Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

by **John Schröder** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:01 pm

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... films-past

US Ambassador Lew Amselem: A Ghoul from Horror Films Past

By Al Giordano

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by **John Schröder** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:16 pm

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

The head of congress, Jose Angel Saavedra, met with Roberto Micheletti and Ramon Velasquez Nassar, vice president of the Congress, Antonio Rivera Callejas, Liberal Party member, and Ricardo Rodriguez, Liberal Party member, to ask that Micheletti rescind the decree issued sunday night.

The Nationalist party has come out and said they will not vote for it when it comes up for approval in Congress.

Radio Globo, broadcasting on the internet from a clandestine studio, reported a few minutes ago that the measure likely will not pass if it comes to a vote in Congress. They cited Jose Azcona as their source.

Update 2:30 PM PDT: La Tribuna reports that the Congressional leadership has met with Micheletti and asked him to rescind the decree suspending parts of the constitution. Antonio Rivera Calleja, a congressman, pointed out that the Executive branch has ways of punishing media that break the law. He said the motiviation for asking Micheletti to rescind the decree was to open a space for dialogue that the country requires.

The vice president of Congress, Ramon Velasquez Nazar, said it would be better if Micheletti rescinded the decree before sending it to Congress for approval.

Jose Angel Saavedra, president of Congress, said that they brought the proposal to the executive branch, and it was up to them to decide if they want to reform or rescind this ordinance.

"We want to foster dialog, we want to send a message to the international and national community that the management of Congress, the heads of the political parties represented in the legislature, we want to contribute to a great dialogue which is what we are hoping for," said Saavedra.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... -time.html

El Heraldo is reporting via its "Minuto a Minuto" column that at 3:19 pm in Tegucigalpa, Roberto Micheletti said that having heard the petition of Congress, he would meet with the justices of the Supreme Court and presidential candidates to rescind the decree, AT AN OPPORTUNE MOMENT IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS! In the meantime it remains in effect. Literally incredible.

The leadership of the Liberal party has denounced the decree, reports Radio Globo.

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

There is a struggle in Honduras about how to rescind the de facto government's decree removing constitutional guarantees for 45 days. The struggle is not based on any legal issue, but rather on political considerations.

As Greg Weeks notes in his blog today, the consitution allows congress to reject, ammend/modify, or approve of such decrees, and notes that they simply go out of effect should the conditions that caused them to be issued (which must be specified in the decree) cease to exist. So, Congress could have dealt with it yesterday.

Micheletti himself, via a new decree from his council of Ministers, could nullify it. Manuel Zelaya used this technique to comply with the lower court order regarding the Cuarta Urna original decree. Its completely legal and simple.

However, yesterday Congress refused to deal with rejecting the decree even though they told Micheletti it would not pass and Micheletti said he would talk to the Supreme Court and the Presidential candidates about rescinding it. Why?

First, there's the simple need of Micheletti to delay things. He delayed the OAS ministers visit by more than a week; its now scheduled for October 7. He wants this election to take place under his administration, so any delay is a good delay. I think this is his only motivation for asking the Supreme Court how to rescind it. There's no legal impediment to him doing it today, if he wants to do it. The cost, however, politically is enormous. As El Pais notes "the mask is off." In their lead, they see Congress as having "corrected" Micheletti.

Why doesn't Congress rescind it, since they told Micheletti yesterday that it would not pass if it came up for a vote. The reasons here are political. Both Porfirio Lobo (Nationalist Party presidential candidate) and Jose Angel Saavedra (President of Congress) have indicated there is near universal agreement that the limitations on speech and personal liberty are improper and unsupportable. Neither contributes to transparent elections, and both said this yesterday.

Elvin Santos (Liberal Party presidential candidate) noted that in talking with Micheletti, they provided him with several alternative decrees that still accomplished his goal of restricting opposition access to the media.

Congress itself could reject, or ammend the decree right now. However, Saavedra noted that there were divisions within Congress regarding the other consitutional restrictictions in the decree, and the political cost of bringing those divisions to light could damage the coalition that supports the coup.

So expect delay from everyone about rescinding the decree, which is not law, but is being enforced because it has successfully stopped the over the air broadcasts of Channel 36 and Radio Globo.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... -2009.html

This controversial decree, PCM-M-016-2009, rescinding constitutional guarantees for Hondurans for 45 days has a curious history first noted by the Spanish paper, El Pais. The decree was passed, according to La Gaceta, on 22 September, just one day after Zelaya came back into the country. However it was not published in La Gaceta until Saturday, September 26. For 4 days it was kept secret. Indeed, by publishing it on a Saturday, few had access to it over the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, a foreign reporter asked Carlos Lopez Contreras about the rumors of its existance, and he replied "I don't have any knowledge, go ask the Minister of Government." Yet his is the third signature on the second page of the decree.

Even after publishing it, the government maintained its secrecy through Sunday afternoon and did nothing until the national and international press began to write about it. Why?

Thanks to Tito for pointing out this excellent article.

http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... -soon.html

General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez says the crisis will end soon. "I see that we are rapidly coming to a solution, which is what we all want," he said in a local television interview. He noted that the solution is being promoted by different sectors of Honduran society, and that "it will be achieved when the parties have the disposition to sit down and talk." He also noted that he perceives the will in various sectors that are looking for an exit, that "What we have to do now is begin to create levels of appropriate confidence" to make an accord possible.

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

Yesterday in the OAS session about Honduras, the backup US ambassador to the OAS, Lew Anselem, and Bush era appointment, said "Zelaya's return to Honduras is irresponsible and foolish and it doesn't serve to the interests of the people nor those who seek the restoration of democratic order in Honduras. Everyone will be better if all parties refrain from provoking or inciting violence." He also said of Zelaya, "The president should stop acting as though he were starring in an old movie."

You can find an excellent review of just what a lowlife Lew Anselem is from Al Giordano.

The "foolish" comment became translated in Spanish as "idiot" in all the Honduran press and was widely covered. It has done irreparable harm to the US message in Honduras, if their desire, as stated, is a return to democracy. The question I increasingly find myself asking is: Are they really not aware of how their message is being received in Honduras? Do they not know how their convoluted words are being seized on as signs of support? Can they really not manage to be clearer?

I increasingly find myself concluding that they know what they are saying, that the Micheletti regime really does have the support of the US State Department, that they will support the results of the November 29 elections, whether or not democracy is restored to Honduras; that they just want all of this to end, to go away, a return to the status quo. That's not going to happen. Honduras will never be the same again.

I can parse a statement from the US State Department as an American, and I can parse the same statement the way a Honduran does. I have to think that the State Department can do both parsings as well. Ian Kelly's (State Department Spokesperson) statement yesterday basically ignored Anselem's vulgarities yesterday. Anselem's actually suggested in the OAS session that the US would recognize the results of the November 29 elections, whether or not anything changes in Honduras, and was part of a faction that included Canada, Panama, and Columbia that took that position and blocked an OAS resolution to not recognized the results. We aligned ourselves with the right wing governments of Latin America. The State Department and the Obama White House have not repudiated Anselem's actions in the OAS.

Hugo Llorens, US ambassador in Tegucigalpa, spent the morning trying to deliver a clearer message in Honduras. He said "We support democracy in Honduras and in any other country."

I wanted to include whatever statements Phillip Crowley made in the daily press breifing today, but the State Department website is so broken that they've posted a link to the video, but it doesn't seem to play on my computer, and of course, they don't post the full text transcript until many hours later, except for those willing to pay the subscription fee to the Federal Transcription Service.

Either our State Department is incompetent, or we are idiots for believing them. Either way, Honduras loses.

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

Tiempo reports Adolfo Facussé, leader of ANDI, an association of businessment, today shared with the AFP details of a plan proposed to end the crisis in Honduras. Facussé told the AFP it calls for Zelaya's restoral, but that he submit himself immediately for trial on the charges filed against him. Micheletti would return to Congress, but not as its president, just a regular congressperson. "We'll give him an important chair (chairmanship of a committee?, "curul vitalica")." To assure enforcement, we'd ask for a multinational force of military or police from Canada, Panama, and Columbia.

The plan also supposes that Zelaya would delegate the command of the armed forces to his council of Ministers as well as the ability to remove members of the cabinet. The Ministers would be named by the various political parties in proportion to the votes they received in the last national elections in 2005, and it would require a vote of 2/3 of the cabinet to remove them.

The proposal also asks the international community to support the November 29 elections and that the OAS and other international observers certify the transparency of the process and the legitimacy of the results.

It asks the US to provide economic assistance "for the damages done to the Honduran economy by the sanctions adoped by Washington", such as the cancelation of visas and the freezing of aid, and asks for a moratorium on the deportation of Hondurans living in the US.

Facussé said the proposal had been presented to Micheletti, the presidential candidates, US Ambassador Hugo Llorens, and the auxilliary biship of Tegucigalpa, Juan Jose Pineda, who is acting as a go-between between Micheletti and Zelaya.

by **John Schröder** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:34 pm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=4081820

A woman, with an adhesive tape on her mouth that reads Honduras and another one on her forehead that reads in Spanish 'Censure,' looks on during a demonstration in support of Hondura's ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept 28, 2009. Honduras' interim government leaders have suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted Zelaya in a military-backed coup.
(AP Photo/ Eduardo Verdugo)

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya shouts with other supporters during a protest march in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009.
REUTERS/Henry Romero

Relatives and neighbors gather during the funeral of Wendy Elizabeth Avila, 24, a supporter of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya, in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. Zelaya supporters said Avila died because of complications from inhaling tear gas when soldiers broke up a demonstration in front of the Brazilian embassy last Tuesday. Local media reported she suffered from asthma.

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya holds a poster as he takes part in a march to support Zelaya in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduras' de facto government sent troops on Monday to shut down two media stations loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya, digging in to resist international pressure for his return to power. The words at the top of the poster read: "We need Mel (Zelaya).
"REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (HONDURAS POLITICS CONFLICT)

A boy looks at the coffin of Wendy Elizabeth Avila, 24, a supporter of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya during her funeral in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. Zelaya supporters said Avila died because of complications from inhaling tear gas when soldiers broke up a demonstration in front of the Brazilian embassy last Tuesday. Local media reported she suffered from asthma.
(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Riot police officers patrol during a march by supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduras' de facto government sent troops on Monday to shut down two media stations loyal to Zelaya, digging in to resist international pressure for his return to power.
REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (HONDURAS MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS)

Honduran Foreign Affairs Minister Patricia Isabel Rodas Baca holds a cell phone up to the microphones to allow Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya to address the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters Monday, Sept. 28, 2009.
(AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

Supporters of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya pray at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. The coup-installed government in Honduras is backing off of its increasingly desperate measures to hold onto power. Interim President Roberto Micheletti said Monday afternoon that an emergency decree restricting civil liberties for 45 days will soon be lifted, less than a day after his government imposed the emergency order.
(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya shouts with other supporters during a protest march in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduras' de facto government on Monday resisted pressure from opponents and the international community over ousted Zelaya, who for a week has been holed up inside the Brazilian embassy seeking a return to power.
REUTERS/Henry Romero (HONDURAS MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT)

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya shouts with other supporters during a protest march in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduras' de facto government on Monday resisted pressure from opponents and the international community over Zelaya, who for a week has been holed up inside the Brazilian embassy seeking a return to power.
REUTERS/Henry Romero (HONDURAS MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT)

Riot police officers carry radio equipment outside the Radio Globo station in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduran soldiers raided the radio station aligned with ousted President Manuel Zelaya and shut down its operations after the de facto government issued a decree allowing the suspension of some civil rights and media, the radio's director said on Monday.
REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (HONDURAS POLITICS MEDIA MILITARY CONFLICT)

Soldiers and riot police officers stand guard outside the Chanel 36 station in Tegucigalpa September 28, 2009. Honduran soldiers raided the television station aligned with ousted President Manuel Zelaya and shut down its operations after the de facto government issued a decree allowing the suspension of some civil rights and media, the radio's director said on Monday.
REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (HONDURAS POLITICS MEDIA MILITARY CONFLICT)

by **John Schröder** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:34 am

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... -coup-2009

Second Coup Fails, as Lonely Oligarch Plots Third Honduran Coup of 2009

By Al Giordano

Adolfo Facusse – the Honduran business magnate who earlier this month was hauled off an arriving airplane in Miami by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents then deported straight back to Honduras – is one of those fast-and-loose players who, even while deserting the Titanic, will look for some advantage in securing the best lifeboat exclusively for him, or at least stuff whatever silverware he can grab into his pockets on the way out.

And so it was today when Facusse announced his grand plan to solve the problem of a coup that he had supported but that has now demonstrably failed.

Facusse proposes that:

"We set the wheels moving again, although we don't know how far they'll take us," Facusse told reporters, claiming that Micheletti has also signed off on it.

Coup General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, of course, loves, loves, LOVES the plan, gushing:

"I see that we're quickly approaching a solution, which is what we're all waiting for.”Facusse, head of the National Association of Factories (ANDI, in its Spanish initials), was, only a few weeks ago leading the proposal that all businesses that are members of the Honduran Council of Private Business (COHEP) offer price discounts to voters to encourage them to participate in the November 29 “elections.” It was like a democracy clearance sale, with Crazy Fito shouting "EVERYTHING MUST GO! OUR PRICES ARE INSANE!"

But a funny thing happened on the way to the ballot box. Coup dictator Micheletti – installed in large part due to Facusse’s anti-democracy efforts – two nights ago decreed a 45-day State of Siege, canceling basic Constitutional rights to free speech, press, transit, assembly and due process. I called it The Second Honduran Coup of 2009, and the naked admission that The First Coup had failed to establish control over the country and its people.

The cloak of “democracy” and “constitutionality” fell off the coup regime overnight on Sunday. Leading presidential candidate Pepe Lobo rejected the decree, as did the current president of the coup Congress, and business leaders who saw the new rules would be bad for their wallets told Micheletti that it wasn’t going to work. And now Micheletti is slowly backing away from it, so slowly that he hopes nobody will notice then demand that his jackboots return the transmitters and equipment they stole Monday morning from key TV and radio stations.

All this time over the past three months, Micheletti, Vásquez, Facusse and the rest of their gang of reverse Robin Hoods thought that if they just stalled for time they would be able to run the clock out and impose November 29 "elections" on a fixed playing field as the final solution. But as Mexican pollster Dan Lund noted today, Micheletti's Sunday night decree inverted that dynamic: Now there is not possibly enough time left on the clock to overcome the damage done by Micheletti's decree to the claim that elections so soon after The Second Coup and its authoritarian vices can possibly be free or fair. Lund writes:

"The timing of the elections set for November 29, 2009 is now a straight jacket, especially in the context of current confusion, the emergency decree... the complex media situation (an open and truly fair media being the sine qua non for an election of this significance), and the need for enough reconciliation to give confidence to the whole process."
Facusse’s proposal is in effect on behalf of The Third Coup, or at least a trial balloon toward its attempt. But beyond its whacky proposals above, The Third Coup has an even more fatal flaw: It was developed in a back room by rich and powerful magnates, without so much a consulting, much less dialoging with, a single worker, or farmer, or student, much less their organizations that represent the great mass of the mobilized Honduran people. For it is their power from below that has prevented both malicious coups this year from triumphing. No regime - not any more - can hold on to power in Honduras unless it sufficiently satisfies the amalgam of social movements that are now popularly referred to as The Resistance.

Furthermore, to attempt to reward Micheletti just two days after he bared his despotic teeth – in effect, betraying his other coup plotters in their lust for portraying this pustch as “not a coup” - with a lifetime unelected post in Congress, as Facusse’s proposal does, indicates a mindset so far removed from the realities demonstrated over the past summer, so profoundly out of touch with the overwhelming sentiment of the majority of his countrymen and women, that it offers a glass window into the mysterious mind of the oligarch, trying one more time to extract advantage over everybody else, even as his best made plans come crashing down all around him.

by **John Schröder** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:56 am

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/29/i ... oup_regime

Internal Pressure Forces Honduran Coup Regime to Reverse Civil Liberties Crackdown, But Repression Continues

The Honduran coup regime has been forced to reverse a harsh crackdown on civil liberties amidst growing protests for the restoration of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya. But Honduran forces still blocked a large protest march and shut down two media outlets that have criticized the coup regime. Meanwhile, a top US diplomat criticized the coup regime’s decision but then turned around to issue a harsh condemnation of ousted Zelaya. We go to Honduras to speak with Andrés Conteris from inside the embassy where Zelaya is hiding and speak to Luther Castillo, a Honduran doctor who is in Washington to speak with US lawmakers. [includes rush transcript]

Guests:

Andres Conteris

Hidden in Plain Sight

Democracy Now!

Dr. Luther Castillo

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The coup regime in Honduras appears to be backing off its attempt to shut down protests and limit free speech amidst growing protests for the restoration of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

On Sunday, the coup government of Roberto Micheletti announced a forty-five-day decree that imposed sweeping restrictions on civil liberties, including banning unauthorized public meetings, allowing the government to shut down broadcasters, and giving police the authority to make arrests without warrants.

After congressional leaders warned they would not approve the decree, Micheletti gave a televised news conference Monday evening asking for, quote, “forgiveness from the Honduran people” and said he would lift the decree as, quote, “quickly as possible.”

Earlier that day, masked police officers and soldiers shut down two media outlets that have criticized the coup regime. Government forces also cordoned off a street to prevent a march of several hundred supporters of ousted President Zelaya.

Zelaya has remained inside the Brazilian embassy since defiantly returning to Honduras one week ago. The Micheletti government has now given Brazil a ten-day deadline to hand over Zelaya or face the embassy’s closure. The coup regime issued the threat as its soldiers continued to surround the embassy and limit the delivery of supplies. Brazil has rejected the ultimatum and says Zelaya will stay as long as he needs. Brazil’s representative to the Organization of American States, Ruy de Lima Casaes e Silva, warned of the severity of the crisis.

RUY DE LIMA CASAES E SILVA:

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The coup regime on Monday refused entry to a delegation from the Organization of American States that had come to seek a negotiated solution to the crisis. Speaking in Washington, the US ambassador to the OAS, Lewis Amselem, criticized the coup regime’s decision but then turned around to issue a harsh condemnation of ousted Zelaya.

LEWIS AMSELEM:

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: On Monday night, Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone that his foreign minister held up to the podium.

PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA:

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: We go now to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where we’re joined via Democracy Now! video stream by Andrés Conteris. He is the Program on the Americas director for Nonviolence International and also works at Democracy Now! en Español. He has been inside the Brazilian embassy for the past week.

We’re also joined from Washington, DC by Dr. Luther Castillo. He’s an indigenous physician from the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. He founded the first hospital and health center in that region. He is also secretary of communications for the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras. Shortly before the coup, he had been named director of International Cooperation in the Honduran Foreign Ministry.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! First, we’re going to go to Andrés Conteris. He’s joining us on the telephone, actually, from the—inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Andrés, welcome to Democracy Now!

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: It’s a pleasure, Sharif.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Can you start off by telling us what exactly is happening right now inside the embassy? What do you see outside? Are soldiers outside the embassy?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: Yes, there are many soldiers right outside the embassy. There are some hundreds, but the visible right outside here are probably a dozen. This place has been militarized since just over a week ago, right after the return of President Zelaya to Honduras. The repression was immediately felt in the very, very violent eviction that happened exactly one week ago this morning. Over 500 revelers who were dancing in the street were brutally repressed by the soldiers. Tear gas was used, and that tear gas completely filled the embassy here.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And Andrés, you’ve been there for a week now. We’ve heard reports of a sound weapon being used, similar to the one that we reported on used in Pittsburgh at the G-20. Can you confirm or deny that?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: That weapon having to do with audio definitely was used: a very sharp, piercing noise that really, really causes deep, deep distress. Other weapons have been used. I have not been able to confirm gases used after the tear gas incident, but other people did feel a attack by gas during this past week.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And the coup regime has given the Brazilian embassy ten days to hand over Manuel Zelaya or grant him asylum in Brazil. Brazil has denied this, has refused to do so. What is President Zelaya saying right now about what’s happening?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: What President Zelaya is saying is that the international community needs to follow up with the declarations that were approved by both the United Nations, the OAS, as well as the San Jose Accord. He is very open to dialogue in that framework of those documents. Every single one of them says that he needs to be restated—reinstated as the president, the democratically elected leader of Honduras. And this coup regime here is not willing to do that.

Other things that he says clearly are having to do with the incredible amount of repression that is being felt around Honduras. Just yesterday, they buried a young woman named Wendy, who died as a result of the tear gas a week ago here in the embassy area. She had asthma and suffered from that, was hospitalized and then later died. She’s just one of many, many who have passed away as a result of the brutality of the Micheletti regime.

And what is really disconcerting is that the United States, through the Obama administration, has not said one word condemning the human rights atrocities here, in spite of the fact that they have been very, very well documented by the most recognized human rights organizations in the world. Congressman Grijalva of Arizona wrote a very clear letter to Obama documenting all of this, and there has been no response by this administration in terms of publicly condemning the human rights violations by this regime.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And speaking of the US response, last night we heard possibly the harshest condemnation from a top diplomat, a US top diplomat, Lewis Amselem, the representative to the OAS. He called Zelaya’s return “irresponsible and foolish.” Your response?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: This comment by Ambassador Amselem comes a week after Hillary Clinton clearly welcomed President Zelaya back to Honduras. So we’re seeing a double face in terms of the policy from the Obama administration in terms of, is he welcome, or is it foolish for him to have returned.

One thing to know about the background of Ambassador Amselem is that he was with the SOUTHCOM, the Pentagon’s organization in Latin America. And the military policy with regard to Honduras has to be mentioned, because it’s very key. The US continues to train Honduran soldiers at the School of the Americas, in spite of the fact that they have said that ties had been severed. Honduras remains invited to the military maneuvers called PANAMAX 2009, which were twenty-one countries invited from September 11th to September 22nd. And Honduras was on the list. The Pentagon never withdrew them. And the only reason they didn’t participate is because other countries in South America refused to go to the maneuvers if Honduras was going to remain as participating.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And this issue of the crackdown on civil liberties, Micheletti issued a decree on Sunday, a forty-five-day decree, with sweeping restrictions on civil liberties. He has pledged to reverse that, following congressional leaders not giving him support. But this did—the day after he issued the decree, he closed down two media stations, one of them being Radio Globo, that I believe President Zelaya has frequently done interviews on. What has been the effect of this inside the embassy?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: Inside the embassy, what we have been feeling is a terrorism on the part of this regime as they issued this decree, which really defines them outright as an absolute dictatorship. Constitutional guarantees in the Honduran Constitution defend the right to gather, defend the right to movement and thinking and freedom of expression by the media. All of these were the articles that were suspended by this decree imposed by Micheletti, and because of pressure from the Congress, as well as international pressure, he was forced to back away from that. However, it did really cause a chill here at the embassy, as well as around the country.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: We’re also joined in Washington, DC by Dr. Luther Castillo.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Dr. Castillo. You are the secretary of communications for the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras. You’re also a physician in Honduras, running a hospital there. First, tell us why you’re in Washington, DC.

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: Well, good morning to everyone.

We are here in Washington, DC, trying to meet some human rights organizations and contact with some Congress representatives like Congressman Grijalva, who has been writing a great letter addressed to the President Obama to take immediately action on this violation of human right that is happening in Honduras every day.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And you have called for a boycott of the elections in November? Why?

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: Because we recognize that this election in November is an illegal election, who are going to be running in November. One of the strategies that the de facto government is trying to do in this illegal election is to do a continuation of a coup d’état in Honduras. Then all the issues that will be addressing by this de facto government is an illegal issue, then that makes that election in November to be illegal then. Our organization, that’s the national committee against the coup d’état, who is inside there, all the civil organization, indigenous organizations, unions and other organization in Honduras, are against this election in November, and we consider it illegal.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Now, Dr. Castillo, you founded the first hospital on the Atlantic Coast region in Honduras. Talk about what that hospital was providing and what has happened since then, since the coup.

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: Then this hospital was founded by Garifuna doctors who was training in Cuba. Then we returned back to our community to give healthcare to all people that didn’t have healthcare before. Then we started to build the hospital with our own community. And with President Zelaya, we signed an agreement how to give support and sustainability to this process, where we have been attending more than 300,000 people for free in the area.

And now the de facto government have been cut and have been—deny the agreement that we signed before with President Zelaya. Then that make our hospital now without helps to attend all those people, who are in the deep mountain and the more forest area and the department of Colon and Gracias a Dios, near to La Mosquitia, then who really need our help in those areas.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And why has the coup regime tried to take over the hospital? Have they given you a reason for this?

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: They just, I think—they just give us—tell us that we have to—we are working in the community as illegals there, and they just send us a new agreement to sign that new agreement, who didn’t recognize our doctors who are working there in the area with us. They don’t even give us any reason why they are doing that.

Then we are accustomed to fight against that. We live in Honduras. We really know what the discrimination that we have been facing as a poor people, as the Garifuna people in Honduras then. We decided, with our community and our doctors, to be there, to stay there and keep looking for solidarity and work, continue helping our people there.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And finally, Dr. Castillo, you, yourself, personally have been targeted by the regime. How are you returning to Honduras, and how are you surviving there?

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: Then I will be returning back. We just came here to do this work with—that national committee give us to do here, because we have to be there with our people, fighting, and we have to be there with our people, demonstrating peacefully in the street that we are against that regime of brutality that is happening in Honduras.

One of the real things that we like to clarify that we have been listening to the—some of the representative of the OA—Organization of States of America, I think this issue is concern to Honduran people, you know, to appoint if he’s responsible or irresponsible, that action that President Zelaya took. We want to clarify that President Zelaya is the only president who was be elected for us as Honduran people. He’s the only constitutional president of Honduras. Then we decide and we think, as Honduran people, that it’s a responsible action of President Zelaya to return back to our country. He’s a Honduran, and we elect him as a president. Then I think that issue is concerning us, and we don’t think that it’s a irresponsible action that he is taking right now. Then we want him to return to Honduras. And when some people are talking about what is concerning to the peace of Honduran people, we have been more than ninety days in the street demanding the immediately return for President Zelaya. Now he’s in the country. I think we congratulate that action, that courage of President Zelaya to return back to Honduras. That represent one of the step that we have to take to bring peace to our country.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And what would you like to see the United States to be doing? What would you like to see President Obama to be doing regarding Honduras?

DR. LUTHER CASTILLO: Then we would like to see President Obama condemning all these violation of human right that have been happening in Honduras. We would like to see President Obama condemning and talking about all those people that have been killing in the street, all those young people who have been killing in the street, assassination. We would like to see President Obama talking to condemn all those women who—what military have been violating in the street of Honduras. And we would like to be—President Obama pushing more pressure on the—and the economic sanction to those [inaudible] family who are supporting the coup attack in Honduras. And we would like to see President Obama declaring definitely this issue as a military coup attack in Honduras.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And finally, Andrés Conteris, any final words from inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa?

ANDRÉS CONTERIS: The United States has been having a trade embargo against Cuba for decades. And if they would even consider an economic embargo against this regime, this coup would end. That’s because there’s more than 70 to 75 percent of Honduran trade is with the United States, and they could not withstand a trade embargo. So the US has arrows in its quiver that it could use to end this crisis, but it is choosing not to do so. And the US people must rise up and pressure the Obama administration to do more for Honduras and human rights here.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Andrés Conteris, thank you very much for joining us. He’s the Program on the Americas director for Nonviolence International, also works at Democracy Now! en Español. And special thanks also to Dr. Luther Castillo. He’s an indigenous physician from the Atlantic Coast of Honduras, secretary of communications for the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras.

by **John Schröder** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:12 am

http://www.progressive.org/wx092909.html

The State Department Scolds Zelaya Again

By Matthew Rothschild, September 29, 2009

Obama has let the Honduran coup continue.

He’s done so by not cutting off all aid to the country, and by not denouncing the coup makers strongly enough.

He’s also done so by letting the State Department say things that are either diametrically opposed to his own words or that undermine them, in any event.

For instance, Obama called the coup a coup; Hillary Clinton has never let that word pass her lips.

Obama called for the restoration of the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya. But when Zelaya first returned to Honduras, Hillary Clinton called it “reckless and imprudent” of him.

Now, after Zelaya has taken asylum in the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Lewis Anselem, just echoed Clinton by calling his move “irresponsible and foolish.”

And, with great condescension, the ambassador said Zelaya should stop “acting as though he were starring in an old movie.”

Actually, what we’re seeing is an old movie, and a bad one at that. It’s a movie called U.S. imperialism, and it keeps running and running and running.

Even though Obama yelled cut earlier this year and promised a relationship of equality with Latin America.

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

But between Obama’s words and the actions of his Administration falls the shadow.

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:24 am

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... oup-decree

Honduras Supreme Electoral Tribunal Comes Out Against Coup Decree

By Al Giordano

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:40 am

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... ment-32320

Ryan Vaquero wrote:I agree completely with the analysis here; I've seen the coup regime as being stuck between a rock and a hard place since Zelaya resurfaced in Tegucigalpa. The social movements are the rock -- without extreme repression, Zelaya can build and give momentum to the social movements until they are able to overwhelm the coup regime. The hard place is that if the coup regime does massively increase the repression, they remove the veneer of democracy and make life even harder for the business class that they rely on. The exemption of Roatan from the 24-hour curfew shows at least one place where the coup regime can escape this problem but this exemption illustrates exactly what the problem is.

Something like this HAD to come. Considering that in the United States, presidential elections usually include a year of campaigning, it is hard to imagine that once the "special decree" is lifted, there will be anywhere near enough time for a valid election. I'm sure that many members of the coup regime are figuring out where they can go when the time comes for a little exile vacation.

Also, in case you didn't see it -- I hadn't noticed this at all -- but Greta van Susteren sat down with Roberto Micheletti for a very lengthy interview. Here it is complete and unedited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPK9nEBBp4

Wow. Micheletti couldn't fit the "coronel" stereotype more perfectly. You can tell that Greta is uncomfortable throughout the interview and even she can't handle some of the extraordinary lies that Micheletti comes out with. Some highlights include:

- She asks him what would happen if Zelaya tried to return to Honduras. He says that he would be sent before the Supreme Court and tried. Then, she asks him about the two times he's attempted to return before. Micheletti, with a straight face, says that Zelaya never tried to return. Greta appears confused and she brings up the fact that Zelaya attempted to fly into Honduras. Micheletti replies that "he never wanted to land" and that it was all a political show so that Zelaya's supporters could have a martyr -- but that there is no proof that the military killed the young man at the airport. Greta dutifully does not bring up the fact that militay vehicles blocked the air strips to pevent Zelaya from landing. Micheletti insists that Zelaya never attempted to return to Honduras.

- Greta also asks him if there is anyone in Honduras who wants Zelaya re-instated. He declares that there is no one. Greta presses him on this and Micheletti says: "Yes, there are people who want Zelaya to return. The United States." He insists that there isn't anyone in Honduras who wants him to return. Who exactly wanted a martyr at the airport is unclear but, then again, a lot is unclear in this interview.

These are just two of many gems in this video, which is 6 parts. It is interesting to watch Micheletti literally lie through his face. I would encourage everyone to write Greta van Susteren about this interview and mock her for being a fake journalist and, worse, one who helps a dictator hold onto his illegitimate power. She lets him get away with the most absurd lies but you can see she is uncomfortable with it. I am looking for better contact info but ontherecord@foxnews.com is for her show ...

Micheletti's spot-on image as your typical, rich, Latin American elite is so perfect that it sends chills.

Also, Micheletti probably should have used a translator. There is someone off-camera who helps him here and there but whoever told him he is a fluent Enlgish speaker didn't do him any favors.

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 5:16 pm

http://quotha.net/node/424

Day 95, September 30th 2009 from Oscar (translation by Camille Collins Lovell)

Finally the order was given to evict the compañeros from the INA (National Agrarian Institute). More than a thousand police and military agents arrived this morning to break down the doors of the building and capture the 70 men and women who for the last 3 months had taken over the the Institute´s offices throughout the country. They will likely be accused of sedition, the same as other compañeros currently detained in different prisons all over Honduras.

Our homes continue to be silent, as we refuse to tune in to radio stations that accept the coup, that repeat the same lies and we prefer to continue in silence. The closure of our communication media was a strong blow to the resistance. Desperately we seek information on the conventional channels where no one says anything about the reality of this country. It gives the impression that we have never existed, and as Radio Globo repeats ironically over the internet, paraphrasing the Radio Progreso collective, “nothing is happening here”.

The farce of functionality of the country´s institutions became evident this week when the National Congress requested that the Executive Branch overturn the decreed state of siege; the dictator makes a show and promises to consult the Supreme Court and the Electoral Tribunal and while they converse politely about what the decree is and isn´t, they continue cultivating terror in all corners of the country, seeking the cold peace of the cemetery.

The last two marches have been impeded by the police. Beginning in the early hours they were present at the agreed meeting place, blocking it off and intimidating those assembled. Logically, those who show up for the march see the police operative and decide to observe from a distance and pray that nothing happens to their companions. The thing is, even though we are not afraid of them, we are tired of being beaten, as a teacher told me when I asked her about the low turnout in the marches. By mid day there were as many police officers as protesters.

The leaders of the resistance discuss what strategies to use in the face of these new obstacles imposed by the dis-government, and although everything points to neighborhoods and villages indicating that the peaceful struggle should shift into a stage of civil self-defense, nobody dares to take the first step. Not even President Zelaya dares, and continues calling for pacific resistance to a dictatorship which is increasingly bloodthirsty.

Adolfo Facussé has presented a proposal to solve the crisis in which the demands of the popular resistance are entirely ignored. It speaks of the restitution of Zelaya to the presidency but without powers or capacity, with a cabinet named by the power elite and with a National Congress in the role of permanent inspector of the executive branch. At the same time a political trial would be initiated against Zelaya and most likely, given the characteristics of the Supreme Court, prison would follow suit. Micheletti would become a Congressman for life, and with that he would become the guard dog for the Oligarchy, always watching the actions of the new presidents, always willing to sacrifice himself as president and leader of a future coup. Zelaya went to the Left, said the dictator in an interview with and Argentine paper, he named all communist people, this worried us, and that is what really motivated the coup.

Facusse´s proposal shows the dissatisfaction of private companies with the crisis. They seek a way out and present themselves as victims but simultaneously winners. Once again they commit the mistake, and so are condemned to failure, of ignoring the necessities and demands of the popular sectors. Their bourgeois arrogance keeps them from seeing that [business organizations] COHEP and ANDI do not represent the people.

¡NO PASARÁN!

http://quotha.net/node/425

Tio Camo, a fictional scenario from an anonymous author

I am finding it increasingly difficult to believe that Obama did not approve this coup. I've read Agee, McGehee, and the rest, and studied Honduras for almost 20 years, and Central America for many more; I've had many opportunities to poke around in its darkest corners and interact with the shadiest characters old movies can produce...

What I speculate happened is that the US corporatist hard right--Neocons, I believe they were calling them recently--who have had this in the works for years, simply presented it to the White House as a win-win situation, and are now stabbing Obama's people in the back--after having taken advantage of what they perceived as Obama's naivete vis-a-vis foreign affairs. It was probably presented as a fait accompli, not much we could do, a little protesting, but turn a blind eye on a black op; but, above all, do 'we' give them permission to do it?

In my strictly fictional account, people in the Negroponte/Reich/Rosales orbit understood that the Obama admin, wanting to appear to be Kennedy-esque in Latin America, would want to score points with an 'easily solvable' crisis, removing an easy target while sending the obvious message to Chavez and the 'Left' in general. Zelaya was the easiest of all, given the deep ties that Negroponte y Cia. have in Honduras--to Pepe Lobo, and thus a range of Cubans, to Billy Joya, to the oligarchy, and etc. Military thoroughly SOA'ed. No chance of a Chavez 2002 do--Mel ain't military himself, and never was. Plenty of plausible deniability--we knew but we begged them not too--but come on...Llorens?? There were known to have been meetings and visits to Honduras involving the John Dmitri crowd, and Joya was installed extremely quickly; there was the take-Palmerola issue, which must have scared many; there was ALBA and all the rest.

Heck, the CIA analysts, social scientists among them, make careers of studying this stuff--they knew full well that the major protest movements espoused non-violence; how convenient! Either Zelaya would stay gone, or he would come back with few powers, or there would be a protracted conflict ($$$) that would in the future call for military advisors we could also deny--win-win-win situation for the corporatists.

So Zelaya is removed, and the US waltzes right out with their man Arias--we want the Central Americans to solve this, look how we're leaving this up to them!--and our man comes up with a plan that puts Zelaya back in but with restricted powers, and without the Constituent Assembly. US has now gone out and said they don't support Zelaya, they support Democracy--yay for us!

But something funny happens along the way. Not so much back-stabbing as an extremely well-laid trap, something that has been evolving ever since the failed Chavez coup. And it begins to dawn on Obama that he's been had. Because no matter what is done, it is clear that there is nothing to stop an extreme-right dictatorship from installing itself, and setting a precedent for a 1960s/1970s/1980s do-over (which is why we're seeing so many plays out of the old playbook...). Micheletti is simply instructed to not negotiate whatsoever, so the Arias Plan is still-born.

Given the plans to build, what, seven new military bases in Colombia; the widespread Mexican belief that El Peje had the election stolen from him, with not insubstantial US help (we suppose a Leftist Mexico was beyond intolerable!); Evo's charges on an imminent coup and etc. last year; the situation in Ecuador--I believe we can be pretty that there's a coherent strategy behind this. Operation Condor ring any bells? These people think ahead and think big.

Fox News, I think very recently--Susteren interviewing Bolton. The title was something like 'Iran and Honduras' and the connection made via Chavez. And of course Bolton castes Zelaya as insane, even calls him anti-Semitic because he charged that Israelis were involved.

In light of this, was the growth and apparent nationwide consolidation of the Resistance unexpected? Not at all. Analysts would understand the Honduran penchant for massive, non-violent protest, but would also know that there are hardly any seasoned guerrilla leaders ready to launch a civil war. Indeed, they would know all about the last time the Honduran underprivileged classes united to form a strong resistance army...and when was that again...? Not only is the dictatorship not worried about civil war (and I mean the extreme right part--the Joyistas or Lamasians, if you will), they welcome it. They don't need direct US support when NGOs and other front groups can channel money to them to pay mercenaries--who ARE battle-seasoned--to do what it takes. Chaos is a welcome option--these are face-peelers; hell, you could recruit plenty of them right in Honduras, and round up some of the younger ex-Contras one country away, and give a call to ARENA... The money will be there, too: it always is. Because we need to save capitalism.

Win-win situation. The Resistance stays peaceful, so just disregard them. I believe that there is plenty of that going around as well. Certainly makes repression easier. Remember: Barahona guaranteed the coup regime would collapse in 24 hours after Mel's return; no such thing has happened. Remember: the face-peelers DESPISE non-violence, because they don't understand it. They aren't capable of understanding it; but I don't think they fear it. They respect violence, eye-for-an-eye--and they will tell you that, to win the Cold War, they had to do worse than the commies. And, hey, Communism is back!

So what DOES the extreme right fear, if anything? Pepe appears to fear, but I don't buy it. He's in it deep (ask Pichu) and he's also olanchano, and he knows the ropes and the rules. Facusses and their spoiled ilk fear the loss of profits, but this is a sacrifice being made for a much greater cause. The first domino is the hardest to fall, because it needs an outside force to start it rocking, but after that, one just topples the next. So it's inexorable? The Joyistas have seen it all and done worse. But they can't get to Mel, even after pumping in gas. So they don't sleep well. Because they know the kind of people Mel ALSO knows, and what will happen to them in years to come if something happens to Mel. These other people (ever heard of Mel's brothers; know their names? thought not) are into vengeance of the long-term, vendetta, Najeras and Turcios variety, and they are well known to solve problems by the 'voluntad de Dios.' So say the mother in the village, living in a shack, devastated because her son and his entire family was wiped out by masked gunmen. Surrounded by their remains. Not just wiped out, but dismembered; in some parts of Olancho, they specialize in getting the kids and doing terrible things to them. She is asked by the reporter, will you get a lawyer, will you make accusations against anyone? No, she says, I won't--this will be solved by the will of God. So it is understood that, some time soon, maybe in her village, maybe on a highway, or maybe in a neighborhood in Boston--doesn't matter where--another entire family will suffer a similar fate.

So Mel can snap his fingers, literally, and something much worse than 'civil war' emerges--vengeance, personal vengeance for all the 100 deaths and however more there will be, trained assassins in the shape of 'humildes campesinos'. I've met these people, many of them, and they're the ones Mel is holding in check. I guarante that there is not one member of the oligarchy who does not, deep down, feel dread when 'olanchano' is mentioned. They just have this reputation...

1975. Horcones and Santa Clara massacres. Mel's father takes the fall for a wide conspiracy. Strange that history is twisting around upon itself like this. The poor hated Mel Junior for decades. And there was supposedly some sort of curse, saying that the military folks who had been involved, or behind it, would die in mysterious ways. Rumors, you understand. Nothing substantial. Humildes campesinos will talk.

But the previous, of course, is all fictional. Nothing but the paranoid ramblings of a gringo who's spent too much time in Honduras. I believe I watched it in one of those old movies. "Tio Camo", it was called. Look it up on Wikipedia.

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 5:43 pm

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2009/ ... iv-day-10/

Tiempo: The police removed farmers from the National Agrarian Institute. The farmers fear that documentation of their recovery of lands will be destroyed. : The OAS spent 10 hours debating whether the expulsion of their diplomats, who had been invited by the pretend-government, was to be “regretted” or “condemned” and showed itself incapable of reaching a decision. Meanwhile, at the State Department, spokesman Col. Philip Crowley pronounced Lewis Amselem’s outburst attacking President Zelaya as perfectly consistent with State Department aims. When the Nicaraguan representative to the OAS remarked that his country didn’t use tear gas to break up demos, Amselem replied that they used speeches as chemical and sleep-inducing agents. US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens made another contribution to the annals of US dope-plomacy by saying the US doesn’t support any individual, only democracy. A 34 year old man, Gustavo Murcia Mejia was killed by police; it’s unclear why.

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2009/ ... iv-day-11/

Tiempo: John Biehl says that the “Accord of San Jose” are not written in stone. As little value as I see in the “Accord,” this is yet another cave-in toward the dictatorship. Biehl was the one member of the OAS that the dictatorship allowed in last Friday. There’s a major military investigation underway to figure out how Zelaya entered Honduras. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal continues to ask for the restoration of constitutional guarantees so that the elections will be seen as legitimate and Micheletti continues to stall. The Attorney General, Luis Alberto Rubí, promises jail for those who boycott elections.

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:08 pm

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22716

Insurrection in Honduras: Resistance Front says "We won't rest until victory"

September 30, 2009
By Federico Fuentes

September 25 — Green Left Weekly — (Updated Sept. 27) "The whole world knows that what we have here in Honduras is a coup regime", Armando Licona, a leader from the Revolutionary University Student Front said. Green Left Weekly spoke with Licona, whose organisation is part of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup (FNRG), on the phone from the Honduran capital, Tegucilgalpa.

Today (September 25), the military attacked the Brazilian embassy with chemical weapons. President Manuel Zelaya is bunkered down in the Brazilian embassy after secretly re-entering the country on September 21.

The Honduran poor have waged a campaign of constant resistance against the coup regime to demand that Zelaya is restored and a constitutional assembly called to create a new constitution to meet the peoples' needs in one the hemisphere's poorest nations.

Since Zelaya's return, both repression by the dictatorship and resistance by the people have significantly increased. An unknown number of peaceful protesters have been killed or disappeared, and the regime rounds up protesters daily. Despite this, protests continue on the streets.

Licona said that, despite the repression, "our dignity will not allow us to give up". "We are a people fighting to ensure that the great changes we have initiated come to fruition. We will not rest until President Zelaya is restored to power and the national constituent assembly is called, which will allow these great changes that we dream of become reality — a country based on social justice that is not in the hands of some eight or 10 rich families who do whatever they want with complete impunity."

Chemical warfare

Licona explained: "Today, the 91st day of resistance, we held a massive march in Tegucigalpa. But the most serious event was the attacks made against Zelaya ... they are using chemical weapons [on the embassy] causing many people inside to vomit blood."

Dirian Pereira, from the FNRG international commission, told GLW that, despite Zelaya denouncing the chemical attack, the International Red Cross, the Human Rights Committee of Honduras and Zelaya's doctors were denied entry by the military. The soldiers "had orders to not let any one pass". "This is chemical warfare ... it seems clear that the order is to get Zelaya out dead or alive — but preferably dead."

Meanwhile, the regime has again imposed a night curfew across most of the country, which resistance activists expect will be enforced with brutal repression, and met with defiant resistance.

Licona said: "The coup regime wants a bloodbath. But the resistance has stood firm on its strategy of peaceful mobilisations, even despite their attempts to infiltrate our marches to carry out acts of vandalism, carrying guns. [The regime is] totally armed, that is why it is hard. What we see is a resistance and a people with dignity, but who are fighting with their hands in the face of bullets, batons and tear gas."

"Dialogue" ruse

The attack against the embassy comes less than 24 hours after the coup regime said it was willing to start a dialogue with Zelaya, who has continuously repeated his willingness to talk.

Licona told GLW that the supposed dialogue attempt "was a proposal of the coup plotter [Roberto] Mitchelleti [installed by the coup as "president'"]. What they want is a pretext to claim that all possible avenues of dialogue have been exhausted."

Pereira agreed: "We believe that the arrival of the four musketeers of the right, that is, the four presidential candidates of the right-wing parties, that talked to Mel [as Zelaya is popularly known] in the embassy was in order to take a photo with him and immediately circulate it in the media as a way of saying ‘look, these people are hugging each other'. Prior to this meeting, they met with Micheletti. They came, spoke with [Mel] and what they said to him was that he should hand himself in. He simply said that the only way out was with his restitution [as president].

"We believe that they staged this show in order to stop any possible [United Nations] intervention of ‘blue helmets', because the UN Security Council was meeting. They wanted to stop any possible negotiation in this direction. I think that to a certain extent they achieved this, because the Security Council resolution simply condemns what they are doing to the [Brazilian] embassy."

Pereira explained the position of the FNRG: "We have four well-defined positions: 1) the restoration of President Mel Zelaya; 2) the restoration of constitution order; 3) the withdrawal of the military to its barracks; and 4) the installation of the national constituent assembly. We will not back down on these."

Pereira said the resistance would continue with its street protests on September 26. "There will be a march starting at 8am where we will once again aim to bring together the largest number of people possible. In the afternoon there will be a caravan of vehicles throughout the barrios and colonias [poor neighbourhoods]."

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:15 pm

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/01-13

Honduras Update: Micheletti Spirals Downward as the US Fails to Fully Condemn the De Facto Regime and Insists on Mincing Around With the Appointees Who Don’t Wear Its Colors

by Stephanie Brault and Michaela D'Ambrosio

After realizing his swaggering actions had severely backfired, the interim president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, is asking the Supreme Court to reverse last Sunday’s decree, which suspended civil liberties throughout the country as part of its 45-day “state of emergency.” As part of its crack-down on dissent, the Micheletti regime closed the two top Honduran news media outlets that had been covering ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s statements from his refuge inside the Brazilian embassy. The siege suspended constitutional guarantees of civil liberties, including freedom of assembly, press, and privacy. The Honduran Congress, Supreme Electoral Court, and the country’s four main presidential candidates for the November elections clearly have stated that they will not tolerate Micheletti’s efforts to suspend civil liberties. As a result, Micheletti has now been witnessing significant limits to his power. Mainstream Honduran officials are beginning to demonstrate their intentions to now find a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis, rather than through the use of pure force and constitutional tampering.

Too Late to Ask for Forgiveness

Micheletti is now seeking forgiveness from Hondurans, though it may be too little, too late for this to strike home. The decree limiting democratic rights in the country came as no surprise considering the increasingly radical nature of the undemocratic initiatives that his regime has been increasingly prone to take. As Micheletti digs a deeper hole for himself, he has stripped the de facto regime of any ounce of legitimacy that it may have had in the eyes of the international community, and demonstrably, with fellow Hondurans. Micheletti’s case has not been helped by the country’s declining standard of living, as its economy shrinks by as much as $40 million dollars a day and economic boycotts take effect. Micheletti believes he can hold on to the country until the November elections can take place. This way, he will be able to get rid of Zelaya by antiseptic means. However, international condemnation and drastically reduced political backing has left Micheletti’s regime dry and beached. Moreover, the suspensions of civil liberties as well as the regimes refusal to engage in diplomatic negotiations, further exemplify the preposterous claim that Micheletti is the legitimate ruler of his country.

Zelaya Holed Up In the Embassy

While Micheletti is rapidly losing both international and domestic support, Zelaya remains far from regaining office. However, the longer it takes for him to return, the longer it allows for Micheletti to sanction human rights abuses, which have become an increasing problem throughout Honduras over the past three months. The hundreds of soldiers and riot police surrounding the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where Zelaya has been seeking refuge since his return to the country on September 21, are emblematic of the “war footing” taken by the Honduran security forces, which has resulted in repeated clashes with protesters. Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets, and other chemicals to disperse the crowds. Evidence also suggests that Honduran soldiers have fired into unarmed groups of protesters.

These unnecessarily violent actions taken by soldiers and riot police are repressive and illegal, proving that the interim government is far from willing to allow democratic procedures to freely function within the country. Amnesty International along with other human rights organizations have condemned the widespread human rights abuses committed by the Micheletti administration and have called upon the international community to take more public action.

The interim government’s neglect for democratic discussion and its counter-productive pacification efforts are further exemplified by the recent ultimatum given to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by Honduran authorities: ten days to either grant Zelaya asylum outside of Honduras, or hand him over to Micheletti to be arrested and face trial, a threat that Lula angrily brushed off. While Micheletti assures the public that he will not forcefully remove Zelaya from the embassy, his threat to Lula would be extremely damaging for the country because it would force the Brazilian embassy to close, thereby ending diplomatic ties between the two countries. Such a course of action clearly showcases Micheletti’s plunge into the dangerous unknown in his attempt to cling to power. Zelaya’s presence in the country has caused Micheletti to further isolate himself from the international community and pursue increasingly authoritarian measures, such as his recent raid on the independent media.

U.S. Repeats its Hallmark Policy of Refusing to Take a Definitive Stance

While Micheletti’s support continues to ebb, it may seem like only a matter of time before President Zelaya is reinstated. Meanwhile Washington continues to blunder around, failing to decisively clarify its position on the continuing crisis and its diplomacy seems to be anything but sure footed. In a statement on September 28, acting U.S. chief representative to the Organization of American States, Lewis Amselem, a hard-line Foreign Service officer who served in Latin America throughout the Cold War, called Zelaya’s return to Honduras “irresponsible and foolish,” stating “the president should stop acting as though he was starring in an old movie.” One could respond to Amselem that he should stop acting as if he is a member of the intelligence branch. Words such as Amselem’s, which contradicted the official State Department’s position that the forthcoming election to replace Zelaya could be compromised if it was held under the de facto regime, could give hope to the coup regime that at the end of the day the U.S. will support its illegal command and have beclouded U.S.-policy. This was reinforced by the hesitancy of the Obama administration to take a definite stance on the coup since the day Zelaya was ousted from office.

With the U.S. using Amselem to send mixed messages to the de facto regime, Zelaya’s return may not be all that imminent, and the illegal abuses of power and human rights will continue under Micheletti. One can also expect Amselem, who previously served in Bolivia, Panama, U.S. Southern Command, Guyana, and Guatemala, to continue to espouse a Bush-Reagan-Clinton policy towards Latin America. Thankfully, he is to be shortly replaced by an Obama Administration nominee, Carmen Lomellin, another Career Foreign Service Officer who has had a more open background with Latin American issues. One can only hope that Ms. Lomellin will take a more definitive and hard-line stance against the Micheletti regime.

The Obama administration must once and for all, immediately and explicitly, deny all economic and military support to Honduras in an effort to force Micheletti out of power. The Honduran coup has now lasted for over three months, largely due to the hesitation and failure of the U.S. to act. As a result, deaths, injuries, and disappearances are beginning to be recorded in Honduras. In the tradition of Secretary of State Clinton accusing Zelaya of being “reckless” for briefly showing up in Nicaragua, Amselem’s use of the word “irresponsible” to describe Zelaya’s slipping into the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, follows the same.

In order to avoid further tarnishing relations with Latin America, Obama needs to take a decisive position and act accordingly. Coup d’états must not be allowed to stand as a legitimate portal to transferring power, or else the role of democracy in the electoral process, will have been compromised if not extinguished.

Despite Micheletti’s claim that he took office under a constitutional transfer of power, this was not an accurate analysis of what took place. What occurred was that Zelaya was thrown out of Honduras with a gun to his head. Due to the past damage inflicted on all of the Central American nations over the decades, Washington must take this opportunity to uncompromisingly promote the proper definition of democracy by demanding the return of Zelaya to office.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Stephanie Brault and Michaela D'Ambrosio

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:24 pm

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/viewArticle/22733

Noam Chomsky wrote:In past years the U.S. routinely helped carry out military coups in Latin America or invaded outright. Examples are too numerous and familiar to review and are awful to contemplate. That capacity has declined, but has not disappeared. In the new century there have already been three military coups: in Venezuela, Haiti, and now Honduras.

The first, in Venezuela, was openly supported by Washington. After a popular uprising restored the elected government, Washington immediately turned to a second plan to undermine the elected government: by funding groups of its choice within Venezuela, while refusing to identify recipients. Funding after the failed coup reached $26 million by 2006. The facts were reported by wire services, but ignored by the mainstream media. Law professor Bill Monning of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California said that, "We would scream bloody murder if any outside force were interfering in our internal political system." He is, of course, correct: such actions would never be tolerated for a moment. But the imperial mentality allows them to proceed, even with praise, when Washington is the agent.

The pretext, invariably, is "supporting democracy." In the real world, the measures employed have been a standard device to undermine democracy. Examples are numerous. To mention just a few, that is how the ground was prepared for the U.S.-backed military coup in Haiti after its first democratic election in 1990, bitterly opposed by Washington. And in another part of the world, it is happening right now in Palestine where the outcome of a free election in January 2006 was counter to Washington's wishes. At once, the U.S. and Israel, with Europe tagging politely along as usual, turned to severe punishment of the population for the crime of voting "the wrong way" in a free election, and also began to institute the standard devices to undermine an unwanted government: "democracy promotion" and military force. In this case, the military force is a collaborationist paramilitary army under the command of U.S. General Keith Dayton, trained in Jordan with Israeli participation. The Dayton army received great acclaim from liberals in the government and the press when it succeeded in suppressing protests in the West Bank during the murderous and destructive U.S.-backed Israeli military campaign in Gaza earlier this year. Senator John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, was one of many close to the Obama administration who saw in this success a sign that Israel may at last have a "legitimate negotiating partner" for its U.S.-backed programs of taking over what is of value in the occupied territories, under the guise of a "political settlement."

All of this is routine, and very familiar in Latin America, where U.S. invasions have regularly left what remains of the country under the rule of brutal National Guards and collaborationist elites. The policies were initially developed with considerable sophistication a century ago after the U.S. conquest of the Philippines, which left hundreds of thousands of corpses. And these measures have often been successful for long periods. In the original testing ground, the Philippines, the impact still remains a century later, one reason for the continuing ugly record of state violence, and the failure of the Philippines to join the remarkable economic development of East and Southeast Asia in recent years.

Returning to coups in Latin America in the new millennium, the first one, in Venezuela, was unsuccessful. The second was in Haiti two years later. The U.S. and France intervened to remove the elected president and dispatched him off to Central Africa, actions that precipitated yet another reign of terror in this tortured country, once the richest colony in the world and the source of much of France's wealth, destroyed over the centuries by France and then the U.S. I should add that the harrowing history, in Haiti and elsewhere, is almost unknown in the U.S.—worse, it is replaced by fairy tales of noble missions that have sometimes failed because of the unworthiness of the beneficiaries. These are among the prerogatives of power, and facts that cannot be ignored by the traditional victims.

The third coup is of course the one taking place right now in Honduras, where an openly class-based military coup ousted left-leaning President Zelaya. This coup was unusual in that the U.S. did not carry it out or directly support it, but rather joined the Organization of American States in criticizing it, though weakly. Washington did not withdraw its ambassador in protest as Latin American and European countries did, and made only limited use of its enormous military and economic influence, as it could easily have done by simple means—for example by canceling all U.S. visas and freezing U.S. bank accounts of leaders of the coup regime. A group of leading U.S. Latin American scholars recently reported that "not only does the administration continue to prop up the regime with aid money through the Millennium Challenge Account and other sources, but the U.S. continues to train Honduran military students at the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation—the notorious institution formerly known as the School of the Americas," from which much of the top Honduran military has graduated. Amnesty International has just released a long and detailed account of extremely serious human rights violations by the coup regime. If such a report were issued concerning an official enemy, it would be front-page news. In this case it was scarcely reported, consistent with the downplaying of coups to which U.S. political and economic power centers are basically sympathetic, as in this case.

The U.S. surely hopes to maintain and probably expand its military base at Soto Cano (Palmerola) in Honduras, a major base for the U.S.-run terrorist war in Nicaragua in the 1980s. There are unconfirmed rumors of plans for other bases. (The best source of information and analysis is the consistently outstanding work by Mark Weisbrot at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who also reviews the media's refusal to rise to minimal journalistic standards by reporting the basic facts.)

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:53 pm

Military coup in Honduras

Honduras under siege

Honduran coup resistance growing

The Honduran Battle for Washington

Zelaya just one of millions

Honduras: Where does Washington stand?

Honduras political crisis unleashes media wars

Honduran resistance goes it alone

Mr. Zelaya goes to Washington

Coup inciting revolution in Honduras?

Zelaya's return to Honduras met with force

The siege of Tegucigalpa

Resistance silenced in Honduras

by **John Schröder** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:01 pm

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6124 ... o-honduras

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has blocked Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) trip to Honduras slated to begin Friday, according to DeMint's office.

DeMint’s office informed The Hill of Kerry’s decision Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday morning, the freshman Republican announced that he would lead a congressional delegation to Honduras on Friday ahead of the country’s Nov. 29 elections. The U.S. State Department, which acknowledges ousted President Manuel Zelaya as the legitimate ruler of the Central American nation, has said it will not recognize the contests because of ongoing political turmoil.

“No U.S. Senator has yet been to Honduras to assess facts of crisis. [Kerry] & Obama admin using bullying tactics to hide truth,” DeMint, who also sits on the Foreign Relations panel, said on Twitter after he heard the trip would not occur.

"@JohnKerry (Foreign Rel. chair) trying to hide truth to protect Zelaya, blocking our fact-finding trip to Honduras at last minute," DeMint also tweeted late Thursday afternoon.

DeMint's office followed with a statement. "These bullying tactics by the Obama administration and Senator Kerry must stop, and we must be allowed to get to the truth in Honduras. Not a single U.S. Senator has traveled to Honduras to learn the facts on the ground.

"While this administration has failed to act decisively in Afghanistan, it is has no problem cracking down on a democratic ally and one of the poorest nations in Latin America," DeMint added. "Now, President Obama and Democrats' blind support for this would-be dictator and friend of Hugo Chavez will prevent members of Congress from learning the truth first hand."

Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

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