Reports: Two Military Battalions Turn Against Honduras Coup Regime

[Alamuti Lotus]

Reports: Two Military Battalions Turn Against Honduras Coup Regime
Posted by Al Giordano - June 29, 2009 at 4:38 pm
By Al Giordano

Community Radio “Es Lo de Menos” was the first to report that the Fourth Infantry Battalion has rebelled from the military coup regime in Honduras. The radio station adds that “it seems” (“al parecer,” in the original Spanish) that the Tenth Infantry Battalion has also broken from the coup.

Rafael Alegria, leader of Via Campesina, the country’s largest social organization, one that has successfully blockaded the nation’s highways before to force government concessions, tells Alba TV:

The popular resistance is rising up throughout the country. All the highways in the country are blockaded…. The Fourth Infantry Battallion… is no longer following the orders of Roberto Micheletti.”

Angel Alvarado of Honduras’ Popular Union Bloc tells Radio Mundial:

"Two infantry battalions of the Honduran Army have risen up against the illegitimate government of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. They are the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the city of Tela and the Tenth Infantry Battalion in La Ceiba (the second largest city in Honduras), both located in the state of Atlántida."

(You can see Tela and La Ceiba on the map, above, along the country's northern coast.)

Meanwhile, defenders of the violent coup d’Etat now have to eat the fact that their favored regime has extended its wave of terror to the press corps, censoring all independent media in the country, including CNN and Telesur.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/al-giordano/2009/06/reports-two-military-battalions-turn-against-honduras-coup-regime

[EFerrari]

1. There have been rumblings all day. I hope it's true!

[Adsos Letter]

2. So...does this end relatively peacefully, after a period of face-off...

or does it become civil war?

[Alamuti Lotus]

3. Given that times have (slightly) changed, and the near-total isolation of the coup regime

I see their coup taking a short but bloody dictatorial turn in the face of popular resistance before imploding. A phony "national unity" government may be installed by American business and the elite classes to shut things up and take the area off the radar, keeping the coffee fields safe for "business as usual".

However, I will say that times have slightly changed, it is very possible that Mel (who is quickly turning into a decent leader after working for the other side for long enough) can safely come out ahead. His style is somewhat of a "revolution from above" (which rarely ends well), however he may advance enough revolutionary causes to make a dent in the established order just enough to allow the people carve out their own progress.

It is clear, however, that one way or another the popular foces of Honduras are not taking this laying down and will resist the criminal efforts of the coup plotters, as well as their foreign backers (and who could that be referencing?).

The events of 2002 (reversing the New York Times' favourite coup ever) have shown that some things actually have changed from the tragedy that could be counted on before, so maybe some optimism can be nursed...