Today the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, is traveling to Tegucigalpa to personally inform the coup government, in place since Sunday's military coup d'etat, that if they don't step down by Saturday and allow for President Manuel Zelaya's return to power, then Honduras will be suspended from the most important multilateral organization in the region. The suspension will not just be symbolic, it also includes ceasing all economic aid from the Inter-American Development Bank, which provides millions of dollars in support to the Central American nation, and the imposition of sanctions for human rights violations through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The coup government, led by Roberto Micheletti, has said it will remain in power "with or without" the OAS. We'll see how things develop today.
Meanwhile, the United States is the only remaining country in the Americas still maintaining diplomatic relations with Honduras after Sunday's coup. The US Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, remains in Tegucigalpa, apparently "negotiating" with the coup government to find a solution. However, President Zelaya, the constitutional and democratically elected president of Honduras since 2005, has stated he will not "negotiate" his return to power. It's ridiculous to request a president overthrown in an illegal coup negotiate with the criminals who overthrew him in order to reestablish constitutional order.
There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that the US Government is, unfortunately, involved in that will soon be exposed.
Check out how the State Department is finding ways to get out of sanctioning Honduras and pressuring the coup government to step down by now legally classifying what took place as a "military coup d'etat" under US law. Note how instead of referring to the coup in English, the State Dept official does it in Spanish, as though that somehow makes it mean something else (yeah, since it's said in Spanish, it doesn't mean the same under US law):
Excerpt from Wednesday's State Department press briefing:
"QUESTION: And so this is properly classified as a military coup?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Well, I mean, it’s a golpe de estado. The military moved against the president; they removed him from his home and they expelled him from a country, so the military participated in a coup. However, the transfer of leadership was not a military action. The transfer of leadership was done by the Honduran congress, and therefore the coup, while it had a military component, it has a larger - it is a larger event."
The Obama administration is trying desperately to save its image before the world, but not break ranks with its allies in Honduras. It's very pleased with the outcome of the coup, just not the method used to get there. So now they're saying, it was a "golpe de estado", and even though the armed military guards in ski masks kidnapped President Zelaya from his bed at gunpoint in the middle of the night and forced him into exile, since it was a leader of Congress, a civilian, and not a military general, who subsequently named himself the de facto president, then it's not a "military coup".
Way to go State!
8 comments:
How sad and ridiculous of the state department! I'm actually embarrassed.
Other oligarchs in other countries will surely take not to see what type of coup--excuse me, "golpe de estado"-- the US finds acceptable.
It's very self-evident for now, that the very future of Honduras will be decided in the streets of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, etc. It's important for the Frente Popular de Resistencia to gain spaces. Internacional community must not punish Honduras for the golpista clique: sanctions must be taken in the most effective way to evict the usurper government. If sanctions are implemented in an indiscriminated way, then the usurper Goverment will play the flag of "internacional aggression" to wide its base in Honduran population.
This article from WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124663749855792701.html
is quoting that
"the Obama administration has halted joint military operations"
Anyone's guess what that actually means..
But I'm wondering if you have a good resource for information on what the initial referendum that Zelaya suggested actually contained?
The above article says that a supreme court order had forbade him from such a referendum, is that true?
Thanks for the info.
James
Why is the above commenter "Andrew" and "James" at the same time? I've seen truckloads of people "just asking questions" on leftist blogs about Venezuela, and it seems to be a co-ordinated PR move to sow doubt in the minds of people who want the rightfully elected president and constitutional order restored in Venezuela.
That non-binding referendum question, as you can find virtually everywhere on teh intarwebz:
¿Está de acuerdo que en las elecciones generales de 2009 se instale una cuarta urna en la cual el pueblo decida la convocatoria a una asamblea nacional constituyente? = Sí…….ó………..No.
Do you agree with the installation of a fourth ballot box during the 2009 general elections so that the people can decide on the calling of a national constituent assembly? Yes or no.
thanks so much, eva, for the excellent posts. i've tried to spread them around to activists groups with which I'm involved.
I listened to your speech at Howard Univ. I wrote two chapters on U.S. Intelligence and multinational corporations incredible grip on virtually all media in the United States. I also wrote some chapters on U.S. Intelligence's development of the Latin American assassination program, Operation Condor, which I imagine you know about.
If you had an interest my book is The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders, sutitled U.S. Intelligence's Murderous Targeting of Tupac, MLK, Malcolm, Panthers, Hendrix, Marley, Rappers and Linked Ethnic Leftists.
For sake of credibility, i've been interviewed on Pacifica's WBAI Evening News (New York) twice. www.fbiwarontupac.com
keep up the great work. john potash
First thing: why be embarrassed about the U.S. State Department, or any other organ of the U.S. regime? These people are our enemy -- whether we want to understand this or not. And this is how our enemy is going to behave.
Second thing: who is explaining to the World that the honduran "congress" and "supreme court" are in fact run by the honduran oligarchy for their own sole benefit? And that the only reason they hold these bodies -- same as in most "democratic" bourgeois countries -- is because of their near monopoly of resources and over the mass-media of that country?
Third thing: someone has touched on the apparent fact that it is a lie that the honduran "supreme court" has the power to reinstate the fired military chief. Amongst other things. Such a fact should be given the utmost attention in the Left media.
Fourth thing: there will be no such thing as "supreme courts" -- a supreme conceit of a hierarchical, elitist bourgeois regime -- in any socialist country. Because in a socialist country the people themselves will be the supreme law of the land -- and their own living constitution, as well.
Fifth thing: I wonder how this yanqui double-talk over coups/golpes is playing in America Latina...
Sixth thing: whatever sanctions are undertaken by ALBA and others against this junta really must be undertaken with the consent and support and collaboration of the resistance inside Honduras, as is being implied in an above comment.
Awesome blog, EvaG. You seem to have scooped the world. I'll definitely be checking back to know the latest.
Good said, Doloras. We have had in Catalonia verbal attacks from right-wingers for promoting (unsuccessfully) a non-binding referendum about the future of Catalonia. Apparently, those so-called democrats abhore non-binding (and, of course) binding referenda. Another example was the non-binding referendum promoted by the former Basque government, that was stopped by the Spanish Congress. The non-binding referendum in Honduras was a way to let people express their feelings about a new Constitution for Honduras. The coup has taken that as an excuse, but the real issue is that they fear people's movements such as schoolmasters, peasants, indigenous peoples, etc.
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