| US Prepares Further Sanctions Against Honduras Coup Leaders | |
| Washington 27 August 2009 |
The State Department signaled Thursday the Obama administration is ready to take tougher action against the defacto leadership in Honduras because of the political impasse over President Manuel Zelaya's ouster in June. An Organization of American States diplomatic mission to Tegucigalpa this week returned empty-handed.
Officials here say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to make a formal determination as early as Friday that the ouster of Mr. Zelaya was an extra-legal coup, action that would set in motion deep cuts in U.S. aid, and other steps against the interim government.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-27-voa43.cfm
U.S. Decides Not to Impose Sanctions on Honduras
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124952525314809919.htmlBy DAVID LUHNOW and JOSE DE CORDOBA (August 7th)
The U.S., in an apparent softening of its support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, won't impose economic sanctions on Honduras and has yet to decide whether Mr. Zelaya's removal from office constitutes a coup.
A letter from the State Department to Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, states that the U.S. "energetically" opposes Mr. Zelaya's June 28 ouster. But the letter also expresses the harshest criticism yet of Mr. Zelaya's own actions that preceded his removal from office, including trying to change Honduras's constitution to potentially stay in power.
The World Bank suspended financial aid.
What about the reaction from Washington?
The role of the US is key, as it is Honduras's biggest trading partner.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8124154.stm Crumbs from Washington: Cutting aid to the peoples of Honduras, no the Coup plotters, cutting visas to the Honduran Population, but the coup regime remains untouched. The Big Stick on the people, not on the dictatorship leaders. HOW ABOUT FREEZING MULTIMILLIONAIRE ACCOUNTS, Washington? Keep stuttering and earningtime!!!WASHINGTON — The United States piled pressure Thursday on Honduras coup leaders after they rejected a settlement, with plans in the works to cut off nearly 150 million dollars in US assistance.
Foreign ministers from seven nations and the head of the Organization of American States returned empty-handed after failing to persuade Honduras' de facto leader Roberto Micheletti to step aside.
The US State Department said it was ready to take further measures after already halting most visa services in Honduras, revoking visas for the interm regime and suspending 35 million dollars in military aid.
"We obviously have other steps that we can take," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "I think we'll make some decisions in the next couple of days."
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was looking at suspending assistance through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which rewards nations with free economies and political systems.
Honduras in 2005 signed a five-year, 215 million-dollar deal with the US government-funded corporation to boost agriculture and transportation.
The funds are helping to widen and upgrade the Central American nation's principal highway, the CA-5, a project the corporation says will benefit hundreds of thousands of Hondurans.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9wHTznaqkLnVrku5v6a8qk7gzmA Just who's coup was this? Call/write/boycott Chiquita and Dole
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...
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Here is John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" take on this story:
Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.
Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.
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The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:
What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States' School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)
All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.
Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.
Footnotes
(1) “Who's in charge of US foreign policy? The coup in Honduras has exposed divisions between Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton” by Mark Weisbrot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/honduras-coup-oba... (July 23, 2009)
(2) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in (July 23, 2009)
(3) “Chiquita admits to paying Colombia terrorists: Banana company agrees to $25 million fine for paying AUC for protection” MSNBC March 15, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17615143/ (July 24, 2009)
(4) Fore more information: http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covin... (July 23, 2009)
(5) “The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup: The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.” by Mark Weisbrot, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weisbrot23-2009jul23,0,7566... (July 23, 2009)
(Editorial by the daily El Libertador of Honduras)
These are the coup leaders: 1) Carlos Flores Facussé; 2) Rafael Leonardo Callejas; 3) Cardenal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez; 4) Adolfo Facussé; 5) Armida de López Contreras; 6) Schucry Kafie; 7) Elvin Santos; 8) Emilio Larach; 9) Enrique Ortez Colindres; 10) Pastor Evelio Reyes; 11) Felícito Ávila; 12) José Alfredo Saavedra; 13) Jorge Canahuati; 14) Jorge Yllescas; 15) Juan Ferrera; 16) Juan Ramón Martínez; 17) Carlos López Contreras; 18) Billy Joya; 19) Ana Abarca; 20) Rafael Ferrari; 21) Juan José Pineda; 22) Vilma Morales; 23) Marcia Villeda; 24) Renato Álvarez; 25) Ramón Custodio; 26) Rafael Pineda Ponce; 27) Olban Valladares; 28) Pastor Oswaldo Canales; 29) Ricardo Maduro; 30) Romeo Vásquez Velásquez; 31) Porfirio Lobo Sosa; 32) Ricardo Álvarez; 33) Antonio Rivera; 34) Guillermo Pérez Cadalso; 35) Mauricio Villeda; 36) María Martha Díaz; 37) Antonio Tavel Otero; 38) Luis Rubí; 39) Toribio Aguilera; 40) Ramón Velásquez Nassar; 41) Elán Reyes Pineda; 42) Luz Ernestina Mejía; 43) Martha Lorena Casco; 44) Rodolfo Irías Navas; 45) Rigoberto Chang Castillo; 46) Mirna Castro; 47) Gabriela Núñez; 48) Hugo Llorens.
1. All of these people used their positions to plot, cause, or finance the breakdown of constitutional order with the kidnapping and extradition of President Zelaya, which culminated in the coup.
2. They are directly responsible for the deaths, injuries, imprisonment, and the unease imposed upon Honduran society; they have destroyed democracy and ruined Honduras' image nationally and internationally.
3. The coup leaders reactivated the anti-terrorist and anti-communist organization called the Alliance for Honduras' Progress (APROH), which operated in the 1980s. Their greed and lack of culture prevented them from understanding that the people are free to choose the political and ideological system that will offer them security and well-being.
Tegucigapla. This time their names and faces will go down in history, and Hondurans and citizens of the world will remember them. They will be judged by society and by national and international courts.
The coup plotters utilized variations on the mechanisms that the Alliance for Honduras' Progress (APROH) used in the 1980s. Under the guise of a business organization, it hid clear political doctrine of "low-intensity war against those who opposed the repression of the Sandinista government and against social discontent in Honduras. United States intelligence financed the organization through the Moon sect."
"Industrious Businessmen"
Nothing particularly "suspicious" is written in the APROH's statutes. A group of businessmen got together to study their problems, with a project to assist other sectors. The economic model that the associates defended was clear: they advocated laissez faire policies with few mechanisms of control and with many mechanisms to maximize profits.
The associates were required to "guard the confidentiality of the documents and information that they acquired through their participation in APROH activities and that divulging this information could cause harm to its members. [sic]
In the beginning of 1983, soon after its founding, APROH didn't draw attention to itself. It was seen as a new attempt to bring together Honduras' most conservative sectors. In November of that year, the newspaper "Tiempo" published one of those confidential "documents:" APROH was recommending to the Kissinger Commission, through a personal friend and aid to Kissinger, a military solution for Central America.
Yesterday and Today's Truth
Military fascism found its place in APROH--then in Gen. Alvarez, the president of that organization, and now [Gen.] Romeo Vasquez. As now, it was comprised of the country's far-right business class, although in reality more than being ideological they are corrupt businessmen who have gotten rich because they determine what happens or not in the country. They are the eternal scroungers who live off financial subsidies, they are the ones who obtain concessions and million-dollar debt forgiveness from the state. They are the ones who finance and control the political parties and use their influence to have power in the National Congress and in the courts. In short, they are the ones who have the country trapped and don't allow the advancement of other businessmen and marginalize the people because for them it's business as usual that they remain ignorant and hungry. It's easy for them to manipulate them with the corporate media, as they are doing with this coup.
At the end of 1983, [there was] a rumor that the United States embassy was concerned about what it saw as the consolidation of a pressure group within the country that was very conservative and very vulnerable to criticism, as is the case now. The coup leaders are once again a problem for the United States. Then, the APROH was dormant for many years, but it awoke on the morning of June 28, 2009, to carry out its work: overthrow the President, manipulate through the corporate media, extra-judicial executions that no one will know about, repression, and psychological war in order to confuse people.
Who Were the Members?
Gen. Gustavo Alvares was the boss, the man in charge of APROH. Rafael Leonardo Callejas admitted that when he was the APROH's Secretary of Student and Worker Affairs--which hoists the flag of anti-communism--he worked so that Osawlado Ramos Soto would be the rector of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).
The Moon Sect, a well-known religious organization, collaborated with this organization.
The APROH was created by Álvarez Martínez during the Roberto Suazo Córdova administration as the precursor to the Security Doctrine and responsible for dozens of political assassinations and disappearances in the country. José Rafael Ferrari, Miguel Facussé, Fernando Casanova, Rigoberto Espinal Irías, Benjamín Villanueva and ex-union leaders Andrés Víctor Artiles and Mariano González were also members.
Osmond Maduro, brother of the ex-president and coup leader Ricardo Maduro Joest, was also a member, [as well as] national and international bankers; textile and chemical industry, agribusiness, and television barons; and the technocrats. All of them were represented in the APROH.
Now look on this page at the coup leaders; they are members of the new APROH. There is no difference between them and those of the past. Some of them are even the same: Miguel Facussé, Rafael Leonardo Callejas y José Rafael Ferrari.
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Know the "Brainwashing Codewords" the Coup Leaders Use to Manipulate Hondurans The coup leaders' fierce psychological war waged through their corporate media, which are the driving force behind media in this country, reproduces codes of mass manipulation of the population's mind. For example, it is legal to kidnap the President, because he is Chavez's friend. Micheletti is good, because he hates Fidel and Daniel and Chavez. by El Libertador Tegucigalpa. The brainwashing the coup leaders use as its prototype of Honduran democracy can be decoded as seeing what's bad as good, illegal as legal, and the usurper as necessary because he loves the country. The coup as a "constitutional succession" and the hatred of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and Fidel Castro justifies a breakdown of the rule of law and the soldiers' savagery against protesters who demand a return to constitutional order. Those who seek the path of a country where the law is respected are rabble-rousers and vandals, and those who support the dictatorship dress in white because they are pure. They are patriots because they sing the national anthem and demand democracy, which is the same as defending Micheletti because he shares the desire for peace and harmony in Honduras. Many are incapable of understanding that this is how the masses are manipulated by means of the method known as "fool catchers." Others who have weak minds belong to families that have gotten rich off of the misery of the majority of the population. The Democracy Code According to the Coup Leaders: Democracy = no Chavez-no Fidel-no Ortega; Democracy = the rich are innocent, the poor are guilty; Democracy = Yes to he who breaks the law for our own good, no to Mel who breaks the law for the good. [sic] Democracy = I support Micheletti and I am a peacemaker, you support Mel and you break windows; Democracy = I love the Cardinal, you forget our father (and you offend the cardinal); Democracy = corrupt, more or Zelaya [sic], but hate Chavez and hate Fidel [sic] Democracy = Kidnapping Mel is good, opposition's bloodshed is good and repression is good, communism is bad. Mel is a communist. The coup leaders don't respect life nor the law because the protect us from bad. Democracy = Mel is dangerous because of Chavez, Daniel, and Fidel. Micheletti only seeks the good for everyone. Micheletti is good, Mel is bad. Democracy = Chavez and Fidel want to impose strange ideologies on Hondurans. Mel is Chavez and Fidel's friend, to loathe Mel, Chavez, and Fidel is good because we are Hondurans. Source: Popol Nah Foundation for Local Development
Honduras: Military Is Accused of Abuses
Amnesty International, in a report to be released Wednesday, accuses the Honduran military and police of using beatings and mass arrests to punish protesters for opposing the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. “Mass arbitrary arrests and ill treatment of protesters are a serious and growing concern in Honduras today,” Esther Major, Amnesty’s Central American researcher, said in a statement. The government of Roberto Micheletti, the country’s de facto leader, accuses demonstrators of engaging in violent acts and provoking the authorities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/americas/19briefs-Honduras2.html
ignorantes!!!
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