Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiPresident Obama's Credibility on the Line in Honduras
Last Friday an agreement was reached between the de facto regime in Honduras, which took power in a military coup on 28 June, and the elected president Manuel Zelaya, for the restoration of democracy there.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in announcing what she called a historic agreement, said: "I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that ... overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue." Hopefully this will turn out to be true.
But the ink was barely dry on the accord when leaders of the coup regime indicated that they had no intention of honouring it. Some of them clearly saw the agreement as just another delaying tactic. They have talked of postponing congressional approval of the accord until after the 29 November elections, or even voting not to restore Zelaya.
If the Honduran congress delays or rejects the restoration of Zelaya, it will violate the clear intent of the accord. The agreement states: "The decision the national congress adopts should establish a basis for achieving the social peace, political tranquility and democratic governability the society requires and the country needs." This and other language makes it clear that the negotiators - who have the ability to deliver the votes in congress - agreed on Zelaya's restoration.
Furthermore, justice delayed here is justice denied. Two-thirds of the legally allowed campaign period has already lapsed, under conditions of dictatorship that made free election campaigning impossible.
The Obama administration has itself been divided on what to do about the military overthrow of democracy in Honduras. Hence the mixed signals and vacillation from the very beginning, when the first statement from the White House failed to even condemn the coup.
Those in the administration who think they can now wash their hands of the accord and let the coup leaders turn their back on it had better think twice. The Obama team has embarrassed itself enough by having to be pressured by the rest of the hemisphere to tell the coup government that Washington would not recognise the 29 November elections without prior restoration of Zelaya. Just a few weeks earlier, the Obama administration had blocked the Organisation of American States from passing a resolution to this effect.
But now Washington's credibility is really on the line. The Obama team brokered this accord and got a commitment from the coup leaders. If they go back on it, how much will the Obama administration's word be worth on anything else? Everyone knows that Washington has the ability to force the coup regime to comply. There are billions of dollars of its assets in the US that could be frozen or seized. Seventy percent of the country's exports go to the US. The coup regime has no international legitimacy and no standing to challenge the US under international treaties for any economic sanctions that might be invoked.
The Obama administration never used the effective tools at its disposal. Instead it dithered for months, finally cutting off a fraction of its aid to the coup government and revoking some visas. The administration refused to even declare that a military coup had taken place, since this would have required more cuts in foreign assistance.
Most tellingly, Washington refused to denounce the massive human rights violations committed by the dictatorship. These included police beatings, illegal detention of thousands, closing of independent radio and television, suspension of civil rights and even some political murders. The crimes were denounced by all major human rights organisations, inside and outside of Honduras - and by many governments - but the Obama administration maintained a deafening silence.
Based on the recent past, the coup leaders - one of whom was forced to resign his post as foreign minister after levelling racial epithets at Obama - might think they can safely ignore the agreement. But the rest of the hemisphere, and the Honduran people - who have courageously resisted the coup from day one - will not let them get away with it. No one will recognise the November elections if Zelaya is not restored promptly.
Tuesday night, Thomas Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, told CNN en Espanol that the US plans to recognise the November elections whether or not Zelaya is restored. This would definitely put Washington on a collision course with the rest of the hemisphere, including Brazil. Furthermore, according to diplomats close to the negotiations, both Shannon and Hillary Clinton had given assurances that last week's accord would bring Zelaya back to the presidency.
Shannon's statement to CNN prompted a letter from Zelaya to Clinton, asking whether the US government had changed its position on the coup d'etat in Honduras.
Obama now has a choice. He can force the coup regime to honour the accord or lose further credibility among governments in the hemisphere and the world.
24 Comments so far
Show AllThe democracy and the constitution of Honduras are both doing fine.
Those who would like to make up "new" and "improved" ways to amend the constitution of Honduras are the ones who are becoming irrelevant to the politics in Honduras.
Honduras is a two major political party country similar to the United States.
The guy hiding in the Brazilian embassy in Honduras was nominated by, and Elected President as the candidate of one of those parties. In his case it was the Liberal Party.
The congress of Honduras is also currently controlled by the Liberal party.
The current defacto President is a member of the same Liberal political party.
The Liberal party candidate for President was nominated by the political party of the guy hiding in the Brazilian embassy before he, the guy hiding in the Brazilian embasy, was forced out of office and replaced by the Supreme Court and Congress of Honduras.
Both the member of the Liberal Party running for President, and the Member of the Liberal party who was the head of congress, supported the removal of the then President who was from their same political party, the Liberal party. Why? Because he was trying to illegally change the constitution of Honduras which they had all taken an oath to defend. A member of the same Liberal Party was selected by congress to replace the guy hiding in the Brazilian embassy after he was removed by order of the Supreme Court of Honduras.
The Liberal party candidate for President was ahead in the polls before the guy he was trying to replace, a member of his own party, decided to make up a new and improved way to change the constitution of Honduras.
The Liberal party is still participating in the election and hopes to still win the Presidency again. The Liberal party candidate supported the removal of the guy currently hiding in the Brazilian embassy ( the crazy guy from his same party ).
Those who would like to illegally change the constitution are claiming a wide spread boycott of the election by the opposition political parties. This is at best misleading - the only parties even considering boycotting are minor parties that get less than 10% of the vote historically and never had a chance to win any way. The party of the guy hiding in the embassy, the Liberal Party, IS NOT boycotting and they still hope to win.
Either the liberal candidate or the conservative candidate will win the election in a few days and one or the other will be the elected President of Honduras starting in January.
The guy hiding in the Embassy, may, or may not, get back in office, under adult supervision to avoid any more attempts to illegally change the Honduran constitution, for some period of time before January.
But his dreams of illegally changing the constitution while he is the elected President of Honduras are history.
hey we gotta make sure that all those school of america graduates are still up to snuff - as they say......
My admiration for Barack Obama continues to grow as he emerges as the master of the post-modern power grab. America has orchestrated a Latin American coup with the smooth efficiency of an executive's image makeover. The term Eva Gollinger uses for the new imperial strategy is "smart power" and she describes it as follows: "The Obama administration has opted for a mutation of these two concepts, fusioning military power with diplomacy, political and economic influence with cultural penetration and legal manuvering. They call this 'Smart Power'. Its first application is the coup d’etat in Honduras, and as of today, it’s worked to perfection." - Eva Golinger, "Honduras: A Victory for Smart Power", Nov. 2, 2009.
This is the essence of the Obama strategy - to modulate, guide and enhance the behavior that they wish to enforce, in this case in order to counter the democratic movements that threaten U.S. hegemony in Latin America. The "smart power" strategy in Honduras worked this way: the rhetoric was constantly on the side of the legitimate President, Zelaya, but the concrete action was always supportive of the coup regime. Golinger sums up the success of this strategy as follows, "Washington lobbyists also wrote the San José 'agreement', and in the end, it was the high level State Department and White House delegation that 'persuaded' the Hondurans to accept the agreement. Despite the constant US interference in the coup d’etat in Honduras – funding, design, and political and military support – Washington’s 'smart power'approach was able to distort public opinion and make the Obama administration come out as the grand victor of 'multilateralism'" - Eva Golinger, "Honduras: A Victory for Smart Power", Nov. 2, 2009.
The genius of this strategy is it emerges with a clear victory for U.S. imperial control while retaining Obama's progressive credentials. "Everything is normal," says the Pentagon about the current situation in Honduras. Indeed it is - "The people were left out, excluded. Months of repression, violence, persecution, human rights violations, curfews, media closures, tortures and political assasinations have been forgotten. What a relief, as Subsecretary of State Thomas Shannon remarked upon achieving the signature of Micheletti and Zelaya on the final 'agreement', that the situation in Honduras was resolved 'without violence'." Precisely, violence is only real when it's against those in power. Repression of those below is elided with the smooth turn of a jazz solo.
The success of this first post-modern coup will doubtless inspire many more ruling elites in Central and South America to hatch their own plots. And the Obama administration will smile benevolently, modulating, guiding and enhancing the process until victory is achieved. Bravo, Barack!
I'm not trying to say that Obama is doing anything new - I'm trying to say that his strategy is an effective variation on a constantly renewed initiative of U.S. imperial hegemony. I'm also trying to say that he has been quite successful in overcoming the popular forces in Honduras through a combination of progressive credentials and covert support for the golpistas. Why have so few noticed that he has beaten Zelaya and the popular forces behind him and that the golpistas will soon rule Honduras? Is that not the key fact?
Clinton shows where her evil loyalties lay once again.
0bama's credibility on the line:
....... 0 .......
_________>
.
.
Twice 0bama's credibility on the line:
....... 0 0 .......
__________>
.
.
To what extent can credibility be on the line if we are not willing to come out and say that by violating more or less every single thing he managed to make center and leftish Dems believe that he stood for he has lost --
lost,
blown,
stomped all over and spat on
any credibility whatsoever?
President Zelaya of Honduras was kidnapped and expatriated because of his plans to hold a Referendum on whether Hondurans wanted to form a National Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution written in 1982 under the thinly disguised dictatorship of General Alverez (backed by Reagan).
He also pissed off the oligarchs by raising the minimum wage.
When Zelaya gets back into power in Honduras, with the help of the other OAS countries, he should expose the US backing to the Coup. None of this "let's just look forward, not backward" crap like Obama wants to do with the Bush crimes.
Round up the criminal usurpers, treat them like Mafia RICO criminals, enhance the interrogation until they reveal the precise info on how the CIA or GOP thugs supported, advised and funded their coup.
Get it out in the open, all over the South American press.
Then, the 20% of Americans that actually read can find out all about it in the translated European press. Expose the US dirty tricks to sunlight, and it will be that much harder to steal the next election in Mexico, or threaten the next democratically elected President in some South American nation. In the Age of the Web, covert operations will be harder and harder to pull off.
Who said the Hondurans are progressives ?
They just want to overthrow the criminal collaborators and make sure it doesn't happen again. If they have to waterboard, rape and non-organ-failure interrogate a few pampered, fat businessmen to get them to confess the $millions that John Bolton, Otto Reich, Robert Carmona, Orlando Bosch and other foreign thugs channeled to their local oligarchs and henchmen, who's to stop them ?
Regressives think they can screw over millions of Central and Southern Americans and it will never come back to haunt them. I wonder why that is. Not every criminal, like Pinochet, will die before retribution.
Obama doesn't have to worry about losing his "credibility," since he has none.
As someone who contributed to and voted for this mediocre flim-flam artist, I apologize to everyone for being such a fool.
Apology accepted!
But please don't let it happen again.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I agree his credibility is already gone. I would not blame you though, I blame a corrupt election and campaign system that is rigged in favor of only two parties and rigged to make sure that no candidate without huge sums of money can win. I blame a legal system that is also rigged for the rich and equates money with free speech and gives corporattions the rigths of human beings. I blame the corporate media oligopoly for repeating lies and propaganda ad nauseum. Most don't realize it but the USA is the most propagandized society on earth. I know that sounds over the top, however I do believe it for many reasons, I am not the only one either.
When the system is rigged, we need major changes, otherwise this sort of thing will happen over and over, just like last time with Bill Clinton.
In 2012, your 'choice' will be Obama again or the R candidate. Of course I will vote for neither, but the outcome is rigged. Your de-facto choice is neoFascismLite(TM) or neo-Fascism. Now that is a choice we can believe in.
Obama got his 1st coup sooner than Bush did!
Congrats!
change we can belive in!
Or maybe Zelaya should have consulted Bloomberg about how to buy your way around term limits and saved all this trouble.
What credibility indeed, as many below asked. This administration has dissappated that commodity for fools gold.
During the Bush years, the United States watched helplessly as country after Latin American country opted to distance itself from Washington. When Obama was first elected, they were hoping for a change, just as the progressives were in the United States.
Now, barely out of this honeymoon period, Honduras presented this watershed event of a coup. Obama's tepid, unsure, and confused response signaled to Latin American leaders that the U.S. still cannot be counted on to do the honorable thing. Democratically elected governments rightfully fear that Washington is still capable of deposing them, or at least look the other way when they are deposed by anti-democratic forces.
The events in Honduras during these past few months were prejudicial to the interests of most of us, while boosting that of the relatively few Americans who had always sought to exploit weak Latin governments for their own benefits. It is high time we read more Weisbrot, and watch less CNN.
Honduras has basically 10 familes that control over 90% of the entire wealth in the country......Zelaya wants a more egalitarian country - can't have that I guess!
He wanted to have a Constitutional convention to re-write the constitution to be something besides a give-away to the ulrtra-wealthy.....
it's amazing but the 3rd world now has more of a social justice movement than the USA......
and Clinton sure counld't have that.......America's ruling elite are an enemy to freedom around the world........and now it's coming home to roost.....
His referendum was non-bidding making it legal! Stop lying or at least get your facts straight!
The Hondurain military forcing him out of the country without any criminal or otherwise charges is what was illegal and the Obama Administration lack of concern and allowing the Hondurian military with their illegal captive Zelaya to land on the US military base in Honduras before leaving makes the US part of the illegal act! The Obama Administration like the Bush one, doesn't much care about democracy here in America or else where unless it favors big mult-national corporate business.
Did the U.S. written Honduran Constitution forced on the country in 1982 under the dictatorship of General Alvarez allow the Honduran military to kidnap and expatriate the sitting President without a trial? Point out that article of the Constitution, please.
Arguing is futile with those that simply repeat what they saw on Fux News. Notice the boilerplate Lonnie Davis BS argument? Troll alert
It was just a quick test - I've found, for the last 6 months, on various sites, for various subjects, that whenever someone asks that "proof" or "citations" be given, they themselves can't be bothered to do the simplest background research online.
Where is his credibility NOT on the line?
The Obama administration has itself been divided on what to do about the military overthrow of democracy in Honduras.
---------------------
It's a tactic, not indecision.
They're running out the clock until the election.
There's no way team Obama can let Zelaya return to the throne if even for one day.
For that would set a precedent in favor of the ousted.
And they have many more coups planned.
Exactly, stalling has been a tactic. All that Obama has said has been for to protect the US image. It never intended to out a coup it supported from the start. It has supported weak actions doomed to fail. I also agree with the other commentor. What credibility?
Obama lack of concern over the war crimes by Israel in Gaza, support for the bogus and failed elections in Afghanistan and no plans to even look at the crimes commited by the Bush Administration and continued world policies of being above the law, makes his current Administration just as bad as the last Bush one!