One Year After Coup, Honduras Still in Crisis; Is the US Enabling?

One Year After Coup, Honduras Still in Crisis; Is the US Enabling?
Posted: July 7, 2010 11:50 AM

A year after a military coup toppled the democratically-elected government, a "horrifying" human rights crisis continues amidst economic and environmental decay. Is the U.S. enabling this repression with taxpayer dollars?

One year ago last week, on June 28, 2009, the Honduran special forces - led by U.S.-trained officers, wearing U.S.-issue uniforms and armed with U.S.-made M16s - attacked the home of president Manuel Zelaya, kidnapped him in his pajamas, and after a quick stop at the local U.S. airbase, flew him off to Costa Rica in exile. Honduras hasn't been the same since.

"(It's) a totally different country since the coup," says Dr. Adrienne Pine, a Central American expert at American University in Washington, D.C. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Pine, who was in the capital of Tegucigalpa as an international observer last week, described conditions in the new Honduras as being "horrifying."

"We've now reached a point where it's like we've returned to the 1980's, when death squads killed several hundred people and effectively ended the Leftist movement in Honduras at the time," says Pine, who spent Monday marching with about 200,000 pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital. She believes a heavy presence of foreign observers and reporters was the only reason the police and soldiers, who shadowed the marchers at all times, did not attack as they have in the past. "What we're seeing now is that they're using the same repressive strategies ," she says. "Even the same people are in charge."

Many experts, including Pine, also believe that the tens of millions of dollars Honduras receives in military and security funding from the U.S. each year is furthering the crisis.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-kryt/one-year-after-coup-hondu_b_636830.html

and as the armed force of the Economic Overlords, it hastens to squelch any attempt to put corporations at the feet of the public interest.

i especially love the helpless "what can we do?" quotes from the State Dept. Poor little helpless United States, we can train their officers and give them millions, but we can't do anything about human rights abuses.

Is a bear Catholic? Does the Pope shit in the woods?

"Masterminding" or "Instigating" is a bit closer.

I wonder how long until that happens here? It's already happening in the form of chilling free speech.