on down. How can the American people make sense, let alone have
informed opinion of this and so many other critical events which
involve US 'interests' and often, subversion. That is, the subversion
extends to the media here and plays a strategic role in all this.
Ed
From: "henry duke" <henryduke2004@yahoo.com>
To: "'GCF'" <cal-forum@cagreens.org>; <jan27action@LinuxBeach.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 10:36 PM
Subject: No US condemnation as Honduran Military Assassinates the only
Leftist candidate in the upcoming Presidential elections. Current President
overthrown attacked and escapes to Nicaragua.
"Cesar Ham, presidential candidate and the head of Honduras' only registered
leftist political party, the Democratic Unification of Honduras, is dead. He
was killed by a squad of soldiers who arrived at his home this morning to
arrest him.
The military has rounded up many of Zelaya's allies within the government.
Chancellor Patricia Rodas remains kidnapped.
Ham, at the time of his assassination, was a member of Congress. He
wholeheartedly supported President Zelaya's initiative to form a
constitutional convention to write a new Constitution, and he was one of the
main organizers of today's thwarted opinion poll that would have gauged
public opinion on forming a constitutional convention.
....
This past March the Democratic Unification party chose him as its
presidential candidate by a vote of 104-4. The coup plotters had previously
announced that the November 2009 elections would go on as planned. Ham's
assassination means that the only leftist candidate in the upcoming
elections is now dead."
Hank
***
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cort Greene" <cort.greene@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 10:20 AM
Subject: [LAAMN] Update on Honduras
I WILL BE LIVE BLOGGING THE ONGOING SITUATION IN HONDURAS FROM MY BLOG AT
WWW.CHAVEZCODE.COM
Eva Golinger
UPDATE: 12: 18pm - Dan Restrepo, Presidential Advisor to President Obama for
Latin American Affairs, is currently on CNN en Español. He has just stated
that Obama's government is communicating with the coup forces in Honduras,
trying to "feel out" the situation. He also responded to the reporter's
question regarding whether Washington would recognize a government in
Honduras other than President Zelaya's elected government, by saying that
the Obama Administration "is waiting to see how things play out" and so long
as democratic norms are respected, will work with all sectors. This is a
confirmation practically of support for the coup leaders. Restrepo also
inferred that other countries are interfering in Honduras' international
affairs, obviously referring to Venezuela and other ALBA nations who have
condemned the coup with firm statements earlier this morning.
UPDATE: 12pm noon – The Organization of American States is meeting in an
emergency session in Washington concerning the situation in Honduras and the
kidnapping of Honduras' president. Venezuelan Ambassador to the OAS, Roy
Chaderton, just announced that the ambassadors of Venezuela, Bolivia and
Nicaragua in Honduras have just been kidnapped along with Foreign Minister
Patricia Rodas, and are being beaten by Honduran military forces.
President Obama has made a statement regarding his "concern" for the
situation in Honduras and a call to all political leaders and parties to
"respect democratic norms". However, this statement is NOT a clear
condemnation of the coup d'etat that has taken place during the early
morning hours on Sunday. Nor did Obama indicate, as other countries have
done, that Washington would not recognize any other government in Honduras
other than the elected government of Manual Zelaya.
Opposition forces in Honduras, led by a US-funded NGO Grupo Paz y
Democracia, have stated via CNN that a coup has not ocurred, but rather a
"transition" to democracy. Martha Diaz, coordinator of the NGO, which
receives USAID funding, has just declared minutes ago on CNN that "civil
society" does not support President Zelaya nor his "illegal quest" to hold a
non-binding referendum on a potential future constitutional reform. She
justified his kidnapping, beating and removal from power as a "democratic
transition". Again, this is eerily reminiscent of the coup d'etat in
Venezuela in April 2002, when so-called "civil society" along with dissident
military forces kidnapped President Chávez and installed a "transition
government". The goups involved also received funding from the U.S.
government, primarily via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and
later from USAID as well.
CNN en Español, Telesur, and other international television stations
reporting on the situation in Honduras have been removed from the airways in
the Central American nation. The whereabouts of the Foreign Minister and the
ambassadors of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are still unknown. OAS
General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulze has announced he will travel
immediately to Honduras to investigate the situation. President Chávez of
Venezuela has also announced an emergency meeting of ALBA nations in
Managua, Nicaragua, as soon as this evening.
More to come as the situation develops over the next few hours. Catch live
blogging at www.chavezcode.com.
[Note: As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live on
Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his
residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill
him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the
soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has
requested the U.S. Government make a public statement condemning the coup,
otherwise, it will indicate their compliance.]
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.
But the following day, Honduras' Supreme Court reinstated General Romeo
Vásquez to the high military command, ruling his firing as
"unconstitutional'. Thousands poured into the streets of Honduras' capital,
Tegucigalpa, showing support for President Zelaya and evidencing their
determination to ensure Sunday's non-binding referendum would take place. On
Friday, the president and a group of hundreds of supporters, marched to the
nearby air base to collect the electoral material that had been previously
held by the military. That evening, Zelaya gave a national press conference
along with a group of politicians from different political parties and
social movements, calling for unity and peace in the country.
As of Saturday, the situation in Honduras was reported as calm. But early
Sunday morning, a group of approximately 60 armed soldiers entered the
presidential residence and took Zelaya hostage. After several hours of
confusion, reports surfaced claiming the president had been taken to a
nearby air force base and flown to neighboring Costa Rica. No images have
been seen of the president so far and it is unknown whether or not his life
is still endangered.
President Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, speaking live on Telesur
at approximately 10:00am Caracas time, denounced that in early hours of
Sunday morning, the soldiers stormed their residence, firing shots
throughout the house, beating and then taking the president. "It was an act
of cowardness", said the first lady, referring to the illegal kidnapping
occuring during a time when no one would know or react until it was all
over. Casto de Zelaya also called for the "preservation" of her husband's
life, indicating that she herself is unaware of his whereabouts. She claimed
their lives are all still in "serious danger" and made a call for the
international community to denounce this illegal coup d'etat and to act
rapidly to reinstate constitutional order in the country, which includes the
rescue and return of the democratically elected Zelaya.
Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have both
made public statements on Sunday morning condeming the coup d'etat in
Honduras and calling on the international community to react to ensure
democracy is restored and the constitutional president is reinstated. Last
Wednesday, June 24, an extraordinary meeting of the member nations of the
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), of which Honduras is a
member, was convened in Venezuela to welcome Ecuador, Antigua & Barbados and
St. Vincent to its ranks. During the meeting, which was attended by
Honduras' Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, a statement was read supporting
President Zelaya and condenming any attempts to undermine his mandate and
Honduras' democratic processes.
Reports coming out of Honduras have informed that the public television
channel, Canal 8, has been shut down by the coup forces. Just minutes ago,
Telesur announced that the military in Honduras is shutting down all
electricity throughout the country. Those television and radio stations
still transmitting are not reporting the coup d'etat or the kidnapping of
President Zelaya, according to Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas. "Telephones
and electricity are being cut off", confirmed Rodas just minutes ago via
Telesur. "The media are showing cartoons and soap operas and are not
informing the people of Honduras about what is happening". The situation is
eerily reminiscent of the April 2002 coup d'etat against President Chávez in
Venezuela, when the media played a key role by first manipulating
information to support the coup and then later blacking out all information
when the people began protesting and eventually overcame and defeated the
coup forces, rescuing Chávez (who had also been kidnapped by the military)
and restoring constitutional order.
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.
On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS), convened a special
meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras, later issuing a statement
condeming the threats to democracy and authorizing a convoy of
representatives to travel to OAS to investigate further. Nevertheless, on
Friday, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Phillip J.
Crowley, refused to clarify the U.S. government's position in reference to
the potential coup against President Zelaya, and instead issued a more
ambiguous statement that implied Washington's support for the opposition to
the Honduran president. While most other Latin American governments had
clearly indicated their adamant condemnation of the coup plans underway in
Honduras and their solid support for Honduras' constitutionally elected
president, Manual Zelaya, the U.S. spokesman stated the following, "We are
concerned about the breakdown in the political dialogue among Honduran
politicians over the proposed June 28 poll on constitutional reform. We urge
all sides to seek a consensual democratic resolution in the current
political impasse that adheres to the Honduran constitution and to Honduran
laws consistent with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic
Charter."
As of 10:30am, Sunday morning, no further statements have been issued by the
Washington concerning the military coup in Honduras. The Central American
nation is highly dependent on the U.S. economy, which ensures one of its top
sources of income, the monies sent from Hondurans working in the U.S. under
the "temporary protected status" program that was implemented during
Washington's dirty war in the 1980s as a result of massive immigration to
U.S. territory to escape the war zone. Another major source of funding in
Honduras is USAID, providing over US$ 50 millon annually for "democracy
promotion" programs, which generally supports NGOs and political parties
favorable to U.S. interests, as has been the case in Venezuela, Bolivia and
other nations in the region. The Pentagon also maintains a military base in
Honduras in Soto Cano, equipped with approximately 500 troops and numerous
air force combat planes and helicopters.
Foreign Minister Rodas has stated that she has repeatedly tried to make
contact with the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, who has not
responded to any of her calls thus far. The modus operandi of the coup makes
clear that Washington is involved. Neither the Honduran military, which is
majority trained by U.S. forces, nor the political and economic elite, would
act to oust a democratically elected president without the backing and
support of the U.S. government. President Zelaya has increasingly come under
attack by the conservative forces in Honduras for his growing relationship
with the ALBA countries, and particularly Venezuela and President Chávez.
Many believe the coup has been executed as a method of ensuring Honduras
does not continue to unify with the more leftist and socialist countries in
Latin America.
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