Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Critics Dismiss Honduran Election -- Even Before First Vote Has Been Cast
Many view Honduras' presidential election as the only way out of a political crisis; others say the vote will legitimize the coup that caused the crisis.
TEGUCIGALPA -- While unemployment and crime are high and schools are at a standstill, Hondurans' focus when they go to the polls Sunday will be on settling a crippling political crisis that has consumed the Central American country since June.
Supporters of National Party presidential candidate Porfirio Lobo hold up posters and a cutout of him during a rally marking the close of his election campaign in Tegucigalpa November 23, 2009. Presidential elections will be held in Honduras on November 29, 2009. (REUTERS/Edgard Garrido) Whoever wins the presidency inherits a political mess not of his making and will be forced to cut deals and heal wounds -- or risk four years of instability and international condemnation.
But even as the campaigns officially close Tuesday, critics both in Honduras and abroad are condemning the election and promising legal challenges. The question remains: If Honduras has an election few countries recognize, does it count?
``If we don't go to elections, what alternative do we have?'' said leading candidate Porfirio ``Pepe'' Lobo.
``This has been a very, very difficult process,'' he told reporters. ``Now they want to deny us this right? There's no way. Nobody is going to stop the people's right to vote.''
Lobo is a 61-year-old former rancher and president of Congress who is widely expected to win the election. A longtime politician of the traditional National Party, he ran for president in 2005 and lost.
But this time around, CID Gallup polls show Lobo 15 points ahead of his closest contender, construction company executive Elvin Santos.
Lobo shot up in the polls thanks to a June 28 coup that ripped a schism into Honduran society and forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile.
``Lobo was more conservative and was trailing,'' said Peter Hakim, president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C., research center. ``Then the coup happens, Santos seemed opposed to finding a compromise solution with Zelaya, and that made Pepe the favorite.''
Zelaya was a leftist former rancher who alienated the powerful elite by insisting on a referendum that could have led to a new constitution. Congress, the Supreme Court and even Zelaya's own party viewed the move as a slick intent to stay in power. When Zelaya defied court orders to stop the plebiscite, the Supreme Court ordered his arrest.
The military broke into Zelaya's house the morning of June 28 and sent the pajama-clad president to Costa Rica. Zelaya's vice president -- Elvin Santos -- had resigned to run for president, so the next in line was Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress.
For five months, both Micheletti and Zelaya have claimed the presidency -- Micheletti from the presidential palace and Zelaya from the Brazilian Embassy, where he took refuge in September.
Elections to choose a successor already were scheduled and the candidates long selected. But now many critics say the race would be fruit of a poisoned tree, because polling is being orchestrated by an illegal and de facto regime.
``Can they convince the world that it was OK for a small group of people to overthrow the president, arrest thousands of people, beat the hell out of them, close media intermittently, hold an election -- and then judge the election solely on how clean it was on the day of the polling?'' said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C.
``The rest of Latin America sees this as legitimizing the coup itself.''
Already, Brazil and Argentina issued joint statements last week saying the election results will be invalid.
In late October, Micheletti and Zelaya briefly agreed on an accord that would have created a national unity government. The two sides could not agree on who would head it, so Zelaya did not offer candidates to serve in the government and pulled out of the deal.
But shortly after the accord was struck, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said Washington would recognize the election. His declaration caused an uproar in Honduras, where Zelaya supporters argue that once Washington agreed to respect the election results, Zelaya lost any chance of ever being reinstated.
Zelaya's supporters -- dubbed the ``Resistance'' -- have called for an election boycott, and their candidate withdrew from the race.
On Saturday, the interim government issued executive orders declaring a national state of emergency for the elections and calling up 5,000 military reservists.
``The message from the Resistance is for no one to vote,'' said union leader and protest organizer Juan Barahona.
``We don't want anyone casting a ballot for any candidate. Voting here is mandatory, but there's always a lot of absenteeism. This time, there will be much more.''
The Honduran Congress will vote Dec. 2 on whether to allow Zelaya to finish his term.
Zelaya already is vowing to challenge the election results. He blames Washington.
Santos has said he isn't interested in international validation.
But experts say Santos' anti-Zelaya stance divided his party -- the reason he is not likely to win.
``Honduras should not fear pressure from the international community for our elections to be recognized,'' he said in a videotaped interview with Guatemala's Prensa Libre newspaper. ``We are demanding respect. We are defending democracy in our nation.''
- Posted in
19 Comments so far
Show AllRest assured that the CIA will be rigging these sham elections, just as the CIA/Unocal puppet, Karzai, in the latest U.S. imperial conquest, Afghanistan.
CIA & their predecessor, OSS, have been rigging elections since the end of WWII.
But, the American people must like non-democratic governments, since they continue to elect people who participate in these farces.
Wake up, people! You don't have government. You have a few oligarchs who pull all the strings & steal your tax dollars to do their dirty work.
Republicrats dominate. No other parties need apply.
Wake up Guapito and smell constitutional liberty in Honduras. Are you in Havana or Caracas? Your story is as old as the Marxist hills. The brave people of Honduras did what they had to do to save their country from Hugo Chavez, et al of the neoMarxists in Latin America. You can probably get Nancy Pilosi and Harry Ried to agree with you though. P
Rest assured that the CIA will be rigging these sham elections, just as the CIA/Unocal puppet, Karzai, in the latest U.S. imperial conquest, Afghanistan.
CIA & their predecessor, OSS, have been rigging elections since the end of WWII.
But, the American people must like non-democratic governments, since they continue to elect people who participate in these farces.
Wake up, people! You don't have government. You have a few oligarchs who pull all the strings & steal your tax dollars to do their dirty work.
Republicrats dominate. No other parties need apply.
Of course the election is a farce.
An armed band financed by businessmen from the US take over the Honduran government.
Despite international criticism, the US refuses to make any clear statement besides criticizing the victimized leader of the victimized country for being careless.
Under continued international criticism, the armed band offers to conduct an election -- under their own auspices, of course. Citizens from the country whose businessmen financed the coup, along with a smattering of allies, will attend to attest to the integrity of the election.
Elections across the globe are plagued by corruption, but this does not come up even to the general standard.
..
Insofar as the people of Honduras are voting, they are voting on the streets.
Insofar as the people of Honduras are heard, their voices echo off the buildings between the troops and the enforced curfews.
This election is a shiny pink bow on a ghoul.
Voting with a gun to your head is NOT democracy, neither in Hondouras nor Afganistan nor Iraq.
bligh4
Who cares what they do. Honduras has had more governments than my wife has shoes...
Is Obama practicing his congratulation speech for the SOA trained Junta 'election' win?
This election is worth about as those in South Vietnam as it was called back in the 1960s, which is to say not a damn thing. These gangsters pull off a coup, and the US Government, at least many ranking officials only want to talk about a scum bag election that the only progressives have said they will boycott as a result of all the repression including beating the hell out of dissidents. The UN, the EU, and the OAS don't recognize it. Now why the hell should anybody else?
AD
stories from the Miami Herald, what next? I am sure you could find something on Honduras of more substance and veracity.
"SouthCom: Washington Develops its Operations in Soto Cano Airbase in Honduras",
by Arnold August, Nov. 23, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16252
QUOTE:
According to a November 17 press release, Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, was awarded the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom) Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems operations and maintenance program for Joint Task Force (JTF) Bravo at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. This five-year task order contract has a base year plus four one-year options and is valued at $38 million -- including all options.
This critical infrastructure program supports the Commander of JTF-Bravo -- the Commander of all U.S. military operations in Central America in the execution of SouthCom's strategy to build Partner Nation Capacity. It is intended to bolster security, stability and prosperity in the Americas. This responsibility, according to the press release, encompasses:
- Advancing new visions of the U.S. Government and institutions of the region.
- Reducing sources of conflict and tension.
- Promoting partnership in times of need.
- Empowering initiatives to thwart narcotics trafficking and other transnational threats.
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets worldwide. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and more than 15,000 employees -- including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists.
As the Honduran people are developing their struggle to boycott the fraudulent November 29 elections and in favor of a Constituent Assembly, Washington is already arrogantly stepping up its post-November 29 program. For imperialism, it is business as usual, irrespective of the positions, sacrifices and feelings of the vast majority of people in Honduras.
This latest decision under the Obama Administration provides the people an opportunity to see once again what constitute the “new visions of the U.S. Government and institutions of the region”. They are not new, but the same imperialist vision of domination and interference by the US in the entire hemisphere south of the Rio Grande. The only thing that is new is the appearance with the goal of having the peoples of the region and the world accept the old policies but disguised in new rhetoric.
As far as the above-stated goal of “reducing sources of conflict and tension”, if the US was really interested in this, President Zelaya would have been reinstated a long time ago; the repression by the US trained military in Honduras and Micheletti would not only have been stopped, but the guilty would have been tried and punished for the crimes committed against the people of Honduras.
However, after all, this is the same Washington which recently concluded the agreement with Columbia for the establishment of the seven military bases there.
END QUOTE
This is the complete article, minus a hyperlink or two.
(continued)
As President of Honduras, I communicate with you to say that below these conditions I will not back the electoral process and will proceed to challenge it legally in the name of the men and women of my country and of hundreds of community leaders that suffer the loss of democracy, the repression, the unfair circumstances and the suppression of freedom.
These elections have to be annulled and rescheduled to when the sovereign will of the people is respected.
In these difficult moments for our brother countries of América, we ask for your solidarity with Honduras.
That you accompany us based on the facts that you know, reiterating the position of not supporting a unilateral intent to give validity to an accord that was quickly rescinded by the violations consummated by the dictatorship.
Reaffirming the condemnation of the coup d’etat of the military State and not supporting a de facto regime whose existence today shames all the peoples of Latin América Latina, that after all the attempts by the international community to reverse the coup d’etat have ended in a total failure for everyone.
Appealing to maintain your firmness in the execution of the resolutions passed by the OAS and the UN and not adopting ambiguous and imprecise positions like those displayed today by the government of the United States of America, with whose final posture has weakened the process of reversing the coup d’etat, demonstrating division in the international community. By feeding this coup d’etat the democratic security in the hemisphere and the stability of the Presidents of América is put at risk, with the resurgence of military castes over civil authority. Legitimizing coups d’etat by means of spurious electoral processes divides and does not contribute to the unity of the nations of América.
I ask for your cooperation so that this Military Coup d’Etat its bloody violations of human rights do not go unpunished. Already, the International Criminal Court has received complaints and allowed them to proceed to trial to obtain justice for our people and apply the corresponding sanctions to those who committed treason to the Nation and crimes against humanity in Honduras.
We voice our energetic rejection of those who support the maneuvers to launder the coup d’etat, covering up for the golpistas to leave their crimes protected.
With our full attention, we invite all the nations to recognize our government and that they abstain from supporting the actions of the illegal regime that usurped power by force of weapons.
We cordially demand and exhort your representatives to the OAS and the UN to continue defending and supporting the rights of the people and of the legitimately elected governments, since when one of our nations suffers an assault it is an affront to all América; and, each time a government elected by the peoples of América is toppled, violence and terrorism win and Democracy suffers a defeat.
In wait of your response, I appreciate the invaluable support demonstrated until now for these principles and I send you greetings reiterating my esteem and my highest consideration.
JOSE MANUEL ZELAYA ROSALES
President of the Republic of Honduras
cc: Sr. José Miguel Insulza, Secretario General de la OEA
Sr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretario General de la ONU
Sr. José Barroso, Comisión Unión Europea
Archive
“Legalizing Coups d’Etat by Means of Spurious Electoral Processes Divides the Unity of the Nations of América”
A Letter to the Presidents of the Hemisphere
By Manuel Zelaya Rosales
President of Honduras
November 23, 2009
November 22, 2009
Honorable Presidents
Nations of América
Dear Presidents,
I write you in my role as President of Honduras, valuing the excellent relations between our countries and in defense of the democracy violated in Honduras as consequence of the Military Coup d’Etat perpetrated June 28 of this year, when soldiers invaded my home and at gunpoint kidnapped and took me to Costa Rica.
The National Congress forged my resignation letter and, abusing its power, emitted an illegal decree which “separated me from the charge of Constitutional President” without Constitutional backing to do so. The same was the case for the arrest order that the Court had emitted without having received any legal complain and without my having been cited to appear before any tribunal or trial. It has been condemned and described by all the countries of the world as a violent and surprising rupture of democratic order, a Military Coup d’Etat.
At this moment in Honduras we are in a de facto State. There is no Constitution. Nor are there Constitutional powers because they have been destroyed by force by the military Coup d’Etat on that ominous day of June 28, 2009.
The Constitution of the Republic establishes in Article 3: “No one owes obedience to an usurper government, nor to those who occupy public positions or jobs by the force of weapons or using means or procedures that bankrupt or fail to recognize what the Constitution and the law establishes. Those actions by so-called authorities are null and void. The people have the right to insurrection to defend the Constitutional order.”
In reading that article, you can understand that the Honduran people are legally empowered to act using all means, styles and forms that they consider necessary to restore democracy. We have consciously taken the path of peaceful resistance, with the goal of establishing noncooperation and nonviolence like methods of civil disobedience and twenty-first century popular struggle against the rise of military force.
We thank the entire international community for your support for our labor to reconstruct the State of Law, that being the last effort of the poorly reached Tegucigalpa-San José Accord, backed by the OAS and the US Department of State. Its letter and spirit has as its proposal the “return of the title the executive branch to what it was prior to June 28.” And it was openly violated by the de facto regime which in which Mr. Micheletti pretends to head a government of reconciliation, refusing to convene the National Congress, in definitive noncompliance of the timeline and text.
Now, unilaterally, he seeks to utilize the aborted accord by convening the National Congress on December 2, a date upon which the political actors of the accord will have been substantially modified, in the sense that by then they will have already been submitted to the opinion ofthe voters without having restored Constitutional order.
The elections of November 29 and their use of public funds under a de facto regime, without having previously restored democracy and the State of Law as OAS and UN resolutions demand, without even having installed the government of unity and reconciliation, are illegal, illegitimate, and constitute a criminal act.
At the moment that the de facto regime with its soldiers convenes a spurious electoral process under repression, without legal guarantees, and without a political agreement, in which the military dictatorship is the guarantor of the law, it only strengthens its actions of force and impunity.
Precisely today, Channel 36, property of journalist Esdras Amado López, the only television chain that has opposed the regime, has had its signal blocked and taken off the air by the dictatorship.
The de facto regime has frontally disregarded the resolutions of the OAS, the UN and the European Union. It has also violated the Democratic Charter of the OAS and its resolutions while some of Honduras’ friends among countries demonstrate ambiguity and support for the electoral process without having restored democratic order and without political dialogue. That permits the de facto regime to impose its will by force.
(continued)
PAID ACTOR ---- DARKNESS GENERATOR
“Mel… destroy the constitutional and legal order of Honduras.”
Absolutely impossible for such a paid actor to believe his own words, for:
A democratic Congress does not forge a fake letter of resignation.
A democratic Supreme Court does not act like judge, jury and executioner by secretly in the dead of night declaring that a duly elected President be removed from office, and then secretly approve the kidnapping and exile from Honduras of the President by hooded members of the military.
A democratic military does not waste over 40 innocent civilians, put over a thousand peaceful protesters in the hospital and establish a Gestapo dictatorship for four months non-stop and most likely years to come.
A democratic Constitution is not created by a military dictatorship just after a military coup d’etat (1982), a manifesto for a dictatorship actually and notorious as the worst document to ever curse a nation.
A democratic government is not run by paid actor politicians hand picked by the ten families of rich nobility who own over 80% of all the land and wealth in Honduras.
and if anyone is wondering why the USA REACTIVATES its FOURTH FLEET including "scanning" BRAZIL --
here is one more answer:
=====================
ast
Nov 26, 2009
THE ROVING EYE
Welcome to the Luladinejad axis
By Pepe Escobar
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from Brazil and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad from Iran. What is this - the new axis of evil? No - Luladinejad is a new axis of business.
As Ahmadinejad was coming from a visit to the Brazilian parliament in Brasilia on Monday, Lula was waiting for him, virtually alone. The embrace by Lula was sudden, spontaneous, extremely warm; it's fair to assume Ahmadinejad was not expecting it. Those who saw it interpreted it as a graphic message.
Ahmadinejad did mean business: he traveled with 200 Iranian businessmen. In the long run, Brazil wants to export to Iran not only meat, grains and sugar, but also trucks and buses. And Iran
wants to invest heavily in the oil industry, petrochemicals, agriculture, minerals and real estate. Lula will visit Iran in March or April 2010, also with a business caravan.
Lula and Ahmadinejad signed agreements on energy, trade and agricultural research in the latest round of what is becoming an increasingly warm embrace between Latin America and the Middle East.
article continued
--=================
The meat of the matter was, of course, nuclear energy. US President Barack Obama admitted at the Group of 20 gathering in London this year that Lula "is the man" - and opinion polls back him up, with the Brazilian leader at present the world's most popular political leader, with an approval rating of 79%; Obama has just slipped below 50%. So what is "the man" saying? He's saying that Brazil supports Iran's access to "peaceful nuclear energy".
When Lula talks, world leaders do listen; nor is he shy about running through a roll call of those he "advises" on how to behave with Iran.
"I told Obama, I told [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy, I told [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel that we will not get good things out of Iran if we corner them. You need to create space to talk." This is not only Lula talking - it's BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) talk. Carefully balancing his act, Lula at the same time defended the rights of "a safe and secure state of Israel".
Lula's key formula regarding the Iranian nuclear dossier is "nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament must walk side-by-side". For Brazil and the other BRIC countries, - it's the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that should solve the Iranian nuclear dossier, not the United Nations Security Council.
Brazil, which holds the seventh-largest uranium reserves in the world, enriches uranium for its own nuclear energy program, and no one is accusing it of building a nuclear bomb. Brazilian foreign policy has always been strongly against unilateral sanctions on Iran. In Lula's words, "It's simple. What we advocate for us, we advocate for others as well."
Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly referred to Lula as "my friend", sang in tune. He even admitted on Brazilian TV that Iran and Brazil, "... can build partnerships to build nuclear plants." Or as the headline splashed on the cover of Tuesday's edition of the Tehran-based Iran Daily newspaper proclaimed, "Nuclear Cooperation Possible With Brazil".
article continued
=========================================
Let's play ball
Ahmadinejad's whirlwind tour of five countries in Africa and South America - Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Evo Morales' Bolivia are included in the itinerary - means South America especially is seen as a business escape route for Iran do dodge more Western sanctions. For the leadership in Tehran - the Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Ahmadinejad political faction - Brazil is now regarded as a business partner and as a strategic partner.
This is South-South dialogue in action, multipolar world style. Iran sees Brazil as a possible mediator vis-a-vis its intractable problems with the United States and Europe. Brazil for its part wants a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (Iran supports it) and more than welcomes more "soft power" influence in the Middle East.
Iran is not as "isolated" as Western propaganda would like people to believe. For instance, Iran is very much alert to preserving its rights in the Caspian Sea, it is advancing its energy deals with China, and it is busy changing from dollars to euros.
Right in the middle of a non-stop demonization campaign of Ahmadinejad as the "new Hitler" - after Saddam Hussein's demise - it would be naive to expect Western corporate media to pay attention to what Ahmadinejad actually said in Brazil - that Iran is definitely willing to buy enriched uranium abroad - but the country won't allow suppliers to set the terms. Referring to the latest IAEA plan to defuse the Iranian nuclear power stand-off, under which Iran would send the bulk of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France to be further processed for use in a medical reactor in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said "no independent country would accept this proposal".
So the key question now to be debated under the deal brokered by IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, and Iran, is about the volume of enriched uranium that should leave Iran for Russia, and then to France, and then return to Iran as nuclear fuel. Iran is not completely satisfied this is a 100% guaranteed deal.
Ahmadinejad made a startling admission at his press conference in Brazil. He said, "We have the conditions to enrich uranium at 20% and we have the legal right to do it. But to create an atmosphere of cooperation, we are ready to buy nuclear fuel."
Even before the Luladinejad get-together, US corporate media had hit the hysteria button, warning that Lula "may lose global influence" (Los Angeles Times) just by talking to Ahmadinejad, and warning that the meeting would "chill Brazil's relations with the US and damage its growing reputation as a global power" (New York Times).
They still don't get it.
Obama for his part sent a letter to Lula reminding him of Washington's deep mistrust of Iran. Lula will place a call to Obama to discuss his meeting with Ahmadinejad. It would be quite absurd for Lula to take morality lessons from Washington, given that the US has reactivated its Fourth Fleet, is it announced early last year (the fleet covers the waters around the Caribbean, and Central and South America), plans to deploy a new set of military bases in Colombia, and hardly condemned the June military coup in Honduras.
The fact is the Middle East is coming to Brazil. Former Moldovan bouncer Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, was in Brazil and Argentina four months ago. Israeli President Shimon Peres was there last week. Same with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. Translation: Brazil, as one of the key emerging actors in the global South, along with the other BRIC countries, may have a much more balanced shot at global diplomacy than the heavy-handed US and Europe.
Doing things the Brazilian way involves a certified amount of swing. For example, during his radio show this past weekend, Lula even proposed a soccer match next March between Brazil - favorites to win next summer's World Cup - and a mixed Israeli-Palestinian team. So what if the UN takes a cue from Lula, and sponsors a tournament including the UN-5 - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - plus Germany, plus Brazil and Iran? Remember those Cold War days when ping-pong politics broke the ice between the US and China? Seriously, maybe the time is now for some real political soccer.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalism: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Test of wills over Iran plan (Nov 17, '09)
It's bomb, bomb, bomb Iran time
(Oct 1, '09)
1. Goldman Sachs and US demise
2. Pakistan's military stays a march ahead
3. Manmohan has the last laugh
4. When the cat's away ...
5. Bernanke's neck on the line
6. A route for peace via Afghanistan
7. Shift towards more sanctions on Iran
8. In China, an easy route to academic glory
9. Hollywood, the macabre
10. Rusal's crossroads - Russia, Libya or China
(24 hours to 11:59pm ET, Nov 24, 2009)
All material on this website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings), Ltd.
Head Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen
the USA actions - covert, overt, declared or undeclared...
are summed in one thing:
THE USA CONTINUES TO CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF SOUTH AMERICA. ..as its "MANIFEST DESTINY"...
that --- even as south americans actually consider themselves Sovereign Nations.......
“Rest assured that the CIA will be rigging these sham elections, just as the CIA/Unocal puppet, Karzai, in the latest U.S. imperial conquest, Afghanistan.
CIA & their predecessor, OSS, have been rigging elections since the end of WWII.
But, the American people must like non-democratic governments, since they continue to elect people who participate in these farces.
Wake up, people! You don't have government. You have a few oligarchs who pull all the strings & steal your tax dollars to do their dirty work.
Republicrats dominate. No other parties need apply”
--Guapo
“Wake up Guapito and smell constitutional liberty in Honduras. Are you in Havana or Caracas? Your story is as old as the Marxist hills. The brave people of Honduras did what they had to do to save their country from Hugo Chavez, et al of the neoMarxists in Latin America. You can probably get Nancy Pilosi and Harry Ried to agree with you though. P”
--Maukapete
i've enjoyed reading thru all the comments. it's nice to find folks who have kept up with this unfolding drama. a special thanks to those who have brought info form al girardo and other sources. it's almost like a greek tragedy or something bill shakesspeare could sink his teeth into, isn't it?
pete, i'd suggest YOU wake up, but i'm sure you'd hit the snooze alarm, roll over and continue the dream that hired guns and kidnappers somehow protect democracy.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!
The USan Empire should be proud of another job well done. They should send in the Costa Rican army to take care of it.