Honduran Congress to vote on Zelaya fate after poll

[struggle4progress]

Source: Reuters

By Helen Popper

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran lawmakers will wait until after a November 29 election to decide whether to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, delaying a vote central to a U.S.-led deal to end months of political crisis.

Zelaya, who irked the poor nation's elite by forming close ties with leftist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was sent into exile in his pajamas by soldiers on June 28 and a de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti took charge.

The U.S.-brokered pact to end the crisis stipulates a congressional vote on reinstating Zelaya, but it never set a date and the October accord collapsed within a week as the rival sides failed to form a unity government.

"We've decided to convene sessions for December 2," Congress head Jose Saavedra told reporters, adding that lawmakers expected the Supreme Court to give an opinion next week on whether Zelaya should be returned to power until a new president is sworn in January after the November 29 election ...

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5AG5PV20091118

---

So Zelaya has been correct, to assert the negotiation "solution" collapsed. The stalling technique, adopted by the golpistas, is a tactic frequently used by the prior administration, and it seems entirely clear that the Honduran coup was planned by the Bush gang and pulled off the shelf by their operatives. The Obama administration has, in this case, been out-maneuvered by the reactionaries: one hopes the administration will be able to think through its moves in somewhat more detail in future cases like this

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

1. So they can reinstate him for a whoppin' month...?

To be truthful, this isn't an issue I've been following as closely as I should. What're the size and scope of the pro-Zeyala demonstrations? Because my impression thus far is that, while passionate, they're not sizeable enough to make an enormous difference in the outcome of events. This strikes me as a done deal, though I wouldn't mind being wrong on this.

[WriteDown]

2. So Bush did this?

You obviously have never seen the work of Coke Zero. There are also indications that the illuminati may be involved.

I am neither a Zelaya fan or opponent, but it does seem that both the Supreme Court as well as the Congress due not want to see him return to power.

[struggle4progress]

7. No, Bush isn't smart enough to have done it. My POV is that Negroponte's boys planned it

and set it in motion

[EFerrari]

3. This happened on Obama's watch and there's no reason in the world to believe

it happened without his approval or consent.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

4. I guess I don't see why

Obama would have approved the coup only to turn around and condemn it immediately afterwards. U.S. officials were almost certainly notified that this would be occuring, whether they gave "approval or consent" seems up for debate.

[roody]

5. If Obama had wanted to stand up for democracy, he

would have. He did not. I feel much sympathy for those who worked so hard to get him elected, and to those who gave his campaign money.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

28. I'm not sure it's that cut and dry on this one

After all, Zeyala was openly defying the orders of the court and the congress.

[struggle4progress]

8. ... Sensitive CIA operations overseas will face new scrutiny from the nation's intelligence director

under a plan approved by the White House and outlined in a memo to the espionage work force last week. In a memo sent to subordinates on Friday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair cited new guidance from the White House that his responsibilities "include assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of sensitive operations." The majority of those, he said, "are conducted by the CIA." But in a sign of the ongoing skirmishing in the intelligence community, other officials dismissed Blair's memo and said the CIA's covert action authorities remain intact ...

NATION: Intelligence czar Blair to assess sensitive CIA work
From news services
November 17, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-briefs-1116-11170nov17,0,2307432.story

[L. Coyote]

22. Agent Micheletti

Agent Micheletti
Jean-Guy Allard - November 3, 2009 - http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/noviembre/mar3/Agent-Micheletti.html


THE late CIA agent Philip Agee, who dedicated himself to identifying and denouncing his crimes after resigning from the agency, would have predicted it some time ago: Robert Micheletti, current leader of the Tegucigalpa military/business junta, has all the characteristics of a yanki intelligence agent, recruited at a certain moment by some Langley official assigned to the Honduran Embassy.

Agent MichelettiIt’s important to observe the emotion that the future Honduran dictator had on July 16, 2008, when he was president of the National Congress, when he conferred The Great Cross with Gold Badge, the Central American country’s highest distinction, to Charles Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Honduras at the time.

This was the same Ford who a month early had rudely proposed to the country’s new President, Manuel Zelaya, that Honduras should provide refuge for international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

For this act of servility, Micheletti called together members of the same coup leadership that conspired for 11 months to remove the legitimate president from the country.

Other officials present at the meeting included Vilma Morales, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice; General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez and several of his officials; the attorney general and deputy attorney general; the human rights commissioner, and the president of the Supreme Electoral Court.

The mafia was completed by the heads of the one dozen families ............

[struggle4progress]

6. You assume that the covert establishment is under control. I think there's reason to think otherwise

The coup itself largely followed the Aristide ouster script. Bush's Director of National Intelligence was John Negroponte, who had overseen the Honduran side of Reagan's dirty little wars in Central America: unsurprisingly, the Honduran coup brought back to public attention a number of Honduran death squad figures from the Reagan era

The Federal apparatus typically doesn't shut down with each new President to await individual review of everything: cases continue to grind through the courts and regulatory agencies continue with their ongoing procedures. It's very likely that the Office of the President typically firewalls itself from many covert actions, for the purpose of plausible deniability, and since oversight is mostly lacking the covert agencies do all manner of things never known outside those agencies

Negroponte
By Sister Laetitia Borders
http://www.change-links.org/Negroponte.htm

Negroponte, Honduras and Iraq
By Peter Watt
ZNet
July 9, 2004
... Jack Binns, Negroponte's predecessor as ambassador appointed by Jimmy Carter, complained about the blatant human rights abuses in Honduras and briefed him as he took office. He later reported that Salvadoran nuns who fled to Honduras after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero had been tortured by the Honduran secret police and thrown out of helicopters alive – a speciality of the Argentine military officers employed in Honduras during Negroponte's stint. One official, Rick Chidester, claims Negroponte ordered him to remove all mention of torture and execution from his report on human rights in Honduras. During Negroponte's stay in Honduras, human rights violations peaked. The infamous US trained death squad, Batallion 3-16, was notorious for the torture, rape, kidnapping and killing of Honduran dissidents. Hundreds of people disappeared. By the end of the 1980s at least 10,000 were dead, not to mention the conservative estimate of 200,000 deaths in Central America as a result of US intervention. Negroponte, however, claims no knowledge of the human rights abuses the US carried out and funded despite being ambassador at the time. He told CNN, "I think on balance if you look back at what we did, I think a good case can be made that there was actually less suffering in Central America as a result of the actions the United States took than there would have been if we had just folded our arms and done nothing." Many other Honduran victims of the US led war in Central America ended up at the El Aguacate airstrip, whose creation was supervised by Negroponte, and where dissidents were detained and tortured – 185 corpses were dug up there in 2001. When George W. Bush appointed Negroponte as US ambassador to the UN, members of Honduran death squads who had previously been granted asylum in the US were deported. It was feared they testify about Negroponte's role in human rights abuses while ambassador to Honduras ... http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/168/36539.html

Zelaya, Negroponte and the Controversy at Soto Cano
The Coup and the U.S. Airbase in Honduras
By Nikolas Kozloff
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23123.htm

[EFerrari]

9. I actually don't assume the covert mob is under control.

But/and, Negroponte is an "adviser" to Clinton just as Davis was part of her PR apparatus.

It's simply not possible to believe that a country which is essentially our landing strip would move on such a project without a green light. And if any more foreign heads of state go missing after passing through one of our bases, :shrug:

ETA: I'm sorry, I don't mean to take your thread OT.

[struggle4progress]

10. I don't doubt the golpistas were given "a green light" at some time: the question is, By whom?

The current ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, was working (together with former Iran-Contra principal and then-Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Elliot Abrams) as an advisor to Bush II on Venezuela when the 2002 coup against Chavez occurred; at that time, Iran-Contra principal (and "unindicted co-conspirator"), Otto Reich. The Iran-Contra gang had been involved in overthrowing the freely-elected government of Nicaragua during the Reagan era, and Otto Reich's fingerprints are all over the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela. The Honduran coup follows in important respects the ouster of Aristide from Haiti: the elected President is forcibly deported, and immediately afterwards a phony resignation letter is publicized. Following the Honduran coup, the golpistas ejected the Venezuelan delegation

This all sounds familiar: it is the usual illegal international destabilizations by the usual gang, who had had their way without much consequence in the Reagan years (recall, for example, that Bush I pardoned Abrams and himself oversaw an earlier ouster of Aristide) and again had their way without much consequence in the Bush II years, perhaps being additionally emboldened by the 2000 coup that installed Bush II as US President

When Obama won in November 2008, he got the job of riding a poly-headed Hydra, and the Bush dead-enders in government have been snapping their teeth at their rider ever since

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team
Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez
Observer Worldview
* The Observer, Sunday 21 April 2002 14.30 BST
... Now officials at the Organisation of American States and other diplomatic sources, talking to The Observer, assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success. The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich ... Reich is said by OAS sources to have had 'a number of meetings with Carmona and other leaders of the coup' over several months. The coup was discussed in some detail, right down to its timing and chances of success, which were deemed to be excellent. On the day Carmona claimed power, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office. He said the removal of Chavez was not a rupture of democra tic rule, as he had resigned and was 'responsible for his fate'. He said the US would support the Carmona government ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela

El pedigrí del embajador USA en Honduras
JEAN-GUY ALLARD
... La Casa Blanca de George W. Bush captará al astuto Llorens en el 2002 nada menos que como director de Asuntos Andinos del Consejo Nacional de Seguridad en Washington, D.C., lo que lo convierte en principal asesor del presidente sobre Venezuela. Ocurre que el golpe de Estado del 2002 contra Chávez se produce mientras Llorens se encuentra bajo la autoridad del subsecretario de Estado para Asuntos Hemisféricos Otto Reich y del muy controvertido Elliot Abrams ... http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/08/01/interna/artic01.html

Otto Reich’s Fingerprints on Honduras Coup?
Written by Mike Niman War and Peace, World News Aug 19, 2009
U.S. Right Mobilizes to Support Putsch
by Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report
... Similar claims were made at the emergency session of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC as the coup went into action. Venezuelan representative Roy Chaderton said: “We have information that worries us. These is a person who has been important in the diplomacy of the US who has reconnected with old colleagues and encouraged the coup: Otto Reich, ex sub-secretary of State under Bush. We know him as an interventionist person…” He cited Reich’s purported involvement in the attempted coup d’etat against Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez in April 2002 ... In 2001, President Bush used a recess appointment to make Reich assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, bypassing strong Congressional opposition. In 1987, Reich had been investigated by Congress for illegal activities in support on Nicaragua’s right-wing Contra guerrillas. In April 2002, the New York Times confirmed that on the morning the Venezuelan putsch went into action, Reich spoke by telephone with Pedro Carmona, the conservative businessman who would be installed as de facto president for the two days before the coup collapsed. The account claimed Reich coached Carmona on how to handle the coup, urging him not to dissolve the National Assembly. (Carmona did, cited as a key factor in the coup’s failure.) In January 2003 the White House quietly moved Reich over to the presidential staff as special envoy to Latin America rather than face Congressional opposition to his re-appointment as assistant secretary of state ... http://dailycensored.com/2009/08/19/otto-reichs-fingerprints-on-honduras-coup/

Hugo Llorens and the Honduran lab
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 23:59
By Elíades Acosta Matos
... Cuban-born Hugo Llorens, who has admitted ‘having participated in meetings where coup plans were discussed before the kidnapping of President Zelaya,” a close collaborator to Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Elliot Abrams, is an ambassador appointed by Bush. He is one of the many neoconservative moles who remained imbedded in the bowels of the “government of change” that was installed in the United States on Jan. 20 precisely so that nothing might change ... http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1087:hugo-llorens-and-the-honduran-lab&catid=40:lastest-news&Itemid=59

Honduras orders Venezuelan diplomats expelled
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-22 11:31
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-07/22/content_8458611.htm

US Ambassador Hugo Llorens Discloses Secrets of the Honduran Coup
Washington’s Man in Tegucigalpa Met Friday Morning with Human Rights Observers in What He Termed an Intimate Conversation
Narco News
August 15, 2009
By Belén Fernánde
... The Global Exchange delegation pursued the theme of education or lack thereof by interrogating Llorens as to the continued training of Honduran troops at the School of the Americas (SOA) while military and police repression occurred in the streets of Honduras. Llorens triumphantly announced that the SOA no longer existed; when delegation member Allan Fisher provided the updated acronym of the school, WHINSEC—standing for Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation—Llorens refined his answer and said that he didn't think counterinsurgency was much of a curricular focus in such institutions. The possibility that Llorens' confusion was due to a traditional conflation of democracy and counterinsurgency in certain geographic zones was supported by his announcement that he and Henshaw had for the past several decades dedicated their careers to supporting democracy in Latin America. WHINSEC was again brought up when Llorens was asked what would happen if the San José Accord mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias did not succeed in resolving the Honduran political impasse. Llorens replied: "Well, the US has a lot of options," to which Andrés Conteris suggested that one of them be the suspension of Honduran troops from US military schools. Llorens in turn informed us that the troops in question were not subject to suspension based on the fact that they were already in the pipeline; the issue of whether Zelaya had not already been in the pipeline as well was not addressed ... http://globalexchange.org/countries/americas/honduras/6260.html

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Is he or isn't he? maybe Hugo Llorens knows
... This morning, Honduras' El Heraldo published that "it has leaked out that the US ambassador, Hugo Llorens, will not return to the country by order of the State Department." The same language was then echoed by Radío América. But Mexico's El Financiero begs to differ: their article cites an unnamed "spokesperson" for the US State Department saying The US has not recalled its ambassador in Honduras. We continue to believe that the presence of our ambassador in Honduras in these moments can contribute more to the final result that we are all seeking ... http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-he-or-isnt-he-maybe-hugo-llorens.html

[L. Coyote]

25. Venezuela's FM: The US seeks "domination" of Latin America

Maduro read your post!

=======================
Venezuela's FM: The US seeks "domination" of Latin America
http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/11/19/en_pol_esp_venezuelas-fm:-the_19A3082251.shtml


Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, said on Thursday that the coup d'état in Honduras and the "Yankee military bases" in Colombia allegedly show that the new US administration led by Barack Obama still targets imperialist "domination" in Latin America.

To achieve this goal, Washington has been supported in several Latin American countries by "emboldened right-leaning groups ready to do whatever it takes" to preserve the political and economic hegemony which it has historically controlled, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said, as reported by Efe.

The alleged "involvement" of the United States in actions taken to overthrow Honduras President Manuel Zelaya last June 28, is "quite clear." Maduro said to members of left-leaning parties from 40 countries who are meeting Thursday and Friday in Caracas.

[harmonicon]

11. I'm afraid that it doesn't have to involve approval or consent

I think it may simply be that he really wouldn't have cared what happened, but now that this has happened, it's a benefit, so why work to stop it? It seems to me that that's the way he - and the administration - work in many fronts. Example: repeal of "don't ask, don't tell". Yeah, he thinks it would be better, but is also fine with things the way they are.... if someone else did something about it it would be ok, but not a real priority.

I knew what I voted for, and that was for a government that wouldn't make matters worse. I got what I voted for.

Not exciting, I know. Perhaps I'm just not cynical enough.

[EFerrari]

12. Well, you may be right about that. This administration may just not care about Honduras.

But what makes me think they did is all the contracts Harris got this year.

DUer magbana is tracking it on her blog and I found a few more contracts, posted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x26559

[harmonicon]

13. yeah, sure - sounds entirely possible

I'm just giving my opinion based on what we absolutely know to be true, re: US's response to the coup. If there was government involvement, I wouldn't be surprised either though.

[L. Coyote]

14. Previous LATEST thread:

Tue Nov-17-09 - US envoy heads to Honduras in bid to jumpstart talks
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4150253

[L. Coyote]

15. "Meet Jan Schakowsky, the newest useful idiot for leftist thugs in Latin America" = Jamie Weinstein

Meet the newest member of the Up is Down idiocracy, Jamie Weinstein.
Jamie Weinstein seems to be able to lie with the best of the moranic freepers.
Do send Jamie Weinstein a little love, and use his name a few more times in this thread
so this thread will forever rise to the top in Google when his name, Jamie Weinstein, is searched.
Remember, the lying moran is named Jamie Weinstein, yes, Jamie Weinstein, Jamie Weinstein.

=============================================
Meet Jan Schakowsky, the newest useful idiot for leftist thugs in Latin America
by Jamie Weinstein - November 19th, 2009 - http://www.northstarnational.com/2009/11/19/meet-jan-schakowsky-newest-idiot-leftist-thugs-latin-america/


Congressional Democrats have a long history of being useful idiots for leftist causes and regimes in Latin America. Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois seems to be trying to revive the tradition for the 21st Century.

Last week, Schakowsky became the first Congressional Democrat to visit Honduras since Manuel Zelaya was forcibly removed from the Honduran presidency in June. Zelaya’s removal was authorized by the country’s Supreme Court and legislature in response to multiple attempts by Zelaya to violate the Honduran Constitution.

It is widely suspected that Zelaya was seeking to change the Constitution in order to extend his presidency, which is limited to one term by Honduran law. Yet while the Honduran Supreme Court and legislature supported Zelaya’s removal, the international community condemned it as an illegal coup, a position with which the Obama administration has concurred.

In a hastily arranged conference call just hours after she returned from her three-day trip to Honduras last Thursday, Schakowsky claimed to speak for Congressional Democrats and the U.S. government when she stated “the coup against President Zelaya is illegal and, along with every other nation in the region and the world, we don’t recognize the coup regime as the legitimate government of Honduras.”

Schakowsky’s statement that the coup was illegal ...............

================================================
US Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Three-Day Fact-Finding Mission in Honduras Confirms Widespread Human Rights Abuses
An Inventory of Reports from Major National and International Human Rights Organizations from Honduras Under Coup d’Etat
By Tamar Sharabi - The Narco News Bulletin - November 13, 2009 - http://www.narconews.com/Issue62/article3935.html


TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, NOVEMBER 13, 2009: Despite the US State Department’s stance for a ‘Honduran Solution,’ some Republican US Senators and House members have openly intervened and strongly supported the de facto government, not recognized by any nation in the world. US Rep. Jan. Schakowsky (D-Illinois), is the first congressperson to visit Honduras since the June 28 coup that did not come in prefabricated support of the de facto regime. She was invited by Bertha Oliva, Coordinator of COFADEH, a human rights organization that has been documenting abuses for the past 27 years. COFADEH has documented more than 3,000 illegal detentions since the coup and over 21 murders in a report published Oct. 22. During her recent mission in Washington, Oliva invited Schakowsky to witness firsthand the Honduran reality of police brutality that is not making the headlines.

Schakowsky’s three day visit from November 10-12 included meetings with family members of victims that have died directly from violence from the coup, media outlets such as Channel 36 and Radio Globo that have been attacked for honestly reporting on the resistance movement, and also a visit to the Brazilian Embassy where ousted President Zelaya and approximately 40 others have taken refuge for the last 53 days. The Chicago Congresswoman commented on her opportunity to hear a recording of some of the sounds bombarded into the Embassy and see the blinding lights set up outside, in addition to the crane set up for the military to spy into the Embassy.

Citing a “serious deterioration of human rights since the coup,” Schakowsky reflected on the executive decree PCM-M-016-2009 (declaring a state of siege) published on Sep. 27 which was set in place to supposedly defend national security and public order but that “seems to be defined as anything that is said against the coup.” This is the same decree that, after even some of the coup plotters publicly criticized it, was promised to be lifted immediately but took until October 19t (when the UN Human Rights Commission began a visit) before it was officially printed in the official ‘Gazette’ to end the decree. Under that decree, any police commissioner present at a resistance demonstration could declare the gathering “illegal” and use violent means to disperse the peaceful crowds.

When asked about whether free and fair elections are possible under such conditions

[struggle4progress]

23. Since Weinstein writes for Horowitz's Front Page and Kristol's Weekly Standard, neither of which

is ever particularly careful about facts, I can't see much reason to pay much attention to him

[L. Coyote]

16. Obama Breaks with Latin America on Overturning Honduran Coup

Obama Breaks with Latin America on Overturning Honduran Coup
Thursday Nov 19th, 2009 6:42 AM - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/19/18629250.php

Obama Breaks with Latin America on Overturning Honduran Coup
Interview with Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, conducted by Scott Harris

After a U.S. State Department-brokered agreement unraveled, Honduran President Manual Zelaya -- overthrown in a June 28 coup -- has rejected the legitimacy of the scheduled Nov. 29 presidential election and urged his supporters to boycott the vote. The Oct. 30 deal would have had the Honduran Congress vote on reinstating Zelaya to office, paving the way for the resignation of the coup-installed President Roberto Micheletti and the formation of a unity government which would then oversee the Nov. 29 ballot.

The accord fell apart after the Honduran Congress announced it would delay a vote on Zelaya's return to power until it received a judgment from the nation's Supreme Court. In response Zelaya, who has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital, refused to participate in forming the coalition government. The Obama administration further complicated matters when it declared Washington would recognize the winner of the presidential election, despite the coup government's refusal to step down. Washington's position is in direct conflict with most governments across Latin America and the European Union, who have stated they will not recognize the result of the election until Zelaya is returned to office.

In a scathing letter sent to President Obama on Nov. 14, Zelaya rejected any last-minute revival of a settlement when he stated, "As the elected president of the Honduran people, I reaffirm my position that starting today, no matter what, I will not accept any agreement on returning to the presidency of the republic to cover up this coup d'etat." Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz who helped organize a letter to President Obama signed by some 240 academics and experts on Latin America, urging him to denounce human rights violations in Honduras and reject any election overseen by the coup government. She examines why the Obama administration has decided to change its position on Honduras.

For more information on the situation in Honduras, visit the website: http://www.hondurasresists.blogspot.com

Real Audio:
http://btlonline.org/2009/ram/frank112709.ram

MP3:
http://btlonline.org/2009/mp3/frank112709.mp3

.......... "Between The Lines" is a half-hour syndicated radio news magazine
http://www.btlonline.org/

[L. Coyote]

17. AFL-CIO head denounces Honduras election = open letter to SoS Clinton.

AFL-CIO head denounces Honduras election -
Emile Schepers - November 18 2009 - http://peoplesworld.org/afl-cio-head-denounces-honduras-elections/


AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has weighed in on the planned November 29 elections in Honduras, with an open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The United States had originally hinted that it would join with most other countries in the hemisphere, plus the United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American States in refusing to recognize the results of the elections for president, the unicameral Congress and local offices unless President Manuel Zelaya and constitutional normality were restored. Zelaya was overthrown in a June 28 coup and is currently living in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

On October 30, Clinton announced a supposed breakthrough agreement that would restore Zelaya, form a "government of national unity" and then allow the elections to proceed with international recognition. But the anti-Zelaya leadership of the Congress has refused to vote approval of Zelaya's return, and coup installed president Roberto Micheletti has unilaterally declared himself head of the "national unity" government, undoing the deal. The State Department now says it will recognize the elections anyway.

In the letter to Clinton, Trumka questions whether any kind of a fair election is possible in the conditions which Hondurans are undergoing.

"We are troubled that the agreement to reinstate President Zelaya by November 5 (the Tegucigalpa/San Jose accords), in preparation for the November 29 elections, has now unraveled. The failure of the Honduran Congress, in consultation with the Supreme Court and with other institutions, to approve President Zelaya's reinstatement, has created an unstable and untenable situation. Roberto Micheletti's announcement of an interim unity government without the representation of President Zelaya invalidates the elections planned for November 29th.

"The current environment in Honduras, including an illegitimate government in power, makes free, fair and open elections impossible. The violent and coercive repression of political opposition to the de-facto coup regime, including trade unionists, has continued. At least twelve trade unionists have died in the violence since June 28th. National and international human rights organizations report ongoing human rights violations committed by state security forces, including killings, severe beatings, sexual violence, the imprisonment and torture of activists, as well as the arrest and detention of President Zelaya's supporters.

"For these reasons the AFL-CIO asks our government to make clear its opposition to the conduct of national elections in Honduras November 29 unless President Zelaya is reinstated and free and fair electoral conditions are guaranteed. We also ask the United States Government to implement the recommendations contained in the resolution passed at our convention in September"

Earlier this year, the AFL-CIO and a number of other labor bodies in the United States had expressed their solidarity with Honduran workers and demanded that the U.S. government work for the restoration of Zelaya and constitutional normality.

[L. Coyote]

18. U.S. Confirms Support for Elections in Honduras

So why did DeMint block the nomination of this Fascist enabler?
It seems Obama and DeMint are on the same page now!

==========================
U.S. Confirms Support for Elections in Honduras
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=347643&CategoryId=23558


TEGUCIGALPA – The U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs said here Wednesday at the end of a visit to Honduras that Washington supports the country’s Nov. 29 presidential election and the accord meant to resolve the crisis sparked by the June 28 coup against President Mel Zelaya.

“Nobody has the right to take from the Honduran people the right to vote, to elect their leaders,” Craig Kelly said, asking that violence be avoided during the process and emphasizing that the United States maintains its “commitment to continue working to implement the accord.”

During his two-day visit, Kelly met separately with Zelaya and the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, to analyze the implementation of the pact signed by representatives of both sides on Oct. 30.

Zelaya pronounced the pact dead early this month after Micheletti pressed ahead with formation of national unity government – mandated by the pact – before Congress addressed the matter of restoring the legitimate president.

Critics say the de facto regime was emboldened when Kelly’s then-superior, Thomas Shannon, said early this month that Washington would recognize the winner of the Nov. 29 election regardless of whether Zelaya was reinstated ...............

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

[L. Coyote]

19. Zelaya says Honduran Congress has no intention to reinstate him

Zelaya says Honduran Congress has no intention to reinstate him
www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-19 10:30:41 Editor: Zhang Xiang
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/19/content_12490327.htm



TEGUCIGALPA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya affirmed Wednesday that the Honduran Congress does not have the intention to reinstate him as president.

Zelaya said he would wait for the outcome of the Nov. 29 elections to find out which political party would be in the lead and could tip the balance in his favor.

"The National Congress can discuss what it considers necessary, and they did not do it now because the intention of the National Congress is not to support the restitution -- at least a large part of the deputies, not all of them," Zelaya told local media Radio Globo.

The Honduran Congress on Tuesday summoned the deputies to meet on Dec. 2, three days after the elections.....

During an interview with Mexican media MVS, Zelaya expressed his regret that the Honduran presidential candidates have attached so little importance to the coup carried out against him on June 28.

Zelaya said the main Honduran political parties had not voiced any opinion about the coup. "It is as if the coup had been on Mars," he said.

[L. Coyote]

20. Brazilian, Argentine presidents not to recognize elections in Honduras

Need news from Latin America? Go to China online!!!

==============================
Brazilian, Argentine presidents not to recognize elections in Honduras
www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-19 06:21:58


BRASILIA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Cristina Kirchner said on Wednesday that they would not recognize the results of the elections to be organized by the post-coup de facto government in Honduras.

The two had a working meeting in Brasilia and issued a joint statement afterward.

Da Silva and Kirchner said that Jose Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president ousted in the June political-military coup, should be restituted to his function so that constitutional order and democracy is reestablished in the country.

"We demand the immediate restitution of president Manuel Zelaya. On the contrary, the elections to be held on Nov. 29 will not be recognized and a very dangerous precedent will be set," said Lula in his speech.

The Brazilian president added that this is the common position of all Latin American and Caribbean countries.

An appeal has been made on the de facto Honduran government to stop hostile actions toward the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where president Zelaya has been sheltered.

[WriteDown]

24. So if the Supreme Court is against him, and the Congress is against him...

what's left?

[L. Coyote]

29. Well, with this Junta, only the military, and they violently overthrew him. The People have no say

under a coup of the few!

[L. Coyote]

21. Resistance in Honduras calls for abstention from elections

Resistance in Honduras calls for abstention from elections
November 17, 2009 - http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/noviembre/mar17/Resistance-in-Honduras.html


TEGUCIGALPA, November 16.— The National Front against the Coup in Honduras has reiterated its call to abstain from voting in the November 29 elections, because it considers them an attempt to legitimize the coup regime dictatorship.

According to Prensa Latina, members of the Resistance once again carried out a sit-in in Plaza La Merced, adjacent to the Legislative Palace, to demand the restoration of constitutional order and of the legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya.

Juan Barahona, the Front’s general coordinator, insisted that the elections, organized by those who have usurped power via arms, are illegal and fraudulent.

Barahona affirmed that street mobilizations will continue until democratic order is restored, Zelaya is returned to power, and a national constituent assembly has been convened.

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

[L. Coyote]

26. The little coup that could, in Honduras by: Fiona Ortiz

November 13th, 2009
The little coup that could, in Honduras by: Fiona Ortiz
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2009/11/13/the-little-coup-that-could-in-honduras/


Honduras seems trapped in the past. Radio stations play aging hits from Mexican crooner Jose Jose and cumbia dance numbers from the mid-’80s. Women’s fashions are out-of-date and guards nestling big rifles guard beauty salons and pharmacies as they have for decades.

Politics are also mired in the past in this deeply conservative country of 7 million people. While elsewhere in Latin America a new generation of leftists has taken power, putting business leaders on the defensive to some extent and to varying degrees, Honduras’ business elite flexed its muscles when a leftist prsident hinted he wanted to extend presidential term limits.

For four months Honduras has been led by a de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti, who took over after the army, Supreme Court and Congress together pulled a coup on elected President Manuel Zelaya, who was flown out of the country. Zelaya later sneaked back in to take asylum in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Repeated attempts at a negotiated settlement between the two have dissolved into bickering.

Micheletti has shown staying power — even after he was isolated on the global stage. That’s because he is backed by a secretive and relatively small group of business leaders that have long wielded political power in this Central American country, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid and on its biggest trade partner, the United States. The Honduran Documentation Center think tank has documented the control that a group of intermarried families has on the country’s banks, industries such as the maquiladora factories that make clothes to export to the U.S., coffee and banana and cattle production, and power generation. The book “The Powers that Be and the Political System,” by a group of researchers, argues that the business class has increased its influence over politics since Honduras returned to democracy 30 years after two decades of off-and-on military regimes. The book says each business group owns a media outlet that helps it maintain and transfer power from the “dinosaur” leaders to the next generations of “babysaurs.”

No wonder Micheletti looks a little smug as he thumbs his nose at the international community, declaring a “unity and reconciliation” government .....................

[L. Coyote]

27. The Honduran People Want More Than a Democracy: They Demand a New Republic!

The popular opposition to the pro-U.S. coup gets tougher
The Honduran People Want More Than a Democracy: They Demand a New Republic!
by Arnold August - http://www.voltairenet.org/article162972.html


Over three months since the Honduran military coup, ousted President Manuel Zelaya has yet to be reinstated. Having secretly organized the coup, on the surface the Obama administration continues to emit an emollient discourse. In particular, it obstinately refuses to qualify it as a "military" coup to avoid severing ties with the regime, as U.S. legislation would have it. Washington wants elections that will paste a democratic face on the new regime, but the population and its principal leaders will not go for a sham vote overseen by the putschists. The radicalization of the Hondurans is accelerating rapidly. They will no longer be satisfied with a simple return to the constitutional order. They have repudiated the local oligarchy and now demand a new republic, free of Washington’s tutelage.

One side is the barely veiled alliance between Washington and Micheletti. The other side consists of the Constitutional Zelaya Government, the National Front against the Coup d’Etat and the principal former presidential candidate linked to the latter who has decided to boycott the November 29 elections. The candidate had formally taken his final position to boycott the elections once it was clear that Micheletti refused to reinstate Zelaya as the president despite the accords reached to that effect.

One can examine the position of the USA/Honduran oligarchy alliance by looking back, from the perspective of November, to the initial reaction of Washington towards the June 28 coup. It tells us a lot about the stance from that memorable but regrettable day to date. It is consistent in its essential. Initial reactions are quite telling. They set the stage for the future and provide the essence of a position which cannot be subsequently covered up by superficially changing words and actions.

On June 28, President Obama stated that he was concerned about “the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya.” He then called on “all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law.” He terminated with the appeal for “dialogue.” <1>

On June 28, Hillary Clinton basically stated the same position. There are certain features which stand out in Washington’s stance and which continue to date:

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