The Known Unknowns in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

January 14, 2011
The Known Unknowns in Honduras
Leaked cables reveal U.S. government knowledge of disastrous military coup
By Jeremy Kryt

When is a coup not a coup? Taken altogether, the secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have exposed multiple instances of deception by the U.S. State Department, in relation to foreign dignitaries, friendly nations and even U.N. Representatives. But recently leaked cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, offer evidence that the State Department was, in at least one instance, also misleading the American people.

In June 2009, Manuel Zelaya, the democratically-elected president of Honduras, was ousted from power by a coalition of military leaders and far-right political elites, plunging the country into an economic and human rights nightmare from which it has yet to emerge. A a throwback to “the way Honduran presidents were removed in the past: a bogus resignation letter and a one-way ticket to a neighboring country.” Honduran soldiers had kidnapped Zelaya in his pajamas and a “totally illegitimate” puppet government was installed.

This in turn led to mass protests across the country, followed by harsh crackdowns under martial law. According to human rights groups, scores of peaceful demonstrators, union leaders, journalists and teachers have been slain by government forces since the coup, and hundreds of others have been beaten and detained when police and soldiers attacked peaceful marches and demonstrations. (Ten journalists were murdered in 2010, making it the most dangerous country in the world for members of the press on a per capita basis.)

But the State Department chose not to tell the American people about atrocities. Instead the coup was portrayed as a murky legal situation and the Obama administration made little mention of the civil rights atrocities. Most important of all, say critics, the State Department never designated the takeover a “military coup,” which under U.S. law would have necessitated the cessation of all aid programs.

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6842/the_known_unknowns_in_honduras/

[warram]

1. Interesting

I was following this story rather carefully when it first broke out in '09. It just reminded me of the 80s and how I lived in a country torn by war, where the powers that might be toyed with the security and livelihood of the ones they were supposed to serve.

I'm not surprised that outside powers not only knew, but remained silent about it. Business as usual.

[txlibdem]

2. "Business as usual" for the pro-corporate US government

From the link in the OP:

Professor Dana Frank, who teaches Central American history at the University of California Santa Cruz, agrees about the State Department’s secret agenda, but she believes economic factors were just as influential in its decision to back the coup.

“It’s about economic power,” says Frank, who spoke to In These Times from the Aguan region of Honduras, where she was investigating recent attacks by the Honduran military and private security contractors against unarmed, landless peasants. “It’s about extracting wealth. It’s about supporting U.S.-based transnational corporations, ramming trade agreements down the throats of Latin American countires. It’s about exploiting workers throughout the hemisphere.”

A tactical error and a ‘failed state’

“Honduras has become a failed state,” says Bertha Oliva, director of the Committee for the Famlies of Disappeared Hondurans (COFADEH). Oliva, who recently received the Netherland’s prestigious Tulip Prize for her human rights work, claims the U.S. State Department “enabled” the coup by deliberately ignoring the warning sent by Ambassador Llorens. The State Department’s decision, says Oliva, has led directly to the human rights crisis.

“The cables demonstrate what we already knew—that the U.S. only serves the transnational companies and … the Honduran oligarchy,” says Oliva, who founded COFADEH after her own husband was disappeared by a death squad in the 1980s.

My opinion of the Obama administration just sunk a little lower.

[DCKit]

3. RT (Russia Today) is all over this since last night.

The U.S. had the unmitigated nerve to rank itself #1 in rights, so some truth is being told to expose the hypocrisy.

Of particular interest is the exposure of the U.S. government's use and funding of NGOs to interfere in the governance of other countries.