Is a Wider Right Wing Counter-Attack Looming? The Honduran Coup as Overture

Weekend Edition
July 31 - August 2, 2009

Is a Wider Right Wing Counter-Attack Looming?
The Honduran Coup as Overture
By MICHAEL FOX

On Tuesday, July 28 the United States government announced that it had revoked the visas of four leading members of the Honduran coup. More than a month after the Honduran military awoke President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint and sent him packing to Costa Rica, it appears that Washington is finally beginning to put its foot down--a little. But the U.S. still has a way to go, and so does Honduras.

The U.S. State Department had responded quickly with harsh statements against the June 28th Honduran coup, but over most of the last month, the U.S. government carried out few active measures to pressure the coup plotters to step down. US-backed negotiations were criticized for helping to legitimize the coup d’etat. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had appeared to condemn President Zelaya more than the de facto Roberto Micheletti regime.

Last week Clinton called Zelaya’s decision to attempt to return to his country from the Nicaraguan-Honduran border, “reckless”. "We have consistently urged all parties to avoid any provocative action that could lead to violence," she said. A group of organizations and academics focusing on Latin America quickly responded.

“Given that neither Clinton nor President Obama, nor any U.S. official, has even once criticized the Honduran dictatorship for the violence and political repression of the last four weeks, Clinton's pointing the finger at Zelaya is especially threatening to the human rights of Hondurans,” they said in a press release.

The group pointed to the “shootings, beatings, arrests and detentions of journalists, closing of radio and TV stations, and other repression” which has been documented by a half-dozen international human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. In mid July, the Committee of Family Members of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) published a report detailing over a thousand human rights abuses committed by the coup regime.

According to NYU Latin American historian, Greg Grandin—who was in Honduras last week—the assassination death toll is at least up to nine. While thousands of Hondurans remain in the streets in support of Zelaya, hundreds have been detained. Among them are members of the National Front Against the Coup (Frente Nacional Contra el Golpe), including Berta Caceres and Salvador Zuniga (leaders of COPINH - Counsel of Indigenous and Popular Organizations), and the indigenous-garifuna leader Miriam Miranda, who is also a member of OFRANEH (Fraternal Organization of Black and Garifuna Peoples).

On July 23, an international commission of human rights organizations concluded that "grave and systematic violations of human rights" had taken place in Honduras since the military coup. The preliminary commission report also documented “systemic and generalized political persecution” against unionists, peasant, activists, and students.

But Washington had been silent.

Not one country in the world—including the United States—has recognized the de facto Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti that swore itself in the same day it threw Zelaya out of the country last month. But the United States has dragged its feet behind Latin America and Europe and refused to pull its ambassador and cut off all aid to Honduras.

The U.S. also has yet to officially classify the Honduran coup as a “coup d’etat” which, by U.S. law, would forbid any U.S. aid to the de facto government. $16.5 million in aid for military assistance programs has already been suspended, but $180 million dollars in U.S. aid is still flowing- although the State department says it is under evaluation.

The Los Angeles Times and solidarity activists had asked the U.S. government to cut the visas and freeze the bank accounts of those involved in the coup. But for weeks the request had fallen on deaf ears. Zelaya told reporters over last weekend that he believed Secretary of State Clinton was “not acting firmly against the repression that Honduras is suffering.”

Representatives from the Micheletti government had been free to visit the United States and General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez—head of the Honduran Armed Forces—had planned to speak in Miami last weekend. Clinton spoke briefly with Micheletti over the phone last week and communication has been open between the Micheletti government and the U.S. embassy in Honduras.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/fox07312009.html

"The U.S. also has yet to officially classify the Honduran coup as a “coup d’etat” which, by U.S. law, would forbid any U.S. aid to the de facto government. $16.5 million in aid for military assistance programs has already been suspended, but $180 million dollars in U.S. aid is still flowing- although the State department says it is under evaluation."

.... what did we do Aristede? We and France (and Canada?) led that along with the World Bank. We couldn't call it a coup d'etat - because we led it? If not a coup, it was a short, undeclared war?

Did the EU call us out for the overthrow of Aristede?

I am an older person. For decades I believed I had plenty of reasons to be proud of my country. WWII soldiers had reason to feel they were fighting a just war. We were very imperfect.

Is it all about conscienceness and knowing more? Have we had just too many decades of the same crap we play on other countries since the time of the popular discovery of this hemisphere?

Negroponte. Reich. Who do we trust here with Honduras in the year 2009? I'm so tired of doing what we do to the littel people everywhere as well as THEIR ground under THEIR feet and the sky above and the waters around THEM. Bless these people. Most only want peace and some prosperity and the best and a better life for their children.

No wonder the slogans of other times are often contained in these words - Power to the people. What we have is the U.S. against the little people and we know on behalf of whom. I'm so disappointed in us.

against the bullies.

Nothing could be more wildly deceitful!

Now that Zelaya raised the minimum wage. the 'little people' are taking money out of the pockets of the wealthy.

The way they maintain a de-facto slave labor pool, is to keep the workers poor and in fear of losing their jobs.

Sort of like what's happening in the US.