16. Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes, “Honduras — Resistance leader: US is behind the coup,” Green Left Weekly, (September 7, 2009), http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/809/41602

17. Jennifer Moore, “National opposition to coup becomes a social force,” América Latina en Movimiento, (September 12, 2009), http://alainet.org/active/32978&lang=en

18. Cheryl W. Thompson and William Booth, “Obama Vows to Focus on Borders,” Washington Post, (August 11, 2009), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01797.html

19. Greg Grandin, “The Battle for Honduras and the Region,” The Nation, (August 12, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/grandin/print.

20. Amy Oyler, “The Resurgence of US Interventionism in Latin America,” Z Communications, (August 31, 2009), http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22466

21. Ian Kelly, “Termination of Assistance and Other Measures Affecting the De Facto Regime in Honduras,” US Department of State, (September 3, 2009), http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/sept/128608.htm

22. Tom Hayden, “Zelaya’s Coup,” The Nation, (September 3, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/hayden_web

23. Juan Ramón Durán, “Honduras: Vote to Go Ahead Despite Int'l Refusal to Recognise,” IPS News, (September 9, 2009), http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48385

24. “Honduran Resistance Boycotts Elections,” Weekly News Update on the Americas, (September 13, 2009), http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/20 ... cotts.html

25. “State Dept. Revokes Visa of Leader of Honduran Coup Government,” Democracy Now!, ,(September 14, 2009), http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/14/headlines#7

26. “US stops issuing visas in Honduras,” Al Jazeera, (August 26, 2009), http://english.aljazeera.net/news/ameri ... 22962.html

27. Jorge Heine, “It's time for Canada to take a strong stand on Honduras,” The Globe and Mail, (September 18, 2009), http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opi ... le1287401/

28. “Honduran Resistance Boycotts Elections,” Weekly News Update on the Americas, (September 13, 2009), http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/20 ... cotts.html

29. Ibid.

30. Mark Weisbrot, “IMF: Stop Funding Honduras,” The Guardian Unlimited, (September 3, 2009), http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... aid-zelaya

31. “EU threatens further sanctions on Honduras,” Reuters, (September 15, 2009), http://www.reuters.com/article/homepage ... ._CH_.2400

32. Amy Oyler, “The Resurgence of US Interventionism in Latin America,” Z Communications, (August 31, 2009), http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22466

33. Adam Isacson, “Another Baby Step on Honduras,” Huffington Post, (September 3, 2009), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-isac ... 76972.html

34. Laura Carlsen, Americas MexicoBlog, “Honduran Coup Squeezed From Above and Below—But is it Enough to Restore Democracy?,” (September 10, 2009), http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009 ... e-and.html

35. OneWorld, “US Chided for Aiding Honduras Despite Coup,” Common Dreams, (September 9, 2009), http://www.commondreams.org/print/46772

36. “US Cuts More Aid to Honduras as Zelaya Meets Clinton in Washington,” Democracy Now!, (September 4, 2009), http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/4/us ... o_honduras

37. Olivia Ward, “Raising the stakes in Honduras,” The Star, (September 6, 2009), http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/691633

38. Greg Grandin, “The Battle for Honduras and the Region,” The Nation, (August 12, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/grandin/print.

39. Dick Emanuelsson, “Honduras: The Frontline in the Battle for Democracy,” Americas Program, (August 10, 2009), http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6337

40. Ibid.

41. Michaela D'Ambrosio, “The Honduran Coup: Was it a Matter of Behind-the-Scenes Finagling by State Department Stonewallers?,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, (September 16, 2009), http://www.coha.org/2009/09/the-hondura ... newallers/

42. Greg Grandin, “The Battle for Honduras and the Region,” The Nation, (August 12, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/grandin/print.

43. Amy Oyler, “The Resurgence of US Interventionism in Latin America,” Z Communications, (August 31, 2009), http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22466

44. Mark Weisbrot, “Who’s in charge of US foreign policy?” The Guardian Unlimited, (July 16, 2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... nton/print

45. Michaela D'Ambrosio, “The Honduran Coup: Was it a Matter of Behind-the-Scenes Finagling by State Department Stonewallers?,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, (September 16, 2009), http://www.coha.org/2009/09/the-hondura ... newallers/

46. Amy Oyler, “The Resurgence of US Interventionism in Latin America,” Z Communications, (August 31, 2009), http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22466

47. Amy Oyler, “The Resurgence of US Interventionism in Latin America,” Z Communications, (August 31, 2009), http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22466

48. Tom Hayden, “Zelaya Speaks,” The Nation, (September 4, 2009), http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/hayden_zelaya

49. Laura Carlsen and Sara Lovera, “Honduran Constitutional Assembly Would Be a Step Toward the Emancipation of Women,” Americas Program, (August 19, 2009), http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6392

50. Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes, “Honduras — Resistance leader: US is behind the coup,” Green Left Weekly, (September 7, 2009), http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/809/41602

[John Schröder]

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... whore.html

Honduras: Freddy Cuevas, AP whore



I knew they'd spin it, but the following Disassociated Press newswire report on Zeyala's return to Honduras is one of many lamentable efforts being vomited to the English-speaking world this morning. Just consider the title and first paragraph....

Zelaya's daring return reignites Honduras crisis

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The daring return of deposed President Manuel Zelayas creates a sharp challenge to interim leaders who overthrew him — and for the upcoming election they had hoped would resolve the crisis begun with their coup (continues here)

.......as in the world of so-called journalist Freddy Cuevas of AP the Honduras crisis was all over and had been "reignited", Zelaya was "deposed" where in fact every single sovereign state in the world still recognizes him as the current President of Honduras and the people that ran the illegal coup were an "interim government" thus lending them respectability. Do I laugh or do I cry?

One day, I hope you have the chance to drink fresh milk on an estancia in the pampa region of Argentina. You'll then be able to compare it to the hormone-laden pasteurized, homogenized and plastic-package product you drink where you live.

One day, your eyes may be opened to the true taste of a banana by plucking a ripe one from a tree in Ecuador or Colombia or wherever. Until then you'll have to make do with the fruits picked green and still ripening in containers as they pass through the Panama canal.

Freddy Cuevas supplies yet another fake product to the world and its consumers again think they're getting a true taste of Latin America.

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/329

Micheletti's goons ransack Burger King

...wearing black hoods, pretending to be black bloc, trying to provide an excuse for the repression to come. The provocateurs are out in force tonight, as the resistance, standing by the elected president of Honduras, peacefully ignores the 26-hour curfew.

[John Schröder]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03111.html

My country is in an unusual position this week. Former president Manuel Zelaya has surreptitiously returned to Honduras, still claiming to be the country's legitimate leader, despite the fact that a constitutional succession took place on June 28. Amid all of the claims that are likely to be made in coming days, the former president will not mention that the people of Honduras have moved on since the events of that day or that our citizens are looking forward to free, fair and transparent elections on Nov. 29.

The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic. I must respectfully disagree. As the true story slowly emerges, there is a growing sense that what happened in Honduras that day was not without merit. On June 28, the Honduran Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya for his blatant violations of our constitution, which marked the end of his presidency. To this day, an overwhelming majority of Hondurans support the actions that ensured the respect of the rule of law in our country.

Underlying all the rhetoric about a military overthrow are facts. Simply put, coups do not leave civilians in control over the armed forces, as is the case in Honduras today. Neither do they allow the independent functioning of democratic institutions -- the courts, the attorney general's office, the electoral tribunal. Nor do they maintain a respect for the separation of powers. In Honduras, the judicial, legislative and executive branches are all fully functioning and led by civilian authorities.

Coups do not allow freedom of assembly, either. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights. In Honduras, these freedoms remain intact and vibrant. And on Nov. 29 our country plans to hold the ultimate civic exercise of any democracy: a free and open presidential election.

Although much of the international community disagrees with our past actions, we can all agree on the necessity of ensuring Honduras's full commitment to the electoral process. Our citizens believe that the upcoming presidential election is the best way to guarantee peace and democracy. While the election will take place in little more than 60 days, the electoral process has been underway for some time. The election is being convened by an autonomous body, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, whose magistrates were selected by Congress in early 2009 and ratified by then-President Zelaya. The autonomous body began the electoral process with presidential primary elections -- which were supervised by the Organization of American States -- in 2008 also during Zelaya's tenure. The upcoming election will include Honduras's first independent presidential candidate -- a rarity in all of Latin America.

The winner of the November election will take office as president of Honduras in January 2010. At that moment my transitional administration will cease, and the newly sworn-in president will hold all the authority vested to him by our country's constitution.

Our whole country -- whether members of political parties, youths, students or members of civil society, government, parental organizations or private businesses -- is committed to guaranteeing transparent elections. Voter turnout will be a constitutional expression of self-determination and a demonstration of national sovereignty. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal has invited independent observers from around the globe to observe our voting process. Our country is open to the world. All organizations -- churches, universities, think tanks, nongovernmental organizations -- that wish to witness firsthand this great exercise of self-determination and democracy are welcome.

We are, of course, disappointed with the position of the United States and the European Union, both longtime friends. We look forward to continuing dialogue with the United States, the European Union and the rest of the international community to prove our commitment to democracy and the Honduran people's love of freedom. Coercive action directed at our nation will only harm less fortunate Hondurans, whose hospitals, schools, roads and other institutions rely greatly on our friends' generous assistance, for which all of our citizens are immensely grateful.

I have said from the moment I was sworn in as president of Honduras that I do not intend to remain in office one second more than what our constitution mandates. On Jan. 27 I will hand over leadership responsibilities to the ninth president of our 27-year-old democracy. Such actions are in keeping with the desire of the majority of our people: the strengthening of our democracy.

The writer is president of Honduras. [sic!]

[John Schröder]

http://counterpunch.org/kozloff09222009.html

Salvaging Democracy in Honduras Will Be Tricky

Zelaya's Return

By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF

Manuel Zelaya, the ousted leader of Honduras who was overthrown in a right-wing military coup in June, has made an incredible political gamble: yesterday he returned to the troubled Central American nation in a bid to reclaim the reins of power. In the capitol of Tegucigalpa some Zelaya supporters gathered in front of the United Nations building where they believed the former president was holed up. However, there was no confirmation that Zelaya was indeed inside. Later however the President appeared smiling on the balcony of the Brazilian embassy.

Since taking power the coup regime has clamped down on social movements with an iron grip --- indeed about 1,500 people have been jailed for political reasons. Hopefully an agreement can be reached without further loss of life, Zelaya will be returned to power and respect for human rights can be restored.

It’s unclear however how this political crisis will unfold. On two previous occasions when Zelaya attempted to return to Honduras clashes between the army and the president’s supporters resulted in the deaths of several people. Needless to say, the coup government has declared a 15-hour curfew in Tegucigalpa.

In the event that the coup regime crumbles the U.S. and Latin American left will rejoice --- before he was toppled Zelaya championed progressive reforms such as a raise in the minimum wage. The ex-President also brought Honduras into the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas or ALBA, a reciprocal trade agreement spearheaded by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

A Zelaya regime would be infinitely more preferable than the present government. However, even if Zelaya returns to power the road to democracy will be fraught. Honduras is a corrupt and politically unstable place which has become a media free-for-all in recent years. While the coup government has clamped down on the media [see my previous July piece on my personal blog entitled “Honduras: Latin American Media Battle Continues”], Zelaya was no pushover either in his day. Indeed, since the coup took place progressives have tended to gloss over some of the more questionable dealings of the former regime.

In 2007 Zelaya --- a member of the wealthy landowning elite who only recently underwent a political conversion of sorts by adopting some progressive policies --- ordered all the country’s TV and radio stations to carry government propaganda for two hours every day. Taking measures against the media was necessary, Zelaya argued, because it had provided unfair coverage of his government and had sought to exploit political and social problems like violent crime so as to boost profits.

Such a charge was not without merit: in 2006 there were 3,118 homicides in Honduras, certainly a lot but only enough to earn the country third place in Central America within this category. The media however did its utmost to encourage the perception that the murder rate was increasing despite the fact that the number of homicides in 2006 was 3% lower than in the previous year.

In a rhetorical flourish, Zelaya said that he was in a “fight with no quarter given” with the country's media owners who presided over “an oligopoly.” He remarked that media barons exhibited a conflict of interest as they were invested in the telecommunications sector, construction, housing and banking. “The information which gets to the Honduran people is influenced by interests that distort the news,” he added. Media magnates, Zelaya said, represented “powerful economic groups motivated by self-interest to exploit political and social problems to provide grist for their mills.”

Again, there was certainly more than a grain of truth in Zelaya’s statements: in Honduras as in many other Latin American countries, media ownership is concentrated in the hands of powerful bankers and politicians. But while the Honduran media was certainly in need of reform, Zelaya’s remedy was to simply take over the airwaves for his own political benefit.

In his all out war on the media establishment, Zelaya declared that TV and radio outlets would be compelled to broadcast interviews with him as well as government ministers. In seeking to justify his position Zelaya claimed that it was imperative to counteract misinformation about his government. The main journalists’ union protested the decision, comparing it to measures carried out by former military governments in Honduras.

Zelaya’s decision was entirely legal and fortunately the President scaled the measure back shortly after it went into effect. It’s possible however that the government’s heavy handed approach encouraged a climate of fear and intimidation for local journalists. Inter Press Service (IPS) --- hardly a right wing media outlet --- reported in 2007 that Dagoberto Rodríguez, the news director of Radio Cadena Voces, was warned by the police that sicarios or hitmen wanted him dead. Since 2005 Rodríguez’s station had been harassed for its reporting on government corruption and staff received anonymous telephone threats.

Fearing for his life, Rodríguez fled the country. “I never expected to abandon my country this way, because the only thing I have ever done is journalism,” he said. “But the levels of intolerance of criticism and of freedom of speech, and the growing lack of safety in Honduras, have forced me to leave,” he added.

Rodríguez fled the country 12 days after the murder of another journalist, Carlos Salgado, who hosted a radio program called Fríjol, el terrible which mixed humour and news. Salgado was shot by two unidentified gunmen as he left the offices of RCV, an independent radio station which does investigative reporting. The hitmen shot Salgado at close range at least seven times before speeding away. Rodríguez believed that Salgado’s murder was linked to the latter’s reporting on official corruption. For progressives there’s more to give one pause.

Take for example Zelaya’s handling of the ALBA trade agreement before he was ousted from power. IPS cited an investigation by local newspaper El Heraldo which revealed receipts for a total of $284,000 allegedly distributed by the government to 38 social and political leaders. The figures reportedly received the funds in exchange for their support for ALBA and for carrying out protests in Congress prior to ALBA ratification.

Concerned about the report in El Heraldo, Zelaya allegedly tried to bribe one of the newspapers reporters in an effort to halt the investigation. The journalist told IPS that “when I asked (Zelaya) to comment on our investigation, he looked at me and said: ‘I’ll give you 500 lempiras (19 dollars) for you to stop talking.’ Then he called his guards and said to them, ‘pay this guy,’ and took out a 100-lempira bill (five dollars), at which point I told him to show me some respect.”

It’s unclear whether this particular sensational story could be true. However, after the Attorney General’s office initiated an investigation into the ALBA matter Zelaya’s presidential chief of staff confirmed that the government had indeed provided the funds. The official remarked “we contributed those resources in response to a request from social groups and for a good cause that will bring huge benefits for Honduras.”

One member of a local labor confederation told IPS that his organization had received the government money “as aid.” Yet another union official declared that “this new scandal should call the social and popular movement to reflection. It’s not ethical but it happened. This is an old practice that has existed under many governments, and nobody has done anything to put a stop to such irregularities because there are a lot of interests involved.”

Zelaya should be restored to power to serve out his term and the coup leaders overturned. As recent history has shown however, Honduras is a politically fragile country displaying deep seated corruption. Whether right or left, future governments will have to contend with this problematic legacy.

Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008)

[John Schröder]

http://counterpunch.org/grandin09222009.html

Washington's Moment of Truth

Zelaya's Brazilian Gambit

By GREG GRANDIN

This is a rapidly changing situation. Greg Grandin will update as situation warrants. AC/JSC

In a bold move, the democratically elected president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya - ousted in a military coup in June - has returned to Tegucigalpa, entering the country in secret, traveling overland with a small group of advisers. He is currently in the Brazilian embassy, and crowds of supporters are gathering around the building to demand the restoration of Honduran democracy. That Zelaya traveled at night, crossing "rivers and mountains," as he put it, all the while managing to evade Honduran intelligence - largely funded, trained, and provisioned by the US military - is quite a feat, and also a hint that Zelaya still commands the loyalty of some sectors of the military and police.

It's unclear what will happen next. Roberto Micheletti, the president installed by the coup, has imposed a fifteen-hour curfew, which will undoubtedly be extended, reminding reporters that there is a standing order for Zelaya's arrest. Yet Zelaya's return is sure to galvanize those opposed to the coup, whose protests over the last three months have prevented Micheletti from consolidating power.

It has become increasingly clear that Micheletti's strategy of trying to hold out until scheduled presidential elections in late November was not working, with a movement within Honduras for a boycott of the vote gaining steam and most Latin American nations saying they would not recognize its results. Since the prospect of holding elections with Zelaya in prison - or perhaps still rallying supporters from his Brazilian refuge -- would only underscore the illegitimacy of the coup government, it seems that it will have no choice but to negotiate directly with Zelaya his return to power.

Zelaya’s choice (undoubtedly with the approval of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio LuladaSilva despite denials) of the Brazilian embassy as the place to make his stand is also a strategic masterstroke. It shifts the spotlight away from Venezuela and Hugo Chavez and toward Lula, everyone’s favorite democratic leftist. Brazil's Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, responded to the coup government’s demand that Brazil turn Zelaya over by saying that any threat to the legitimate president or the embassy would be a grave breach of international law.

Those backing the coup perhaps sense that their game is up; a communiqué issued by the National Front Against the Coup reports that some businessmen and military leaders who supported Zelaya's overthrow are leaving the country. Meanwhile, back in the US, the Washington Post has decided to actually forgo reporting on the story, instead allowing Micheletti space on its op-ed page -- in a piece probably written by one of the coup's US flaks, like Otto Reich or Lanny Davis -- to make one last pitch for the November election, which he prosises will be a "constitutional expression of self-determination and a demonstration of national sovereignty." Reich/Davis/Micheletti -- forgot to mention that the coup government, in effort to ensure high turnout, has threatened to throw in jail anyone who doesn't vote in that election, and has revoked the citizenship of the environmentalist Catholic priest José Andrés Tamayo, born in El Salvador but living in Honduras since 1983, for calling for a boycott of those elections.

If this is a moment of truth for Honduras, it is also one for Washington. Since Zelaya’s ouster, Washington has sent mixed messages, refusing to condemn the coup with the same force as the Organization of American States and the European Union, and refusing to apply as much pressure as it could - freezing the foreign bank accounts, for instance, of those behind the overthrow. But Zelaya's dramatic return takes place on the eve of this Wednesday's meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, where he had been scheduled to speak as Honduras' legitimate leader. The UN will probably issue a statement demanding his restoration on the eve of US president Barack Obama's inaugural address to that body, thus placing pressure on the US to take a clear stand.

And sure enough, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, acknowledging that Zelaya's gambit has indeed changed the terms of the debate, issued a statement saying that the time was "opportune" to restore Zelaya to the presidency. Better late than never.

Greg Grandin teaches Latin American history at NYU and is the author of the Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and The Rise of the New Imperialism. He can be reached at: gjg4@nyu.edu

[John Schröder]

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... rough.html

Isn't it amazing that the pieces of shit who illegally threw out President Zelaya to "protect the constitution" have suddenly become so desperate to cling on to power that they suspend the very same constitution?

This from top English language site Honduras Coup 2009, first paragraph:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
No More Constitution
The Micheletti regime, about 4 am this morning, violently dislodged the protesters outside the Brazilian embassy with tear gas, pepper spray and water canons. Radio Globo reports THEY SUSPENDED THE CONSTITUTION and declared a state of emergency. Among the rights suspended are the right of free circulation and assembly.

[John Schröder]

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/342

Hillary: Now Is the Time to Restore President Zelaya

Submitted by robert naiman on 22 September 2009 - 1:21pm

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned to Honduras yesterday; President Zelaya is under the protection of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. The coup regime immediately declared a curfew; Honduran military and police have surrounded the embassy, violently dispersing President Zelaya's supporters.

As Secretary of State Clinton has noted, the question of whether President Zelaya can return to Honduras has been resolved by events. He has returned. The question is now restoring him to office.

Speaking after meeting with Costa Rican President Arias, Secretary Clinton said:

now that President Zelaya is back, it would be opportune to restore him to his position under appropriate circumstances, get on with the election that is currently scheduled for November, have a peaceful transition of presidential authority, and get Honduras back to constitutional and democratic order in a very - on a very clear path toward that goal.

That's good. But before there can be a diplomatic resolution of the crisis, the US must make clear to the coup regime that a violent crackdown will not be a way out. The reports from Honduras indicate that a violent crackdown is already underway.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Amorim has warned that any threat to President Zelaya or the Brazilian embassy would be a grave breach of international law. OAS Secretary General Insulza said the de facto authorities must be responsible for the security of President Zelaya and for the Brazilian Embassy.

But an adviser to the coup regime's foreign ministry claimed that international law would not stop the coup regime from raiding the Brazilian embassy.

As has been the case throughout this crisis, the statements coming from the U.S. have not been as strong or clear as the statements coming from Brazil and the OAS.

Now is the time to restore President Zelaya to office, as Secretary Clinton has said. Now is also the time for Secretary Clinton to make clear to the coup regime that a violent crackdown will not provide a way out of the crisis.

As it has throughout the crisis, the U.S. media is largely burying the news from Honduras. Now is the time for Americans to speak up. The State Department comment line is 202-647-4000; the White House comment line is 202-456-1111. Call now; if you have trouble getting through, call back in a half hour. This is the political moment when the crisis is most likely to be resolved; this is the moment when citizens in Honduras protesting the coup are in great danger.

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/330

Let us embrace the dreams of hope and liberty, by Juan Almendares

Tue, 09/22/2009 - 09:23 — AP

Let us embrace the dreams of hope and liberty

Juan Almendares, translation by RAJ

To planetary humanity, to the friends, men and women, of International Earth.

To the Movement for World Peace.

Today we add to the local and worldwide jubilation for the heroic return of the legitimate president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, who has received the popular warmth and the hospitality of the Embassy of Brazil and who expresses a spirit of dialogue, of openness and of firmness so that the constitutional order will return, without violence.

We address ourselves inspired by the profound love for human and planetary life, for peace, for climate justice, for food sovereignty, and respect for individual and collective human rights, and the life and dignity of the peoples.

We start from the sadness and suffering that this military coup has produced; a true assault on reason, on morality and on justice. It is the terror that removes the smile of the boys and girls facing the robot men disguised with rifles, who hide their faces with the masks of crime and impunity. They are displaced in the tanks that crush the grasses, the butterflies, the hummingbirds and the libertarian consciousness of the peoples. They use bullets, bayonets and daggers to kill the youths, directors, and teachers. In essence they assassinate education and liberty.

The mercenary soldiers advised by the military bases of the occupation put in practice the teachings of the School of the Americas, the doctrine of National Security, the strategies of irregular warfare and wars of low intensity conflict, threatening the peace in Honduras and in Latin America. The hawks are the intellectual and material authors that historically practiced torture with total impunity to terrorize the people and achieve great earnings through the licit or illicit trade of the merchandise of war.

We appeal to the highest spirit of solidarity and the principle of non-violence of Gandhi: "Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Destruction is not the law of the humans. Every murder or other injury-- no matter for what cause-- committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity."

Our people have taken the road of the dreams of hope and of liberty based on non-violence to confront the brutal aggression of the military-political coup in Honduras, the first military coup in Latin America in the 21st century; an international coup that threatens world peace and that was gestated against the principle of liberty and self-determination of all the peoples of the world.

According to the solipsist and encapsulated thought of those responsible for the military-political coup there doesn't exist a military coup nor any violation of human rights.

The critical route of those responsible for the coup has been to create all the conditions to bring our country and all the peoples of Latin America to the immense business of war and to justify every day more the assassination and torture of the directors and members of the Resistence against the coup and above all to commit with total impunity crimes against humanity.

The military coup is the multimillion business of the century in Latin America despite the world financial crisis while the Honduran people suffers hunger, misery and terror.

The violence is framed in the Syndrome of Weakness or Chronic Wasting that consists of a cruel degrading process that intends to exhaust the physical, nutritional, and mental reserves, to conquer every resistance against the coup through the progressive forms of crime and the annihilation of the directors, by media, police, and military terror, without the return of constitutional order, and including attempts against the life of President Zelaya.

The strategy of the golpistas with the support of the strategists of the Pentagon and local and transnational financial capital, is to bog down or stagnate the process of a just solution to the violent assault on the constituted power and to legitimate the coarse lie of some fraudulent elections that would be authorized, developed, and programmed by the material and intellectual authors of the coup both at the level of candidates, court system, de facto government, religious hierarchy, and the police and military Armed Forces.

The elections this de facto government proposes to carry out are rejected by the people and the votes, before being deposited in the polls, are stained with the blood of the martyrs of the Resistance against the military coup.

The mediation of Señor Oscar Arias, never will be a mediation in terms of peace, since the same Nobel Prize Winner has not condemned the torture caused by the golpistas, as a crime against humanity, and disrespects the people of Honduras by being in agreement that there will not exist a popular poll about the transformation of the Magna Carta via a Constituent Assembly.

The toque de queda or toque de muerte, curfew toll or "death knell" beginning the 21st of September of the present year is the fateful herald of the systematic growth of the violation of human rights.

We appeal with urgency for the mobilization and fasting of the international community, to intensify all the forms of non-violent struggle and to express with all courage: Viva la Resistencia! Thanks to the life and the world solidarity that embraces the dreams of hope and liberty of the Honduran people and of all the peoples of Latin America!

Tegucigalpa 21 de septiembre 2000

Original

Abracemos los sueños de esperanza y libertad

Juan Almendares

A la humanidad planetaria, A los amigos y amigas de Tierra Internacional.

Al Movimiento por la Paz Mundial

Hoy nos sumamos al júbilo local y mundial por el retorno heroico del legítimo presidente de la República de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, quien ha recibido el calor popular y la hospitalidad de la embajada de Brasil y quien expresa un espíritu de diálogo, de apertura y de firmeza porque se retorne al orden constitucional, sin violencia.

Nos dirigimos inspirados por el profundo amor a la vida humana y planetaria, a la paz, a la justicia climática, a la soberanía alimentaria y al respeto por los derechos humanos individuales, colectivos y de la vida y dignidad de los pueblos.

Partimos del dolor y sufrimiento que ha producido este golpe militar; verdadero asalto a la razón, a la moral y a la justicia. Es el terror que abate la sonrisa de los niños y niñas frente a los hombres robot disfrazados de fusiles, que ocultan sus rostros con las máscaras del crimen y su impunidad. Se desplazan en los tanques que aplastan las hierbas, a las mariposas, los colibríes y la conciencia libertaria de los pueblos. Utilizan las balas, bayonetas y puñales para matar a los jóvenes, dirigentes y maestros. En esencia asesinan la educación y la libertad.

Los soldados mercenarios asesorados por las bases militares de ocupación ponen en práctica las enseñanzas de la Escuela de las Américas, la doctrina de la Seguridad Nacional, las estrategias de las guerras irregulares y guerras de conflictos de baja intensidad, amenazando la paz en Honduras y en América Latina. Son los halcones autores intelectuales y materiales que históricamente practican la tortura con toda impunidad para aterrorizar al pueblo y lograr grandes ganancias con el intercambio lícito o ilícito de las mercancías bélicas.

Apelamos al más alto espíritu de solidaridad y al principio de No Violencia de Gandhi: "La No-violencia es la fuerza más grande que existe a disposición del género humano. Es más poderosa que la más sofisticada arma de destrucción inventada por el ingenio del hombre. La ley del ser humano no es la destrucción. Todo asesinato o daño cometido contra otro semejante - no importa por qué causa- es un crimen contra la humanidad".

Nuestro pueblo ha tomado el camino de los sueños de esperanza y de libertad basado en la No Violencia al enfrentar la brutal agresión del golpe político militar en Honduras, primer golpe militar en América Latina en el Siglo XXI; golpe internacional que amenaza la paz mundial y que se ha gestado contra el principio de libertad y autodeterminación de todos los pueblos del mundo.

Según el pensamiento encapsulado y solipsista de los responsables del golpe político militar no existe golpe militar ni tampoco violación alguna a los derechos humanos.

La ruta critica de los responsables del golpe ha sido crear todas las condiciones para llevar a nuestro país y a todos los pueblos de América Latina al inmenso negocio de la guerra y a justificar cada día más el asesinato y tortura de los dirigentes y miembros de la Resistencia contra el Golpe y sobre todo cometer con toda impunidad crímenes de lesa humanidad.

El Golpe militar es el negocio multimillonario del siglo en América Latina a pesar de la crisis financiera mundial mientras el pueblo hondureño sufre hambre, miseria y terror.

La violencia se enmarca en el Síndrome Debilitamiento o Desgaste Crónico que consiste en un proceso cruel degradante que pretende agotar las reservas físicas, nutricionales y mentales, vencer toda resistencia contra el Golpe mediante las formas progresivas del crimen y el aniquilamiento de los dirigentes, el terror mediático policial y militar sin retorno al orden constitucional e incluso atentar contra la vida del presidente Zelaya.

La estrategia de los golpistas, con el apoyo de los estrategas del pentágono y del capital financiero local y transnacional, es empantanar o estancar el proceso de solución justa al asalto violento del poder constituido y legitimar la burda mentira de unas elecciones fraudulentas que están autorizadas, desarrolladas y programadas por los autores materiales e intelectuales del golpe tanto a nivel de candidatos, sistema jurídico, gobierno de facto, jerarquías religiosas y las fuerzas armadas militares y policiales.

Las elecciones que pretende realizar este gobierno de facto son rechazadas por el pueblo y los votos antes de ser depositados en las urnas están manchados con la sangre de los mártires de la Resistencia contra el Golpe militar.

La mediación del señor Óscar Arias, nunca será una mediación en función de la paz, puesto que el propio Premio Nobel de la Paz no ha condenado la tortura causada por los golpistas, como crimen de lesa humanidad, e irrespeta al pueblo de Honduras al estar de acuerdo en que no exista consulta popular sobre la trasformación de la Carta Magna mediante la Asamblea Constituyente.

El toque de queda o ‘toque de muerte’ a partir 21 de septiembre del presente año es el heraldo fatídico del incremento sistemático de la violación de los derechos humanos.

Apelamos con urgencia a la movilización y ayuno de la comunidad internacional, a intensificar todas las formas de lucha no violenta y a expresar con todo coraje ¡Viva la Resistencia! ¡Gracias a la vida y a la solidaridad mundial que abraza los sueños de esperanza y libertad del pueblo hondureño y de todos los pueblos de América Latina!

Tegucigalpa 21 de septiembre 2009

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/331

Police shooting into peaceful crowd outside Brazilian embassy

The military are forcing protesters away from the embassy, shooting at them. It is feared that they will invade the embassy.

http://quotha.net/node/332

All airports shut down

A clear attempt to prevent Insulza, Arias, and any observers from entering the country.

http://quotha.net/node/334

Military surround hospital to disappear the Hondurans they put there

The Hospital Escuela, which reports 17 critically injured patients (3 already dead) from the military attack outside the Brazilian embassy, and the Social Security Clinic, are currently surrounded by military soldiers, attempting to remove the patients.

http://quotha.net/node/335

Hooded soldiers invade Brazilian national territory

Heavily armed soldiers are currently invading the building next to the Brazilian embassy, breaking through to get access to the Brazilian embassy.

[John Schröder]

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_pledges ... 22009.html

The United States pledged Tuesday to do whatever it can to help Brazil's embassy in Honduras, which was surrounded by soldiers and had its lights, water and phone lines cut off after deposed President Manuel Zelaya took refuge there.

"Our embassy in Tegucigalpa is in contact with their counterparts in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa and we're discussing what kind of assistance that we can provide to help them during this crisis," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.

"It's a very sensitive situation there on the ground, and I don't want to get into the details of what kind of assistance we're discussing."

Honduran soldiers earlier dispersed thousands of protesters who had camped out overnight outside the embassy to protect the man they see as the country's rightful leader, but who was deposed in a military-backed coup in June.

"The United States calls on all parties to remain calm and avoid actions that might provoke violence in Honduras, and place individuals at risk or harm," said a statement read by Kelly before he took questions from journalists.

"We urge that all parties refrain from actions that would lead to further unrest," the statement said. "Respect and protection for the inviolability of diplomatic premises is a universally accepted principle of international relations."

[JackRiddler]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... -democracy

Seven Million Hondurans Under House Arrest as Micheletti Writes of "Democracy"

By Al Giordano

Hondurans in civil resistance surrounded the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet their returning president. This morning, coup regime troops attacked them violently, sending 24 wounded to hospitals. D.R. 2009 Mariachiloko, Chiapas Indymedia.

The Honduran coup regime’s 26-hour martial curfew upon the entire country effectively places 7.5 million Honduran citizens – men, women, children and elders – under house arrest. They are prohibited from going to work, to the store, or to walk down the street to visit a neighbor. Anybody on the street is subject to arrest, for violation of the curfew.

If this happened to you, what would you call it?

The stated pretext for this heavy handed maneuver is nothing more or less than that the regime, its “president,” and its security forces have been embarrassed before their countrymen and the world. Yesterday morning’s claims by coup “president” Roberto Micheletti that news reports could not possibly be true that legitimate President Manuel Zelaya was back in town, that the regime’s intelligence forces had his every step followed and “knew” he was “in a hotel suite in Managua,” became egg on Micheletti’s face when Zelaya appeared from the rooftop of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet a multitude of citizens that want their elected president restored.

The military curfew has no practical reason. It will not bring the expulsion, anew, of Zelaya from national territory. It will not hasten his capture by the regime. And it does not make the regime any more legitimate. To the contrary, it demonstrates, again, its repressive, anti-democratic and usurper character. It is a desperate act meant to punish the entire Honduran people for, after 86 days, not “getting with the program” and backing the coup. It is a tantrum by the man-child Micheletti to lash out and insist, “I’m in charge, here,” but it only serves to underscore, again, that he is not in control of the country or its people.

Thousands violated the curfew blatantly last night keeping watch outside the Brazilian Embassy. In the morning, the coup’s security forces entered, shot tear gas canisters at the crowd (and over the Embassy wall) and violently attacked the peaceful protesters. Local hospitals report 24 wounded from the invasion. National Police, additionally, waged a separate attack on the human rights organization COFADEH (family members of the disappeared and detained) at 8 a.m. this morning, launching tear gas missiles through its glass windows.

Radio Globo now reports that the same Supreme Court that contorted the Honduran Constitution to create a legaloid curtain around the June 28 coup d’etat is now meeting to cook up its latest kangaroo jump: a court order to invade the Embassy – under International Law, Brazilian territory – to capture (or assassinate) President Zelaya. So large and irrational is the regime’s obsession with the presence of one solitary man in the country that it confines every citizen to his and her home and tears up the Constitution, again.

In a whining attempt to claim victory out of what is the coup regime’s single most stunning defeat to date, Micheletti had his US handler Lanny Davis whip up an op ed column published last night in the Washington Post. Here’s a quick translation from its hurried English to plain talk: “I did nothing wrong and why doesn’t anybody in the world understand me?” It is the speech of a child to mommy and daddy after he is caught stealing from the candy store again. From the first sentence, when he complains that, “Manuel Zelaya has surreptitiously returned to Honduras,” Micheletti seems to think that the world has forgotten that Zelaya very openly attempted to enter his own country twice this summer – announcing where and when in advance – and it was Micheletti who blocked an airport runway and sent troops to the border to keep the elected president out, even as he insisted that he wanted to place Zelaya under arrest.

“The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic,” Micheletti lamented at the very hour he was ordering the 26 hour curfew. How could anybody possibly think that a warden that orders 7.5 million people to remain locked in their homes could somehow be “undemocratic?”

“Coups do not allow freedom of assembly, either. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights,” wrote Micheletti, as his troops readied this morning’s attack on a free assembly and a human rights office, and just hours after he accused independent TV and radio stations of “media terrorism” for having reported the truth that Zelaya had returned (see Belén Fernández’s related report from Tegucigalpa today: Radio Globo and Channel 36 Announce the Return of Zelaya).

Micheletti’s column is easily recognizable to readers in the United States as coming from the same script that his lobbyist Lanny Davis used last year to insist, long after Secretary Clinton had lost the Democratic presidential nomination, that she was, in fact, winning. And it comes off just as pathetically.

Meanwhile, in the regime he calls a “democracy,” seven and a half million people are confined to their homes. Micheletti isn’t a “president.” He’s a two bit warden, coming to grips with the painful reality that he is neither a head of state, nor ready for prime time.

Update 2:46 p.m. Tegucigalpa (4:46 p.m. ET): Further showing his grand commitment to "democracy" and law, Micheletti's security forces are presently reading the search and seizure order through a megaphone to the Brazilian Embassy. It could be a bluff, but if Zelaya doesn't fall for it (and The Field predicts he won't), and the coup troops invade the Embassy, all hell is going to break loose on an international level, just as the United Nations General Assembly begins its most important session of the year in New York.

Brazil's foreign minister, in New York, has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The US State Department has called on the de facto regime to respect Brazilian territory, as President Obama has just appointed US Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), leader in the US Congress against the Honduran coup, to the US delegation at the UN session, perhaps an indication of some plans afoot up there.

Is the coup regime that desperate and stupid to commit an act of war against Brazilian territory? (Two words to ponder: Blue helmets.) We'll shortly find out, and report it here.

3:18 p.m.: Micheletti blinks:

Honduras' de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti, said on Tuesday he has no intention of confronting Brazil or entering its embassy where ousted President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge to avoid arrest.

"We will do absolutely nothing to confront another brotherly nation. We we want them to understand that they should give him political asylum (in Brazil) or turn him over to Honduran authorities to be tried," Micheletti told Reuters.

Meanwhile, at least two popular barrios in and around Tegucigalpa have defied, en masse, the curfew order and chased National Police out of their communities: El Pedregal and Colonia Kennedy. They've erected barricades and declared the coup regime and its security forces non grata.

[John Schröder]

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... rship.html

The owner of Radio Uno in El Paraiso, called in to Radio Globo this morning to report that last night his station was taken over by the military, that its employees were beaten, arms broken. This morning the military called him and told him he could have the station back and it could broadcast, but only if it did not mention Manuel Zelaya or anything about the events in Tegucigalpa.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... facto.html

The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti Bain apparently believes it has no responsibility for the situation in Honduras.

Its the Brazilian embassy's fault if Zelaya's presence leads to public disorder, violence, material damages, and loss of life wrote the Foreign Minister, Carlos Lopez Contreras, to the embassy in response to Zelaya's presence there.

Earlier, Roberto Micheletti claimed, in a televised national speech, that Zelaya and the Frente would be responsible for the same violence, damages, and loss of life that would result from his presence. This speech came before the demonstrators outside the Brazilian embassy were tear gassed.

Of course, the mobilization of 1500 troops this morning to dislodge the peaceful protesters, had nothing to do with the violence or loss of life. It was the military, not the protesters, that destroyed the cars parked near the Brazilian embassy TV footage shows. But of course, they aren't responsible.

Zelaya said this morning, "I came peacefully, unarmed, as you have seen, and they've received us with shots, I invited them to talks, and they answered with arms, they answered by shooting tear gas at the embassy, hurting them with gun shots."

They got it right. They're irresponsible.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... ialog.html

Pepe Lobo, presidential candidate for the Nationalist Party in Honduras, is calling for dialogue, say's El Heraldo's Minuto a Minuto column. "Now that Zelaya is in the country, there's nothing that dialog cannot solve. Both of them need to put aside any intransigence," he said of Micheletti and Zelaya.

UPDATE 1 pm PDT: Lobo has now threatened to withdraw his support of Micheletti if he does not talk with Zelaya. Lobo told Channel 5, Tiempo reports, that if Micheletti isn't willing to be flexible, to talk with Zelaya, to compromise, then his support (for Micheletti) ends here.

In all, 4 of the Presidential candidates, Pepe Lobo, Elvin Santos, Bernard Martínez, and Felecito Avila, the ones who have the most to lose if the world doesn't recognize the results of the November 29 elections, have issued a unified call for dialogue. "We call on Zelaya and Micheletti to talk, and perhaps they'll hug and as candidates we stretch out our hands, so that they will do that for Honduras" they wrote in a statement issued this morning.

The National Congress suspended its session scheduled for today, and will not meet until next week. At that time, José Alfredo Saavedra, de facto President of Congress, says they will take up the statements by Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who said that his party will not continue to support Micheletti if he does not establish a dialogue with Zelaya. Saavedra noted that the San Jose Accord is a sacrifice by both leaders, and a viable solution to this conflict.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... e-for.html

Today's Tiempo finally woke up, and reports that the electricity, water, and phone service to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa has been shut off by the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti. The Brasilian chancellor, because the ambassador was recalled to Brasilia, asked for help from the US Embassy in Honduras. Right now they have a generator and fuel, but have asked the US Embassy for diesel for the generator.

The trade representative in the embassy, confirmed that 5000 protestors were dislodged this morning.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... tepid.html

The US State Department has finally said something about the militarization around the Brazilian embassy.

But for anyone waiting for some leadership-- well, look elsewhere.

At best we can acknowledge the US reply as temperate. They urge respect for diplomatic norms and the Brazilian embassy (which seems a bit odd when that embassy is already under seige and without utilities).

They also, though, continue inanely to urge both sides not to provoke violence. As Adrienne Pine comments, this fair-and-balanced approach pretends that Zelaya is culpable when Hondurans excercising their free speech and assembly rights are attacked.

This in turn gives tacit approval for the de facto regime.

Couldn't we ask for at least condemnation of unprovoked police violence? The OAS managed to say that.

What about a free press? The Interamerican Human Rights Council was able to say that.

Our defense-of-democracy credentials would seem to require more than a tepid response.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... tions.html

Shades of Chile in 1973 when Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende (that was with US support). The Stadiums became the prisons, and centers of torture and execution. Victor Jara was killed in a stadium there.

The National Police are holding thousands of protesters in the Chochy Sosa baseball stadium in the Olympic village in Tegucigalpa according to Adrés Pavon, president of the Comité para la defensa de los Derechos Humanos (CODEH). He says "there are people being tortured, disappeared, and we are confirming the death of two people." Bertha Oliva, director of the Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH) called it a "concentration camp".

This is where earlier, the Frente has reported that Israelies were training a group of the National Police in protest disruption tactics.

Tiempo went to the stadium where a police spokesman admitted to holding 94 people for being out after curfew, and 49 for causing disturbances. The police claimed there were no injured people there, and that the Red Cross was there to provide food and water for the detained.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... talks.html

El Heraldo reports that Roberto Micheletti says he's ready to talk about a solution to the standoff in Honduras, just not with anyone who's talked with him about it up until now. He specifically singles out Insulza and Arias for having "interferred". He'd like to hand pick a list of possible candidates, possibly someone from the UN, who will come to hear the position of the Hondurans (and aren't there multiple positions being played out, Mr. Micheletti?). In addition to making a list of the possible candidates, he wants to control who they talk to to get the "position" of the Hondurans, and who forms a commission for Honduras. He discards the participation of the Presidential candidates because they have their politics.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... dline.html

Ousted President's Return Halts Honduran Cigar Shipments

The oversimplified claim by Andrew Nagy is that the protests are responsible for the closing of the Airports and the shutting down of the border crossings, and of course, the curfew. Not one mention of the de facto government's responsibility for all of this. My favorite sentence: "Hysteria has affected the cigar industry too, particularly the Alec Brady Cigar Co...." Hysteria?! where did that come from? Sheesh.

[John Schröder]

http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... -honduras/

Transcript of BBC Interview with President Zelaya from Brazilian Embassy in Honduras

2009 September 21

by magbana

Page last updated at 20:56 GMT, Monday, 21 September 2009 21:56 UK

Zelaya ‘will rebuild democracy’

The ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has returned to his country after nearly three months in exile following a political coup. Below is the transcript of an interview he gave to the BBC’s Latin American service from inside the Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa (21 September 2009)
Mr Zelaya has based himself in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa

Question: How did you arrive in Honduras?

A: In a peaceful, voluntary manner. I’ve been supported by various groups but I can’t mention them so those people are not hurt. [We travelled] for more than 15 hours… through rivers, mountains, until we reached the capital of Honduras in the early hours of the morning.

We overcame military and police obstacles on the highways, because this country has been kidnapped by the military forces.

Question: What is the international support for your return?

A: I am in the Brazilian Embassy. [Brazilian] President [Luiz Inacio] Lula [da Silva] and Foreign Minister [Celso] Amorim have opened the doors for me. This is useful for us in calling for a dialogue.

I just spoke to Secretary Insulza [Jose Miguel Insulza of the Organization of American States] who will come in the next few hours. The United Nations will also come, in a commission to begin a dialogue to rebuild Honduran democracy.

Question: Which are going to be your next political steps?

A: We are speaking to different sectors of society, with the international community, and we will begin an overture of communication.

Then [we will take] different approaches to solve this problem. Unfortunately, the coup leaders did not previously consider a solution, and I think we should take over the diplomatic side.

Question: Are you planning to meet the de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti face to face?

A: I’m willing to find a solution to this process, and if that solution consists of that, I am willing to do it. There is no impediment from me to searching for an answer to this problem.

Question: Have you established contact with the armed forces of your country?

A: No, not yet, I’ve only been here for a couple of hours. We haven’t had the time to do it.

Question: What would be the conditions for establishing a dialogue with the coup leaders?

A: Well, the main thing is the support of the people, which is essential for starting a dialogue.

Question: Do you think your presence in Tegucigalpa could stoke further demonstrations?

A: Yes, of course, we have started today with more demonstrations. I am a peaceful man, I don’t like violence and I call upon the armed forces not to use violence against people. Not against the people.

Question: The Micheletti government has said you would be arrested if you came back?

A: I have no problem with facing any trial or any prosecution they could seek. I will submit myself to any trial because my hands are clean and my chin is up.

Question: Some might say your decision to come back is “irresponsible”, because it could trigger violence.

A: I call for peace and non violence. It’s the best way to solve problems – problems always have to be solved by calling for democracy and not the weapons.

If there’s anything that the international community could do it would be to call for that solution and say ‘No’ to more violence. “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8267982.stm

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/341