Posted by Kristin Bricker - June 25, 2009 at 9:35 pm Civil society organizations and UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto have warned of a possible coup attempt by the Honduran military. D'Escoto's spokesperson said that the Assembly President “clearly and strongly condemns the attempted coup d’etat that is currently unfolding against the democratically elected Government of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras.” Fears of a coup stem from a military deployment around the Presidential Palace and the Toncontín airport on Thursday.
The military and President Zelaya have been at odds over the President's initiative to hold a popular consultation on June 28 to decide if November's presidential elections should include a referendum where citizens would vote on whether or not Honduras should write a new constitution.
==================================================================
http://soaw.org/presente/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=215&Itemid=74#Honduras
....... During our visit to Honduras the previous week, we were also blessed by the invaluable help of Bertha Oliva, director of the Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH). Bertha is the consummate expression of passion for justice that knows no limits. Her unending fuel is her love for her companion Tomás, who disappeared from her arms and into the hands of the Honduran military some 26 years ago. She was left tied, gagged and pregnant. The same determination that led her to break free of her bonds and deliver her child clandestinely, has led her to open every door and turn over every rock in searching for the disappeared and bringing those responsible for their disappearance to justice. Spending the week with Bertha, we realized that this kind of commitment has its consequences. One is that you can only sit in corner tables at restaurants, in order to see who might be following you. Not only did Bertha set up every meeting for us, but she personally drove us to and fro. The only problem with this was that Bertha only drives forward. If we needed to back up, I had to take the wheel. It was a filling metaphor for a woman who knows no going backwards.
It was Bertha who led us straight to the President, the Defense Minister, the Chancellor, as well as to each of the presidential candidates for the upcoming November elections. Through these visits we found a fascinating political process to be unfolding in Honduras, far from the glare of the international spotlight such as that shining on El Salvador. Without much fanfare, President Manuel Zelaya, or “Mel” as he is known to the nation, has broken every mold and turned around every expectation that made him the hand-picked “safe” candidate of the U.S. embassy four years ago. Rejected by fellow Honduran members of the elite when he asked for their help in shaping a new country, he turned instead to progressive governments in South America and to social movements in his own country. There, he found willing allies, but ones that pushed him into unexpected places and led him to make surprising decisions.
One of these decisions was Zelaya´s bold expression of solidarity with Bolivia. When President Evo Morales ousted the U.S. ambassador from Bolivia because of his ties to separatist movements in his country, Zelaya showed his support by refusing to seat the newly assigned U.S. ambassador to Honduras. In a country that has been almost ruled from the top floor of the U.S. embassy for decades, this was shocking.
Another bold step is his call for a constitutional assembly with popular participation as the only solution to creating a viable democracy. We were invited to attend one of a series of fascinating day-long gatherings between the president, his cabinet, and all the major social movements in the country: campesinos, union leaders, indigenous communities, human rights and ecology activists, and so on. For 6 straight hours we took part in what was definitely one of the most fascinating political meeting I have experienced in my long years in Latin America. Serious issues were passionately debated between the president and the social movements, such as whether to keep open the U.S. Palmerola air base, how to achieve wide-spread land reform, and whether to continue to be a part of CAFTA. The issue of the SOA was raised by the groups assigned to look at security issues. The formal recommendation of the social movements to the president was that Honduras withdraw their troops, a point that received a loud round of applause.
Honduras was a country in which every one of our pre-conceptions was broken. On one of our last evenings we gathered with friends, among them a gentleman whose compassionate spirit was evident. We soon found out that he was none other than - an SOA graduate! The son of a working class family, he entered the Honduran officer corps half-heartedly when he was unable to enter the seminary, and was eventually sent to the SOA which was then located in Panama. He returned to Honduras, in the midst of years of brutal repression, where he was ordered time and again to capture and disappear “subversives”: students, union activists, campesino leaders, etc. He obeyed - but in his own way. He rounded up the person he was assigned to capture, then took them to the Nicaraguan border and said: “now, go and disappear”. Sometimes he first took him to his house to eat a home cooked meal before sending them off, or helped them to find a passport that they had stashed in a safe house. Eventually he was caught and exiled for years, then cut off from his military pension.
This same commitment to justice and compassion in spite of potentially difficult consequences was what propelled Monseñor Oscar Romero to speak out weekly in his radio masses from the cathedral of San Salvador, denouncing the brutal repression taking place. Under the orders of an SOA graduate, Romero was murdered while saying mass. The new president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, has said that he will dedicate his presidency to Romero and to his fervent commitment to the poor. Romero was aware that he might be killed, and said that if this happened, he would rise up in the Salvadoran people. In our conversations with Luis and Cristy and Alicia and Salvador, it seems like this might already be happening.
==================================================================================
http://soaw.org/presente/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=221&Itemid=74
Tuesday, 07 July 2009
Greetings from the quiet of the curfew here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The curfew has just begun, and the normal rattle of traffic outside this one-star hotel in the heart of the city is silenced.........
===========================================================================
==================================================================================
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/zela-j30.shtml
Zelaya has vowed to return to power, and the coup has been condemned by the US, the European Union, the OAS, the United Nations and the leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Colombia and other countries allied with the Zelaya regime, who met Sunday night in Managua.
Chavez has, justifiably, cast the coup as an overt threat to his regime. He has charged the US with complicity, alleging involvement by Otto Reich, a long-time anti-Castro operative and favorite of anti-Castro exiles in Miami. Reich played a key role as a Reagan administration State Department official in the Iran-Contra conspiracy, in which Reagan authorized secret funding for the anti-Sandinista Contras, in violation of the Boland amendment which had been passed by Congress banning US aid to the Contra death squads.
Reich was one of a number of Iran-Contra veterans who were appointed to government posts in the administration of George W. Bush, serving as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.
The US used southern Honduras as the base of operations for its proxy war in the 1980s against the left nationalist, Cuban-allied regime in neighboring Nicaragua......
.....Otto Reich was also implicated in the 2002 coup attempt. He met with Venezuelan opposition figures in the run-up to the attempted ouster of Chavez.
Reich is currently a board member of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, better known as the School of the Americas, located in Fort Benning, Georgia. Among the tens of thousands of Latin American military officers—and death squad leaders—who have been trained at the School of the Americas are two of the leaders of Sunday’s coup in Honduras, Army General Romeo Vasquez and Air Force General Luis Javier Prince Suazo.
Another graduate of the School of the Americas was Policarpo Paz Garcia, who ruled Honduras in 1980-82. Paz Garcia launched Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in Latin America........
==============================================================================
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22955.htm
But the realities of governing in a country as poor as Honduras--more than 60 percent of its population live in poverty, more than 50 percent in extreme poverty--tends to reinforce a left-wing slant. Perhaps it was the imperious and imperial behavior of George W. Bush's ambassador to Honduras, described by Zelaya as "barbarous." Or maybe it was the fact that the Central American Free Trade Agreement, rather than delivering promised development, worsened his country's trade deficit with the United States while driving low wages even lower, as Honduras competed with its equally impoverished neighbors for investment. Or perhaps it was the US Food and Drug Administration's unilateral ban of Honduran cantaloupes because they were supposedly tainted with salmonella, though the FDA offered no proof of the charge, a move Zelaya called "unjust."
Whatever the reason, Zelaya shifted course, and over the past two years he has adopted a progressive agenda. As a solution to the disastrous "war on drugs," which has turned Central America into a well-traversed trans-shipment corridor for narcotraficantes--profitable for some, deadly for many--he has proposed the legalization of some narcotics. Earlier this year at the Summit of the Americas, he took the lead in pushing Barack Obama to normalize relations with Cuba. And he has steered his country into both the Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas and Petrocaribe, two regional economic alliances backed by Venezuela meant to wean Latin America off its extreme dependence on the US market.
This left turn is less ideological than pragmatic. Honduras is so broke it "can't even build a road without getting a loan from the World Bank," Zelaya once complained. But that money comes in "dribbles, held up years by paperwork" and often accompanied by onerous terms. In contrast, he said, Petrocaribe financing for infrastructure investment came all at once, at extremely low interest, with no conditions, which helped free up other scarce funds for social services. Through Petrocaribe, Venezuela also provides Honduras with 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day, also on very generous terms.
=====================================================================================
http://ins.onlinedemocracy.ca/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8093
.....Paz and other analysts who talked to IPS said the families that
exercise the greatest power in Honduras are Jewish or of Arab
descent, and are involved in economic sectors like the
"maquiladoras" (export assembly plants), energy, telecoms, tourism,
banking and finance, the media, the cement industry and trade and
commerce......
...... Investor Miguel FacussÇ Barjum, his son-in-law Fredy Nasser, energy
magnate Schucry Kafie, and banker and industrialist Jaime Rosenthal
are considered the most powerful men in Honduras. Another
influential businessman is the Cuban-born JosÇ Lamas.
Nasser and Kafie control the country's thermal energy industry,
and Nasser's business interests include concessions to operate the
country's main airports, as well as shares in telephone companies
in Guatemala.
Influential businessmen in the media, whose influence has grown
since the 1990s, are Rafael Ferrari; Carlos Flores FacussÇ, a
former president (1998-2002) and the nephew of Miguel FacussÇ; and
Jorge Canahuati Larach........
...... A presidential adviser who asked to remain anonymous for security
reasons told IPS that "these groups are insatiable, they make one
request after another. Two months ago, in a meeting with President
Manuel Zelaya, they told him that in the 1980s, the most important
political decisions were put to consultation in the military
barracks, but that now they were here, the businesspeople and the
media.
"You are only temporary, while we are permanent, they said. We want
to be consulted about decisions, we want contracts and to
participate in the public tenders, we want to express our opinions
on some appointments of public officials, and we want official
advertising contracts, they added," according to the source.
Since then, the Zelaya administration, which took office in January
2006, has had friction with some of the country's most powerful
business groups, because the cabinet includes members of the Jewish
business community headed by Rosenthal, which is at loggerheads
with the country's most influential families of Arab origin.
Rosenthal, who has run unsuccessfully for the presidency four
times, belongs to the governing Liberal Party and has interests in
areas like the media, the cement industry, beef exports, banks,
insurance and telecoms. He played a key role in Zelaya's campaign.
His son, Yani Rosenthal, is now minister of the presidency, in
charge of coordinating all the ministries and the most important
portfolios of public administration projects and credits.
Given Zelaya's marked differences with some power groups, who is
he governing with?
With the Rosenthal family and another business sector not linked
to the traditional structures, who intend, together with the
president, "to set a distance between themselves and those who have
exploited this country for years," said the presidential adviser
who spoke with IPS.
This group is apparently led by the president's chief of staff,
Roberto Bab£n, who has interests in the timber industry. His camp
includes business leaders involved in the tourist industry,
biodiesel manufacturing -- which has strong backing from the
present administration -- and the thermal energy industry.
Unconfirmed reports have also pointed to links between the
government and members of the Guatemalan business community, who
allegedly contributed substantially to the president's election
campaign........
...... Two months ago, Marvin Ponce, a lawmaker with the leftist
Democratic Unification party, stated that there were legislators
who had gained their seats with drug-trafficking money, although
he did not dare name names.
A former mayor from a town in Honduras told IPS that at least five
mayors in the western provinces of Cop†n, Lempira and Ocotepeque
had financed their campaigns with drug money. But "if I reveal
their names, they'll kill me the next day," he said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that around
100 tons of cocaine move through Honduras annually, while domestic
consumption levels have soared in the last few years........
=============================================================================
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22956.htm
..........Nevertheless, this is far from what President Zelaya attempted to do in Honduras the past Sunday and which the Honduran political/military elites disliked so much. President Zelaya intended to perform a non-binding public consultation, about the conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly. To do this, he invoked article 5 of the Honduran “Civil Participation Act” of 2006. According to this act, all public functionaries can perform non-binding public consultations to inquire what the population thinks about policy measures. This act was approved by the National Congress and it was not contested by the Supreme Court of Justice, when it was published in the Official Paper of 2006. That is, until the president of the republic employed it in a manner that was not amicable to the interests of the members of these institutions.
Furthermore, the Honduran Constitution says nothing against the conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly, with the mandate to draw up a completely new constitution, which the Honduran public would need to approve. Such a popular participatory process would bypass the current liberal democratic one specified in article 373 of the current constitution, in which the National Congress has to approve with 2/3 of the votes, any reform to the 1982 Constitution, excluding reforms to articles 239 and 374. This means that a perfectly legal National Constituent Assembly would have a greater mandate and fewer limitations than the National Congress, because such a National Constituent Assembly would not be reforming the Constitution, but re-writing it. The National Constituent Assembly’s mandate would come directly from the Honduran people, who would have to approve the new draft for a constitution, unlike constitutional amendments that only need 2/3 of the votes in Congress. This popular constitution would be more democratic and it would contrast with the current 1982 Constitution, which was the product of a context characterized by counter-insurgency policies supported by the US-government, civil façade military governments and undemocratic policies. In opposition to other legal systems in the Central American region that (directly or indirectly) participated in the civil wars of the 1980s, the Honduran one has not been deeply affected by peace agreements and a subsequent reformation of the role played by the Armed Forces.
Recalling these observations, we can once again take a look at the widespread assumption that Zelaya was ousted as president after he tried to carry out a non-binding referendum to extend his term in office.
The poll was certainly non-binding, and therefore also not subject to prohibition. However it was not a referendum, as such public consultations are generally understood. Even if it had been, the objective was not to extend Zelaya’s term in office. In this sense, it is important to point out that Zelaya’s term concludes in January 2010. In line with article 239 of the Honduran Constitution of 1982, Zelaya is not participating in the presidential elections of November 2009, meaning that he could have not been reelected. Moreover, it is completely uncertain what the probable National Constituent Assembly would have suggested concerning matters of presidential periods and re-elections. These suggestions would have to be approved by all Hondurans and this would have happened at a time when Zelaya would have concluded his term. Likewise, even if the Honduran public had decided that earlier presidents could become presidential candidates again, this disposition would form a part of a completely new constitution. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as an amendment to the 1982 Constitution and it would not be in violation of articles 5, 239 and 374. The National Constituent Assembly, with a mandate from the people, would derogate the previous constitution before approving the new one. The people, not president Zelaya, who by that time would be ex-president Zelaya, would decide.
It is evident that the opposition had no legal case against President Zelaya. All they had was speculation about perfectly legal scenarios which they strongly disliked. Otherwise, they could have followed a legal procedure sheltered in article 205 nr. 22 of the 1982 Constitution, which states that public officials that are suspected to violate the law are subject to impeachment by the National Congress. As a result they helplessly unleashed a violent and barbaric preemptive strike, which has threatened civility, democracy and stability in the region.
It is fundamental that media channels do not fall into omissions that can delay the return of democracy to Honduras and can weaken the condemnation issued by strong institutions, like the United States government. It is also important that individuals are informed, so that they can have a critical attitude to media reports. Honduras needs democracy back now, and international society can play an important role in achieving this by not engaging in irresponsible oversimplifications.
===================================================================================
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22957.htm
Roberto Micheletti, convened a rally where he stood side by side with the military general that led the violent coup===================================================================================
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22985.htm
A good summery and analysis of most of the arguments about Iranian elections.
==============================================================
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23000.htm
=============================================================
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/9/in_rare_us_broadcast_ousted_honduran
JUAN GONZALEZ: Mr. President, some people have speculated there were former members of the Bush Administration that were waging a campaign against you here in the United States. Otto Reich, a former administration official in charge of Latin American affairs had been making allegations about corruption in your country, specifically related to the government-owned telephone company, HONDUTEL. Do you think this had any impact in terms of how the current administration is regarding your presidency?
MANUAL ZELAYA:[translated] The bad guys always join together. But there are more of us good people and we’re also united and we will win out over them. So don’t worry about that. I need to tell you I have to leave for Costa Rica and I am grateful for your interview, and I will continue to support you. The only system I believe in is democracy. It is the political system that gives political rights to the citizenry. Human rights guarantee our freedoms, but the political system we must support is democracy. If we allowed armies, drug, trafficking elites or economic elites or international mafia, even the transnational corporations to impose governments or presidents on us by force, we will be losing five decades of democratic reform in America. President Obama has a firm position and I hope it will remain so until we resolve this problem so it will serve as an example. So that a fractious group of military men never again break into the home of a president and without trying him first, without taking into court but rather capturing him and then wanting to try him. This should not happen.
He did not answer the question?
=========================================================
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/9/751548/-US-aid-to-Honduras-cut;-racist-FM-removed
US aid to Honduras cut; racist FM removed Update
by litho
Share this on Twitter - US aid to Honduras cut; racist FM removed Update Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 05:06:45 AM PDT
According to the rightwing Honduran daily La Prensa, the US embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday announced a suspension of aid that could amount to nearly $200 million. La Prensa quotes heavily from what they say is a communiqué from the embassy, which I can't find on the embassy's website. Here's a back translation from La Prensa's reporting:
No comments:
Post a Comment