Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

[John Schröder]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... egucigalpa

Zelaya live on Telesur, says they are unable to land and "will have to look for another way into the country tomorrow."

[Sweejak]

U.S. Special Forces Briefing to Congressman Exposes Involvement in 19 Latin American Countries During 2009 Including Honduras.
Via wikileaks via cryptogon

July 6th, 2009
Via: Wikileaks:

This confidential US Special Forces (7th, US Southern Command), briefing dated 17 May 2009 was created for Florida Congressman Miller. Although unclassified, it specifies a For Official Use Only (FOUO) distribution restriction.

On page 7 of the document, it is proudly proclaimed that the 7h Special Forces Group has conducted missions in every Latin American country.

On page 10 a map is given, revealing Special Forces deployments to 19 Latin American countries during 2009 alone, including two bases or missions in Honduras.
The briefing provides a history of the Special Forces such as its genesis as the covert action arm of the OSS (the intelligence arm of which became the CIA). Notable is a graph of Special Forces growth. Its numbers now substantially eclipse its previous 1968 peak during the height of the cold war.

[geogeo]

This would indicate CIA involvement, as WP is CIA paper.

http://www.borev.net/2009/07/its_a_hat_trick_of_fail_for_th.html

It's A Hat Trick Of Fail, For The Washington Post Editorial Page



God bless 'em, the Washington Post remains quite devoted to making this insanely bungle coup go well. Today they published their third opinion piece defending the military takeover, bringing the tally to, um, 3-0. They are officially far, far to the right of the Obama administration, every world institution, and every single country in Latin America and Europe, including Silvio freaking Berlusconi.

And for every gasbag pundit out there still making the comical argument that this was somehow a constitutional process, you'll probably want to revisit your talking points, now that the coup government's top military lawyer has acknowledged the whole thing was totally illegal but, in his professional opinion, was like fuck it.

[geogeo]

From a friend, some excerpts:

"XXX in yyyyyy, can't get out, the roads are all blocked to/from Teguc, the airports are closed, there's no gas, stores closed, all bank accounts frozen, Peace Corps Volunteers are ready to be pulled out, and the military's taken over the university, with the rector in hiding in the mountains (an arrest warrant's out.) It's Zelaya country, and so taking the brunt of the repression. On top of all that, Gen. Billy Joya is back, appointed as Michelletti's advisor (remember the Death Squad leader responsible for the desaparecidos in the '80?). Ugly, though, for all his Honduran counterparts, government workers, teachers, researchers (many in jail, beaten, and on the run in the mountains.) So far, internet, phone, and TV connections still work, but that may go any day now..."

Writer thought Mel was coming back today, but that didn't happen.

It is my humble opinion that this is not some anachronism at all, but the long-awaited beginning of the counter-strike against Socialism in Latin America, carried out under the advisement of the extreme right -- Carriles supporters if you will, Negroponte, Reich, and the gang.

Time will tell.

[JackRiddler]

It is my humble opinion that this is not some anachronism at all, but the long-awaited beginning of the counter-strike against Socialism in Latin America, carried out under the advisement of the extreme right -- Carriles supporters if you will, Negroponte, Reich, and the gang.

Time will tell.

Consider that if this were the 1950s, or the 1970s, we US citizens would read about the coup the next day in the papers and absent direct connections would have no way of finding out much more about it than what was in there. That might also be the case in Brazil, or Lebanon, or China. In the 1980s, you could get information more easily with the growth of the Central America solidarity movement, but it didn't change much about the fact that the empire usually prevailed. The US would have immediately recognized the coup government and if there were objections from the UN or the OAS nations, it might make for a sidebar's worth of text in the back pages. Other nations would not dare challenge the coup as directly and with the same unanimity that we see. Heads of state would not offer to fly back to Tegucigalpa with Zelaya. It would have gone through with near absolute certainty, as something that many outsiders could understand as an injustice, but without the same international outcry. Many things have changed, apparently. The colossus no longer wields the same power, in part because its opposite superpower and world bogeyman collapsed, which is ironic. Other centers have arisen. The 2002 Caracas coup (which was, if anything, the "beginning of the counter-strike") failed, as did the Bolivia destabilization attempt last year. The brutes you're talking about are doing what they have always done, but it increasingly looks like a rearguard action. This new crime may stand, but "they" are much weaker than they were, in part because the history was so disastrous and Latin Americans learned from it. Their nations are emerging and successfully fighting off imperial interventions. In part it's also because of the media revolution. Which is not only the Internet, but the fact that the local broadcast and print media are universally accessible.

.

[geogeo]

Neither Bolivia nor Venezuela have US military bases on their soil. Honduras is more or less ground zero for US covert actions in the region, including drug transshipment. Having a Chavista in control was unfeasible. This time is different --no military apparently supports Zelaya or is able to, so what happens if he does make it back to the country? They lock him up. A bloodbath. Massive civil unrest. Civil war, or possibly war with neighboring countries. Honduras has an 11,000-member military and a few planes. Hondurans, unlike in the old days, are now armed to the teeth. There are hundreds of thousands of AK-47s, RPGs, grenades, and etc. in the country in private hands, rich and poor (harvest of the COld War). Popular organization is at an all-time high; protesting is already a way of life.

It's all a recipe for a perfect storm. I hope I'm wrong, but I get tired of hearing about how this is just some anachronistic repeat action by tired and bored cold warriors. These people are the oligarchy and they run the country. How has so much changed?

[Sweejak]

It's worth mentioning that nearby Nicaragua was among the first and the few to recognize S.Ossetia and Abkhazia, they have trade agreements covering education, agriculture, fishing, space research and Ortega and Medvedev have had some talks about more fanciful things like building another canal. These are the first relations Russia and Nicaragua have had in something like 25 years.

In December, 2008, Nicaragua President Ortega visited Russia President Medvedev: "We discussed another very ambitious, interesting and large issue. This is a project to establish an interoceanic canal and to do so, of course, on an international legal basis, with the involvement of various parties. Our Nicaraguan partners have expressed their interest in involving Russia and several other states in the
development of the project. I think that this kind of project will help promote safety and security in the Caribbean, and more broadly in Latin America and the world. We are examining this project with interest."
http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2008 ... 0746.shtml

[John Schröder]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... lost-today

What the Cowardly Honduras Coup Lost Today

By Al Giordano



Sometimes the drama is of such high volume that the ways it changes the narrative go unnoticed in the exact moments that it happens.

But here are some of the very significant realities that shifted today:

President Manuel Zelaya Showed True Courage: One of the open questions prior to today was whether, threatened with 18 felony charges, including treason, and 20 years in prison (not to mention likely torture and seizure of his considerable properties and business interests), the legitimate president of Honduras would fail to show up for today’s showdown at 2,000 feet over Tegucigalpa.

It would have been easy enough to turn the recommendations by Canada and Costa Rica at last night’s Organization of American States (OAS) meeting in Washington into a diplomatic pretext to delay his attempted return. He could have followed in the extra-light footsteps of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Al Gore, or Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when the moment of truth arrived against an illegitimate regime. The consequence of such cowardice would have been causing his own people in Honduras to lose faith in him. Having guts (or huevos, male or female) in Latin America, as in most parts of the world, is a Sina Qua Non for a political leader. Zelaya showed them today. He emerges from today stronger, with more popular support than before, and bigger than life before the international public and media. He passed an important test today, and thus passed into the history books.

Illegitimate “President” of Honduras Roberto Micheletti Became a National and International Laughing Stock: One cannot overstate the extent to which Micheletti lost grip and traction today in his quest to remain in power. After a week of threatening the criminal charges against Zelaya (in effect, gambling that Zelaya would chicken out), he won the most Pyrrhic of battles today when he ordered soldiers and vehicles out on the runway of Toncontin International Airport to keep his “most wanted criminal” from landing. If his coup regime’s charges were so iron-clad, why not just let Zelaya land and drag him off to jail? He proved all of his schtick a lie, today.

As part of today’s show, he threatened all the passengers on the airplane with arrest upon landing, including the President of the United Nations General Assembly. That act alone guarantees his further isolation and virtually assures that Washington will, likely tomorrow or the next day, declare his regime a “military coup, “ triggering the cut-off of all foreign aid.

Another part of his show today was to go on national TV through a “cadena nacional” and declare that Nicaraguan troops were amassing across the border. And he threatened Nicaragua with war. When an enterprising reporter questioned him, he vacillated: well, it wasn’t that many Nicaraguan troops and they may be acting without instructions from President Daniel Ortega. He called it – you can’t make this stuff up – a “psychological invasion.” Give that man a straightjacket. He now has an insanity defense for his upcoming war crimes trial.

The Honduran Oligarchy Further Split Today: Globo Radio (a word in a moment of its valiant work today breaking the information blockade, together with other authentic media) reports:

“Businessmen Ricardo Maduro, Rafael Ferrari and Carlos Flores Facussé had a meeting this Sunday at dawn with the de facto government and withdrew their support. Ex-president Carlos Flores left Honduras with his family, headed toward Washington.”

Hold on. Flores, Honduran president from 1998 to 2002, was a key architect of this coup. Until last night, he was more hands-on directing the steps of the Honduran military than Micheletti himself. If true that he’s deserted the sinking ship – and gone to Washington nonetheless – he must have something in the form of "actionable information" to offer to the US Witness Protection Program (yes, some of my friends on the left are nipping at my heels over this kind of analysis about the US role in all this; I will surely dispatch with them on a later day, when we’re not reporting real-time on a crisis – but they should beware because I’m going to hit back real hard at those whiners of academia, with the facts that they don't have enough respect for, and events are going to demonstrate this analysis here as more accurate and even more prescient. But time will sort out all of that...)

Meanwhile, the oligarch dailies in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, after today’s events, began to backpedal. For the first time since the coup, tonight, the pro-coup daily La Prensa referred to Micheletti not as “president,” but as “president designate.”

And the daily El Tiempo, from the same pro-coup camp, described President Zelaya as “recognized still by the international community as the Constitutional President of Honduras.”

These are subtle shifts from a simulating national media, but like the first cracks in a wall, they reveal a structural weakness in the strength of the information blockade. They’re blinking.

There was also an interesting report on TeleSur, which I’ve yet to confirm, but, if true, would be devastating to the coup: that the national police commander, after the Armed Forces shot at members of the protest, evacuated the airport battlefield on the logic that they didn’t want to be blamed for the Army’s disgrace. If true, that would have great consequences for the unity of the coup.

TeleSur Wrapped Itself in Glory (and Took Down the Corporate Media Today): I derived considerable joy today watching CNN, throughout the afternoon, completely dependent upon live feeds from TeleSur to cover the story. TeleSur had not only “embedded” with Honduras’ version of Air Force One – on the airplane with Zelaya and D’Escoto – but more importantly it gained the trust of the 500,000 reported Hondurans who took to the streets. At various points during the march to the airport, the citizenry, upon seeing film crews from the station, chanted, “TeleSur! TeleSur!”

The coverage today from TeleSur was irreplaceable and unparalleled. No other media came close. When TeleSur’s website became overwhelmed with traffic, I turned to a Managua, Nicaragua station, Channel 15, which simulcast TeleSur for most of its coverage. TeleSur’s success today at the basics – the nuts and bolts – of journalism smashed the myth of “objectivity” and demonstrated that authentic journalists declare where we stand and therefore get the front row seat to tell the story more accurately.

It’s been five years this month since I penned this essay: Welcome TeleSur to the Struggle to Light Up the Skies.

Compare TeleSur’s full indispensable coverage of event in Honduras today with that of, say, Patrick Markey and Mica Rosenberg of the Washington Post: They added no new facts to the datasphere (which means they did no direct reporting, but, rather, cribbed their report from other media) and basically dedicated their “story” to using the word “leftist” three times in the first paragraphs.

The Post claims to be “objective.” TeleSur is supposed to be “propaganda,” according to its capitalist critics. But, lo’ and behold, it was TeleSur today that conveyed more facts per minute than any other international media. It will be fun to see capitalist media try to replicate that success story, especially here in Latin America, where the public is quite inoculated against its tendency toward simulation.

Honorable Mention: To Globo Radio, Radio Progreso and Channel 36 in Honduras, who rose from the ashes of repression today to report the story.

Presente: Isis Obeth Murillo, 19, from Olancho, Honduras, who died today in the Hospital Escuela of Tegucigalpa, assassinated from a bullet to the head shot by a Honduran soldier from inside the airport.

Hello Washington: Today’s events leave the Obama administration no other option but to follow through on what it was going to do anyway, and declare the Honduras regime as a “military coup,” triggering the cut-off of US aid, and crippling its illegtimate “government.”

I know there are colleagues who remain skeptical that this will actually happen. Well, if it doesn’t, nobody will be more savagely on the attack to correct that than I.

And if it does happen – I’ll take a bet from any sucker that wants to part with his money (especially you, you academics! $100? More? Put up or shut up) who wants to wager otherwise – well, it will be an hour to savor and to re-synchronize your geopolitical watches. More to come!

And the Biggest Winner of Today Is: The Honduran social movements.

For a week, now, they have endured more than most people from most lands would be able to handle. Today they organized 500,000 people – one of every 18 Hondurans – to get up on their feet and risk life and limb in Tegucigalpa (and that doesn’t include attendance of the mass rallies held in other cities throughout the country).

Just as the coup regime tried to scare President Zelaya from entering national territory, it did the same 7.5 million times over against its own people.

Suspension of the Constitution, martial law, curfew, 300 political prisoners, military invasion of Channel 36, Globo Radio and Progreso Radio, shutdowns of the Internet, banishment of Telesur (and for a brief while CNN) from national cable networks, military and police blockades in the highways to impede passage to the capital city, soldiers shooting out the tires of buses, threats of a “bloodbath” today (including from the Bishops of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, on government –imposed national TV and radio broadcasts)…

And yet they came to greet their legitimate president at the national airport.

Unity. Planning. Discipline.

The Honduran movements that oppose the coup showed all three of those pillars of successful social movements today. And it’s our best indication that they are going to win.

Using tactics of nonviolence that would make Gandhi proud, they pushed aside dozens of military blockades on their march toward the airport today, unarmed though they were, to be able to surround the runway.

And when, in one southern corner of the airfield, a brawl broke out between various hundreds of demonstrators and the soldiers inside, it was over within 15 minutes. That tells us that organizers of the march were able to rush in and convince legitimately angry protesters that there was a better path to victory than merely creating “riot porn” for the cameras.

Unity. Planning. Discipline.

What we saw today was impressive for any land, including those that enjoy more freedom than those living under military coup and suspension of their Constitution.

After today, nobody should have any doubt. The coup, sooner or later, probably sooner, is going down, face first, into the dirt.

And - since three days prior to the coup - you heard it here first.

Stay tuned to hear more. All based on that simple principle called documented fact.

What we call authentic journalism.

[John Schröder]

http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/day-8 ... to-el.html

President Zelaya has arrived safely to San Salvador, reuniting with the heads of state from Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay, and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. They are expected to meet tonight and discuss alternatives to President Zelaya's return to Honduras, after his first attempt was thwarted by the coup forces that impeded his landing in the Tegucigalpa airport by placing army vehicles and personnel on the runway.

A confirmed meeting is taking place tomorrow in Washington, D.C., between President Zelaya and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Zelaya is expected to fly early tomorrow to the US capital. Clinton will most likely seek to negotiate some kind of agreement between the coup forces and President Zelaya in order to ensure his safe return and reinstate constitutional order.

Nevertheless, there are many concerns that Washington is looking to support its allies in Honduras, primarily those in the business and military sector who have been heavily involved in this coup, while trying to "save face" and project a "positive" non-interventionist image of Obama in Latin America. However, many question the late response by the Obama administration to the military coup, now a week in the making, and the outright lack of condemnation by Obama and Clinton regarding human rights violations committed by the coup government and repression of press freedoms. No comment has been made by Washington regarding the forced national curfew imposed by the coup government, which is now from 6pm through 6am, the suspension of constitutional rights, the censoring of media outlets not favorable to the coup, the detaining and persecution of journalists and members of Zelaya's cabinet and family, and the dead and wounded at the hands of the coup military forces. There are also questions regarding Washington's ambiguity to the coup, refusing to initially classify the events as a coup d'etat under US law, which would require immediate suspension of economic and military aid to Honduras.

No deal should be cut with the coup forces in Honduras, and by no means should Zelaya or the people of Honduras permit "early elections", which is one of the "ways out" that Clinton may push for tomorrow.

[John Schröder]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 645469.ece

Stephen Ferry, a photographer working for The Times, who was at the airport in the capital where the Army fired on protesters said the protests had been peaceful before soldiers started firing.

“I saw a kid being shot in the head, I think he is dead,” Mr Ferry said. “There are lots of injured — I don’t know how many. They just opened fire — it was completely unprovoked.”

Jorge Alberto Vasquez, a 27-year-old farmer, described how he had carried the boy's body from the scene. “He was about fifteen or sixteen. He had been shot in the head. I carried him the length of two blocks . . . We were all calm, then the army started shooting into the crowd.”

He said that four people had been killed, although this was not confirmed.

[John Schröder]

http://www.noticias24.com/enfotos/galerias/vista/425

[John Schröder]

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22989.htm

A Few Facts About the Honduran Military Coup

By Ken Silverstein

July 06, 2009 "Harpers Magazine" --

1. There’s very little truth to anything you’ve read about the coup in American newspapers.

2. President Manuel Zelaya is no radical. He approved a big minimum wage increase, which was desperately needed in a country where so many workers are poor, but he otherwise has been a very cautious, ineffectual reformer. The intensity of the reaction against him by the Honduran elite — as seen in the coup — reflects the feuadal mentality of the traditional economic and political leadership, not Zelaya’s politics.

3. Zelaya was not seeking to stay in power by unconstitutional means; even if his political reforms had succeeded, he would have been out of power within the year. The only side guilty of unconstitutional action is the coup plotters.

4. Based on his response to events in Honduras, Barack Obama may as well be Ronald Reagan or George Bush when it comes to coups in Latin America. The Obama administration initially managed to muster “concern” about the coup, and has been acting in a cowardly fashion ever since. The only reason it has moved at all was that it was forced by the united front by Latin governments of left and right. If Zelaya is returned to power, it won’t be because of anything Obama did.

5. The American media does not believe in democracy, as seen in the routine portrayal of a [moral equivalence between the elected government and the coup plotters]. The Washington Post is the worst of the pack. For its editorial page, “democracy” is strictly utilitarian; it’s OK when our side wins; otherwise, we will justify vote-rigging or military action by the other side, even while pretending we support constitutional order.

But what else would you expect from a newspaper that fired its only opinion writer who was right about Iraq and that has offered to sell its reporters to the highest bidder? Maybe the Honduran military is buying up advertising space in the Post in order to ensure favorable treatment from Fred Hiatt & Co.

[John Schröder]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4593

Responding to the fact that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya could not land in Honduras to resume his presidency on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the attempt was still a "moral victory," and that Venezuela would continue supporting Honduras until democracy is restored.

Following his kidnapping last Sunday, President Zelaya, tried to land in his country in a plane at around 7pm today, but there were military vehicles on the runway and he was told that the plane would be "intercepted" if it tried to land. The pilot was forced to turn back and land in Nicaragua. There had been a large march and protests outside the airport in support of Zelaya for most of the day, in which Telesur reported at least two people killed by the military and many injured.

Directly following these events, President Chavez spoke live with Telesur, the Venezuelan initiated Latin American news service, and the only service offering live coverage of the protests and intended plane landing. Chavez had been attending the celebration of Venezuela's Independence Day in Bolivar city.

"We're here in Bolivar celebrating independence and following the events [in Honduras] minute by minute," he said.

Chavez noted that the plane transporting Zelaya was Venezuelan and a product of the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA), and congratulated the pilot on his bravery. "He's passed three or four times very low [over the airport in Honduras] but as Zelaya said, there isn't even one runway available."

He called the military that repressed the marches today "cowards" for "abusing the people of Honduras" and stressed the broad support Zelaya has from all Latin American leaders.

"I think it's been a big moral victory...[the coup leaders and military] haven't let them land but we'll continue supporting Honduras until they restore democracy," said Chavez. "Manuel Zelaya achieved his mission; the people are waiting for him."

Nevertheless, Chavez said that he regretted the deaths of the protestors and the repression against them, and reiterated that the Honduran bourgeoisie and US imperialism were behind the coup.

"This gorilla government won't last, its going to fall," Chavez said.

[JackRiddler]

.

Thank you John.

I'm amazed at how this thread and the one on Iran seem to be the best third-party compilers of relevant information and analysis on the two crises in English available on the Web. And it's mostly thanks to you.

.

[John Schröder]

http://www.borev.net/2009/07/roger_nori ... to_ex.html

Roger Noriega Would Like To Explain This Coup To You, Using His Imagination



Lest you think this whole coup business is all very cut and dry, Iran-Contra douchebag Roger Noriega would like you to know that it is a lot more complex than it may seem. But complexity is so confusing, so why don't we let him break it down for you with a nice metaphor:

If a traffic cop roughs up a drunk driver at the scene of an injury accident, I doubt anyone would argue the importance of getting the drunk back behind the wheel as the best way to chastise the policeman.

Ok, I think I get it. The driver is President Mel Zelaya, the cop is the military, the car is Honduras, and the alcohol is..."non-binding referendums," maybe? So sure, the cop may have been overzealous when it overthrew constitutional democracy a little, but what are you gonna do, Let Mel get behind the wheel of Honduras again? He's DRUNK, remember? In this analogy Costa Rica is detox, I guess, and this is the kind of drunk that never actually sobers up. And besides the cop already gave the car away to a buddy of his, who's been using it to run over teenagers at the airport.

Gawd remember the Reagan era, when everything was this awesome?