HONDURAS: "The CIA Coup You Aren't Supposed to Notice"

[magbana]

The CIA Coup You Aren't Supposed to Notice
by: Diane W
Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 14:44:08 PDT

(9:30 PM EST - promoted by On The Bus)

http://www.docudharma.com/diary/14536/the-cia-coup-you-arent-supposed-to-notice

Honduran President kidnapped, beaten, deported for trying to hold an election so that the people could vote on amending their Reagan given constitution written by SOA dictators.
I'm on some pretty wide ranging email lists, and often have volumes of mail. How I got on this list, I haven't a clue. Today, my inbox was empty, but for this one:

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs
Statement

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns the coup d'état that the Honduran oligarchy is attempting to perpetrate against the constitutional government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the people of Honduras.

President Manuel Zelaya Rosales was kidnapped, removed from his home by force, rendered incommunicado for several hours, and violently expelled from his country by a group of unpatriotic, coup-mongering soldiers. The hooded soldiers kidnapped Chancellor Patricia Rodas and also arbitrarily detained and beat the Ambassadors of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. These shameless soldiers are responsible before national and international laws for the crimes that they are committing and for the violation of the constitution and its laws.

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly urges the international community to condemn this situation and urges that the necessary measures be taken by us to defeat this coup d'état in Honduras and to reestablish the legitimate government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Caracas, June 28, 2009
Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs/ Translation by the Press Unit of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States

They BEAT all the Leftist Embassadors. Welcome to the prodigy of School of the Americas at work.

Diane W :: The CIA Coup You Aren't Supposed to Notice
Seems like Coups are breaking out all over.


The whole photo essay is worth the look at School of the Americas Watch (SOAW)

To frame this for you, from Presente! by Eva Golinger, an essay titled "Obama's First Coup D'etat:

Caracas, Venezuela - The text message that beeped on my cell phone this morning read "Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d'etat underway in Honduras, spread the word." It's a rude awakening for a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today's scheduled referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.
Such an initiative has never taken place in the Central American nation, which has a very limited constitution that allows minimal participation by the people of Honduras in their political processes. The current constitution, written in 1982 during the height of the Reagan Administration's dirty war in Central America, was designed to ensure those in power, both economic and political, would retain it with little interference from the people. Zelaya, elected in November 2005 on the platform of Honduras' Liberal Party, had proposed the opinion poll be conducted to determine if a majority of citizens agreed that constitutional reform was necessary. He was backed by a majority of labor unions and social movements in the country. If the poll had occured, depending on the results, a referendum would have been conducted during the upcoming elections in November to vote on convening a constitutional assembly. Nevertheless, today's scheduled poll was not binding by law.

In fact, several days before the poll was to occur, Honduras' Supreme Court ruled it illegal, upon request by the Congress, both of which are led by anti-Zelaya majorities and members of the ultra-conservative party, National Party of Honduras (PNH). This move led to massive protests in the streets in favor of President Zelaya. On June 24, the president fired the head of the high military command, General Romeo Vásquez, after he refused to allow the military to distribute the electoral material for Sunday's elections. General Romeo Vásquez held the material under tight military control, refusing to release it even to the president's followers, stating that the scheduled referendum had been determined illegal by the Supreme Court and therefore he could not comply with the president's order. As in the Unted States, the president of Honduras is Commander in Chief and has the final say on the military's actions, and so he ordered the General's removal. The Minister of Defense, Angel Edmundo Orellana, also resigned in response to this increasingly tense situation.

Did you get that??? A VOTE was about to occur, DEMOCRACY, and the Right Wingers pulled it, and kidnapped the President.

CNN is showing "Michael Jackson and Ronald Reagan," a special about how close the two were... Yeah, thats fucking news.

More from that essay: (my bold)

Honduras is a nation that has been the victim of dictatorships and massive U.S. intervention during the past century, including several military invasions. The last major U.S. government intervention in Honduras occured during the 1980s, when the Reagain Administration funded death squads and paramilitaries to eliminate any potential "communist threats" in Central America. At the time, John Negroponte, was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras and was responsible for directly funding and training Honduran death squads that were responsable for thousands of disappeared and assassinated throughout the region
Fox is talking about "Politicians and Sex Scandals," yeah thats news. Then of course, they went right back to Jackson. You know, the guy who dropped off the face of the Earth, and not one of us has thought about in years...

Tehran has a new protest going too, they both briefly covered that... let me ponder that for a moment. Oh, yeah, Iran has oil.

"The U.S. Army School of the Americas...is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."
- Congressman Joseph Kennedy (In total, the School has produced at least eleven Latin American dictators.)

As I said Friday, look South my friends, that is where it will start and where the PTB want to quash it first.

WaPo framed it exactly as Fox themselves would:

"Honduran president calls Arrest a "kidnapping" "

Obama stated today "I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya. As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."

The news about this is absolutely SKELETAL, and I am unsurprised.

I hope Venezuala backs their play, I hope Cuba does as well, and I PRAY that the American populace gets as fully supportive of the Honduran people as we did of Iran.

First, the neocons came for the Iranians, I said nothing because I wasn't Iranian, then the neocons came for the Hondurans.... dudes, this is in our back yards and moving ever closer.

Fuck neo-cons everywhere.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

Viva la revolucion!!!

[flamingdem]

1. Hugo Chavez supports the Iranian ruling elite, calls protesters bourgeois

He isn't always on the right side, he has his oil interests to protect.

[magbana]

2. II like Ahmedinejad and hope he comes out of this victorious and I fully

expect Chavez to protect his oil interests. After all, oil is what keeps the Bolivarian revolution afloat. The protesters were a little too Calvin Kleiney for me and the TWITTER revolution, the groundwork of which was laid by Twitter people in Iran weeks before, reflected a cause that is just as shallow as the Twitter.com phenomenon.

So if you want a titular head who pulls off the mask and a western face appears beneath, please support Mousavi and Twitter with the Kleins in the street.

[flamingdem]

3. Does your "Calvin Klein" judgement include the 70 professors in detention? nt

[magbana]

5. No, for the 70 professors, I'll shift to khaki pants and enough money

to hire a lawyer.

When you work on Haiti issues, as I do, I'll admit my perspective is skewed and I hope it never changes.

(Hey, I have another article on the ousting of Lage, Roque -- Cuban state intelligence services followed them around for a year. I'll post it a little later this evening.)

[flamingdem]

17. Now we're talking. I heard from my Cuban friend that it was set up to look

like Lage and Roque were planning a coup to prevent reforms because they are hardliners, this was meant as a smokescreen. This government story was a cover for the fact that it's just the opposite. Lage and Roque wanted reforms and this was unacceptable, a threat, or maybe it's that they wanted power, not sure. The vulnerability of the system lies in the fact that half of the army is against Raul but quiet -- angling for the inevitable change. This is a fact that my friend said is for certain.

[subcomhd]

9. They looked like brave women who had had enough of fundies to me

[flamingdem]

25. Interesting article about Iran, Latin America and feminism

http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff06042009.html

SNIP ---

It’s fascinating that top Iranian statesmen are arguing about Latin America --- in a presidential election cycle no less. Yet both candidates are unbelievably --- I would argue even woefully --- wrong in their approaches towards Latin America. The point is not that Iran is inherently mistaken in reaching out to Latin America but that its diplomacy is cynical and has nothing to do with promoting a shared political and social belief system.

To be sure Ahmadinejad has made plenty of trips to Latin America over the past couple of years and has used the junkets to publicize his supposedly anti-imperialist credentials. In Bolivia, Ahmadinejad promised $1 billion to help develop the Andean nation’s oil and gas sector. Making skillful use of its petrodollars, Iran has also entered into various economic agreements with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Ahmadinejad has made particular efforts to cultivate political and diplomatic support from Venezuela, a fellow OPEC member. Today Iran and Venezuela are putting together a joint tractor production plant and President Chávez plans to promote the sale of Iranian designed “anti-imperialist cars” for local consumption. Ahmadinejad meanwhile has opened a trade office --- in Quito of all places. Iran’s push into Latin America forms part of what Ahmadinejad calls his “counter lasso” of the U.S. The moves have alarmed the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has called Iran’s inroads into Latin America “disturbing.”

Despite his speechifying against the U.S., Ahmadinejad’s Latin American diplomacy has little to do with advancing progressive social and political ideals. For the Iranian leader it’s all about getting diplomatic support from the likes of Venezuela and Brazil for Iran’s nuclear energy program. In this sense Ahmadinejad is square and politically narrow minded. Latin America is the one region of the world where the left has made significant gains in recent years, yet Ahmadinejad has little interest in such developments.

If he truly sought to promote Iranian-Latin American solidarity, Ahmadinejad might have fought for women’s and labor rights. As I discuss in considerable detail in my book Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, 2008), both groups have advanced exponentially in a political and social sense in countries ranging from Argentina to Venezuela to Brazil.

Unfortunately however Ahmadinejad has led his country in the opposite direction from Latin America. In Iran, the President’s “morality police” stop, beat and arrest young girls for simply walking with their boyfriends in public. When hundreds of women and men marched to commemorate International Women’s Day, police and plainclothes agents charged and attacked the crowd. The security forces then dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated in a public park and beat protesters with batons for good measure.

When bus drivers in Tehran went on strike to protest working conditions, Ahmadinejad’s security forces attacked and arrested laborers. Bravely, the workers refused to end their strike. That’s when state thugs targeted the workers’ wives and children. Busting into the home of one of the strike leaders, the authorities kicked and beat the man’s wife. In response, labor unions in 18 world capitals took part in protests outside Iranian embassies.

You might have thought that Mousavi would have attacked Ahmadinejad’s hollow “anti-imperialist” politics in advance of the Iranian presidential election. Mousavi himself has stated that he would review discriminatory laws against women if he won the election. Speaking to female supporters in Tehran, he added that he would disband the morality police which enforce strict standards of Islamic dress on the streets.

Mousavi might have praised South American nations for advancing women’s rights. He could have held up Latin countries as a beacon of progress and a model worth aspiring to. Instead he suggested that Iran scrap its Latin American foreign policy in favor of Central Asian diplomacy. Presumably, Mousavi would prefer warm ties with the likes of Uzbekistan, a human rights hellhole where battered women can’t count on any protection from the authorities.

These are the kinds of friends Mousavi would like to cultivate? If so, then this candidate doesn’t offer much of a bold or “reformist” agenda when it comes to charting his country’s future foreign policy.

[subcomhd]

10. and another thing

I thought what happened in Iran was a wonderful teaching moment for girls like my daughter about how women have had to fight for their rights, but I guess I was wrong - just a bunch of bourgeois bitches, right? Damn, I forgot to check the label on Neda's jeans while I was watching the video of her bleeding out in the street.

[magbana]

11. Upper middle class people playing revolution thinking that their

class and attendant money will protect them. When you get too close to the fire, you get burned and no amount of money can prevent it. I'd love to give you more background on the women of Haiti, if you are looking for role models for your daughter. These are women who, when food is short (most of the time),make mud cakes that they dry in the sun to feed their children. Women who work as vendors in the streets trying to sell combs and other stuff that no one buys. Women who have the guts to walk up to a UN Peacekeeper armed to the teeth and demand that he release a child arrested for no reason, demand that he quit occupying her country and, oh yeah, the UN should go to hell. Now, that's my kind of woman.

I am sorry about what happened to Neda. But the experience of Eugenia, Marlan, and Lisette will teach your daughter things she can carry for a lifetime.

[subcomhd]

12. Not all revolutions or social justice movements are class-based

If we were to put all social justice movements through the filter of class, we would have to consider the gay rights movement unimportant, no?

[magbana]

13. It's all about race and class and always has been. No race/class

issues in the gay rights movement? Me thinks so.

[subcomhd]

14. the gay rights movement has nothing to do with class or race

it has to do with the individual freedom of human beings to love whomever they want - it is a fight against religious fundamentalism and intolerance, much like the green revolution in Iran.

[magbana]

15. There have been several splits in the gay rights movement around race and class

Like the rest of society, the bottom line is that most people are hypocritical and the two issues fester like an oozing sore.

Now, help me on the religious fundamentalism, intolerance and the green revolution in Iran.

[subcomhd]

16. how may I be of service?

[EFerrari]

6. When I saw the pictures of the protesters in Iran

they looked a lot like the Gucci protesters in Venezuela.

[Texano78704]

7. No doubt

fresh from a shopping trip in Miami.

[EFerrari]

8. I don't mean to put down those sincere people who put themselves out there

but it didn't seem like there were very many people who look like my neighbors in this blue collar vecindario.

[flamingdem]

18. Many in Iran are very poor, the economy has done a nose dive nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. This is good. Rereading it later tonight. Thanks, magbana. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

19. According to WSWS, the response of MSM is indicator of US policy

An unmistakable indicator of the real attitude of the Obama administration to the events in Honduras is the response of the US media. The media, led by the New York Times, immediately embraced the claims of the Iranian opposition that the election had been rigged and a coup had been carried out, without presenting any concrete evidence to support the allegations. It provided nonstop coverage of antigovernment demonstrations, and proclaimed the dissident faction of the clerical regime to be heading a “green revolution” for democracy.

In contrast, the US media has provided only minimal coverage of a real coup in Honduras. It has barely reported the police-state measures, arrests and beatings carried out by the Honduran military, and treated the anti-coup protests with utter indifference. On Monday evening, the events in Honduras were relegated to a mere mention on all three network news broadcasts, well behind the death of Michael Jackson.

What accounts for this stark contrast? The simple fact that the US government opposes the victor in the Iranian election and supports those who ousted Zelaya in Honduras.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/zela-j30.shtml

[flamingdem]

20. This website you recommend is also jumping the gun

As you say, like the NYT did with the Iran Elections this website twists the facts to jump to the conclusion that the USA will not cut off aid, use the term coup, secretly supports the coup leaders in Honduras, and is basically evil as always.

Why not wait until this thing plays out? That means very few days? Why not? Because this website and those behind it are no better than any other political group who uses the lack of information in a rapidly changing scenario to try to attract the naive to its viewpoint. The viewpoint being rigid and negative towards Obama, in spite of your Obama logo on your post.

[magbana]

21. Anyone over 45 years old knows US duplicity

when it sees it. I, and I believe many others on this list, are not waiting for the Obama administration to tell us it has been clean in this whole thing. I know the patterns of US government duplicity, I know the analysts who have proven time and again the accuracy of their assessments of US foreign policy, and I know that to wait for the US to say how good it has been has meant all too often an invasion/occupation of a country and a goddam sorry series of wars from Vietnam to Iraq.

Why don't we do it the old fashioned way? You tell us why the US is not involved and we will tell you why we think it is. But at the age of 58, I, for one, don't want to be told that we are being negative/rushing to judgment about Obama. The last time I remember folks on discussion lists chastizing others about being negative towards a prez was not long before Bush did his "shockingly awful" routine in Baghdad.

[flamingdem]

22. My point is that every side uses the lack of real information to push their agenda

and it's transparent and opportunistic (and lame). Why not wait until we see if Zelaya is reinstated? Why not wait a couple of days to see how it turns out? Opportunists don't wait because they think they can convince someone or build their own belief system. I'm tired of that kind of "journalism".

[Judi Lynn]

23. MagbanaCNN has been claiming, as if it were true, this is the first coup in Latin America

since the Cold War.

When I heard that yesterday I nearly died. Can you believe they are, with those insipid faces, trying to tell the world this has not happened since the Cold War Days?

All that CAN mean is that the Cold War has never really ended, or CNN's news writers are drooling idiots, or that they are clearly attempting to influence the people who haven't learned better, yet.

[magbana]

24. WTFFFFF? I think we should be storming the offices of CNN!