Mark Weisbrot: Honduran Dictatorship is a Threat to Democracy in the Hemisphere.

Actually the sort of democracy that is common in the hemisphere is designed to ensure that the ruling class stays in power and that the power of the people is limited by the free choice of at least two parties who represent primarily the interest of those with power and money. Of course the power of the ballot does ensure some benefits for the masses that keep them hoping for better from the system. In Honduras the two main parties are run by the elites and Zelaya was himself part of that group. His sin is to help out the working classes too much at the expense of the rich and the elites who turned against him as a result. The elites are closely tied in with powerful interests in the US many of whom support the coup. As this article shows the Micheletti regime has hired expensive PR operatives with ties to Clinton. THe US will probably recognise election results because Sen DeMint has allowed the nomination of the ambassador to go through. The agreement by which Zelaya was thought to be returned to power is dead and it is doubtful that the Micheletti side ever thought of it as an agreement for his return. It was just a stalling tactic to allow the elections to go ahead without Zelaya.

.Mark Weisbrot: Honduran Dictatorship is A Threat to Democracy in the Hemisphere
.Honduran Dictatorship Is A Threat to Democracy In the Hemisphere

November 19, 2009


Honduran Dictatorship Is A Threat to Democracy In the Hemisphere

By Mark Weisbrot

A small group of rich people who own most of Honduras and its politicians enlist the military to kidnap the elected president at gunpoint and take him into exile. They then arrest thousands of people opposed to the coup, shut down and intimidate independent media, shoot and kill some demonstrators, torture and beat many others. This goes on for more than four months, including more than two of the three months legally designated for electoral campaigning. Then the dictatorship holds an “election.”

Should other countries recognize the results of such an election, to be held on November 29th? Latin America says absolutely not; the United States is saying, well, “yes we can”- if we can get away with it.

“There has been a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders,” since President Zelaya slipped back into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, wrote Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and human rights groups worldwide have also condemned the violence and repression perpetrated by the Honduran dictatorship.

On November 5, the 25 nations of the Rio Group, which includes virtually all of Latin America, declared that they would not recognize the results of the November 29th elections in Honduras if the elected President Manuel Zelaya were not first restored.

Why is it that Latin American governments can recognize this threat to democracy but Washington cannot? One reason is that many of the governments are run by people who have lived under dictatorships. President Lula da Silva of Brazil was imprisoned by the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1980s. President Michele Bachelet of Chile was tortured in prison under the brutal Pinochet dictatorship that was installed with the help of the Nixon administration. The presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Guatemala, and others have all lived through the repression of right-wing dictatorships.

Nor is this threat merely a thing of the past. Just two weeks ago the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, had to fire most of the military leadership because of credible evidence that they were conspiring with the political opposition. This is one of the consequences of not reversing the Honduran military coup of June 28th.

Here in the United States we have been subjected to a relentless campaign of lies and distortions intended to justify the coup, which have been taken up by Republican supporters of the dictatorship, as well as by hired guns like Lanny Davis, a close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the biggest lie, repeated thousands of times in the news reporting and op-eds of the major media, was that Zelaya was overthrown because he was trying to extend his term of office. In fact, the non-binding referendum that Zelaya proposed had nothing to do with term limits. And even if this poll of the electorate had led eventually to a new constitution, any legal changes would have been far too late for Zelaya to stay in office beyond January 29.

Another surreal part of the whole political discussion has been the attempt to portray Zelaya, who was merely delivering on his campaign promises to the Honduran electorate, as a pawn of some foreign power – conveniently chosen to be the much-demonized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The anti-communist hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism is still the model for these uncreative political hacks.

What a disgrace it will be to our country if the Obama team follows through on its current strategy and recognizes these “elections!” It’s hard to imagine a stronger statement than that human rights and democracy in this hemisphere count for zero in the political calculations of this administration.

Weisbrot: Obama's deafening silence on Honduras

It is not just Obama who is silent the entire mainstream western press is mostly silent although a few may have mentioned Amnesty's recent report. When there is a demonstration in Iran or someone criticises Ahmadinejad it is front page news but ten people are already killed and many are in jail in Honduras. There are daily demonstrations but no major western media can be bothered covering them.
Obama simply will not put any major pressure on the coup such as freezing the leaders bank accounts or imposing serious sanctions. Even the minor act of cancelling four diplomatic visas does not stop the persons concerned from visiting the US on visitors visas!

Obama's deafening silence on Honduras
Seven weeks after the coup in Honduras, the US is hindering efforts to restore President Manuel Zelaya to power

Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Friday 21 August 2009 14.00 BST
Seven weeks after the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected president of Honduras, the divide between the United States and Latin America continues to grow.
The strategy of the coup regime is obviously to run out the clock on President Manuel Zelaya's remaining months in office. A presidential election, in which Zelaya is not eligible to run because of Honduras' one-term limit, is scheduled for 29 November.
In response to that strategy, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) issued a declaration on 10 August that it would not recognise any government elected under the coup regime. It is worth noting that this was a unanimous decision. Even close US allies Colombia and Peru approved the declaration.
Then on 17 August, President Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has grown increasingly impatient with the delaying tactics, issued a joint statement with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico saying the same thing. Calderon is a rightwing president and was one of President George Bush's few allies in the region.
The next step would be for the Organisation of American States, where all countries in the hemisphere except Cuba are represented, to take this position. But it operates mainly by consensus, and the US is reportedly blocking that move. Of course, Washington can't be seen to be the sole opposition, so it has recruited some rightwing governments, according to sources involved in the OAS discussions: Canada and Panama, along with a couple of other small country governments that can be bribed or bullied into joining Washington's rapidly shrinking regional coalition of the willing.
The millions of Americans who gave their votes, contributions or energy to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the hope that he would change US foreign policy probably didn't expect to see this administration fishing around for rightwing allies to help block Latin America from trying to reverse a military coup. But that appears to be the reality.
In fact, the US state department has still not even determined that a military coup has taken place. It's not clear what else you would call it when the military storms the home of the elected president and forces him at gunpoint, in his pajamas, to board a plane out of the country.
A few days ago, an official of the Zelaya government told the press that this plane actually stopped at the Palmerola airbase in Honduras, home to 600 US troops, on its way out of the country. According to the Associated Press, the official offered this as evidence that the US was involved in the coup. US officials declined immediate comment, but later followed up with a statement that the US "had no knowledge or part in the decisions made for the plane to land, refuel and take off."This does not seem to be a credible story. To believe this denial, we would have to believe that the US military has such complete confidence in Honduran security that it allows them to monitor and control the airspace over this base where 600 US troops are stationed, as well as takeoffs and landings – without any involvement of US personnel. A tough swallow, especially given the post-9/11 concerns about terrorist attacks against US military personnel stationed abroad.
The one thing we can be pretty sure of is that no major US media outlet will look further into this matter. The general attitude of the press toward US involvement in military coups is: "We don't want to hear about it – or talk about it." This was true of the coup that overthrew Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 2002, where there US state department acknowledged that the US government paid people and organisations involved in the coup, and CIA documents showing advance knowledge of the coup combined with White House lying about the coup provided substantial evidence of US involvement.
But no major US newspaper ever gave any credence to that possibility. US involvement in the overthrow of Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide – in both 1991 and a second time in 2004 – has also been almost completely ignored, despite some compelling evidence.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Amnesty International issued a report documenting widespread police beatings and brutality against peaceful demonstrations, mass arbitrary arrests and other human rights abuses under the dictatorship. The Obama administration has remained silent about these abuses – as well as the killings of activists and press censorship and intimidation. To date, no major media outlet has bothered to pursue them for an on-the-record comment.