U.S. is delighted to see repression in Honduras: Repression is their tool to make Honduras sign their will, ie- the San José Accord

Pressure Forces Honduran Coup Regime to Reverse Civil Liberties Crackdown - Repression Continues

The Honduran coup regime has been forced to reverse a harsh crackdown on civil liberties amidst growing protests for the restoration of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya. But Honduran forces still blocked a large protest march and shut down two media outlets that have criticized the coup regime. Meanwhile, a top US diplomat criticized the coup regime’s decision but then turned around to issue a harsh condemnation of ousted Zelaya. We go to Honduras to speak with Andrés Conteris from inside the embassy where Zelaya is hiding and speak to Luther Castillo, a Honduran doctor who is in Washington to speak with US lawmakers. [from Democracy Now site]

 

  57 people who occupied the National Agrarian Institute of Honduras evicted by de facto military forces

Tegucigalpa, Sep 30 (EFE) .- Effect of Police and the Armed Forces of Honduras today forcibly evicted to 57 followers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who for three months occupied the National Agrarian Institute (INA), pursuant to Decree restricting constitutional guarantees. Continue reading the printed article

  "This action is part of what the decree announced on Saturday consists",official Cerrato Orlin , police spokesman, told reporters saying they are checking for more institutions that are in the same situation.

The decree provides for the possibility of evicting persons holding public institutions following the political crisis in Honduras after the overthrow of President Zelaya, 28 June, and his return to the country by surprise on Sept. 21.
Cerrato said "there are people arrested, they are going to take statements to see what responsibility they have."
The eviction operation took place at 0530 local time (1130 GMT).

  Cerrato said he could perform "operations as they are identified" in similar situations, but indicated that this is the only"big" institute  that was occupied by followers of Zelaya.
The official today dismissed new operations, including public universities, which for several nights are housed by supporters of the deposed President.
"We were waiting, then they came and  I have received beatings with  batons when I tried to pick up the suitcase and was about to leave,"   Pedro Serrano, 52, one of the farmers evicted told Efe.
  "We were just watching, we have spent three months here," Serrano added.

Detained farmer Jose Irene Murillo, 69, said he feared "they are going to destroy the records of the small farmers, because the big landowners want the land."
The peasant leader Rafael Alegria, one of the coordinators of the National Front of Resistance against the coup, came to INA headquarters and told  that what happens  in Honduras "is a dictatorship and anything can happen."
  "They are desperate, are implementing a decree is illegal, that has not been approved by the Congress (Parliament), this is a fascist act," said Alegría .
The fiscal of Honduran Human Rights, Gabriela Gallo, told reporters that people that are in "were read and told their rights," adding that if necessary they'd go to the Prosecutor's Office and then to the Justice Office.
"There's no people beaten," she added.
  Zelaya was arrested and expelled by soldiers on June 28, and hours later the Congress named as his replacement  Roberto Micheletti ,president of the legislature and whose government  is not recognize the international community.
  On Monday of last week, the ousted president returned clandestinely to Tegucigalpa and has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

Ban Ki-moon called for full respect of constitutional guarantees in Honduras

  The secretary general of the United Nations Organization (UN), Ban Ki-moon, called on Tuesday to the de facto authorities of Honduras full respect for constitutional guarantees of the population in the Central American country, including the freedoms of association, expression and movement.  He considered that the critical situation in that nation has been exacerbated by the declaration of martial law by the regime of Robert Micheletti. 'I am very concerned about the situation in Honduras. The state of emergency increases tensions, "the official said, reported the news portal of Telesur. He also described as unacceptable the threats to the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where a week ago the constitutional president takes refuge in Honduras, Manuel Zelaya.  He recalled that 'international law is clear: the sovereign immunity can not be violated, "and describes as intolerable assaults on staff of the embassy and diplomatic facilities themselves.  Ban Ki-moon stressed respect for the safety of President Zelaya and called on all actors involved in the crisis to engage seriously through dialogue and regional mediation efforts. Meanwhile, the constitutional president, who on Monday through a cell phone reached the UN General Assembly through the mediation of his foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, requested the meeting to protect his life and those who accompany him on the seat diplomatic.

 

U.S. delighted about the  repression in Honduras

Oscar Ugarteche Oscar Ugarteche
Alai-amlatina Alai AMLATINA

Below see the two announcements, one after the other, and the conclusion falls alone.To make it clear where America stands in the Honduran conflict: on the side that does nothing about Zelaya.

  AFP says "The de facto regime of Honduras closed this Monday, 28 September 2009 two media after launching a decree restricting civil liberties, while the ousted President Manuel Zelaya called on the international community to act immediately to prevent an assassination .

On Monday , Honduras celebrates three months of the coup of June 28, which  deposed Zelaya from power, hundreds of Hondurans were concentrated in the eastern sector of Tegucigalpa waiting to march towards the center of the city, but it was unclear whether the demonstration would be permitted by the de facto authorities.

The leaders of the National Resistance against the coup have insisted that their struggle is entirely peaceful in nature and in that line  it shall be maintained until achieving a return of constitutional order to the country.

  On Sunday night, the government issued a decree restricting public freedoms of movement, expression, thought and public meeting, which also allows police to make arrests without court warrants.

  Following the decree, in the early hours of Monday, military and police raided the premises of the radio station Globo and TV Channel 36 and  took them off the air, a journalist told the AFP.

Both media were the only two of national coverage that maintained a clear line of de facto opposition to the regime headed by Roberto Micheletti. "

  In Washington, the answer didn't take long.They do not want Zelaya nothing to do nothing directly but wait for the end of the Micheletti government or the solution they pose through Arias. It is a U.S. position to reassure Latin Americans  that they are not willing to accept a government in the region that they don't like.  No further analysis is possible.  Less when the Palmerola military base is at stake and the IMF gave  it immediate support . The day after the State Department suspended its financial support, though very limited indeed.

The U.S. ambassador to the OAS Anselem described the actions of de facto government of Honduras as "deplorable and foolish", also  told the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, that he urged him to stop acting "like a movie star" and  to start "acting like a leader," but instead call for peace.

  The expulsion of diplomats from the Organization of American States (OAS) and threats to diplomatic missions in Tegucigalpa are "deplorable and stupid acts because they do not serve the interests of Honduras or the coup regime itself," said alternate U.S. Ambassador to the  OAS, Lewis Amselem, before the Permanent Council debated the situation in Honduras.

Es decir, Washington no defiende aquello que antes defendió cuando le convino sino, que como en Chile en el 73, avala el golpe. That is, Washington does not defend what  it previously defended when  it agreed to do so, but  as in Chile in 1973, it supports the coup.

Ambassador  Anselem  said, that it was  also  a form of an "insult to the international community" and inter-American body, under which Washington's interests are concerned as the government's decision   Roberto Micheletti undertakes, "actions against civil liberties" decreeing the  restrictions on freedom of assembly and opinion.

  The U.S. representative to the OAS also carried harsh criticism of the attitude of Zelaya, who on Saturday called the "final offensive" and called his followers around the country to march to Tegucigalpa on Monday, when we celebrate  three months of the coup that ousted him.

Zelaya "has to act like a leader and send clear messages to express views in a peaceful manner, you need to stop making accusations and act like a movie star," criticized Amselem.

  The United States is not interested in democracy in Latin America, and less in Honduras. They are  Interested in the message that they will not let anyone else to leave the fold.  It is important because it is a change of the neoconservatives ofthe Bush era who ignored Latin America. Now it matters to them  again. What a problem! If Zelaya wins in Honduras , the  seven bases in Colombia can be withdrawn, as can Soto Cano in Honduras.Will  it signal U.S. weakness in the region? Washington reads Zelaya's victory as the victory of Chavez.  That error is leading them to lose face in the region even more than after 8 years of Bush. Obama does not need internal enemies in the State Department.

Oscar Ugarteche, a Peruvian economist in the Institute of Economic Research, UNAM, Mexico.  www.obela.org ALAI is president and member of the Economic Observatory of Latin America (OBEL) www.obela.org

Fuente: http://alainet.org/active/33323 Source: http://alainet.org/active/33323

More Media Threatened

La Tribuna reports in its Minuto a Minuto column, that the head of the southern region of the National Police, Danilo Valladares, confirmed late this evening that two radio stations in Choluteca, and another two in Valle could be suspended for violating PCM-M-016-2009, the de facto government decree that was used to shut down Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur in Tegucigalpa. This is the same decree that Micheletti promised to rescind, only he's delaying until every contrary voice is silenced.

Posted by rns at 

Arias Plan is the "key" to overcome the crisis

The U.S. ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, suggested Tuesday that the Costa Rican president's, Oscar Arias' plan  is the "key" to overcome the political crisis  this country is facing after the coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya the June 28.

  "We believe the proposal (the San Jose Agreement) is on the table, which is the key to the solution, to have an agreement to return to democracy, have a peaceful electoral process with support from the international community," told the diplomat to local radio station HRN.

  He clarified that the U.S. "does not endorse any particular individual, but  democracy".

  "Our policy has been very clear in condemning what happened on June 28 and, as President Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said we do not support any particular individual," he said.

  "What the U.S. supports are the principles, the principle sof democracy, the principle of respect for human rights, support to restore democracy, to restore the legitimate government," he said.

CENTRAL AMERICAN SOLUTION

He added that for the U.S.  " it should not be an American solution, imposed by U.S. or a South American solution, I think that it must be a Central American solution , that is why we support President Arias, and it is a solution Hondurans themselves  can negotiate. "

  "The U.S. policy has been very clear, it is to support democracy in Honduras and in any other country in this region," the diplomat stressed, who the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, publicly requested once to leave  the country.

He regretted that the Honduran population is polarized, "what we have asked is that there is a negotiated agreement to allow a final settlement, and so far we have supported efforts by President Arias.

Rescind Delay

There is a struggle in Honduras about how to rescind the de facto government's decree removing constitutional guarantees for 45 days. The struggle is not based on any legal issue, but rather on political considerations.

As Greg Weeks notes in his blog today, the consitution allows congress to reject, ammend/modify, or approve of such decrees, and notes that they simply go out of effect should the conditions that caused them to be issued (which must be specified in the decree) cease to exist. So, Congress could have dealt with it yesterday.

Micheletti himself, via a new decree from his council of Ministers, could nullify it. Manuel Zelaya used this technique to comply with the lower court order regarding the Cuarta Urna original decree. Its completely legal and simple.

However, yesterday Congress refused to deal with rejecting the decree even though they told Micheletti it would not pass and Micheletti said he would talk to the Supreme Court and the Presidential candidates about rescinding it. Why?

First, there's the simple need of Micheletti to delay things. He delayed the OAS ministers visit by more than a week; its now scheduled for October 7. He wants this election to take place under his administration, so any delay is a good delay. I think this is his only motivation for asking the Supreme Court how to rescind it. There's no legal impediment to him doing it today, if he wants to do it. The cost, however, politically is enormous. As El Pais notes "the mask is off." In their lead, they see Congress as having "corrected" Micheletti.

Why doesn't Congress rescind it, since they told Micheletti yesterday that it would not pass if it came up for a vote. The reasons here are political. Both Porfirio Lobo (Nationalist Party presidential candidate) and Jose Angel Saavedra (President of Congress) have indicated there is near universal agreement that the limitations on speech and personal liberty are improper and unsupportable. Neither contributes to transparent elections, and both said this yesterday.

Elvin Santos (Liberal Party presidential candidate) noted that in talking with Micheletti, they provided him with several alternative decrees that still accomplished his goal of restricting opposition access to the media.

Congress itself could reject, or ammend the decree right now. However, Saavedra noted that there were divisions within Congress regarding the other consitutional restrictictions in the decree, and the political cost of bringing those divisions to light could damage the coalition that supports the coup.

So expect delay from everyone about rescinding the decree, which is not law, but is being enforced because it has successfully stopped the over the air broadcasts of Channel 36 and Radio Globo.

Posted by rns

Any agreement without "Constituent Assembly" is surrender

José Justiniano Lijerón Jose Justiniano Lijerón
Rebelión Rebellion

The situation in Honduras after the fascist coup supported by the U.S. government against a democratically elected government by popular will, is no longer just a problem of Hondurans. Los pueblos del mundo apoyan la lucha que viene sosteniendo la resistencia en condiciones desiguales frente a la arremetida de la violencia fascista del usurpador del poder Micheletti como títere de la burguesía parasitaria hondureña, que usando los guardianes de sus intereses de clase, un ejército cuyos mandos militares han sido domesticados en la Escuela de las Américas, como dóciles instrumentos al servicio de la política de intervención estadounidense en nuestro continente, continúan ultrajando al pueblo hondureño. The peoples of the world support the struggle of the resistance against the coup, against fascist violence supported by Micheletti, the usurper of power and a puppet of the Honduran parasitic bourgeoisie who use the guardians of their class interests, an army, whose military commanders  have been domesticated in the School of the Americas, as docile instruments in the service of the U.S. intervention policy in our continent, continue to outrage the Honduran people.

This fascist coup revealed once again that the U.S. is the boss in the Pentagon's military technological apparatus, the support of imperial power, regardless of who the ruling party, is, since whoever is against the military power, will be against interventionist policy of the empire. The two party domes, which every four years or eight take turns  in the government are part of that power and if someone tries to do anything that will not suit their interests, the answer must be found in presidents who died from "natural causes" and what happened to the assassinated President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and many others.

The fascist coup in Honduras was a warning that power to the vagaries that while campaigning for Mr. Obama began drawing with the word "changes" to close Guantanamo, interventionist troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan and some other etceteras, especially the word "change" is not registered in any of the gorillas brain cell connection in the Pentagon.

  It is still early to speculate what will come.  President Obama insists every morning in his "nice" speeches about respect for the self-determination of peoples and countries of the world and in the afternoon he threats  Iran in synchronized chorus with France, Britain, Russia and others, who will always be pretending to be the owners and masters of the universe in its old practice of negotiating repartition including influences in the world.

  We all ask ourselves whether the agencies, UN, OAS, Rio Group, UNASUR, shall decide, with the exception of ALBA (which has a transparent position), why the fascists are laughing at all the resolutions, they will see that the pronouncements pusillanimous of these bodies is the same: "We reject the coup", "we should quickly return to constitutional order with the return of President Zelaya", but with  more emphasis in the deadly trap for the people fighting in the streets in Honduras and this is the urgent cry of the empire "to enforce the San José Accord" because" that's the mother of the sheep and that is exactly what Americans want.

  They cooked the possible agreement with their official , President Arias, so signing that agreement would be a betrayal to all the dead, wounded, tortured, detained, the signing of the so-called agreement, postponed indefinitely the aspirations of Hondurans to change "peacefully" the old structures of a feudal system anchored in centuries past that benefits certain families of the country as their personal finances.

  The main issue now is not just to "get back Mel" , because  already a lot of blood  has been spilled and the return of the government to solely endorse a fraudulent election or to say that it restores the constitutional thread, now that's very little for the sacrifice made  by the Honduran people, and I am sure that this "agreement" iis not accepted by the people fighting .

  President Zelaya should be aware that any negotiations must necessarily pass through the Resistance Front led by the mobilizations along with delegates who nominated assemblies in the streets, that it is not they who decide what they want or do not agree, with  but  the people, fundamentally the agreement if any, maybe everything is negotiable except the calling of a Constituent Assembly.  Failure to do so is divorce for peoples who always have had courage in defending their interests and their country.  All Hondurans are united in this fight.

José Justiniano Lijerón. Jose Justiniano Lijerón. Ex Dirigente de la Central Obrera Boliviana Former Leader of the Central Obrera Boliviana

Rebelión ha publicado este artículo a petición expresa del autor, respetando su libertad para publicarlo en otras fuentes. Rebellion has posted this article at the express request of the author, respecting their freedom to publish it elsewhere.

US Ambassador Lew Amselem: A Ghoul from Horror Films Past

Posted by Al Giordano - September 29, 2009 at 9:41 am By Al Giordano

When a little over a week ago, Honduras’ elected president Manuel Zelaya landed in Tegucigalpa at the Brazilian embassy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it an “opportune” moment for the “dialogue” she’d been urging all summer.

Six days later, this past Sunday, US Ambassador Hugo Llorens had convened various Honduran political and business people in Tegucigalpa to talk about how to encourage that “dialogue” to resolve the country’s political crisis. Four presidential candidates were there, as were business magnates Adolfo Facusse and Carlos Flores (a former president), John Biehl (a special advisor to the Organization of American States) and human rights advocate Leo Valladares, who shared with Narco News this account of what happened.

In the middle of that Sunday meeting, Ambassador Llorens’ cell phone rang and he received the news that coup dictator Micheletti had issued the now infamous decree erasing basic Constitutional freedoms of assembly, transit, speech and due process. “The first reaction in the room was that it negatively affected the climate for negotiation,” said Valladares.

Then, at dawn, coup troops invaded Radio Globo and Channel 36 TV, stealing their equipment and transmitters to silence them under the new powers Micheletti had decreed.

A few hours later came an Organization of American States meeting in Washington. The interim (or shall we say “de facto”?) US Ambassador, Lewis Amselem, a Bush administration holdover, focused only negligibly on the coup regime’s “state of siege” decree, instead launching into a tirade against the victims of it.

“Zelaya’s return to Honduras is irresponsible and foolish and it doesn’t serve to the interest of the people nor those who seek the restoration of democratic order in Honduras,” Amselem crowed. “Everything will be better if all parties refrain from provoking and inciting violence.”

According to Amselem, provoking or inciting violence is much worse than actually engaging in violence, as the coup regime had been doing all night and morning long prior to and during Amselem’s tirade. And instead of clearly placing the focus the only place it belonged – on the jack-booted regime’s latest wave of terror, in which Honduran lives were and are actually at stake – Amselem decided to play film critic rather than diplomat, taunting Zelaya: “The president should stop acting as though he were starring in an old movie.”

Amselem’s outburst was quickly picked up by the pro-coup media in Honduras (which translated “foolish” as “idiota”) and it not only served to obscure the more important story, that of the coup decree’s erasure of the Honduran Constitution, but it also boosted the morale of the very forces that had just descended into new levels of authoritarianism and actual violence.

And that was only the latest adventure in lack of message control displayed all summer long by a schizophrenic State Department and its erratic, almost drunken, driving that, time and time again, has given oxygen to a coup regime it says it opposes.

The State Department spent the rest of the day composing the following statement, one that reads like an admission that Amselem screwed up:

The United States views with grave concern the decree issued by the de facto regime in Honduras suspending fundamental civil and political rights.  In response to strong popular opposition, the regime has indicated that it is considering rescinding the decree. We call on the de facto regime to do so immediately.

The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people.

At this important moment in Honduran history, we urge all political leaders to commit themselves to a process of dialogue that will produce an enduring and peaceful resolution of the current crisis.

We also urge the de facto regime and President Zelaya to make use of the good will and solidarity extended by President Arias of Costa Rica, the Organization of American States, and other members of the international community to help facilitate, within the framework of the San Jose talks, such a resolution.

In this regard, we remind the de facto regime of its obligations under the Vienna Conventions to respect diplomatic premises and personnel, and those under their protection.  Abiding by these obligations is a necessary component of the dialogue between and among nations, and builds the practices of engagement, tolerance, and understanding necessary for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

But those who have followed Amselem’s diplomatic and military career – especially back in the day that he was political-military officer at the US embassy in Guatemala City (1988-92) and political affairs counselor for the US embassy in La Paz, Bolivia (1992-95) – suspect that Amselem’s sabotage yesterday of stated US policy was entirely predictable, and intentional, given his macabre history in the hemisphere.

Journalist Jeremy Bigwood, who was reporting from Guatemala during Amselem’s tenure there, remembers the diplomat for the same kind of outrageous behavior and statements over the years that he displayed yesterday in Washington. Amselem, according to Bigwood, “would put a positive spin on the extermination of a couple hundred thousand Guatemalan Indians. The guy should be sent to the International Criminal Court for abetting war crimes. He even arranged illegal supplies and airlifts to the Guatemalan Army after US military assistance had been banned.  I can't believe that he would be representing the Obama administration in the OAS.”

Most amazing is that Amselem’s current boss, Secretary Clinton, should already know that he’s a loose cannon because she was, as First Lady in the 1990s, involved with one of Guatemala’s most notorious human rights abuse cases, that of Ursuline nun Dianna Ortiz, who was kidnapped and tortured there in 1989.

In 1995, a US federal judge ordered Guatemalan General Hector Gramajo to pay $47 million dollars in damages to Sister Ortiz and other plaintiffs for those crimes.

Human rights champion Kerry Kennedy has written, “Ortiz’s raw honesty and capacity to articulate the agony she suffered compelled the United States to declassify long-secret files on Guatemala, and shed light on some of the darkest moments of Guatemalan history and American foreign policy.”

Well, guess who pops up in Sister Dianna’s memoirs? Lewis Amselem: and not in a good way. Ortiz wrote:

“…after a U.S. doctor had counted 111 cigarette burns on my back alone, the story changed. In January 1990, the Guatemalan defense minister publicly announced that I was a lesbian and had staged my abduction to cover up a tryst. The minister of the interior echoed this statement and then said he had heard it first from the U.S. embassy. According to a congressional aide, the political affairs officer at the U.S. embassy, Lew Amselem, was indeed spreading the same rumor.

“In the presence of Ambassador Thomas Stroock, this same human rights officer told a delegation of religious men and women concerned about my case that he was ‘tired of these lesbian nuns coming down to Guatemala.’ The story would undergo other permutations. According to the Guatemalan press, the ambassador came up with another version: he told the Guatemalan defense minister that I was not abducted and tortured but simply ‘had problems with [my] nerves.’”

So yesterday was not the first time that Amselem revealed a mean-spirited streak to blame the victims of human rights violations. Most disturbingly, Secretary Clinton – who met with Sister Dianna in the 1990s and expressed sympathy and solidarity – should already know this history.

That Clinton sends such a shady character to represent the US at the Organization of American States only guarantees such sabotage for as long as he is there. Amselem may object to what he terms Zelaya’s “acting as though he were starring in an old movie,” but it is precisely Amselem who is a B-actor in an even older fright flick: that of US policy in Latin America and previous military and coup regimes. And this sordid tale demonstrates that now more than ever is the hour to disinfect the State Department from the bad actors – like Amselem – who haunt like ghouls from horror films past.

Up next: Faux-journalist Frances Robles of Oligarch's Daily The Miami Herald, who thinks harming Hondurans with chemical weapons is a big funny joke...

Update: From today's US State Department press briefing:

QUESTION: I would like to come back to the statement by your ambassador to OAS yesterday about Honduras. He said that Zelaya’s return to his country had been foolish and irresponsible. It seems that this statement has raised some questions, especially because Zelaya is still under siege in the embassy.
MR. CROWLEY: Who said that? I’m sorry.
QUESTION: Sorry?
MR. CROWLEY: Who made that statement yesterday?
QUESTION: Your – I mean the U.S. ambassador to the OAS.
MR. CROWLEY: Sure. Lew Amselem.
QUESTION: Lewis Amselem.
MR. CROWLEY: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmmm?

South Africa urges greater pressure on Honduras de-facto regime

The international community should exert greater pressure against the de-facto regime in Honduras, South African President Jacob Zuma has said.

After a meeting with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina on the sidelines of the just-ended ASA, President Zuma said a solution to the Honduran crisis must be found soon.

President Zuma said he was concerned with developments in Honduras.

“It is necessary that the international community exerts greater pressure to find a solution to the situation of Honduras,” said President Zuma.

During the session of II ASA, the leaders adopted a declaration demanding the restoration of deposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya.

The leaders stated that they were profoundly concerned with the situation in Honduras where Zelaya was now holed in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

In condemning the June 28 coup, the ASA summit demanded that Zelaya return to office and that the de facto administration immediately stop attacks on Brazilian embassy.