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Obama Must Maintain Tough Stance Against Honduran Coup
The Obama administration deserves praise for its response to the coup in Honduras. It sends a hopeful signal that Washington's traditional support for such undemocratic power grabs has ended.
Masked soldiers stormed the Honduran presidential palace in the early morning hours of June 28 and violently seized President Manuel Zelaya. Still in his pajamas, the president was forced at gunpoint onto a plane and flown to Costa Rica.
President Obama condemned the coup, saying: "I think it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections."
In past decades, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have tolerated - and in some cases supported - violent coups against democratically elected governments in Latin America. In 2002, when a similar coup was hatched in Venezuela, the Bush administration initially welcomed the short-lived illegitimate government.
Obama's stance is a welcome change and marks a positive step toward mending the open wounds left by past U.S. policies in Honduras and other Latin American countries. But the Obama team still has some housecleaning to do.
Some of the generals behind the putsch are graduates of the infamous U.S. Army training academy for Latin American militaries, formerly called the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Ga. With at least 11 dictators among its alumni, former Rep. Joseph Kennedy famously claimed the training academy has produced "more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."
The military coup thwarted Zelaya's move to introduce a voters' referendum on whether to rewrite the country's constitution.
The military brass is partial to the current constitution because it was drafted in the early 1980s under the military dictatorship of Gen. Policarpo Paz Garcia, another graduate of the School of the Americas.
After the passage of the constitution in 1982, the military cemented its dominion over Honduran political affairs. The generals kept a tight rein on the population through a military death squad unit known as "Battalion 316," which was trained by the CIA and killed hundreds of Hondurans. (Former members of this battalion also took part in the recent coup.)
In the early 1980s, CIA station chiefs and the U.S. Embassy led by then-Ambassador John Negroponte called the shots in Honduras. (Negroponte went on to hold various senior posts in the George W. Bush administration, including director of national intelligence.) The country became the staging ground for the Reagan administration's covert wars against rebels in El Salvador and the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
Deep U.S. involvement endures to this day. Honduras maintains a large U.S. military base that is one of the Pentagon's last remaining footholds in Latin America, while the Honduran military still receives millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars. This same military has brutally repressed massive street demonstrations clamoring for the return of the country's democratically elected leader.
The funding bill for this assistance plainly states U.S. military aid will be cut for "any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
The White House should swiftly follow through on this stipulation. Obama should also continue to work with Latin American leaders and with multilateral bodies such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States for Zelaya's return.
To do anything less would be to sneer at democracy. And the United States has done that long enough in Latin America.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllHere's the deal:
1. US Southern Command and the CIA fomented a coup in Honduras
2. So the US could sit back and let it play out with killings and injured protesters and cancelled press freedoms and the rest of the package and then
3. Take back the dominant position in the OAS from which it was recently de-throned by the cancellation of Cuba's banishment.
Hillary Clinton pontificatiing in the pantsuit: Now, kiddies, did we learn our lesson not to stop genuflecting to US military muscle....
and bla bla bla.
Yes, but you have to admit the PR and spin from Obama/Clinton is much more sophisticated than the discourse of years past. That is change that is easier on the ears, so we can feel good about the Empire now.
An alert from GreenChange.org says: "General Romeo Vasquez, leader of the coup, is the latest in a long list of dictators, assassins, torturers, terrorists, and coup plotters trained by the U.S. Army School of the Americas, also known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation."
Obama is giving lip service to democracy, nothing more. He refuses to call Zelaya's ouster a coup, has not recalled our ambassador to Honduras, has not mentioned cutting off military aid to Honduras as US law requires that we do in cases of military overthrow of a legitimate government.
Since we've been equipping and training the Honduran military for decades, we probably marched with them on Zelaya's residence.
I wouldn't look for much more than lip service from Obama, as meaningless as the marketing terms "hope and change". I continue to read that the catholic church favors the coup government (another example of church/state collusion in the continuing inquisition), as does the dominant business sector in Honduras.
"Deep U.S. involvement endures to this day. Honduras maintains a large U.S. military base that is one of the Pentagon's last remaining footholds in Latin America, while the Honduran military still receives millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars."
Is this how Obama is "maintaining" a tough stand? ...As he won't even use the word "coup"?
more word play from the US:
The US doesn't torture!
The US doesn't support coups!
...Yeah, right, we are SO convinced, and good luck with those nuclear weapons reductions. What is Obama's plan? to reduce it by 25 (yes 25) bombs lower than the Bush plan? That would leave you with, let me see...thousands more than Iran and most of the other countries you are threatening to bomb, or as Hillory says: "obliterate".
What a joke!
I agree, but the sophisticated PR (BS) from the Obama regime is impressive isn't it? Now that is change that is easy on the ears eh? Although over-used to cliche, I will refer to him anyway: Orwell shakes his finger from the grave.
Just to be sure it is clear: Iran has no nuclear weapons, the NIE and other international intelligence agencies clearly show that Iran is many years away from any such development
I think the writer Teo Ballve was born yesterday. Otherwise, I guess you can fool some people all the time.
Here is where we show if we walk our walk. We criticized China for it's treatment of Tibetan protestors or their support of the military junta in Burma (well, maybe Bush didn't, but the American people did). We condemn the crackdown in Iran as we have done many times in many other parts of the world. But usually, we are unable to do anything. We have about as much success in persuading China to do anything as a cockroach does rolling over once it's on it's back.
But here, we have a way in. We are actually the ones who fund and support the oppressor. If we immediately cut off all aid to the Honduran military, we can help to crush the brutal response to Zelaya's move towards democracy and away from years of dictatorship in Honduras. Unlike in Burma, the guns are being paid for by us. Let's insist that we stop paying!
I agree with the other comments here (so far).
Here is yet another opinion that mistakes tinfoil for the glittering silver lining of a black cloud.
As noted, the Obama maladministration's refusal to call a coup a coup means that Amerikan aid continues to flow. Naturally, apologists are quick to explain that this is a shrewd tactical maneuver to give the US leverage.
Perhaps. But to me, it seems more as if Obama is praising the coup with faint damns.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Actually, Obama did call the coup a coup. But so far no formal announcement of sanctions that many--especially Al Giordano at Narconews.com--said with much certainty would be made either yesterday or today. All indications are that the Giordanos are being taken for a ride, and have only alienated allies being so cocksure Obama would be different. As with any action by the Empire, it's always best to assume the worst until proven otherwise; it would seem that Al has forgotten this basic tenet.
I stand corrected. Thanks!
I was aware that Obama had informally used the term "coup"-- Clinton did too, IIRC-- but it slipped my mind.
As you suggest, the whole truth is even worse: FORMALLY declaring the action a coup effectively pulls the emergency brake on Amerikan aid to Honduras. Employing doublespeak keeps the aid flowing.
· Yr Obd't Servant
The U.S. is in a major dilemma. Take the side of democracy and possibly win good will capital and credibility in Latin America, but Honduras probably ends up falling away from US influence to that of its rival in the Hemisphere; Venezuela. OR Recognize the new government and give Chavez the finger but risk backlash in the region and counter revolution in Honduras.
Or there is option C, which is having your cake and eating it too. Denouncing the coup while waiting to see what happens next.
I imagine that Obama is just shocked to find the same old suspects involved in another coup. Especially one that favors U.S. interests. Shocked.
All I have read and heard about the so called coup and subsequent events seems to be vieing with the late Michael Jackson for attention, the truth and good reporting are not evident, it is mostly opinion masking as fact, in other words BS.
The poor old Pres of Honduras, as far as I can tell hasn't revealed the events as they happened to him , nor has the VP who took over. The "coup" is the problem with a republican guvmint, dictators both right and left are easily created. Of course in this country that won't happen what with the likes of the repugnant party rulers like reagan and the bushes with whatshername standing in the wings.
Could we get some facts about this so called coup without the over heated rhetoric . This piece is fit for the bird cage because its hard to tell fact from fiction. Poor Honduras, it deserves better.
there was no coup in Honduras.. can't you people see past the MSN spin?..
read the Honduran constitution it is available online...
it clearly states that if someone tries to "amend" the constitutions rules about terms of elected officials..they are considered treasonous acts and the person is a criminal..period
learn to think and read for yourself for fuck sake there is ample materials available on both sides of this story...
oh right, i forget ..that would require effort and thinking
In your great effort to pin down the Honduran constitution did you happen to read HOW and under what conditions and WHEN it was written?
That information might allow you to do some more global thinking about some Latin American historical issues and their implications.
herb,
President Zelaya wasn't saying that he'd alter the Honduran Constitution. What he was doing was asking the people, the population of voters if they wanted a referendum in order to permit themselves the future opportunity to re-elect an incumbent presidential candidate, and there's nothing at all wrong with amending their constitution in this way if The People of that country decide that they wish to do so. Honduras is not a dictatorship, but a democracy, yet you describe it as if it's the former, not latter, kind of government and country.
The U.S. also needs to modify its Constitution. It's the only way to have Congress end the ruling power of the "invisible government" of the real rulers of the government of the USA. That's why, until the Constitution is properly corrected, the U.S. does and will not have a real democracy. What the population is allowed to see, and to read in their msm "news" media of mostly propaganda of deceit, these "news" media owned by major corporations, the number of which continues to decline, and which really rule the U.S. government; well, what the general public is allowed to see is what's purportedly a democracy. But it's not real, because the real rulers, a relatively small number of rich and powerful people decide.
They decided that Dennis Kucinich could not participate in the debates between the Democratic Party candidates last year; having made sure he'd be basically banned from participating in six of these debates. That is one example proof that the U.S. is not a real democracy, but there's a lot more proof than only this.
One good documentary for illustrating what I'm saying is entitled, "The Money Masters", from www.themoneymasters.com, a highly important three-and-a-half-hour documentary of historical kind, covering centuries of history that explain the real situation that the U.S. is in today and the extreme danger that it's in because of these "money masters". The film is available on DVD from that website, and viewable at Google, Youtube, and other websites. I just viewed the whole of it, finishing this viewing last night, and it's a very important film.
These ruling "elites" form the "invisible government" that truly exists, operates, ... in the USA and very much controls the government, while definitely controlling the economy. They are [responsible] for economic depressions, recessions, and revivals, and they use their power to make the economy go through these periods, while making a hell of a lot of profit from doing this, too, btw.
The U.S. needs to modify the Constitution to eliminate the Federal Reserve, or to nationalise it, as well as to eliminate and prohibit fractional economics, fractional ... whatever the second term is and which is explained in this above documentary film. Using the fractional approach that they've been employing, they create depressions, etcetera, because they create money from nothing, they own the money through the privately owned Federal Reserve, etcetera. The U.S. government needs to make its own financial notes, money, as has historically been done before, but which was always brought to an end because of these historical ruling "elites" operating like an "invisible government" within the U.S. government.
The People of the USA need to view and carefully listen to, learn from, this above historical documentary of great importance, and then demand that the government make the Constitutional changes that are necessary. Otherwise, the government will never belong to The People, as the Constitution has long stipulated needs to be the case; the government belonging to The People, being accountable to The People, .....
If the Honduran voters want to allow themselves the opportunity to be able to re-elect someone who wouldn't previously be able to run because of the way the Constitution there presently is written, then the Honduran people have every right in the world of democracy to get and help their government to make this change.
Little tin-pot dictators like yourself have no right whatsoever to decide what the Honduran people, or people of any other country, or even the people of your own country, have the right to ask for and not. When people of your country ask for things or changes that are unacceptable, then it's up to the rest of the people in the country to ask the government to not make these unacceptable changes. But when the people of your own country, even, ask for legitimate changes, or necessary ones, then you have no individual right to dictate to them that they can't make these demands.
Tin-pot dictator wannabes like yourself need to get a life and find better herb to smoke. you've evidently been smoking rotten herb.
As for Obama and his administration should take a stronger stand, they should, and they can't; and this McClatchy article is very much bs.
They should, because the coup is a real coup and the U.S. should, therefore, pull its military and other personnel out of Honduras, cut off ties with the government there until the dictatorship now in place relents and returns President Zelaya to the presidency there.
But the Obama admin. can't easily condemn that coup, because if the admin. did this, then it would have to make sure to fully, as fully as possible, correct the extreme criminal coup the U.S. lead against the Haitian government and people on Feb. 29, 2004; a coup that has not fully ended, ever since. The U.S. would, and nevertheless does, need to return President Aristide to the Haitian presidency, put the criminals the U.S.'s led coup released from prison there back in prison, end the criminal and rather brutal UN "peace" trooping there, because it evidently is mostly Brazilian troops and they've been brutal, very criminal against the Haitians; etcetera. There are many reparations the U.S. government and corporate "elites" owe to the people of Haiti; although, France and Canada are also owing.
The Obama admin. clearly has no intention of doing anything to correctly repair that situation in Haiti, so it can't particularly preach to the coup leaders in Honduras or anywhere else, really. But the admin. nevertheless could withdraw all of its military and other personnel from that country.
Herr Herb, vat part of the fascist movement do you belong to? Oh, and is it the official kind or just de facto? You come up with some real far right stuff. This is isn't coup. Yeah, and the "Earth is flat" too.
AD