Honduras Coup: Soldiers kidnap VZ, Cuba, Nicaragua envoys

[John Schröder]

http://www.ajs-us.org/honduras_politica ... m#timeline

August 13, 1945
Roberto Micheletti is born to an Italian businessman and a Honduran woman from El Progreso.

September 20, 1952
Jose Manuel “Mel” Zelaya Rosales is born to a wealthy Olancho ranching family with interests in the timber industry. His father, also called Mel, was incarcerated for his supposed involvement in the massacre of hundreds of campesinos on the family ranch.

1963
Micheletti is part of the Honor Guard for President Ramón Villeda Morales, who was deposed by a military coups.

1979
Honduras returns to democratic rule after years as a military dictatorship.

January 1980
Roberto Micheletti Baín, the son of an Italian businessmen and a Honduran mother, sits on Constitutional Assembly that drafted the current constitution.

November 1981
The country’s first general elections in 18 years are held

1982
A new constitution is approved

October 24, 1985
Micheletti leads a group of Congressman in a failed bid to overturn the constitutional articles to allow president Roberto Suazo Córdoba to run for reelection.

1985
Zelaya is elected to Congress

1989
Zelaya is reelected to Congress

1993
Zelaya is reelected to Congress

January 2006
Micheletti starts his term as the president of the congress.

November 27, 2005
Mel Zelaya is elected president of Honduras, having run as a centrist on the Liberal Party ticket.

November 2006
Zelaya creates the Citizen Housing and Credit program, promising $42 million in aid to build houses for Honduras’s poorest citizens. In May of 2009, Revistazo.com reported that not one house had been built.

2008
Reports put out by the UN Observatory of Violence show that the number of murders in Honduras rose more than 50 percent during Zelaya’s term, despite Zelaya’s campaign promises to put an end to the violence in Honduras.

April 7, 2008
Four prosecutors from the Public Ministry begin a hunger strike to protest the rampant corruption in the prosecutors office; Micheletti presides over a congressional "inquiry" that finds that "no corruption exists."

May 30, 2008
A TACA airlines plane coming from El Salvador overshoots the runway at the Tonocontín Airport in Tegucigalpa and crashes, killing five; without any research to base his opinion on, Zelaya immediately declares the airport unfit for use and lauches a campaign to move Tegucigalpa’s main airport to the Palmerola Air Force base in Comayagua (which is jointly run by the U.S. and Honduran militaries), spending nearly $200,000 in promoting the plan, which he later abandoned.

August 25, 2008
At a rally at the Presidential Palace attended by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Bolivian president Evo Morales, other dignataries, and thousands of campesinos (many of whom were paid to be there), Mel Zelaya signs an agreement joining Honduras into the controversial Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) alliance with Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Nicaragua.

October 9, 2008
The Honduran congress, presided over by Roberto Micheletti, signs an act officially approving Honduras' entrance into the ALBA agreement.

October 15, 2008
Revistazo.com publicizes a report showing that President Zelaya, President of the Congress Micheletti, and the mayors of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula spent $6 million dollars on publicity. $322,000 were spent to promote the signing of ALBA.

November 2008
Despite a law outlawing the president of congress to run for president, Micheletti makes a bid to be the Liberal Party candidate, losing to Elvin Santos, who Micheletti tried to get disqualified through manipulations of the court and electoral systems. (Santos, the Vice President of the Republic, by law should also be unqualified to run for president, but gets around this by resigning from his vice-presidential position.)

November 2008
Revistazo.com releases a report showing that Mel squandered millions of dollars from the Poverty Reduction Strategy – money derived from a debt forgiveness program meant for the poorest Hondurans—increasing government salaries by 75 percent and the rest of “subsidies” that were used by politicians to butter up their constituents.

November 11, 2008
Zelaya announces that he will hold a “non-binding referendum” in June of 2009 in which the Honduran people will vote on whether a "fourth ballot box" (in addition to the mayoral, congressional, and presidential ballot boxes) should be included in upcoming general elections in November to vote on whether a "Constituent Assembly" should be called to rewrite Honduras' constitution.

December 23, 2008
Zelaya decrees a 60% increase in the minimum wage, giving business owners only 15 days to adjust to the new salary. In the ensuing weeks, according to the Honduran business community over 100,000 jobs are eliminated in Honduras as a response to these increased labor costs.

March 24, 2009
Zelaya announces that the referendum will take place on June 28, 2009; Micheletti immediately responds that the Constitution specifically forbids such a referendum.

March 25, 2009
The Attorney General’s office notifies Zelaya that if he carries out the referendum he will be prosecuted for breaking the law.

March 26, 2009
Revistazo.com releases a report showing that in October, November and December of 2008, Zelaya spent $2.5 million to promote his campaign to raise the minimum wage.

June 23, 2009
Congress passes a law outlawing referendums within 180 days of the general elections, rendering Zelaya’s proposed referendum illegal.

June 24
Zelaya fires the top General in the armed forces, Romeo Vasquez Velásquez, after Velásquez refused to assist in carrying out the referendum. (Normally it is the Honduran army's duty to distribute ballot boxes and voting materials for elections.)

June 25
The Honduran Supreme Court reinstates Velásquez; the Attorney General is granted a warrant for Zelaya’s arrest; Congress orders the armed forces to seize the ballots and ballot boxes; Zelaya leads a march to the air force base and successfully recovers the ballots.

June 28
Soldiers storm the Presidential Palace, detain Zelaya, and fly him to exile in Costa Rica; the international community immediately condemns the coups and demands Zelaya’s restoration; Congress enacts a nighttime curfew. Congress votes after the fact to depose Zelaya; Congress presents an apparently forged letter of resignation signed by Zelaya; Micheletti is sworn in as president as the constitutionally next in line when the president is unable to continue excercising duties.

June 30
Zelaya speaks at the United Nations Assembly in New York; the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the restoration of Zelaya to the Honduran presidency.

July 1
Congress declares a “state of siege,” allowing search and seizure and detention without warrants; the Organization of American States gives Honduras three days to reinstate Zelaya.

July 4
The Organization of American States suspends Honduras from the organization after Congress refuses to reinstate Zelaya to the presidency.

July 5
Thousands of Hondurans rally at the Tegucigalpa airport awaiting Zelaya’s promise to return to the country; as some protesters begin scaling the airport fence, members of the army open fire, killing a teenager; Micheletti orders the closure of the airport; a plane supposedly carrying Zelaya swoops low over Tegucigalpa, circles the airport, and eventually lands in Nicaragua.

July 7
Zelaya meets with U.S, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and agrees to negotiations with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias as mediator. Micheletti also agrees to participate in the negotiations.

July 8
Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro, leads a march in support of her ousted husband.

July 9
Micheletti and Zelaya meet separately with Arias.

July 10
The delegations failed to come to agreement, and abandoned negotiations until Arias called them back to the table.

July 12
Congress lifts the curfew imposed two weeks ago.

July 13
Zelaya gives the interim Honduran government an ultimatum, saying he is willing to “risk bloodshed” to return to Honduras as its president.

July 14
Arias announces that negotiations will begin again on Saturday, June 18.

July 15
Zelaya promises that his supporters will be “active” in the country this weekend.

July 19
Another round of talks in Costa Rica fails to produce agreement. The main sticking point is the return of Mel Zelaya to the presidency, which Zelaya's representatives absolutely insist on and Micheletti's representatives absolutely reject.

July 20
Zelaya again promises to return to Honduras within the week; the European Union suspends $90 million in aid to Honduras; US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns Micheletti in a personal phone call that if he does not reinstate Zelaya Honduras could lose millions in aid.

July 24
Zelaya attempts to enter Honduras for a second time since the coups, stepping briefly into Honduras before returning to Nicaragua; the Micheletti government puts into place a 24-hour curfew for all of the regions bordering Nicaragua.

July 25
Hundreds of people block the entrance to the station Radio Globo as military personnel tries to enter the station to shut it down.

July 27
The 24-hour curfew remains in effect for parts of El Paraiso and Choluteca, making it impossible for families to buy food and water.

July 28
The US government revokes the diplomatic visas of four members of the Micheletti government.

August 4
Zelaya meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City in the beginning of a campaign to garner support among Latin American nations for his reinstatement as president of Honduras.

August 5
Police use high-pressure water hoses and tear gas to disperse protesters who were blocking a major highway at National Autonomous University in Tegucigalpa and throwing rocks through fast food restaurant windows.

August 11
Police and pro-Zelaya demonstrators clash in the capital, leaving a Popeye's Chicken franchise destroyed.

August 12
Thousands of demonstrators protest for the second day in a row in Tegucigalpa. Police report having arrested 130 demonstrators; Zelaya meets with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva in Brazil.

August 13
Ramon Custodio, the head of the Honduran Human Rights Commission, said the military made an "error" in sending Zelaya into exile.

August 15
The offices of the Tegucigalpa daily newspaper El Heraldo are attacked with homemade Molotov bombs; the government announces that this year's September 15 Independence Day parades will be canceled in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.

August 17
The Honduran government gives Argentinian diplomats 72 hours to leave Honduras after the Argentinian government expelled the Honduran ambassador.

August 18
The Costa Rican government takes away diplomatic credentials of the Honduran ambassador, effectively ending the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

August 19
Amnesty International releases a report accusing the Micheletti government of "mass arbitrary arrests and ill treatment of prisoners."

August 24
A delegation from the Organization of American States arrives in Honduras with the hopes of ending the political standoff.

August 25
The visit by the Organization of American States ends after the Micheletti government reiterates its refusal of the San Jose Accord.

August 26
The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa announces that it is suspending all non-immigrant and emergency visa services in response to the de facto government's unwillingness to reinstall Zelaya.

September 1
Police report two "terrorist" attacks overnight, one in the department of Yoro against the radio station Radio América, and the other against a car sales company in Tegucigalpa. Police said they suspect that foreign Zelaya supporters may have been behind the attacks.

September 3
Zelaya meets with Hillar Clinton; the State Department of the United States announces the end of about $30 million in “a broad range of assistance” to Honduras, but stops short of calling the situation a military coup. In the same press release, the US said it would not recognize a president elected in November due to the current situation.

September 10
The US announces that $11 million destined for the expansion of the main highway between the major cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.

September 12
The US revokes diplomatic and tourist visas for 18 Honduras government officials, including de facto President Roberto Micheletti's.

September 13
Prominent businessman and president of the National Association of Industries Aldolfo Facussé, one of 124 business leaders who had their visas revoked, was deported from Miami on a commercial flight and he was denied entrance into the United States one day earlier.

September 15
Thousands march in Tegucigalpa and elsewhere in the country in support of Zelaya's return while Micheletti supporters gather for an Independence Day celebration and parade in Tegucigalpa's National Stadium.

[JackRiddler]

.

Fantastic work, John! Thanks a thousand times. I doubt a superior compilation in English exists on the Web.

Here's what I've done with a couple of your inputs:

Thread with photos above:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 89x6620941

Wherein I included these:

Prior photo set:
"Why isn't this a bigger issue here?"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=6615200

Commentary (+22 recs so far)
"History shifted, did you notice? Brazil is now leading The Coalition."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=6618452

Off-site compilation thread of hundreds of stories - literally dozens from this week - tracking developments since the golpistas kidnapped the president and seized power in June:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewt ... &start=255

Welcome, anyone coming from there!

[John Schröder]

Thank you! I'm glad that my work here is of use to you.

[geogeo]

But the timeline is incredibly biased and contains many what are euphemistically called 'misrepresentations of truth.'

One example--Toncontin has been known to be unfit for jets for years; there have been numerous attempts to move it. Comayagua is the best choice. Mel's move was logical, but he was attacked viciously; the US regards Palmerola as its own, even though there's no written agreement. Mel offered the US military more space in the Moskitia.

Most of this timeline is useless. Sorry.

If I have time I'll give a more detailed run-down of the errors, omissions, and inaccuracies. It's basically black propaganda that relies on the fact that most people have virtually no real knowledge of Honduras. Mucc of what is reported as truth was aired by the oligarchs' media--they were as truthful before the coup as they've been since!

[John Schröder]

Most of this timeline is useless.

I thought it's useful to have a timeline that provides a broad overview of the events and the people involved, that's why I posted it. It is biased against Zelaya, that's true. If there really are several factual errors in there, it would be great if you could take the time and point them out. It's always important not to let misinformation stand unchallenged.

I hesitated to post the timeline, but I don't have to agree 100 percent, or even 60 or 70 percent, with everything I'm posting. One of the reasons why I posted it is that there's a very interesting piece of information in it that I hadn't heard about before:

"October 24, 1985

Micheletti leads a group of Congressman in a failed bid to overturn the constitutional articles to allow president Roberto Suazo Córdoba to run for reelection."

As it turns out, there's a good article about this over at "Honduras Coup 2009":

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

Hypocrisy: Micheletti's attempt to change the constitution in 1985

Mimalapalabra today posts a scanned page from La Tribuna of Honduras, dated October 25, 1985. Headlined Pugilism in the Congress: Congressmen ask to convert Congress into a Constitutional Assembly, the story reports on violence that broke out when Carlos Echenique attempted to read a motion, signed by a number of congressmembers, to convert Congress immediately into a Constitutional Assembly.

Another member, Carlos Montoya, interrupted asking that he be declared out of order, saying

We cannot permit a congressmember to make an attempt against the Constitutional order and try to generate a "golpe técnico" (technical coup d'etat) to finish the democratic system in which we live

Another member opposed to the motion, Nicholas Cruz Torres, labeled those who signed the motion "traitors". These deputies called for the immediate suspension of those suporting the motion. A fistfight broke out, and another congressmember drew a pistol.

Who were the perpetrators of this travesty? twelve congressmembers were listed as supporters. Among them: Roberto Micheletti, today the leader of the authoritarian regime that seized power after a military coup.

The motion he signed to support in 1985 explicitly called for the suspension of the so-called "stone articles" of the constitution, including Article 374 prohibiting changes to presidential terms.

Micheletti, along with the other signatories, was questioned by the head of Congress, Efrain Bu Girón, who invited them to retract their signature, advising them that

you are incurring a penal responsibility for an attempt against the democratic system

Only five of the original signatories maintained their support for the motion, Micheletti among them.

Informed that Bu Girón had spoken with the head of the Armed Forces, the ringleader "snuck out of the meeting room".

As Alfredo Xalli notes in his commentary on mimalapalabra, these congress members had no intention to consult the Honduran people about constitutional change. At the same time, they argued that the constitution derived its power from the people-- which is in fact an accurate constitutional claim.

In addition to the obvious difference that in 2009, President Zelaya did not propose extending the term of the president, one great difference between the 1985 attempt to convene a constitutional assembly and the proposal to begin to poll the people-- the source of constitutional authority-- in 2009 is that in 1985 the Congress identified itself as the legitimate representative of the people. In 2009, the Zelaya government argued for a move from such representative democracry to more participatory democracy, in which the people would be polled.

The purpose of the well-documented incident in 1985 was precisely to prolong the presidency of Roberto Suazo Cordova beyond the constitutional limit.

This particular ploy did not work, but there remained considerable uncertainty about whether Suazo Cordova would step aside as required. An article in the Nuevo Herald of Miami on December 6, 1985, speculated that Suazo Cordova would attempt to stay on with the support of the Armed Forces, rather than allow Jose Azcona Hoya, the president-elect, take power in January. Forty-six congressmembers-- more than half of the 82 members of congress at the time-- were rumored to be likely not to attend the inauguration.

In 1985, Honduras had not yet experienced a single orderly transition of the government under the new constitution. In 2009, until June 28, the experience of most young Hondurans was nothing but the success of the constitution in ensuring democratic succession. But an older generation of Honduran politicians who were actors in 1985 would have been aware of the echoes of that earlier day when invoking a Constitutional Assembly had no reason other than to attempt to install a continuous presidency.

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/374

Police kill youth for shouting "golpistas" at them from a distance

In El Tiempo. The adolescent was on his red bicycle heading to a soccer field yesterday afternoon, and when the cops passed in their vehicle and heard him shout they stopped, got out, and shot at him from a distance. He fell off his bike and died:

http://quotha.net/node/376

Day 89, September 24, 2009 from Oscar (translation by Camille Collins Lovell)

Last night the disturbances continued in practically all the neighborhoods of the capital city; shouts, shots, sirens and explosions were frequent, filling once again the darkness of the night with sounds of war. But the Resistance doesn't cede, learning from our errors and willing to make sacrifices, the people continue to rebel against this dictatorship and to call for justice.

The resistance marched once again in spite of the prohibition issued by the government which threatened to repress any gathering of more than 20 persons. The meeting place yesterday was again the Pedagogical University. From barrios and neighborhoods all over the city came groups (some in groups of twenty, others in groups of 100, others in groups of a thousand) that joined together, forming an enormous rebellious mass. They walked down the Centro América Avenue towards Boulevard Juan Pablo II, through the Alameda area, toward Palmira.

A few meters away from the old United Nations building a large military contingent blocked the path of the march; once again, as has occurred on other occasions, the leaders attempted to negotiate with the police asking them to permit the march to circulate as far as the UN building. The police advanced slowly, but the marchers advanced more slowly. After an hour of waiting in the same spot, people began to feel desperate: these people talk too much, said one young protester that together with thousands of others turned around, changing their destiny, this time headed in the direction of the city center. In general people are tense and the violence erupts with increasing ease. The discipline committee has made an impressive effort to control any kind of provocation that could justify police repression.

When marchers arrived at the central park, the police repression was cruel as expected. Once again the treacherous alleys of the historic city center were like a trap given the disorganization of the protesters that ran trying to escape the police that pursued them. The demonstration was dispersed and there were loud complaints to the leadership.

It's incomprehensible, because it was clear that there would be repression, that people were indignant with the agents of repression, especially after these nightmarish nights, incomprehensible that the resistance leadership did not think about how to protect the protesters. They can say a thousand times that they are infiltrators those who provoke police repression, and perhaps that is often true; but they should not fail to recognize the rage that lives in all of us, should not ignore the fact that we are tired of and indignant about a repression that does not respect human dignity, or our homes or our bodies. They must not ignore that, in spite of the affection we hold for our companions who have assumed the role of leaders, they have not known how to orient us in the struggle because they continue sending us off to the slaughter.

Little by little the resistance is changing, new strategies emerge transforming the struggle. Today the neighborhoods are resisting and the word is to build barricades in every street boycotting the march sponsored by the government, the government that temporarily suspended the curfew in order to obligate all public employees to attend the rally. The youth gangs, the 18th street gang and the MS, the sports clubs, the lumpen, all have answered the call and have joined the people confronting directly the police, after all - we share the same enemy. There are no deaths reported by the police or military in the incursions into the neighborhoods, but we also know that there has been an armed response by residents.

Violence is anticipated in the march of the "whites" today. Members of the resistance have announced that they will try to prevent that, but it is feared that the army itself will try to use the march “for peace and democracy” to justify another wave of aggression against the people. There are reports that it is probable that paramilitaries will be used to attack this same march causing a massacre making it look like the resistance is a violent bloodthirsty group. The whites are armed and disposed to kill in order to defend their democracy. At this moment in the morning, 15 military trucks have arrived in Palmira unloading men dressed as civilians.

Large military and police contingents from all over the country are being moved to the capital city to control the popular uprising. They leave behind villages and towns all over the country with little or no police or military presence, and at the disposition of the local resistance organizations who have announced that they will take control of their locals and declare them liberated. The beast moves and the resistance strikes its unprotected flanks.

¡NO PASARÁN!

[StarmanSkye]

I think the following deserves to be here, laying out exactly WHAT Zelaya's administration thought meritted a Constitutional Referndum following the will of the people for greater participatory representation -- and which should finally and clearly repudiate the coup-leader's claims Zelaya was seeking to extend his office. I think in only one instance, in a casual offhand response several days before he was ousted Pres. Zelaya replied to a question about the referendum, 'We can always talk about term limits then" (during a Constitutional Convention that would be authorized should the referendum lead to a successful vote.)
The Micheletti regime has used this instance as proof to back their claim of what Zelaya ultimately intended -- never mind that Zelaya would not be able to run for office again even under the most expedited conditions for at least 4-6 years.

One thing that really stands out in my mind, is Zelaya's apparant understanding that by protecting the rights of the exploited and improving the lives of those most disadvantaged, everyone in the whole nation of Honduras will benefit. This goes against every instinct and impulse of the oligarchs whose whole fortune and careers depend on privelege.

Every time I see Micheletti smirking for the cameras and practicing his upper-class Spanish as if to show he is a well-bred gentleman born to lead, I find myself loathing everything he represents.
**************
http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/20 ... eform.html

--quote--
Monday, July 27, 2009
Why Promote Constitutional Reform? A Zelaya Government Text

The Honduran Armed Forces posted a 156 page long document including everything from a timeline to an FAQ that reached almost unequalled levels of the absurd: in response to the question, Was this novel in political history?, the Armed Forces replied with the to-them obvious parallel: the Supreme Court decision in the US Presidential election in 2000 designating George W. Bush as winner over Al Gore (p. 10).

You all remember when the Chief of Staff at the time kidnapped Gore and took him off to Costa Rica, right?

Nestled in this treasure trove, which overall reinforces my sense that the Armed Forces are very defensive, is a document (p. 7) described as

Propaganda material distributed by the Executive Power, called "Cuarta Urna, Peaceful Route to the Citizen's Revolution, a New Constitution!" A document that now establishes some aspects that were intended to be eliminated from the Constitution of the Republic.

The actual handout itself appears almost at the end of the 156 pages of reproduced legal cases and orders sent to the military, the basis on which they acted.

But this document is different: it is the one, actual, solid piece of evidence the military can offer showing what the Zelaya government was intending to promote, in the event that the public opinion poll on June 28 produced a majority in favor of a fourth ballot box in November.

Here's what it promotes; notice the entire absence of any discussion of term limits, continuing in office longer than his elected term, dissolving Congress, the Supreme Court, or the command of the Armed Forces, which elsewhere (p. 15) in the Armed Forces document they claim was the real goal of the exercise; instead, what the Zelaya government proposed was ensuring the rights of women, of the multiple ethnic groups now recognized in Honduras, and the expansion of human rights to include "third and fourth generation" rights-- in other words, bringing the Honduran constitution into conformity with international treaties, just as Minister of Culture Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle previously noted:


Cuarta Urna
Peaceful Route to the Citizen's Revolution!
A New Constitution


The fourth ballot box is the democratic road to make it legally possible to convene a Constitutional Assembly that could write a new Constitution, to give Honduras a superior democracy, in which the people will not only freely elect their rulers and representatives at all levels of Government, but as well will participate actively in the fundamental decisions that affect their lives and exercise actual control over those who are in power in their name.

Among the momentous topics that should be included in the new Constitution we single out the following:

a) Social Control: establishment of recall referenda, so that the people will have the possibility of denying their confidence in the middle of their term, to those that have been elected and have betrayed them-- and of the Death Crusade! Censure and veto, for mayors, representatives, and the President.

b) Actual freedom of the press, which means equitable access to the media for all the social and political organizations and all the citizens, and that will impede the use of the ownership of the means of communication as an instrument of accumulation of economic and political power.

c) Economic liberty with social responsibility, that will guarantee private property with a social use and the social economy of the market, placing the human being at the center of the economy and rescuing public services for the people.

d) Authentic political liberty that will impede the monopoly of representation on the part of the current party members, who slow the actual participation of the citizens, whether party activists or not, in national politics. Election of representatives by electoral districts and separation of the dates of elections for Presidents, Representatives, and Mayors.

e) Renewal of confidence in those officials who have dignified their office, fulfilling it adequately for the citizens.

f) Popular consultation to guarantee that no ruler could snatch from the People their economic and social takings, because any decisions that menaced these takings only could be legalized by means of a Popular Consultation.

g) Constitutional obligation to aid the progress of Woman as central actor in the development of the country.

h) To grant priority to the individual rights, social, economic, and the rest that will be established, as well as the guarantees of a multicultural and pluri-ethnic society.

i) To incorporate the rights known constitutionally as "third and fourth generation rights" as constitutional rights.

j) To institute the Constitutional Tribunal.
*****

[StarmanSkye]

Current Updates from the excellant Honduras Coup blog John Schroder has cited:

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

--quote--

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Pro de facto government march fizzles?

Reading between the lines the "pro democracy" (your tax dollars at work here) march organized to support the de facto government by the UCD (Union Civica Democratica) may have fizzled. The La Tribuna article mentions the organizers expected 500,000 people to join them from across the country. It then goes on to say that "hundreds" arrived at 10 am for the march.

Radio Globo has fielded numerous calls from workers who were being "ordered" to attend the march as part of their job. Unlike the marches of the resistance, busloads of supporters in white shirts were being allowed past the military checkpoints into Tegucigalpa this morning.

The UCD is an organization funded, in part, by the US State Department. It receives funds designated to groups that promote democracy in Latin America.

More information on this march as it becomes available.

UPDATE 10:42 AM PDT: La Prensa describes the march as consisting of "thousands" and they have posted pictures of the demonstraters outside the UN building in Tegucigalpa here.

*******
IMF offers $163.3 million to Zelaya government

El Heraldo, a pro coup news source, tells us this morning that the International Monetary Fund has offered the $163.3 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that the de facto government is counting against its foreign reserves to the Zelaya government representatives. Sandra Midence, the de facto government's head of the Central Bank of Honduras is miffed. "Its contradictory that the ex president of the BCH, Edwin Araque, and the ex president of finances, Rebeca Santos, can have the use of these resources."

You will remember that this is the money the BCH made the press release about back on August 29, and that we blogged about numerous times.



****
Houses around Brazilian Embassy cleared
Radio Globo reported this morning that the military completed clearing the houses around the Brazilian embassy overnight. All of the residents in the area have been cleared from their houses, and the military has occupied some of them, Radio Globo reports.

Radio Globo also identified several boxes attached to the power lines that jam radio signals (such as cell phones and radios) in the area around the embassy.

At this time the military is interfering with Radio Globo's internet signal, sending end-of-stream packets to clients trying to connect.

Channel 36's internet broadcast is unavailable to us this morning.

[John Schröder]

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

Is Peru providing logistical support for the Honduras coupmongers?



Screenshot from the video below that clearly shows the tear gas being
used by Honduras police to put down pro-Zelaya protestors is from
Peru's National Police Force

It was something that your humble servant (and commenters to IKN) first noted yesterday when mentioned in Al Giordano's incisive article on the latest developments in Honduras.

"We can also see in that video the revelation that the tear gas canisters shot by the National Police yesterday were stamped as property of the government of Perú..."

Today it's been a subject that's made it to headlines in Peruvian media and questions being asked by respected members of congress in Peru's parliament.

Is Peru helping the illegal government of Micheletti? Is Peru providing vital logistical support to Honduras police and armed forces to help them repress the pro-Zelaya protestors? The evidence is pretty clear on one score; those tear-gas canisters used by Honduras police officers on Wednesday are clearly marked "Policía Nacional Del Perú" (no translation needed, I trust).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YartPc2UBjI

You'll see them on this video at minute 1:40 (about 2/3rds of the way through). It couldn't be printed any more clearly. The man in the shot says (translated), "This is the type of bomb the police use to repress us. The USA sent them to the Peruvian police and the Peruvian police sent (them) to Honduras. How can this be? What explanation can be given for this?".

Peruvian daily La Primera quotes opposition member of congress Fredy Otárola this way:

It's "very serious" that tear gas canisters carrying the inscription "Policía Nacional Del Perú" are being used by Honduran police because it is evidence that the government of president Alan García is supporting the coupmonger government of Roberto Micheletti."

The director of Peru's National Coordinator of Human Rights, Ronald Gamarra:

"...demanded that the minister of the interior, Octavio Salazar, explained how the tear gas got to Honduras."

Opposition parliamentarian Yonhy Lescano (ottonote: one of a rare breed of honest politicos in Peru) said that he would ask minister Salazar explain the situation to parliament (ottonote: a formal situation in Peru that is used when a situation is suitably serious) and to ask him to clarify whether Peru's government is supplying the illegal Honduras government.

Even the ruling APRA party is a seat of dissent, with APRA congress member Edgar Nuñez saying

"...it is very serious that the police has sent tear gas to Honduras."

Peru needs to make a clear statement right now. It has taken a weak line of support for Zelaya, but all the same Peru's official position is to support the Oscar Arias plan that reinstates Zelaya to power. It also voted not to recognize the Micheletti coup government with all other UNASUR members. Is Peru sneakily helping Micheletti behind everyone's back? We need to be told.

UPDATE: A few minutes ago and via press release, Peru's national police force stated that it hadn't sold, donated of given in any way any tear gas canisters to Honduras and it was all some administrative error blamed on a company in Honduras.

OH WELL, THAT'S ALL RIGHT THEN. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT HERE.

In fact the only people that have to worry are those who dare to report this piece of news, because at the end of the press release the PNP stated (translation):

"The right to begin legal actions in order the preserve the image of the country and of the police is reserved."

I'm having one of those ScoobyDoo we-wudda-gotten-away-with-it-too-if-it-weren't-for-you-pesky-kids-and-that-dawg moments again. Funny how they spring up so often these days....

[John Schröder]

http://quotha.net/node/382

Judas or Diplomat? Or, can you be one without being the other?

Many Hondurans are infuriated by the images in the newspapers (these taken from La Prensa) of Zelaya meeting with, and even embracing candidates and coup engineers today (he met with resistance candidates Carlos H. Reyes and César Ham the first day he arrived), while his supporters and other resistance members are being shot at--slaughtered, even--on the streets. Talk on the street is of possible betrayal, and that "once a politician always a politician." Of course, the "international community" is expecting compromise, and Zelaya has promised that, but how do you compromise with de facto leaders responsible for the violent repression of their people? In what situation, they ask, could all the human rights violations carried out this summer, including possibly dozens of extrajudicial assassinations in the past week, possibly be negotiable or acceptable? People are watching his next steps very closely.



Porfirio Lobo, from the National Party.



Elvin Santos with Manuel Zelaya.



Manuel Zelaya with the presidential candidates



Elvin Santos, of the Liberal Party; Porfirio Lobo, of the National; Felícito Ávila, from the Christian Democratic Party, and Bernard Martínez, from the PINU (Partido Innovación y Unidad Social Demócrata), made the declaration after meeting for more than three hours with the interim president, Roberto Micheletti.

[John Schröder]

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefie ... ment-32200

If you have lived in Honduras, as I have, you do notice certain things.

There is, of course, no middle class. There are the upper-middle classes and the oligarchy and it hangerons.

However, these people make up a minute percentage of the population. Most people are unbelievably impovershed.

Though the average Honduran is poor beyong belief, many have skills and abilities that make their better off fellow citizens appear to be simply useless paper pushers, constant schmoozers and status chasers.

I had to teach the kids of the Tegus oligarchy. I never met unbelievably spoiled kids. They had maids, drivers, guards and what-not wait on them hand and foot. And if a male kid wanted to f**k a maid, she better comply or should would loose her hard- to-find-job.

I remember when I planned and organized a fieldtrip to National School of Music. One of the kids fathers had two Hummers full of guards all wielding automatic weapons. That was just one kid.

Of course, when arrived at music school, very few of these oligarch's kids were interested in the activities of these very talented kids. (The selection process is national, uncorrupt, and actually finds the most musically talented kids to receive this free musically-oriented public education.)

These kids are usually from poor families, and they were practicing tand performing he classics of Western Europe and Latin America. But the oligarch's kids were only interested in listening to hip hop, rap and latin pop.

In fact, this institution was built by the Japanese government as a goodwill gesture. However, much of the groundwork was done by the students, their families, the teachers and any supporters of the school. After Mitch destroyed the original school, the oligarchs were not interested in rebuilding it.

I took the oligarch's kids on other fieldtrips and it was horrifing to observe their behavior toward their poorer and less powerful country(wo)men.

For example, the buses would go through the countryside to get to our destination. If you looked out the window, you could see campesinos hauling in their maize using burros, or you could see a blacksmith shoeing a horse, or, again, if you looked, you would see women preparing snacks for roadside sales, and there were the artasinas also selling their unique and authentic handmade craftwork.

Not once did these oligarch's kids display an interest in the lives of their fellow citizens. Instead, all they did was talk, talk and talk to their fellow oligarch's kids about the newest US pop group, the newest US electronic consumer gadget Dad bought them, etc.

The oligarchs lived in such a bubble. Their impoverished fellow citizens are disposable and ignored at best. If the oligarchs and their upper-middle class hangers-on do notice you, it probably won't go well for you.

[John Schröder]

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

Giving Constitutional Research a Bad Name

US congressman Aaron Schock (Republican from Illinois) commissioned a research report that has excited immense interest in the pro-coup Honduran media. So far, in English mainstream media, it appears to have been given the cold shoulder it deserves. But make no mistake, bad research is consequential, and the right-wing blogs are alive with the story as well.

Written by someone identified only as a "Senior Foreign Law Specialist" at the Library of Congress, Norma C. Gutierrez, the report makes an argument that the removal of President Zelaya was constitutional. In this, her report would contradict numerous constitutional law professors in Honduras, Spain, and the United States. The references cited in the report consist almost entirely of citations of the Honduran constitution, or of documents posted online by the Honduran Supreme Court.

A notable exception, and key to understanding the basis of her unique conclusions, are references to phone calls with Guillermo Pérez-Cadalso, described as "a Honduran attorney who formerly served as Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of Foreign Relations." Sounds impressive, right? But wait, who is this, anyway?

Well, he was part of the pro-coup delegation that came to testify before Congress in early July. This was the lobbying group put together by Lanny Davis. His service in the executive branch came during the administration of Ricardo Maduro, one of the former Honduran presidents implicated in the carrying out of the coup. Mr. Pérez-Cadalso is #34 on the widely circulated list These are the coup leaders: They will be judged.

So, hardly a disinterested source.

So let me match Ms. Gutierrez expert-for-expert. Mr. Pérez-Cadalso's testimony is countered by the opinions of Angel Edmundo Orellana Mercado, who was until June 24 a cabinet Secretary in the Zelaya government, resigning over his disagreement with President Zelaya's attempt to remove General Vasquez Velasquez from his position as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Formally a member of Congress since he resigned from the Zelaya government, he formally refused to attend sessions of Congress following the June 28 coup, offering a powerful critique of precisely the same "constitutional" arguments and processes she, relying on a known golpista, accepts. Orellana's editorials specifically rebut the constitutional analysis offered by Gutierrez.

Orellana, in addition to his most recent service in government, has an illustrious history as a Professor of Constitutional Law and a member of various Honduran governments. He holds a PhD in law, and was from 1976 a Professor of Law at the National University of Honduras (UNAH). His government service began in 1982, when constitutionality was restored to Honduras; was Magistrate in the Court of Appeals of "lo Contencioso Administrativo" (the courts that ruled against Zelaya in his attempts to hold a poll) from 1988-1994; was the Attorney General of the country from 1994 to 1999; served as Honduras' ambassador to the UN, was a cabinet minister in multiple administrations, is the recipient of many honors, and the author of legal texts as well as research articles.

And Orellana-- like his colleague on the law faculty at UNAH, Efrain Moncada Silva, and Francisco Palacios Romeo, Professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, not to mention Professor Doug Cassell of the Law School of Notre Dame, whose invited analysis published by the American Society of International Law is considered the authoritative English-language study of the constitutional issues-- does not agree with Gutierrez or her single Honduran legal advisor.

Why not? well, let's begin with the fact that Ms. Gutierrez appears willing to ignore major points of law. She admits it was unconstitutional to expatriate President Zelaya. But she provides a spurious rationale for the Supreme Court's enlisting the Armed Forces to carry out the raid on President Zelaya in the early hours of Sunday, June 28.

On page 2, she says one of the existing constitutional questions is whether the Supreme Court had the authority to order "the public forces (fuerza pública) to carry out an arrest warrant".

That is not the legal issue. The issue is, did they have the power to ask the Armed Forces (military) to carry out such a raid? The original 1982 Honduran Constitution included all security personnel under the Armed Forces, and made no distinctions between the military and the police, at that time a branch of the Armed Forces called the Fuerza de Seguridad Pública (FUSEP). Article 306 of the current Constitution authorizes the judiciary to call on the Fuerza Pública (capitalized, not lower case) to enforce legal decisions, and failing that, the citizenry. What it does not do is authorize the Armed Forces, from which the police were separated in order to demilitarize civilian policing, under special legislation ratified in 1996. Article 293 of the current Constitution defines as proper duties of the civilian National Police the

ejecutar las resoluciones, disposiciones, mandatos y decisiones legales de las autoridades y funcionarios públicos, todo con estricto respeto a los derechos humanos.

to execute the resolutions, dispositions, mandates and legal decisions of the public officials and authorities, all with strict respect to human rights

The two instances of the term "fuerza pública" in the present constitution, including that cited by Ms. Gutierrez, were retained from the original 1982 Constitution. The multiple revisions of the Constitution have left many such dangling phrases. But the revision of the Constitution that introduced the present Article 293 makes it clear what public forces are supposed to enforce judicial rulings. Re-militarizing a demilitarized branch of public security forces is one of the main acts by the de facto regime that Honduran analysts point to as evidence that this was, indeed, a military coup.

Ms. Gutierrez does acknowledge that the Supreme Court had started the legally mandated process of investigation of the charges brought by the Public Prosecutor, and that this process was truncated by the unconstitutional expatriation of President Zelaya. But she seems incapable of acknowledging that this means there was in fact no determination of guilt that might serve as a legal basis for any move to remove the president from office.

She manages to avoid the thoroughly debunked "Article 239" argument which the de facto regime adopted days after the coup.

Instead, she comes up with a breathtaking, novel new theory of Honduran law: Congress has a unilateral right to interpret the Constitution; so they "interpreted" their power to "disapprove" of presidential actions, under Article 205, section 20, as including an ability to remove the president. Powerful disapproval there.

Apparently aware of the fact that "throw out" is not the most obvious interpretation of "disapprove", Ms. Gutierrez draws on an equally novel interpretation of Article 205, section 10. This section itself has an interesting history: not present in the original constitution, it was added to the Constitution in 1983-1984, giving the Congress the right to interpret not just the laws it passed, but the very Constitution itself. (This is exemplary of the concentration of authority that has made the National Congress in Honduras more powerful than the separation of powers of the original three branch model.)

But the interesting thing is, as Ms. Gutierrez notes, the Honduran Congress did not in fact make the argument she is advancing now. It did not ever, in its own declaration, say that the reason it could remove the President from office was that this was a form of "disapproval".

So where does her novel theory come from? Quoting from page 8:

An analysis of the facts of the case and the aforementioned constitutional provisions leads one to the conclusion that the National Congress made use of its constitutional prerogative to interpret the Constitution and interpreted the word "disapprove" to include also the removal from office.

This section ends with a footnote reference, footnote 40, which reads in full:

This line of analysis was confirmed in an August 3, 2009, telephone interview with Mr. Guillermo Pérez-Cadalso, a Honduran attorney who formerly served as Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of Foreign Relations.

Confirmed?! Meaning what? that he agreed this was as good a post-facto rationalization as any other?

If all her legal "research" is this good, one can question whether any of it is reliable.

But there is more. In a document that tries to hide its advocacy under a veneer of reviewing simple facts, there are some extraordinary lapses. Ms. Gutierrez repeats the then already widely debunked claim that the vote to remove President Zelaya was unanimous (p. 8). In doing so, she footnotes the supposed "resignation letter", originally furnished by the National Congress as the legal basis for proceeding to the line of constitutional succession. Her footnote is scandalous in both its ignorance and its use of a golpista smear that even the worst US congressional zealot has not attempted to use, to my knowledge. Her footnote (no. 43) says

It is believed by some in Honduras that Zelaya signed the letter on June 24, before his arrest, to make use of it after the referendum, when presumably the National Constituent Assembly was going to be initiated, on June 29, because Zelaya anticipated that he would be elected President of the Assembly.

It is believed by a lot more in Honduras and outside that the backdated letter was written to be used by the golpistas earlier in the week, when they originally intended to carry out their coup. The actual content of the letter doesn't accord with the interpretation offered either: the letter purported to offer the resignation not only of the President, but of his entire Cabinet.

What Ms. Gutierrez reproduces here is part of the paranoid rumor-mongering through which the Honduran people were induced to believe that President Zelaya had a secret plan to suspend the Constitution June 29 and unilaterally take over the country.

So, what is her source for this claim? You guessed it: the trusted Mr. Pérez-Cadalso.

And so who is Ms. Gutierrez, and other than her reliance on a member of the coup faction, what is her supposed expertise? According to the Law Library of the Library of Congress, employees with her title are "a diverse group of foreign-trained attorneys". Ms. Gutierrez is listed as having jurisdiction over issues related to Mexico and Nicaragua.

It is unclear where Ms. Gutierrez received her legal training; but her legal advice came from a poisoned well.

[John Schröder]

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

US Congressional Research Service missed crucial Honduran Supreme Court Ruling...

Armando Sarmiento, former director of the Honduran equivalent of the IRS, provides on quotha.net a critical and devastating critique of the CRS report discussed in our previous blog posting making two points, the first fatal for the shocking attempt to justify the coup:

The Supreme Court of Honduras declared it UNCONSTITUTIONAL for the National Congress to interpret the constitution in the verdict issued on May 7, 2003. As such, there exists no legal basis to assert that Congress can interpret the constitution, indirectly constituting a basis for a political verdict permitting the removal of the head of state.

[Note correction: the original blog post at quotha.net had the year as 2009]

This post saves me belaboring the point: the amendments to the Honduran Constitution-- proposed, passed, and ratified by the Honduras Congress-- that gave the Congress the right to interpret the Constitution itself-- as opposed to the laws passed by the Congress, as called for in the original 1982 Constitution-- eroded the separation of powers, and usurped the authority of the Supreme Court itself to interpret the Constitution. I am glad to see that the Honduran Supreme Court agreed with me this in May 2003-- even longer before the events of June 28, and also, before the now entirely discredited "research report".

Sr. Sarmiento also anticipates a second point we have been actively researching, and confirms another understanding we had about legal process in Honduras, writing:

In any case, if Congress had the ability to interpret the constitution (which according to the Supreme Court's decision it does not possess) the interpretation would have to state clearly in a decree that the constitutional standard was being interpreted and to clarify thereafter the standards resulting from said interpretation (which was not done in the removal of the president). There is no tacit interpretation of the constitution; the interpretation must be explicit.

During the period when the Congress acted on the strength of amendments it had made to try to grant itself the power of Constitutional interpretation, there was a procedure that had to be followed. That procedure was not followed during the extraordinary session convened on June 28. The Congress had to declare that it was actively interpreting the Constitution.

It did not do so.

The fact that a US Congressional Research report decided that the only way the Congress could have done what it did is if it was (without declaring it) interpreting the Constitution would have been utterly inexplicable-- except, as we have shown, for the fact that the researcher involved relied on one single Honduran informant, apparently not knowing or not caring that this individual was not a disinterested source, and that his opinion conflicted with all real legal analyses offered in Honduras, Spain, and the US.

Indeed, we would make a third point of our own (complementing Sr. Sarmiento's third point, which we urge you to read at the original post, soon to be updated with a longer analysis):

The June 28 session was not an ordinary session (as it was erroneously labeled in the CRS report). It was an "extraordinary session".

The procedural document guiding Honduran National Congress meetings establishes in Article 5 the procedures to be followed for calling such an "extraordinary session".

These include the requirement that only those topics listed explicitly on the call for the session be discussed. There was no explicit mention of constitutional interpretation as part of the agenda for that meeting. That may in fact be because the members of the Honduran Congress knew that the Supreme Court had rejected the claimed power of interpretation years earlier.
[note that the original blog post on quotha.net had the year wrong]

Surely Ms. Gutierrez should have found out that critical point? wouldn't it have been nice for her golpista source to have informed her, before she wrecked her credibility by producing this poisoned research?

[geogeo]

Briefly:

Mel and Co. have provided live, visual proof of police installing hoses to pump in chemicals to the embassy. This is live on Telesur. The extreme right is desperate.

At the same time, the photos of Mel meeting with Pepe Lobo and other presidential candidates is said to have infuriate many Hondurans who feel that Mel may, in the end, sell them out. I beg to differ: Padre Tamayo is at his side, and he's probably the only Resistance leader I know and trust. (Goldman Prize winner as well).

But the Resistance cell in Catacamas (Mel's home town) is apparently ready to resort to the use of arms. If the coup regime is not toppled in the next day or two, civil war WILL break out, and in the neighborhoods of Teguz. The heavily-armed people of Honduras are apparently beginning to feel that the non-violent tactics have not worked.

[nathan28]

Is there any english-language new feed on this? Al Jazeera is giving some coverage but not surprisingly focusing on the Iranian thing today