Honduras crisis dominates South American summit

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

ASUNCION (Reuters) - The political crisis in Honduras took center stage at a South American presidential summit on Friday, with regional leaders calling for the unconditional return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

With Zelaya headed toward Honduras against the warnings of the de facto government there, South American presidents pushed aside debate about the global economic downturn and regional trade to make a joint demand for the immediate restoration of democracy in the Central American country.

"This is a step backward that our region cannot tolerate," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a speech at the summit of the Mercosur trade bloc in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. "We cannot compromise."

The summit, which brought together the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, finished with a harsh statement condemning the June 28 coup in Honduras that ousted the left-leaning Zelaya from power.

The statement, which referred to the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti as "illegitimate," said the countries of South America would push the Organization of American States to adopt a resolution banning the return of Honduras to the OAS unless Zelaya is reinstated as president.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56N4X120090724

[Flaneur]

1. And what does the US State Department have to say?

[scarletwoman]

2. Ha! They're keeping mum while they busily shovel money to the coupsters. (nt)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Mercosur Summit Calls for Zelaya's Return

Source: IPS News

Mercosur Summit Calls for Zelaya's Return
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz

ASUNCION, Jul 24 (IPS) - The presidents of South America's main trade bloc, Mercosur, demanded at their summit in Paraguay Friday the unconditional, peaceful return of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

The Honduran leader, who was deposed by the military on Jun. 28, briefly crossed the border into his country Friday. But after taking just a few symbolic steps into the country, he returned to Nicaragua, saying he did not want to be the cause of violence.

At the end of the summit in the Paraguayan capital, presidents Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Cristina Fernández of Argentina, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Evo Morales of Bolivia, as well as representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, issued a harshly worded statement condemning the coup in Honduras.

Mercosur (Southern Common Market) is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Venezuela is in the process of becoming the fifth full member. Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are associate members.

The presidents also urged the international community to continue to refuse to recognise the de facto regime headed by Roberto Micheletti or any elections held in Honduras unless the president is restored to power. General elections are scheduled to be held Nov. 29, and Zelaya's term is to end in January.


Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47791

[earcandle]

4. Now we know that South America is much more hip than the Middle East in managing its own affairs.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Yup, this was the Bushwhacks' problem in trying to regain global corporate predator

control of Venezuela's oil, Ecuador's oil, Bolivia's gas and oil, and other Latin American resources. Democracy got in their way. In Venezuela--which holds elections that are far, far more transparent than our own--tens of thousands of people poured into the streets, in support of their Constitution and their elected government, when Bush's fascist tools in Venezuela staged a violent military coup, back in 2002. Venezuela was pretty much all alone, at that time. Venezuelans had to restore their democracy without the help of the many kindred leftist governments that have been elected since that time, all over South and Central America. Now these governments have each other as allies, in fending off U.S.-instigated coups, as they did for Evo Morales' government in Bolivia this last September. They also came to Rafael Correa's aid, when the US/Colombia bombed/raided Ecuador earlier last year.

And they have been stalwarts in backing the Chavez government against relentless lies and propaganda aimed at demonizing Chavez. Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, said, "They can invent a lot of criticisms of Chavez, but not on democracy!" When the Bushwacks sent word down to South American leaders that they must "isolate" Chavez, Nestor Kirchner, then president of Argentina, replied, "But he's my brother!" And when Rafael Correa was asked about Chavez's remark at the UN that Bush is "the devil," he said it was "an insult to the devil." Also, post Bolivia coup attempt, Michele Batchelet, president of Chile, told this joke to a group of US investors: "Why has there never been a coup in the United States?" Her answer: "Because there are no U.S. embassies in the United States!" (She got laughs, by the way.)

Democratic leaders--true representatives of their people--supporting each other, fending off coups, and cooperating on numerous economic, political and security issues. This is a wondrous development in Latin America. And it is, quite tragically, not characteristic of the Middle East. Latin Americans have climbed up out of the ruins of US-sponsored, heinous military juntas, and have succeeded at the long and difficult work of creating democratic institutions. The Middle East, equally devastated by US and British interference--for instance, the outright destruction of Iranian democracy in the mid-1950s, and installation of the horrible Shah of Iran--has not recovered, and got headed in a bad direction--religious fundamentalism--for self-protection. The only country that did well, as to secular civil society and general prosperity, was Iraq, but at the cost of dictatorship (ironic as that is). Iraq is now a basketcase of US interference, and a tremendous threat to the region, as the launching pad for US and other aggression. Iran is not the threat. Iraq is. Our government is just frigging lying about this. The opposite of what they say is the truth. And they are telling an almost identical lie about Venezuela being a threat, when it is the US-client state of Colombia--a country with one of the worst human rights records on earth--that threatens the peace and well-being of South and Central America.

And now add Honduras to that threat--another US client state, run by the Pentagon--with a long history of being a "lily pad" country for US aggression in Latin America. It is no wonder that Latin America leaders are worried about this, and are demanding that the coup step down. They have enough worries as it is, given the $6 BILLION in US taxpayer military funding to Colombia, and the plans for five US military bases in that country, and the multi-millions being funneled to rightwing groups within their own countries, through USAID, John McCain's (US taxpayer funded) "International Republican Institute," CIA, DEA and other budgets. Can Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala--all now with democratic leftist governments--turn back this coup, and fend off other threats? They can--if they stick together. They have democracy on their side--the support of their own people--and that is very strong glue for effective action against tyranny.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Hope their growing solidarity continues until Simon Bolivar's vision is realized,

and these countries can finally repell invasion, domination, plunder, rape, seduction of the corrupt from all sources, and immerse them once again in a new Dark Ages as they suffered already until recently.

They have learned by suffering they will do everything in their power to prevent it, and they have the bloody story of their own history on which to draw for their way out of bondage to outside powers.

As Evo Morales has stated, South America doesn't want a leader, a boss, a master, it can use a partner.

[Vidar]

9. Thanks for the informative review.

[and-justice-for-all]

5. Has this made it to the M$M at all?

DemocracyNow has been covering it very well.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Haven't seen one peep in corporate media offerings. Not one.

It has always been their practise to present the US as being the legitimate governing power in the entire Western Hemisphere, despite any facts to the contrary.