Extraordinary OAS meeting to consider the Honduran situation

[L. Coyote]

Source: Mercosur

November 10th 2009 - 4:08 am UTC

The Organization of American States Permanent Council will hold an extraordinary meeting Tuesday to assess the situation in Honduras following the interruption of the process agreed by both sides to end the several months political crisis.

.....

The council requested a new report on the situation from OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza and reaffirmed that the November 29th election results will not be recognized unless ousted president Manuel Zelaya is reinstated in office.

The concern made public before the deadline for the conformation of a national unity and reconciliation government, November 5, has intensified since the interruption of the implementation that had been agreed by delegates from Mr. Zelaya and the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti.

......

Meantime the de facto regime has sent a letter to Mr. Insulza requesting the OAS send observers for the coming election, and a left wing presidential candidate, Carlos H Reyes from the Resistance Front and close to Mr. Zelaya announced he was stepping down because the agreed conditions to overcome the situation were not being complied.

......................

Read more: http://en.mercopress.com/2009/11/10/extraordinary-oas-meeting-to-consider-the-honduran-situation

---

Previous LATEST compilation:

Zelaya calls for more protests after crisis deal collapses
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4136390

[L. Coyote]

1. Too Late to Salvage Hondura’s Elections, Zelaya Backers Say

Too Late to Salvage Hondura’s Elections, Zelaya Backers Say
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=347064&CategoryId=23558


TEGUCIGALPA – Supporters of ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya said Monday that they will boycott the Nov. 29 presidential election even if the deposed head of state is restored to office before then.

The only leftist in the presidential contest, Carlos Reyes, withdrew from the race, while the anti-coup Resistance Front said it is already too late to ensure a free and fair ballot.

To take part in the vote would be “to legitimize the coup d’etat,” Reyes, who has been running at only 4 percent in the polls, told reporters when he arrived at the Supreme Electoral Court to formally renounce his candidacy.

“Participation in such a process would give legitimacy to the coup regime and to its successor,” the Resistance Front said in a statement.

............

[Andronex]

3. "Reyes, who has been running at only 4 percent in the polls"

in another poll Reyes was in second place with 12% while the candidate of the "Liberal" party was in the low 20s.

[L. Coyote]

2. The World's Original "Banana Republic" Strong-Arms the World's "Last Remaining Superpower?"

Bob Ostertag - November 9, 2009 06:48 PM
The World's Original "Banana Republic" Strong-Arms the World's "Last Remaining Superpower?"


The deal to reinstate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya unraveled this week, leaving the Obama administration as the only government in the western hemisphere willing to let the recent military coup there stand. What can you say when the "world's only remaining superpower" gets strong-armed by the world's original "banana republic"?

This is not "bold leadership." It isn't even status quo, for it has been years since Latin America has seen a military coup like those that plagued the region for much of the twentieth century. There were none, for example, during George W. Bush's time in the White House.

Honduras is one of the smallest, poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It has about the same population as New York City. It is the country where the term "banana republic" was coined. For one hundred years it has been dominated by agribusiness giants like United Fruit which grow bananas and compliantly corrupt governments there with equal success. In the political turmoil that engulfed Central America in the 1980s, with major civil wars in all of its neighboring countries, Honduras played the role of Washington's doormat in the region, with the U.S. training a proxy army along the Nicaraguan border, running secret air missions over El Salvador, and running enough spies and spooks to keep the internal politics of Honduras on complete lock-down.

This corrupt, compliant, inept doormat of an army is what hustled the country's elected president out of bed at gunpoint and on to a plane out of the country five months ago. And now the Obama administration is left as the only government in the western hemisphere that can't find the cajones to stand up to this doormat military?

.........

So when the military coup happened in Honduras, I was incredulous. I thought to myself, "These guys don't know what century they are in. What a bunch of fools!" I mean, had these guys been asleep? Didn't they notice the change that had just happened in the U.S.? They would be gone in a few days, no doubt about it. Yet there they are, five months later, in power and going nowhere. And it looks like the upcoming elections there will be recognized by no government in the western hemisphere except mine.

So I ask you: who is the fool now?

[rabs]

6. Bush, Venezuela, 2002, golpe against Chavez

True, it was overturned by the Venezuelan people after about 48 hours, handing the bushies a swift kick in the behind.

-----------------------------

OP says: There were none, for example, during George W. Bush's time in the White House.

--------------------------


Newly released CIA documents show the Bush administration—at the very least–knew about the plot to overthrow Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez weeks before the April 2002 military coup and did nothing to stop it.

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/29/cia_documents_show_bush_knew_of

[L. Coyote]

8. Those CIA docs sound like a cover-up of more crimes by Bush.

Anyone who thinks that was not a Bush overthrow of democracy in Venezuela is under informed and very politically naive.

:rofl: Oh yeah, and flunked American history. :rofl:

[Peace Patriot]

7. Bush, Bolivia, Sept. 2008, attempted golpe against Evo Morales

White separatists rioted, trashed government buildings, took over an airport, beat up anyone who looked like a Morales supporter and machine-gunned a group of peasant farmers, killing at least 15 people, in an effort to secede from Bolivia and form a fascist mini-state in control of Bolivia's gas/oil resources--funded and organized right out of the US embassy. Morales threw the US ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia for their collusion with these golpistas, and was backed up by every country in South America (in a UNASUR resolution and two commissions to Bolivia to help quell the violence).

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's great OAS has made this decision now. How dare the golpistas ask them to monitor their election

after what they've done to Honduran citizens.

Hope there's absolutely no way OAS can be tricked into changing their minds on this critical issue.

[Andronex]

5. Something has changed...

this isn't the same Honduras as before the coup. The coup leaders only expected a few days of minor unrest, instead manifestations of opposition to the regime have been unprecedented and growing with no sign of abating, under these circumstances it is not guaranteed that their candidate would win in an open and fair election, so there wont be one...

[L. Coyote]

9. Orlando Republican Examiner: Honduras former president's bizarre behavior an embarrassment to Obama

:rofl: Florida has the very best wing-nuts! :rofl:

====================
Honduras former president's bizarre behavior an embarrassment to Obama administration
November 10, 12:30 AM - Blas Padrino - http://www.examiner.com/x-5325-Orlando-Republican-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Honduras-former-presidents-bizarre-behavior-an-embarrassment-to-Obama-administration


Honduras ousted president Manuel Zelaya’s erratic behavior continues to block a negotiated solution to his country’s constitutional crisis....

.... left-wing candidate, Carlos Ham, from the Democratic Unification Party has not decided whether to withdraw. Neither major party candidate – Elvin Santos of Zelaya’s own Liberal Party and Porfirio Lobo from the opposition Nationalist Party – intends to withdraw from the race.

The National Congress was waiting for the Supreme Court to provide its opinion on the reinstatement issue. Tonight, there are reports that the Court will not weigh in on the matter because there is a pending petition for a writ of amparo (a process akin to habeas corpus) on Zelaya’s behalf in connection with the Court’s earlier arrest warrants against the ex-president. That should clear the way for the Congress to debate and vote on Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Of course, his current posture indicates that, at this late date, his priority is to disrupt the electoral process at all costs. It appears that he is putting his gigantic ego before the interests of his country. Undermining the electoral process could only lead to chaos and constitute a setback for Honduras’ democracy.

For the Obama Administration, its initial support for Zelaya has been a costly mistake. Now that the United States has finally distanced itself from the ousted president and committed to support the elections, Zelaya’s schizophrenic behavior has become an embarrassment for the Administration .... Severing ties with Chavez’s ally Zelaya will send a clear message that the United States will not be intimidated by Chavez’s threats.

[EFerrari]

11. That's funny. It's so over the top and yet disjointed, it could be

machine generated. We should put up one of those "generators" and just send in submissions under our True Believer nicks. lol

[L. Coyote]

12. "Carlos Ham" makes you wonder

is this any less surreal than a Gabriel García Márquez novel?

[EFerrari]

17. I think I just got myself banned from that site.

Oops.

[L. Coyote]

22. Surprise, surprise, ....

:rofl:

Ferrari says:
Do you also write for other comedians or only for yourself?

They posted it!

[L. Coyote]

10. Honduran Resistance Rejects “Afghanistan-Style” Elections

Honduran Resistance Rejects “Afghanistan-Style” Elections
November 8, 2009 - http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/2009/11/wnu-1011-honduran-resistance-rejects.html


.......... Zelaya’s representatives apparently signed the Oct. 30 agreement on the understanding that the National Congress would return Zelaya to the presidency--from which he was removed by a June 28 military coup backed by the Congress and Supreme Court--and that he would then form a multi-party Government of Unity and National Reconciliation. The agreement stipulated that the new government would be in place by the end of Nov. 5 . But the Congress, which is in recess until general elections scheduled for Nov. 29, failed to reconvene, and Micheletti proceeded to name a multi-party cabinet which Zelaya refused to recognize. Micheletti’s new cabinet had the same ministers as the old de facto government in key ministries: foreign relations, finance, agriculture, defense, security and the presidency.

........


“I don’t want Afghanistan-style elections for my country,” Zelaya told the opposition Radio Globo station on Nov. 6, referring to the reelection of US-backed Afghani president Hamid Karzai in August balloting marred by reports of widespread fraud. The grassroots movement against the coup is calling for a boycott of the elections. Some resistance activists want to go further. “It’s not just about not going to vote,” indigenous leader Salvador Zúñiga said on Nov. 6. “The same way they took away our ballot box on June 28, we have to take theirs away from them.” The June 28 coup prevented Zelaya’s government from holding a nonbinding referendum that day to ask Hondurans whether they wanted to vote in the Nov. 29 elections on a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the 1982 Constitution.

“From now on,” Zúñiga said, “it’s going to be forbidden for politicians to come into our neighborhoods and communities, and we’re going to forbid them to set up the voting places.” (LJ 11/7/09)

*2. Honduras: US and Latin America Split Over Elections
The rapid failure of an Oct. 30 accord between Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the country’s de facto government “leaves egg on the faces of US and regional diplomats who had engineered the deal,” according to an analysis piece by the Reuters news service. (Reuters 11/6/09)

The agreement’s collapse also increases the distance between the government of US president Barack Obama—which is now in effect siding with the de facto regime--and most governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. .................

[L. Coyote]

13. UNASUR demanda restitución inmediata de Zelaya en Honduras

No questions about the International Community's views.
Restore Zelaya = Restore democracy!

=====================
UNASUR demanda restitución inmediata de Zelaya en Honduras
viernes, 06 de noviembre de 2009 - http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=135484&Itemid=1


(PL) La Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR) reafirmó hoy su apoyo al presidente constitucional de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, y señaló que su restitución inmediata es elemento central del acuerdo logrado en ese país.

En un Comunicado emitido en esta capital, como Presidente Pro Témpore de ese organismo regional, sus 12 países integrantes reiteran lo expresado hoy por los Ministros de Relaciones Exteriores de América Latina y el Caribe en su reunión en Jamaica.

Durante la reunión de la Conferencia de América Latina y El Caribe (CALC) los cancilleres condenaron que las autoridades de facto en Honduras pretendan conformar unilateralmente el gobierno de Unidad y Reconciliación Nacional en ese país, violando el acuerdo.

UNASUR se une a este pronunciamiento y demanda que el Acuerdo de Tegucigalpa/San José sea cumplido de inmediato en su integridad y sin dilación. .....................

[L. Coyote]

14. Deadlocked For Now = Ricardo Lagos blames Micheletti, Oscar Arias faults Micheletti

Sunday, November 8, 2009
Deadlocked For Now - http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/deadlocked-for-now.html


Despite a reunion of the verification commission last evening, no solution was found yesterday to restart the talks between Micheletti and Zelaya over a unity government.

Hugo Llorens, US Ambassador, Jorge Arturo Reina, Arturo Corrales, and two OAS staff people (José Octavio Bordón and Enrique Correa), met in the Marriot hotel but were unable to come up with a way forward. Earlier in the day, Ricardo Lagos, OAS representative to the verification commission, in a CNN interview, blamed Micheletti for not following the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord when he unilaterally named a "unity" government headed by himself.

"It appears to us that there was a fault in the compliance when he (Micheletti) on his own sent letters asking to be sent names of persons, and to Mr. Zelaya. This was not the accord and in the Verification Commission we asked Arturo Corrales and Jorge Arturo Reina to begin working on an eventual national cabinet."

Lagos went on in the interview and said that Corrales came back to the Verification commission with a list of 24 names of people of good reputation, but before they could sit down and even begin discussing it, Micheletti announced his unilateral formation of a "unity" government. "What this man has done is ask for the resignation, in quotation marks, of his cabinet and to say he will make a cabinet of national unity, and this is not what the accord says."

Meanwhile Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica and the mediator of the first conversations between the sides said in an interview that the Micheletti government never had the will to resolve the conflict. "They are looking, by means of delaying tactics, to pass the time until the elections come, risking that the future government will not be recognized by some countries."

[L. Coyote]

15. Questions from a Reader About Honduras Posted by Al Giordano - November 10, 2009

Questions from a Reader About Honduras
Posted by Al Giordano - November 10, 2009 at 11:19 am
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3588/questions-reader-about-honduras


A Narco News reader named Darrol sent us the following letter, which we’ll publish in its entirety and gives us the opportunity to answer some questions that are probably on many minds:

Dear Narco News,

In Honduras, are El Libertador, Radio Globo and Canal 36 still closed, or have the glopistas allowed them to reopen?

It is astonishing that this important news has not been covered **anywhere**!!! Why is nobody covering this?

.............

Both Channel 36 and Radio Globo are back on the air, although the coup regime has not returned the equipment its troops removed from both their studios on September 28.

El Libertador has been reduced to publishing about one issue a month, and editor Jhonny Lagos and his staff are operating more or less in underground fashion due to the continued violent threats against them. I am not aware that the US government has extracted any pledges from the coup regime regarding press freedom or that it has addressed the matter at all.

.....

The Organization of American States will likely meet in general assembly over the next week and the topic of recognizing or not recognizing the “elections” will likely be debated. A majority of OAS nations are not going to go along with any suggestion of recognizing them or sending electoral observers and that would leave the current position – non-recognition – in vigor. That will also put Washington in the position where it would harm its other interests in the hemisphere if it chose to unilaterally recognize the elections while the coup regime has not honored the Tegucigalpa accord.

...............

[L. Coyote]

16. Voices of Honduran Resistance Call for Deepening of Democracy

Voices of Honduran Resistance Call for Deepening of Democracy
Matt Schwartz - 10 November 2009 - http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2201/1/


"I call myself a veteran Defender of Human Rights- it sounds better than old- and as I sit down to write this I feel ill at ease, perhaps because I have the idea that over the long process of the last few decades, we had achieved some small and relative advances in the area of Human Rights. Perhaps its because I always look towards the past in order to spy into the future and, of course, to check on the present…." –Bertha Oliva de Nativi

The history of Bertha Oliva de Nativi is the history of Honduras. If the storyline of the past one hundred years of this continent has been ‘so few with so much, and so many with so little’, then Bertha has been the fearless protagonist racing to rewrite the chapters that will hence come. In 1982 Berta’s husband, Professor Tomas Nativi disappeared. One of hundreds of Hondurans and tens of thousands of Central Americans to lose their lives to state sanctioned violence, Tomas and all of those who have disappeared remain the most terrifying and silencing bootprint of the military regimes of the 1980’s. The stories are all too common: "they came to our door in the middle of the night" or "he just never came home ever again." Their families must find ways to grieve, to cope, and to say goodbye to their loved ones without the benefit of closure or resolution. Some, however, began to demand answers. Shortly after Tomas' disappearance Bertha and twelve other families also in search of their missing loved ones founded what would become the most well respected human rights organizations in the country, the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH). Throughout the military repression of the last century, the banana strike of 1954 and the cold war proxy wars, Honduras has born infinite other protagonists as well, many of whom history will never remember their names or their faces. However, their collective effort to forge a better quality of life for themselves and their communities lives on in the heroes of today’s social movements. We can lend our ears to the testimonies of a handful of the tireless warriors that work day in and day out to lead their country towards a more just and peaceful place. Dina Mesa. Rutilia Calderon. Carmen Alvarado. Luis Mendez. Raul. Juliana. Edgardo. Anonymous, 51 years old. Anonymous, 28 years old. Anonymous, 23 years old. Among countless others, they work as journalists, doctors, educators, trade unionists, community organizers, mothers, fathers, grandparents. Here they trace for us the context of the current state of affairs in Honduras and speak to the most pressing issues at hand.

We the People of Central America

The history of repression in Central America has flown for centuries like a river into the sea of the impoverished masses. If we follow this flow upstream we see that it runs directly through the handful of local elite families to the source - the economic and military might of the United States. Luis Mendez, an organizer with the National Front of Resistance against the Coup D’etat, puts the June 28th military takeover of Honduras in historical context, "We the people of Central America have tread through sad and painful processes. In Nicaragua, just as in Guatemala, and of course in El Salvador. Honduras, meanwhile, has been a strategic platform for the United States to install military bases, originally to support the counter-revolution in Nicaragua. This threw our country on it’s side. We have the most powerful people in the country lacerating the economy and abusing the people. In the context of all of the violence that we witnessed in Central America in the 80’s, the people of Honduras accepted it, paralyzed and silent. We tolerated the military and political powers, but the coup d’etat means that we have reached our limit of tolerance, a limit to the abuse that we have been subjected to for decades. We say enough is enough."

As the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere ...........

[Judi Lynn]

18. The people have been in the streets protesting every day since the coup. EVERY DAY

for over 4 months, at total risk to their own survival.

From this article you posted, regarding the culture of fear in Honduras:

"You don't walk around alone. We walk in groups of three or four. I used to participate a couple times a week in the protests but I was let go from my job so now I am here everyday. You have to understand, the economy is terrible since the coup d'etat. Look, you see them (soldiers) over there taking photos. They take your photo and then they compare it to those in the Electoral Registry. They can find your identification number, and then for the love of god- your age, your address... do you know how many of us have disappeared? Yesterday another was found dead in San Pedro Sula." -Anonymous Protestor, 51 years old.

"Right now we have a National Congress that depends directly on the Executive branch. We have a Supreme Court that responds directly to the interests of the Executive branch. We have a Commision of Human Rights and a Public Ministry that respond directly to the Executive Branch. Now, for example, the Public Ministry denounces certain individuals who participate in peaceful demonstrations and accuses them of sedition. They become political prisoners. They are using our own judicial system to plant seeds of terror." –Dina Mesa, journalist.

Obviously these same people controlled the coup on the other side of that act, as well.

Thank you for these valuable sources.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Please see Democracy Now clip with economic hitman John Perkins

in which he discusses the elected Honduran President's removal, shared with DU'ers in the Latin America forum by Mika:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=26164&mesg_id=26164

His interview starts around 10 minutes from the end of the hour. The video clip is set for that segment alone. No need to search for the place in the hour long program.

[L. Coyote]

21. Not a Freudian slip at all =

Honduras is a "company" or the "company" runs Honduras.
Either way is more accurate than a "country"!

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah. The democratically elected president, Zelaya, had called for a new constitution to replace the old one that was really set up by the oligarchy in favor of the very, very, very wealthy and the international companies. He also called for a 60 percent increase in the bottom wage rate, which had a huge impact on Dole and Chiquita, two of the biggest employers in that company. They, along with a number of companies that have sweatshops in Honduras, strongly objected, very much the same way that they had objected to Aristide in Haiti, when he did something similar, and called in the military.

[Judi Lynn]

24. It's sad there aren't too many people who are aware it was United Fruit which was behind the coup

in Guatemala, in 1954, destroying the Presidency of another president, Jacobo Arbenz, who was attempting to make things less horrific for the very poor workers. United Fruit must have changed its name to Chiquita when it was felt too much bloodshed had finally been associated with them, as they had created a hideous history as United Fruit in a relatively short time.

Guatemala 1953-1954
While the world watched

To whom does a poor banana republic turn when a CIA army is advancing upon its territory and CIA planes are overhead bombing the country?
The leaders of Guatemala tried everyone-the United Nations, the Organization of American States, other countries individually, the world press, even the United States itself, in the desperate hope that it was all a big misunderstanding, that in the end, reason would prevail.
Nothing helped. Dwight Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles had decided that the legally-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz was "communist", therefore must go and go it did, in June 1954.
In the midst of the American preparation to overthrow the government, the Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Guillermo Toriello, lamented that the United States was categorizing "as 'communism' every manifestation of nationalism or economic independence any desire for social progress, any intellectual curiosity, and any interest in progressive liberal reforms."
*****
The Guatemalan president , who took office in March 1951 after being elected by a wide margin, had no special contact or spiritual/ideological ties with the Soviet Union or the rest of the Communist bloc. Although American policymakers and the American press, explicitly and implicitly, often labeled Arbenz a communist, there were those in Washington who knew better, at least during their more dispassionate moments. Under Arbenz's administration Guatemala had voted at the United Nations so closely with the United States on issues of "Soviet imperialism" that a State Department group occupied with planning Arbenz's overthrow concluded that propaganda concerning Guatemala's UN record "would not be particularly helpful in our case". And a State Department analysis paper reported that the Guatemalan president had support "not only from Communist-led labor and the radical fringe of professional and intellectual groups, but also among many anti-Communist nationalists in urban areas".
*****
The centerpiece of Arbenz's program was land reform. The need for it was clearly expressed in the all-too-familiar underdeveloped-country statistics: In a nation overwhelmingly rural, 2.2 percent of the landowners owned 70 percent of the arable land; the annual per capita income of agricultural workers was $87. Before the revolution of 1944, which overthrew the Ubico dictatorship, "farm laborers had been roped together by the Army for delivery to the low-land farms where they were kept in debt slavery by the landowners."
The expropriation of large tracts of uncultivated acreage which was distributed to approximately 100,000 landless peasants, the improvement in union rights for the workers, and other social reforms, were the reasons Arbenz had won the support of Communists and other leftists, which was no more than to be expected. When Arbenz was criticized for accepting Communist support, he challenged his critics to prove their good faith by backing his reforms themselves. They failed to do so, thus revealing where the basis of their criticism lay.
*****
The first plan to topple Arbenz was a CIA operation approved by President Truman in 1952, but at the eleventh hour, Secretary of State Dean Acheson persuaded Truman to abort it. However, soon after Eisenhower became president in January 1953, the plan was resurrected. Both administrations were pressured by executives of United Fruit Company -- much of the vast and uncultivated land in Guatemala had been expropriated by the Arbenz government as part of the land reform program. The company wanted nearly $16 million for the and, the government was offering $525,000, United Fruit's own declared valuation for tax purposes.
United Fruit functioned in Guatemala as a state within a state. It owned the country's telephone and telegraph facilities, administered its only important Atlantic harbor, and monopolized its banana exports. A subsidiary of the company owned nearly every mile of railroad track in the country. The fruit company's influence amongst Washington's power elite was equally impressive. On a business and/or personal level, it had close ties to the Dulles brothers, various State Department officials, congressmen, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, and others. Anne Whitman, the wife of the company's public relations director, was President Eisenhower's personal secretary. Under-secretary of State (and formerly Director of the CIA) Walter Bedell Smith was seeking an executive position with United Fruit at the same time he was helping to plan the coup. He was later named to the company's board of directors.
Under Arbenz, Guatemala constructed an Atlantic port and a highway to compete with United Fruit's holdings, and built a hydro-electric plant to offer cheaper energy than the US controlled electricity monopoly. Arbenz's strategy was to limit the power of foreign companies through direct competition rather than through nationalization, a policy not feasible of course when it came to a fixed quantity like land. In his inaugural address, Arbenz stated that:
"Foreign capital will always be welcome as long as it adjusts to local conditions, remains always subordinate to Guatemalan laws, cooperates with the economic development of the country, and strictly abstains from intervening in the nation's social and political life."
This hardly described United Fruit's role in Guatemala. Amongst much else, the company had persistently endeavored to frustrate Arbenz's reform programs, discredit him and his government, and induce his downfall.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Guatemala_KH.html

Same old pattern, again, and agaian, isn't it?

[L. Coyote]

26. The Red Scare worked so well, paranoid politics is a permanent tool of the right.

Fear is powerful.
That is why so much effort is going into branding Obama as a socialist.
Honduras is just a tool of American anti-Chavista politics, it seems.

[Judi Lynn]

20. It's official, apparently: "Honduras lawmaker warns Zelaya reinstatement decision may be delayed"

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Honduras lawmaker warns Zelaya reinstatement decision may be delayed
Safiya Boucaud at 10:17 AM ET

President of the Honduran National Congress Jose Alfredo Saavedra said Monday that lawmakers will most likely not make a decision about whether to restore ousted president Manuel Zelaya before the country's presidential elections take place later this month. Saavedra said that congress is awaiting an opinion from the Honduran Supreme Court , and there is no indication when the court might rule.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/11/honduras-lawmaker-warns-zelaya.php

[boppers]

23. Would Zeleya accept it if congress decided against him?

Isn't that the agreement, that congress would consult with the courts, and then make a decision?

[L. Coyote]

25. First question, yes if they had complied with the agreement. Second question, no the

agreement was to form the government by Thursday midnight, not to consult the Supreme Court.

Listen to what Zelaya said on Democracy Now Monday.
Are you even reading these threads?

The threads conveniently all link back to previous LATEST news,
for those who want to know the answers to questions like boppers has.

[boppers]

27. I've read the agreement. Have you?

The congress is in compliance, as there was no timeline for when Zeleya's authority would be voted upon (which is one of Zelaya's complaints). The unity government was supposed to be made up of people from both parties, Zeleya didn't provide any names, as he apparently wanted to be placed into power first, even though that wasn't actually in any of the agreement's timelines.

Oh, and consulting the court was *explicitly* part of the agreement.

[L. Coyote]

28. Do'h! There are not 12 accords, there was one accord, and it did nt hapen as agreed.

The timeline was form the unity government by Thur. midnight.

Read the thing, and try to comprehend it too!

[boppers]

29. Comprehension is good.

The explicit timeline of the agreement had specific, separate, steps listed, occurring by specific dates. Congress voting on Zelaya wasn't one of them.

Looks like Zelaya's now refusing to accept anything he doesn't like, even if he agreed to it....

http://www.hondurasthisweek.com/national/1570-accord-broken-if-congress-votes-not-to-reinstate-him-says-zelaya
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4918970
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1935803,00.html

Apparently he had no intention of honoring the agreement, unless it decided for him, on his schedule, which it didn't, and based on votes in congress, won't.

[Peace Patriot]

31. Here's John Kerry's view: The U.S. State Dept. scuttled the agreement!

"The State Department's abrupt change of policy towards Honduras last week -- recognizing the elections scheduled for Nov. 29 even if the coup regime does not meet its commitments under the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord -- caused the collapse of an accord it helped negotiate,"--Frederick L. Jones, spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry

...NOT Zelaya.

[EFerrari]

32. John Kerry, human being. n/t

[David Zephyr]

30. Kick.

.