Are we now accepting professions of good intent from the occupant of the White House out of hand? Really? I somehow doubt that you would have accepted the statements above if they came from the mouths of Ari Fleischer or George W. Bush. Official statements of the "we expect both parties to obey the rule of law" (said while wagging a finger) variety are invariably code for
"...uh, let's just see how this plays out...".
There is plenty of evidence that suggests that the coup was fully endorsed (if not greenlighted or even hatched) by the current U.S. administration, whose leader made foreign policy speeches in which he promised intervention in Latin America, allegedly to fight narco-traffickers. Ousted Honduran President Zelaya was opposed to the U.S.' drug war and recently called
for the legalization of drugs. It is my belief that the intervention was backed by the U.S. administration and that it was likely carried out with the intention to return a neutered and terrified Zelaya to office for the remainder of his term. In March 2008 Barack Obama promised
"I will significantly increase funding for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other nongovernmental organizations to support civic activists in repressive societies." and delivered: more funds (more than $300,000,000) will be "invested" in South America in 2010 than were in the eight years that George W. Bush was in office. This is the Kinder, Gentler, Machine Gun Hand of the Democratic Party.
The coup mirrored the Bush-backed 2002 Venezuelan coup down to the minutiae: U.S.-trained military leaders carried out the violent overthrow of a leader who is becoming increasingly opposed to neo-liberal reform: former commander of the
notorious 3-16 Battalion, Capt. Billy Fernando Joya Amendola and School of the Americas-trained General Luis Javier Prince Suazo (Commander of the Air Force) and Romeo Vasquez Velasquez (Honduran Army General), and installed one who was eager to play ball with Washington.
Incidentally (or not), John Negroponte, then ambassador to Honduras, was in regular contact with 3-16 Battalion commanders and is regularly accused of being complicit in the crimes committed there. Aside (or not): as Senator, Barack Obama voted to confirm Negroponte as George W. Bush's nominee for Director of National Intelligence. Several 3-16 Batallion leaders have been given positions of power in the new regime: Nelson Willy Mejia has become the Director of Immigration; Hernan Banegas has become the Minister of FHIS (the Honduran Social Fund), and Billy Fernando Joya Améndola has been appointed Ministry Assessor. Napoleon Nazar may become the Minister of Security.
Similar to Venezuela, the coup plotters had advance contact with the U.S. administration. ssistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelley both met with military and civilians involved in the coup. Mere weeks before the coup was launched, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had warned Zelaya not to call for a constitutional referendum (it should be noted that the 1982 constitution - rewritten sixteen times already - which Zelaya sought to replace had been authored under the auspices of the U.S.' dirty war in South America, one that Zelaya's neoliberal replacement, Micheletti helped author). Masked soldiers raided Zelaya's domicile, beat his guards, pulled him from bed and whisked him away to U.S.-friendly Costa Rica (this was also done to Aristide by George W. Bush's administration, with help from Canadian special forces). As with Aristide and Chavez, a phony letter of resignation was later produced. Honduran military targeted local and foreign journalists and created a total news blackout (where was the
State-Department backed Twitter and
U.S. federal government supported YouTube then?). A curfew was issued and power and communications were severed ...severe violence was meted out to any supporters of Zelaya who attempted to congregate in his support.
Though the coup was violent and a flagrant violation of law (not to mention the word "unconstitutional", which is ironic given the concern of the coup plotters) Sec. of State Hillary Clinton refused to even acknowledge that it was a coup at all, instead blaming "all parties" involved for the conflagration. The reasons given for this refusal of categorizing the coup as a coup was that it would automatically shut off aid to the de facto government and the military which installed it. When the U.S. finally - and very reluctantly - cut off some military aid it was none other than two former aides of Clinton's own husband, former president Bill Clinton, that came to represent the interim government of coup leader, Roberto Micheletti (former 3-16 Battalion (which was also trained by Pinochet's death squads) commander Captain Billy Fernando Joya Amendola, who was once charged with crimes against humanity, was Micheletti's security adviser). Lanny Davis, one of the lawyers for the Micheletti regime, also acts as an adviser to Hillary Clinton. Davis was hired by the Business Council of Latin America (CEAL), a lobby group for business interests in South America. Their Venezuelan representative Marcel Granier is president of the RCTV, a conservative television station which participated heavily in the 2002 coup in Venezuela.
The Obama administration's choice for mediator in these talks? None other than Costa Rica's (yes, the nation to which the coup plotters confidently flew the kidnapped leader of Honduras) own neoliberal president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, a leader who served the U.S. well in the region during the 1980s.
The Obama-backed Arias mediation put forth a proposal wherein Zelaya would be allowed to finish his term in office, but with limited executive powers and a promise to refrain from his pursuit of a constituent assembly. He would be allowed to finish his term in office, but he would be neutered. All of this squares with U.S. policy in regards to South America.
Did you note who happened to be meeting with Obama when he issued the statement you linked above? The United States government's compliant Colombian proxy, Alvaro Uribe, whose government stands on the front lines of Washington's conflict with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Colombia is the third largest recipient of military aid from the U.S. and has built several massive military bases on the borders with Venezuela and Ecuador (whose sovereignty was violently violated not too long ago by Colombia, and action which Obama supported with similar rhetoric to which you posted above (
). Following Obama's meeting with Uribe it was agreed that more U.S. military personnel would be granted access to three airfields and two military bases in Colombia,
infuriating Chavez. Oh, Zelaya also wanted to convert the U.S. Air Base at Soto Cano into a much needed civilian airport, which was to be funded by ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, which is headed by Hugo Chavez. Soto Cano was first used to launch the overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala, and later served as Oliver North's base of operations for the Contras. The base, like other outposts of the American Empire, is paid for with American tax dollars and weapons - the Honduran military is trained, supplied, bought and paid for by the US government - there can be little doubt that the coup was carried out without a green light from the White House.
What is John Negroponte doing these days? He is currently an adviser to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Who arranged for the meetings with coup leaders? Senator John McCain
via the Cormac Group.
It is a man named Hugo Llorens who now holds Negroponte's old job as Ambassador to Honduras. Llorens, a child of the CIA's
Operation Peter Pan, was given this job by George W. Bush, Obama thought it wise to keep him on staff. In 2002, as National Security Advisor on the region for president Bush, Llorens, working alongside PNAC member Elliott Abrams and Otto Reich (who met regularly with Pedrom Carmona, the businessman who toppled Chavez). oversaw the Venezuelan coup.
Robert Carmona-Borjas, the lawyer who defended Pedro Carmona (he was actually with him in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas the day of the coup), just happens to be the same man who laid the legal groundwork for the Zelaya coup. In 2008, Otto Reich, who just happens to have also served on the board of visitors for the School of the Americas, became John McCain's foreign policy adviser on the campaign trail. Reich, McCain and other neo-liberal reformists wish to break up and privatize the state-owned telecommunications company Hondutel, just one of many precious plums the Honduran elite wish to pluck. Who is the former CEO of Hondutel? Why none other than current de facto president,Roberto Micheletti, who has been seeking to privatize the company for decades. Who was building the case against Zelaya in regards to Hondutel? The Arcadia Foundation. Who created the Arcadia Foundation? Robert-Carmona Borjas, Otto Reich and others. Who funds the Arcadia Foundation? The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and International Republican Institute (IRI). Who said they would significantly increase funding for the NED? Barack Obama. Who chairs the IRI? John McCain. The case put forth by Borjas and Reich? That Zelaya had stolen millions from Hondutel. This slander prompted Zelaya to sue Reich for defamation last April. It is mere coincidence that Reich's consulting and lobbying firm, Otto Reich Associates, happened to be pushing for privatization of Hondutel. The Democratic Civil Union of Honduras, the foremost group claiming to represent the feelings of the Honduran people is nothing more than a front for the business, media and church elite of Honduras. It also happens to be propped up by USAID, which denies that the group is merely an arm of USAID (which has a long and storied history of being a CIA front for Latin American coups. A former USAID Administrator named Adolfo Franco, who also worked as an adviser to John McCain, is now working for the Obama administration on the issue of Zelaya).
Back to the official word from the White House:
Philip Crowley, Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Hillary Clinton's State Department
said this to reporters:
"QUESTION: Coming back to Honduras, we’re getting some reports out of the region that there might be some sort of rift now between Zelaya and the Venezuelan Government. Is that Washington’s understanding? And if so, is that something that can be leveraged as these negotiations move on? To put it another way, is Chavez out of the way, and does that make Washington happy?
MR. CROWLEY: (Laughter.) We certainly think that if we were chooscing a model government and a model leader for countries of the region to follow, that the current leadership in Venezuela would not be a particular model. If that is the lesson that President Zelaya has learned from this episode, that would be a good lesson."Yes, eventually he wound his way around to Obama's patronizing rhetoric of "We are committed to a return to democratic and constitutional order.", adding that "We want to see President Zelaya finish his term." FINISH - HIS - TERM. It doesn't get any clearer than this. Oh wait, it does: "
We want to see Honduras move forward with new elections and to put in place a new government that the Honduran people can support, and
we’ll see as legitimate." Yes, he actually said the words "WE WANT" "TO PUT IN PLACE" "A NEW GOVERNMENT" "WE'LL SEE AS LEGITIMATE". Ah, he was cautious enough that he threw in warm and fuzzy buzz words like, "move forward, "new elections" and "the Honduran people", but it isn't hard to squint and see which were in bold. Clearly aware of his poor choice of words, Crowley stumbled into , "We reject the – rejected the extra-constitutional way in which President Zelaya was removed from power.
unless something has changed
It most certainly has not.
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