Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiA Few Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras
There is a lot of great analysis circulating on the military coup
against Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. I do not see a need to re-invent the
wheel. (See here here here and here).
However, a few key things jump out at me. First, we know that the coup
was led by Gen. Romeo Vasquez, a graduate of the US Army School of the
Americas. As we know very well from history, these “graduates” maintain
ties to the US military as they climb the military career ladders in
their respective countries. That is a major reason why the US trains
these individuals.
Secondly, the US has a fairly significant
military presence in Honduras. Joint Task Force-Bravo is located at
Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras. The base is home to some 550 US military personnel and more than 650 US and Honduran civilians:
They work in six different areas including the Joint Staff, Air Force Forces (612th Air Base Squadron), Army Forces, Joint Security Forces and the Medical Element. 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, a US Army South asset, is a tenant unit also based at Soto Cano. The J-Staff provides command and control for JTF-B.
The New York Times reports
that “The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces,
counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief
missions throughout Central America.”
Significantly, according to GlobalSecurity, “Soto Cano is a Honduran military installation and home of the Honduran Air Force.”
This connection to the Air Force is particularly significant given this report in NarcoNews:
The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996. The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis. When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them. Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.
It is impossible to imagine that the US was not aware that the coup was in the works. In fact, this was basically confirmed by The New York Times in Monday’s paper:
As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday.
While the US has issued heavily-qualified statements critical of the
coup—in the aftermath of the events in Honduras—the US could have
flexed its tremendous economic muscle before the coup and told
the military coup plotters to stand down. The US ties to the Honduran
military and political establishment run far too deep for all of this
to have gone down without at least tacit support or the turning of a
blind eye by some US political or military official(s).
Here are
some facts to consider: the US is the top trading partner for Honduras.
The coup plotters/supporters in the Honduran Congress are supporters of
the “free trade agreements” Washington has imposed on the region. The
coup leaders view their actions, in part, as a rejection of Hugo
Chavez’s influence in Honduras and with Zelaya and an embrace of the
United States and Washington’s “vision” for the region. Obama and the
US military could likely have halted this coup with a simple series of
phone calls. For an interesting take on all of this, make sure to check
out Nikolas Kozloff’s piece on Counterpunch, where he writes:
In November, Zelaya hailed Obama’s election in the U.S. as “a hope for the world,” but just two months later tensions began to emerge. In an audacious letter sent personally to Obama, Zelaya accused the U.S. of “interventionism” and called on the new administration in Washington to respect the principle of non-interference in the political affairs of other nations.
Here are some independent news sources on this story:
Eva Golinger’s Postcards from the Revolution
33 Comments so far
Show AllBrief, but excellent article, and it is one that certainly contributes to vindicating people, including myself, who've been writing of the U.S. likely (enough) being behind or else involved in this coup d'etat. We've been lambasted, labeled goof "leftists", ..., and I'm not "leftist" at all really; instead being a person who likes to think and live according to the concept of "Sacred Balance" (borrowed from David Suzuki with respect to our relationship with our world, life on Earth), say. I certainly don't think there's anything extremist, goofy "leftist", ... in Jeremy Scahill's article and I of course shouldn't. After all, I started by saying it's excellent.
Anyway, I posted links just a little while ago to some good videos; one that's specifically related and from Dem. Now!; another that's relatively related and also from Dem. Now!; and another about the U.S.-Canadian Goldcorp., Inc., pillaging, ... in Honduras.
It's the 67the post for the article just below, while my "handle", say, for the post is, "MikeCorbeil June 30th, 2009 4:12 am" (without the quotes, of course). I think to have only one post in the following CD page, so searching for only my username should get readers immediately to the right post.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/28-6
(or a url for the post itself and broken over two lines)
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/28-6
#comment-1239049
The specifically related Dem. Now! video is for interviews with Dr Juan Almendares of Honduras and NYU professor Greg Grandin. The original Dem. Now! page is also linked in the above post and provides better bio's for these two guests. Greg Grandin speaks of the SoA relationship with the Honduran military, as well as speaking about the oligarchy, ..., who, I think, are also spoken of by Dr Almendares. I don't think he mentioned SoA, but maybe he did; if he did, then less than prof. Grandin did.
You people are nuts. Zelaya was trying to push a constitional referendum that was deemed illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court and other officials. He ordered the military to distribute ballots, they refused, he dismissed an Army chief, the Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's removal, the military did so, exiled him to Costa Rica, and then turned power over to the Congress. All perfectly legal and normal. No coup. No US intervention. No conspiracy.
You nutjobs that talk about US intervention turn right around and say that Obama could have stopped it with a phone call or two. Isn't THAT intervention as well. If you all hate America so much...GET OUT!
inewton55
Before I read any earlier posts here, let me just say "April Glaspie and the First Gulf War." Miscommunications were made. Mistakes were made.
Okay, now I've read all the older comments (could I read newer comments?), so I'll try to continue with my point...
If memory serves (and it usually does) Glaspie was NOT ambassador to Iraq, but probably to Kuwait, when shortly before the First Gulf War somehow she and Saddam had a one-on-one conversation probably also involving documents. At the time, Saddam's Iraq had a long-standing grievance against Kuwait, and was alleging that Kuwait was setting up those fancy new oil wells that first drill down and then go lateral---in this case into and under sovereign Iraq ground.
Somehow, Saddam got the idea that Ambassador Glaspie did not think Kuwait a strategic asset of the United States, and that she didn't care if Saddam took things into his own hands, and so he invaded Kuwait. He might have tried to verify his impression of what he heard from April Glaspie by, for example, calling George HW Bush and asking, "whus up?" But it seems he didn't.
Context: For most of the 80s, the United States had underwritten Iraq in its war with Iran after the 1979 ouster of the Shah. Oliver North's Iran-Contra underwriting is of course related to this, esp. if you consider which former operatives are now at or near an ambassadorial level in Washington...
This Honduras story seems to have most of the elements of the First Gulf War fiasco. Huge miscommunications. There have been reports of other lapses in U.S. adherence to Latin American protocols (such as VP Biden inviting personhoods to a visit in Costa Rica instead of letting Nicaragua hold the meeting, to which it was reportedly entitled...).
Massive changes in foreign policy are going on in Washington right now. Will they be changes in substance, or appearance.
Great article and mostly great comments...
Thanks to all for helping to elucidate.
-30-
I remember this incident clearly. Iraq troops were massing on the border and the dingbat ambassador tells Saddam that a border dispute is not our affair. When I heard that on the radio I knew as sure as the sun comes up in the morning there would be war and that we would be involved. GHWB got his excuse, but he created it by suckering Saddam into the invasion. War is a crime against humanity, too bad the Bush Family will never be held responsible for all the misery they have created. THEN, having gone to war, we left the Basra Bridge intact so the Republican Guard could escape whole, head into Northern Iraq and start killing the Kurds. GHWB was once head of the CIA, he knew exactly what he was doing. Ethics and Honesty ain't in it.
Could one have had a coup in Honduras without consulting the US State Dept.?
We can dismiss the trailing comments here comparing the situation with Iran. US penetration in Honduras has been extensive and relatively uninterrupted for decades.
It's interesting the difference in rhetorical and diplomatic handling from Obama; whether this is from the general rise in Latin American solidarity or the different sense of panache, I don't know. But it's unlikely that he has not received reports going back over months as preparations progressed.
It's one thing to say we don't want the US to enter Iran or threaten to enter Iran.
It is quite another to say that Obama could have tipped Zelaya or warned someone that his secret would be published, so nix on the coup.
This is a pressure point coup against Alba and the unity of left democratic forces in Latin and South America. The nefarious elements are all being summoned.
A trap might await any military encounter to save Zelaya and avoid this from happening in other countries-but even given the risks Alba must intervene, better sooner than later.
It is imperative that the forces of humane socialism smash the forces of capitalist fascism
and a new wave of neo-liberal colonialism.
Obama knew about the coup.
But he won't take the risk to support the coup plotters, in any action by Alba.
Zelaya: Another passenger on Obysmal's Midnight Express.
Ooops! You guys have done it again!
Time for "Open Veins of Latin America" to move to the top of my reading pile. (Thanks to whoever on this list mentioned it.)
The Monroe Doctrine -- we can f*ck you anytime we like in the name of protecting you from Old Europe -- is coming to the end of its second century.
There was some modicum of truth in the original proposition that the US would defend the hemisphere against the influence of the old monarchical order; but only because the infamous new order -- money money money -- was just getting under way.
“The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.”
US imperialism has long perpetrated under the deceptive mask of "search/rescue", "disaster relief", etc. You trade your sovereignty for some security, when you go along to get along with the oppressive USA.
"Obama and the US military could likely have halted this coup with a simple series of phone calls."
Yes, we on the far-left know Washing-town is pro-coup. Why do you think we voted third parties in the elections? The 130 million USans who voted elite candidates in the 2008 US elections get full credit for the USA's involvement/influence in the Honduran coup.
Maybe a few more USans will join the far-left as a result.
"Yes, we on the far-left know Washing-town is pro-coup."
I do not regard myself to be far-left, and in fact hold "conservative" views in some areas, but I have realized since at least high school in the late '60's that the U.S. seemed to be involved at least peripherally in all of those South American revolts. I think there are more people that agree with your "far-left" views than you realize. If only we could organize.
Left/Right, Conservative/Liberal, Democrat/Republican, US/THE OTHER ... these are all ways to divide and conquer.
Far better to follow the money, look for who benefits -- the electorate as a whole or some corporate bottom line, look for logic (why is this really happening?), than to squabble over who is left or right or who is not liberal or conservative enough. Leave that to the Ann Coulters' of the world.
Come on Scahill. The last time you were arguing we should stay out of these things, now you are unhappy because we didn't interfere in some way?
Engineered by the US? Isn't everything according to the America haters? A bit of reality would not go amiss here.
Iran vs Honduras? There is a difference between an election and coup.
Give us a break.
You think YOU have the only view of reality, or what?
The new head of the US Southern Command and his old buddy from the Iran Contra caper Otto Reich implemented this coup.
It's time for the US president to put up or shut up. If he shuts up, the next military coup will take place in Washington.
With folks like you who claim to see reality and can't see their hand in front of their face, that one will be a piece of cake--and guess what, Dick Cheney will be back in power.
You can't scare me...I feel totally secure knowing Code Pink is well positioned in DC to thwart any coup attempt on American democracy; they're alot more organized then they were in 2000-2001.
Could it be that this might be Obama's "Bay of Pigs"? This is where the CIA went ahead with their invasion and coup plans for Cuba confident that once begun, Kennedy would be forced by circumstances to continue with US military support.
Could Obama have betrayed what the US military or Intel plotters felt was their tacit understanding of White House support? It makes about as much sense as any other scenarios that have been imagined so far.
This is the 6 month anniversary that VP Joe "Big Mouth" Biden's famously obscure speech in Seattle set for a real test requiring the President to do some very unpopular thing.
The chaotic and totally screwed up mess of the whole thing so far includes:
The flying of President Zelaya to Costa Rica where President Arias both denounced the coup and refused to recognize the newly self-coronated royalty in Honduras.
The arrest of the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicauraguan ambassadors and the kidnapping of the Honduran Foreign Minister.
The denunciation of the coup by OAS, EU, ALBA, and (finally) the US.
Boycott bananas!
Poet
Chavez pointed out several days ago that the new head of the "Southern Command" flatly contradicted Obama's STATED policies in regard to Latin America.
Chavez said the coup was in the works, and that old Iran Contra gunrunner Otto Reich was implementing it.
And the coup came.
I have yet to see Chavez call anything wrong--and I have had a very close eye on him for ten years now.
It seems pretty clear to me that Obama is very close to feeling what a military coup is like--in Washington.
Heads up, USites.
Native Son has been more than right to wish you people luck. You are going to need lots of it.
That sounds an awful lot like what the CIA did after Kennedy worked out an accord with the Pathet Lao in Laos to cease hostilities in '62.
Poet
Very interesting post, ugl. Thanks.
This will be the test of Obama's Latin American policy.
If the US doesn't pressure the hell out of its rogue minions in Honduras, Obama can kiss Latin America goodbye. Even Mexico has demanded the reinstatement of Zelaya.
Honduras has always been considered the number one US stooge in Central America--as it was used a base of operations by Oliver North and his gang for Iran Contra and for arming and supplying the contras in the dirty war against Nicaragua.
Put up or shut up, Obama. You are either for a rule of law and democracy or you are not.
It is crunch time.
But Reagan explained to the nation that we can't afford leftist governments in Central America. They're just two hours of driving from Texas and they might attack every moment now.
Judging on what we've seen so far, Obama agrees with Reagan.
"We" can't have leftist governments in South America, even democratically elected leftist governments, because it might give "us" some ideas that our owners would not like to promote, especially were those leftist governments to appear to be populist in thought and action. That might cut into PROFITS.
Seeing as how there is no money in being a leftist, I commend Jeremy for seeking the truth, however unprofitable.
Query: how much will we see in the so-called "news" about this coup and if we see/hear anything how accurate will it be? Will we be inundated with coverage and support for the people, who clearly are unhappy in the extreme about the military coup, or will the news continue to be only about the ogres in Iran?
Thank you Jeremy Scahill.
Good question. Top ten stories on cnn.com as of June 29th, 4:50pm ET:
# 1 Jackson's mom gets his kids
# 2 Heart disease may have killed Mays
# 3 Billy Mays, a pitchman for the age
# 4 Pope: Bones belong to St. Paul
# 5 Comedian Travalena dies
# 6 Ahmadinejad: Neda death suspicious
# 7 High court backs firefighters
# 8 Apple: Steve Jobs is back at work
# 9 Double jeopardy in terror case?
# 10 Urban farming 'like a revolution'
The Honduras story is there, front and centre, but nobody seems to care. I think it's our fault as much as the MSM. If we wanted to learn more about events that actually affect us, other than which celebrity is doing what, then that's what the MSM would be giving us.
FRED Travelena? You don't say!
· Yr Obd't Servant
There is a story at http://socialistworker.org/2009/06/29/coup-in-honduras
Why, I'll say the same thing I would have said in 1953, had I been born beforehand:
How dare you publish such scurrilous slander insinuating that the United States of Amerika, Beacon of Liberty and Democracy and Leader of the Free World, might inappropriately intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign hemispheric neighbor?
I'm ON to you, Scahill-- you're as pink as a beeftongue!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Scahill is a national resource. May he live a long life.
Ever since I first read Scahill's book "Blackwater" I read anything and everything he writes, and now, again, he's nailed it. Here we have real "news" and all the MSM gives us is Michael Jackson and Mark Sanford....for 5 days straight.
I don't give a schitt who Sanford is ballin' and after 3 days I don't give a schitt about Mikey. Even Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow have blubbered on and on about this "news." Give it a rest, for God's sake.
Now, what was it we all had hoped for in this new president of ours.....?
This is business as usual for the U.S. Read John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
So there's a coup d'etat in a Latin American country overthrowing a leftist regime for a neo-liberal regime. What's that you say? There's evidence of compliance, if not direct involvement by the US gov't!?
Why am I not surprised?
Led by graduates from the Torture School Of the Americas no less.