Honduras reinstates top immigration official, a day after firing him

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) –

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' new government has reinstated its top immigration official, 24 hours after firing him, citing "a misunderstanding and a mistake."

Nelson Willy Mejia, the head of Honduras' immigration agency, was dismissed Friday after a Brazilian diplomat was denied entry into the country.

The interior and justice minister, Africo Madrid, said the Brazilian diplomat arrived on a flight from Miami but was denied entry and put on another flight back to the United States. Madrid said the immigration agency apparently acted on orders left over from the administration of interim President Roberto Micheletti, who left office Wednesday when President Porfirio Lobo was inaugurated.

Mejia was reinstated Saturday.

Persecution of a Red Cross ambulance

Farmers hurt by Cops 

Planes, Sonaguera, Colon .- Honduran Communicators Network (REDHN).- Wednesday January 25, 2010 .- A National Police patrol persecuted the ambulance that transported from Tocoa  two peasants who were injured in the attempted eviction practice this morning by  the Agricultural Cooperatives of La Trinidad, Las Aguán Suyapa Guanchias and whose lands were acquired under the employer-rigged procedures of Rene Morales few years ago.

Farmers Rosendo Estrada Antonio Reyes and transported by ambulance to the Honduran Red Cross Hospital in La Ceiba Atlántida, in the department of Atlantida,  Tocoa Hospital, Colón, to receive medical attention for the severity of injuries they received. Farmers injured are accompanied by the young Samuel Fuentes.

At the moment it is confirmed that one of five police officers from the patrol, which also carries an agent of the National Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DNIC)  moved into the ambulance and intimidates its occupants .

The armed confrontation was instigated by the National Police elements occurred at the same time that Mr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa was sworn in as new President of the Republic of Honduras in the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa. (EMC) 

BBC Survey: "The Lobo government justifies the Coup"

Editorial

BBC NEWS

One of the immediate challenges of Wolf is giving legitimacy to his government before the international community.

More than half of the readers, who  judged the significance of the inauguration of new president Porfirio Lobo of Honduras consider  it the legitimization of the military coup against Manuel Zelaya.

Although on January 27 began a new stage in the Central American country, many Hondurans and, in general, Latin Americans are very aware of the forced departure of Zelaya from power seven months ago.

Of 51% of BBC News readers who participated in the survey, which has no statistical value, the inauguration of the new Honduran President legitimates Zelaya's overthrow .

In total, about 1,850 readers, as well as several specialists believe that Lobo came to power only to ensure the continuity of an illegal situation.

RESULTS

What does the inauguration of new president Porfirio Lobo?

•  The legitimacy of the coup against Manuel Zelaya
  51%
•  A natural evolution of democracy in Honduras
  21%
•  A way out of a stalled political crisis
  28%

Votes cast: 3603

Voting closed: 28 January 2010

Legal notice

Informal consultation, no statistical value

More bbcmundo.com

Similar views came to the Facebook page of BBC News (clickClick here to follow us in Facebook).

Such is the case of Esteban Reines Araya, who with his comments he questioned the electoral process leading Lobo to the presidency of Honduras.

"At this rate we will end up legitimizing all coups, just because to someone certain processes did not seem right . This sets a bad precedent."

Opine click:Is it the end of the political crisis in Honduras?

"Evolution"

Moreover, 21% of respondents rated the Lobo government start as a natural evolution of democracy in the Central American nation.

While 28% believe that this is a way out of a stalled political crisis and the end of the emergency period that followed the overthrow of Zelaya.

The results of the survey, which recorded 3603 votes in total, can be viewed as a barometer indicating that the leader of the National Party of Honduras will have among his priorities to give legitimacy to his government, not only to a group of his compatriots who condemned the coup, but also to the international community.

"One of the major challenges is to restore credibility to the institutions to the international community," wrote Evelyn Del Pinal on the BBC News website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/america_latina/2010/01/100128_voto_porfirio_lobo_mr.shtml

Repression in Honduras

Haz un click para español.  This powerful video was made by Cesar Silva, a publicist who before the coup in Honduras worked for Channel 8, the State Television Channel. He made this video in collaboration with Edwin Renán Fajardo Argueta. Once the coup happened, and Channel 8 was no longer directed by the Zelaya government, Cesar continued his work as a journalist, but as an individual in collaboration with Edwin. (to read the rest of the text, click on 'read more' below the video box.)



After this video was finished, Cesar and Edwin began traveling around to the barrios in Tegucigalpa, showing the video, and educating people about what happened with the coup. This activity led to both of these young men becoming targets of the death squads. Edwin was assassinated on December 22, 2009. He was found in his apartment hanging from the ceiling, haven been strangled with a piece of wire. There was an attempt to make his death look like a suicide, but it is clear from the evidence that it was a murder.
Right after Edwin’s body was found; Cesar was chased down and dragged out of a taxi. He was taken into custody and tortured for about 30 hours. At that point, he was told, “you have an angel out there somewhere, and he has requested that we release you.” And they let him go. At that point Cesar decided that it wasn’t safe for him to remain in the country, so he decided to flee. He has released this video while en exile, and will continue to produce more videos from the raw material which he still has.
The footage includes up close documentation of the repression which has occurred repeatedly over the last seven months. In the video, Cesar is one of the people carrying Isis Murillo, the young man shot in the head by a sharpshooter at the Tegucigalpa airport last July 5^th. It strikes right at the heart of claims that there was limited repression carried out by the coup regime.
Special thanks to Sofia Jarrin T., who added the subtitles to this video. Please share the video with all of your friends and contacts, and feel free to link to it and embed it on your web sites.
http://quixote.org/repression-honduras

The Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan attacked

1/27 - Three members of Movimiento Unificado Campesino de Aguán shot today, one is in critical condition. Meanwhile the resistance demonstrated its strength continues to grow with massive marches of tens of thousands or more in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula

The Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan attacked - Campesinos Seriously Wounded.
The La Voz de los de Abajo delegation received reports this afternoon from the CNTC and, via telephone, from a leader of the MUCA in Colon of the following urgent situation in communities affiliated to the CNTC.

While Pepe Lobo, the new de-facto president, assumed office with pomp and ceremony; the real face of the “reconciliation” coming to Honduras on January 27th was revealed again as repression in northern Honduras left 3 campesinos seriously injured - one in critical condition.

Edwin Diaz and Reynaldo Reyes were wounded in the leg and foot and Marco Antonio Estrada was shot in the face in the face when National Police and privately contracted paramilitaries came into the campesino community in Aguan and opened fire.

The Movement Unification de Campesinos de Aguan (MUCA), in English The Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan, was founded 16 years ago by campesinos whose lands, were illegally sold to three large landowners in the region. The landowners Miguel Facusse, Rene Morales and Reynaldo Canales are members of the Honduran oligarchy and powerful figures in the region. In 2001 the campesinos recuperated their lands while fighting the illegal sale in the agrarian legal system. After 8 years, the MUCA communities were violently forced off the land on December 19, 2009 and again on January 8, 2010. On January 14, there was another violent attack that evicted campesinos from the section of lands that are claimed by Rene Morales.

Today, January 27th, at 6 a.m. the campesinos recuperated their land again. At 10:30 a.m. a truck carrying troops from the National Police and a private car carrying paramilitaries hired by Rene Morales drove into the community, opened fire and drove off. Diaz, Reyes and Estrada were wounded by the gunfire. The community was able to call for medical help and an ambulance came. As the ambulance with the three campesinos inside attempted to go to the hospital it was stopped by army troops that arrived on the scene and was delayed for at least 10 minutes. Diaz and Reyes are in the hospital in La Ceiba while Estrada was transferred to San Pedro Sula because of the seriousness of his condition. The police and military are at the hospitals, causing concern for the campesinos safety according to the MUCA because Rene Morales is known to have ties and influence in the military battalion stationed in the region.

The MUCA and the CNTC are very worried about more attacks against the campesinos of the MUCA and about the safety of the 3 campesinos. It is also unknown as of this report whether Marco Antonio Estrada will survive the attack.

Please send an email to de-facto president Lobo condemning this attack and holding him responsible for the safety and security of the campesinos of the MUCA. Go to the link below and fill out the contact form for Mr. Lobo.
http://www.presidencia.gob.hn/?page_id=58

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/2010/01/unified-campesino-movement-of-aguan.html

Massive Demonstration as Lobo Takes Power

De facto President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobotook power today as the international business press suggested that the coup had finally triumphed over the resistance or at the least the crisis is over. Meanwhile, despite the ongoing human rights crisis of kidnapping, murder and intimidation, hundreds of thousands of Hondurans of all ages, classes, and regions took to the streets to mark a clear rejection of the legitimacy of Lobo's presidency, and to prove that their demands for justice and a constituent assembly would not fade.

Organizers say it was the second largest demonstration since the coup d'etat. There were marches in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula and smaller marches in other places. The one in the capital led to the airport, where a sea of Honduran citizens danced, shouted slogans and showed tremendous spirits as they waited to watch their deposed elected president Manuel Zelaya board a plane for a brief departure to the Dominican Republic. A stage was set-up on the field where Is Isis Obed Murillo was murdered by the army on July 5th. Musicians played resistance songs, all sectors of the resistance gave speeches, and the names of the martyrs of the Resistance were read.

The energy in the streets was exhilirating, a fresh tidal wave of unified opposition that revealed the National Front of the Popular Resistance has only just begun to fight.

The demonstrations saw little repression despite the presence of droves of police and soldiers, armed and in riot gear. The transfer of power to Lobo was not completely spotless, as demonstrators were harassed coming into the city, taken off buses and manhandled by police. Worse, soldiers and police in the northern province of Colon carried out the second raid this month on campesinos organized with CNTC who had carried out land recuperations that were being legalized by Zelaya. Three campesinos were wounded by gunfire from police and paramilitaries, and one remains in critical condition.

This drives home the message that we heard all day from the Honduran people in resistance: "!Por que el futuro nos pertenence, el presente es de lucha!"

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/2010/01/massive-demonstration-as-lobo-takes.html

Honduran Coup d'Etat a "Win" for the US?

Thursday 28 January 2010

by: Tom Loudon, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

Graffiti calling Pepe Lobo and Elvin Santos "golpistas," which means pro-coup. (Photo: jlduron)

Today, Pepe Lobo will be inaugurated as the new president of Honduras in what many consider to be an institutionalization of the coup d'état, which took place seven months ago. Lobo comes to the presidency as a result of a highly disputed election process carried out by the coup regime. The elections, which have been widely condemned as illegitimate, were boycotted by a large percentage of the Honduran population.

US Undersecretary Thomas Shannon, in a maneuver that totally subverted an extended negotiation process, announced that the US would recognize the election, even if there was not a return to constitutional order. The US celebrates today's inauguration as the "way forward" for Honduras and has aggressively pressured other Latin American countries to recognize Lobo's government.

While the United States is eager to normalize the situation and to get on with business as usual, the June 28 coup d'état has yielded unexpected consequences for Washington, both inside and outside of Honduras. Unforeseen by the coup plotters and the United States, the military takeover of Honduras unleashed a broad based, sustained resistance movement inside the country. A spirit long dormant in Honduras was awakened, transforming the country into a hub of political activity previously unimaginable.

The resistance movement has brought together people from many sectors of Honduran society, including large numbers of disaffected Liberal Party members. The unifying theme is that they no longer accept the status quo for their country. Events of the last seven months have accelerated and deepened a process demanding deep structural change. Organizations such as "Los Necios," a small, left-wing organization of students and young people struggled to maintain a membership of around 100. In these few months, their membership has swelled to over 1,000.

Currently, 57 local expressions of the national resistance organization operate in cities and towns around Honduras. Confounding the coup leader's strategy, the movement is gaining strength despite brutal repression, state terror and the attempt to institutionalize the coup via elections. The resistance movement held large protest marches Wednesday and is working to implement a four-year plan for movement building in preparation for the next national elections.

In Latin America, the coup in Honduras is widely understood to be a test case for US policy toward Latin America. By attacking the weakest and most vulnerable of the ALBA countries, the US hoped to strike a blow to this alternative economic block, which the US counts as enemy. However, in the wake of the coup, the US found itself in a historically unprecedented position at the OAS. Viewed by Latin American governments from both the right and the left as a potential direct threat to each of them, the OAS took a unanimous position denouncing the coup and ejecting Honduras from the OAS. The US was forced to accept this decision. Most countries in Latin America continue to refuse to recognize the results of the coup regime-sponsored "elections" on November 29, despite heavy pressure and arm twisting on the part of the Unites States to do so.

Disappointment stemming from the contradiction between statements of a recently inaugurated President Obama to Latin American heads of state at the Summit of the Americas in April of 2009, and a virtually unchanged US policy has been articulated by leaders throughout Latin America. Three recent "moments" have contributed to a rapid readjustment of expectations. First was the coup in Honduras and refusal of the US to take proactive policy measures against it. Second was the announcement of seven new US military bases in Colombia. And the third was Secretary of State Clinton's declaration that Latin America countries should "think twice about flirting with Iran."

The willingness of Latin American countries to challenge US positions indicates a slowly changing balance of power in the hemisphere. Soon after Arturo Valenzuela was confirmed as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, he paid a visit to the Mercosur countries. Far from the diplomatic protocol to which the US is accustomed, in Brazil and Argentina, the first two countries which he visited, Mr. Valenzuela was not received by the president or the foreign minister in either country. In a press statement near the time of Valenzuela's visit, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim criticized the US for being "extremely tolerant" of the coup and the de facto regime.

What seems most clear is that the US State Department remains mired in an outdated cold war mentality, failing to recognize and adapt to the profound and complex changes that have occurred in Latin America during the last decade. Unfortunately, there seems to be few signs that this will change anytime soon.

Today's inauguration in Honduras is happening in a context in which the old ghosts from the worst decades of US policy toward Latin America have been conjured in an attempt to silence opposition. The sharp escalation of human rights violations and use of state terror in an attempt to destroy the resistance movement have now entered a phase which human rights defenders describe as "silent, selective and systematic." Death squads and paramilitaries relentlessly pursue those resisting the coup. Many have been executed, and others have fled in order to save their lives.

The repression continues in the context of a people who are empowered, determined and who are not afraid. The resistance movement has declared that it will not recognize Porfirio Lobo as president, but rather consider him to be the continuation of the dictatorship imposed though the June 28 military coup. Their nonviolent struggle for deep structural change via a constituent assembly will continue. What has happened in Honduras serves as a marker for change in Latin America. It signals that attempts by the United States to rule the hemisphere through coercion and force will be met with new and unexpected challenges and forms of resistance.

http://www.truthout.org/honduran-coup-detat-a-win-us56471

Honduras's unhappy coup

by Vincent Bevins

Porfirio Lobo's government may have won some recognition, but the June coup has had terrible consequences for Hondurans

The seven-month political crisis has ended in Honduras. That is, the supporters of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya, and the opponents of the 28 June military coup, have lost. Yesterday Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo was sworn into the presidency. The anti-coup opposition chose to boycott the election, and countries such as Brazil and Argentina still refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a government elected in a poll organised by a coup government. But the opposition will be sidelined from official political participation for the next four years.

Lobo's government has garnered the critical mass of recognition – crucially, including from the United States – he needs to be able to run the country. This is despite being elected in a poll which offered no anti-coup candidate, was not recognised by many governments, and whose turnout numbers were probably misreported. Most recently, poor Central American governments reliant on trade with Honduras have grudginglystepped forward to recognise Lobo's government. After a half-year of wearying talks and impotent protest, it seems they've reasoned they have little choice.

Despite well-intentioned interventions from the international community for the restitution of Zelaya, he finished his elected term of office holed up in the Brazilian embassy, surrounded by the military. He has gone into temporary exile in the Dominican Republic, and is awaiting a way to return to his home country.

The new government is likely to soon pardon itself for all crimes committed during the coup. And though dissidents are still murdered or intimidated out of the country – opposition activists often organise using fake profiles on Facebook – protest marches have not recently been met with the harsh repression they were previously used to. One suspects this is because the government no longer fears they pose a real threat.

Opposition leaders don't have a clear plan to change their lot in the short term. David Romero, of opposition Radio Globo, said he simply hopes Lobo governs better than expected: "The coup-makers have him surrounded, but I think he might be able to escape." He told me this in the office where he jumped from his window to escape a military raid of his station, which forced him to transmit online from a clandestine location for months. The official line of the resistance, according to its leaders Carlos Reyes and Juan Barahona, is simply refuse to recognise Lobo's government and wait for the next election.

But if the opposition to the coup has lost, so has everyone else. Cynically, opponents of coups could take comfort that others in the region should be discouraged from repeating the experiment, due to the tragic state of Honduras. The economy of the already impoverished country is in ruins. Starved of crucial international aid, tourism, and trade, the economy shrank by 3-4% last year. This is a bigger drop than that following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Here, of course, the main victims are the country's poor, far removed from the political battles in the capital.

The country now faces crippling international isolation. Two weeks ago the pro-coup daily El Heraldo reported, almost triumphantly, that 19 countries were set to recognise Pepe Lobo's government. The UN has 192 countries. More countries are likely to come forward as Lobo is pressured into reconciliation, but economic catastrophe and international isolation seem a steep price to pay to stop a president serving the last six months of his term because he wanted to have a poll on constitutional reform. Unless, of course, political elites were afraid it was likely to pass – the suspicion that this was the real reasoning behind the coup will long be held by supporters of Zelaya, and such divisions will be another of the long-term consequences of the coup.

The country is deeply divided. Tegucigalpa is covered in anti-coup graffiti, and anti-coup protestors yesterday staged a march through the city yesterday to the site where Zelaya flew out of the country. Intelligent and well-meaning people exist who think Zelaya violated the terms of his presidency. Even if their case is rather flimsy, they must recognise that those who hold the opposite view have been pushed aside in an extremely undemocratic way. And it's also clear that the decision to act against Zelaya – and the way it was carried out – have had terrible consequences for the country's people.

To the extent that they are sincere, Lobo's pushes for reconciliation should be encouraged. But real reconciliation will prove extremely difficult. Part of the country remains excluded from decision-making, and has just suffered military repression and the humiliation of a president imprisoned for months in his own country – and this on top of the deep economic divisions that caused Zelaya to move to the left in the first place.

There was a time in Latin America when you could perpetrate a coup d'état, shoot a few protesters, and simply move on. The current plight of Honduras should show this is no longer the case.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/28/honduras-coup-porfirio-lobo?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments

Coup military who ousted President Zelaya found "innocent" by Court

Court absolves  military from criminal responsibility of  Zelaya expatriation

 Proceso Digital

Tegucigalpa - The judge and president of the Supreme Court, Jorge Rivera Aviles, delivered today the prosecution of the Junta of the Armed Forces of Honduras in the extradition process of President Manuel Zelaya .

The judge previously determined definitive dismissal of the case involving the six generals who are part of the Joint Chiefs of Armed Forces: Chief of Staff, General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Gen. Venancio Cervantes Army Commander Miguel Angel Garcia Paddget, commander of the Air Force, Luis Javier Suazo Price, commander of the Navy, John Paul Rodriguez, and Inspector of the Armed Forces, General Carlos Cuellar Garcia.

Senior military officers were accused by the prosecution of assuming responsibility for the crimes of abuse of authority against the public administration and expatriation to the detriment of internal security of the state and Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

After the hearings the judge had previously determined: enacting permanent dismissal for senior officers, and ordered for each of the accussed their final discharge letters.

Part of the statement said that after the capture of  Zelaya "defendants received reliable information that the country was in a serious, real and imminent threat, not only in the institutional order but in terms of loss of many human lives endangered by such violent actions of Mr. Zelaya's supporters, among whom were people from other countries. "

He adds that "the accused, given the information they had  and given what happened in the premises of the Honduran Air Force, they found no place of lawful detention for Mr. Zelaya Rosales, which could have attempted his abduction by his followers to avoid prosecution, which could have  been a confrontation with countless deaths that would occur in the place where he was hidden  and therefore in the interest of preserving democracy, peace and material and physical integrity of the inhabitants of the republic, including foreigners and Mr. Manuel Zelaya himself, they chose to move to the Republic of Costa Rica. " (notice that this whole statement is a speculation full of "would have"s and "could have"s, a conspiracy theory, a fairy tale, fable, story)

They report that after the move, Honduran and foreign supporters staged a series of actions which were e3ntre attacks on persons not related to them, fires, attacks on public and private establishments as well as against transport.

They also recall that "after Mr. Zelaya returned to the country and took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy his followers insisted to regain the power under the slogan: homeland, restitution or death.(dangerous slogan, it equates guns and actually killing people and violating human rights)

The document says that "the defendants have accepted to arrange the transfer of Mr. Zelaya Rosales outside the country, but they did it  taking into account the great danger to the country, protect property and lives of the Honduran and foreign residents concluding that it was better for  the right of society to live peacefully and without bloodshed. "

After analyzing these events, the natural judge perceives "that what actually occurred in Honduras is a situation of great real and imminent danger that would have meant having continued institutional collapse of the state, ungovernable and confrontation between Hondurans with consequent loss of precious human lives and  these are the reasons why  the defendants acted as they did- They had no deliberate intention of committing criminal offenses or cause damage to the detriment of Mr. Zelaya Rosales. (and what about all the lost lives and human rights abuses by the military and coup leaders and the detriment of institutionality under the rule of a defacto government?)

Under the resolution, both the crime of abuse of authority as the expatriate demand for its typical configuration the concurrence of two elements: one, objective, the other a subjective one, where the objective element is constituted by the tone or the intention or desire of the active subject  to lead a  wrongful conduct, in case that the subjective element is constituted by the damage it would cause deliberately to the passive subject ".(I never heard of so much bullshit in my entire life. My dog ate my homework would have sounded much better)

"In this connection the judge previously estimated that both offenses can only exist in a willful form, so that if failure of the latter offenses under Articles 333 and 349 of the penal code could appear as the most culpable, leading to note the absence of such crimes as Article 13 of the Code in its final part provides that the culpable offense is punishable only where expressly dictated by the law. "

In this case, he adds, it has not been established that the defendants acted with malice, but rather with mindfulness as it was justifiable for preserving democracy in the republic of Honduras and preventing the shedding of human blood, including  Mr. Manuel Zelaya Rosales' own by whirling center around which all the events ... ".

So this judge  has acquired the full conviction that the accused did not commit the crimes of abuse of authority and expatriation, charges for which they were introduced to process, and is therefore appropriate that it is rendered in its favor the corresponding final dismissal and they shall collect the respective letters of final discharge.

The document says that in the hearings it was not proven that the defendants have carried out actions that are identified as punishable with obvious malicious intent and in the absence of this element they can be conceptualized  not as crimes, although there is a prima facie and recognition by the accused of being responsible for the acts that the Public Ministry pointed out as crime-points. (so the intention is what counts when you are commiting a crime, huh? Next time a robber steals bread, if he does it not with malicious intentions but because he's hungry..........)

In the absence of fraud, he adds, he has not been able to establish full proof of the commission of crimes spewing results in the inability to issue arrest warrant, in addition to not being able to conceptualize any action as a crime,  permanent dismissal from the corresponding issue. 

The Joint Chiefs did not attend the hearing because they were in the National Stadium to monitor the security measures as part of the inauguration of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, tomorrow. (how opportune that the trial takes place a day before Lobo's Presidential inaguration, I'm sure it's a coincidence that the military are just too busy now that the trial takes place)

__________________________________________________________

* So much respect and defense of the Constitution...............................................................................

HONDURAS’ PORFIRIO “PEPE” LOBO: ANOTHER DISASTER FOR CENTRAL AMERICAN DEMOCRACY WAITING IN THE WING

Written by Adrienne Pine

Tuesday, 26 January 2010 13:17

Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs Tomorrow, January 27th, as the world’s eyes continue to be riveted on the unfolding disaster in Haiti, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo will be installed as Honduras’ president, succeeding de facto president Roberto Micheletti. While Lobo represents a marked improvement over his predecessor, he is no Jeffersonian, since he certainly was a supporter of the June 28th military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Lobo was chosen in a November election held under conditions of qualified state terror. Statistically, the majority of Hondurans boycotted the presidential elections, as well as those for dozens of candidates for lower offices, and the vast majority of countries around the world classified the ballot as illegitimate. In the hours and days following the election, the illegally-appointed Supreme Electoral Tribunal committed fraud by announcing a voter turnout that was indisputably more than 12 percentage points higher than its own officially-published numbers. The doctored higher figure was cited repeatedly by Lobo, Secretary of State Clinton, and other friendly faces to legitimize the disputed ballot. Many Honduran and foreign observers argue that later international support for the Lobo Administration will eventually ensure the invalidation of Zelaya’s most important reforms. This support will guarantee long-term repression and a growing degree of tight-fisted control in the country, as well as endangering democratic institutions and social justice reforms throughout the hemisphere as the result of an echo effect. Though State Department officials insist that the Honduras election process was transparent, in fact, no international observers were present to confirm the tally because—as announced by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on September 23rd—the conditions for a free and fair election were not present. A scathing 147-page report released Wednesday, January 20th, by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission corroborates this, citing a litany of well-documented human rights abuses, including numerous political assassinations committed prior to, and following the election. The report describes a militarized environment in which dissonant or critical opinions have been officially prohibited in “an egregious, arbitrary, unnecessary and disproportionate restriction, in violation of international law, of the right of every Honduran to express himself or herself freely, and to receive information from a plurality and diversity of sources.” While no official international observers were on the ground election day, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) sent “monitors” to oversee the Honduran election that the OAS and Carter Center had refused to legitimize with their presence. Both the NDI and IRI are funded by the U.S. Congress through a highly conservative Reagan-era umbrella organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The archly conservative IRI has supported efforts implicated in the ousting of democratically-elected presidents in Haiti and Venezuela in recent years. The day of the election, the NDI had its monitors caught on tape refusing to discuss police violence, which they had witnessed outside the polls in Honduras’ industrial city of San Pedro Sula. The parallels between Honduras and Haiti are striking; each country has been saddled by a history of undeserved debt—an enduring legacy of colonialism—and in each country’s case (after over a century of often U.S.-installed dictatorships) an elected president who was responsibly engaged with bringing social justice to its citizens, was evicted from office. The vehicle for this was a military coup at least tacitly backed by Washington. By aiding the foes of Manual Zelaya in Honduras and Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Washington indirectly or directly ousted from power those who had been prepared to protect public resources from the pressing demands of the IMF for privatization, and shrink the public sector infrastructure of both countries. The skewed development of these countries, as well as guidance from private entities and the U.S. government, subjected the national interests of Haiti and Honduras to be hostage to the view of these outsiders. Thus, the smallest windstorm could, literally as well as metaphysically, turn into a hurricane, with the potential to translate a natural disaster’s impact upon the average resident, as a result of outside political manipulations from Washington. Although President Obama initially joined the international community in condemning the Honduran coup and calling for the restoration of democratic order as a precondition for recognition of elections in that country, Washington in fact has been aggressively lobbying other Latin American presidents to recognize the incoming Lobo government. Despite the de facto government’s refusal to reinstate Zelaya or follow the timeline and process laid out by the now-Washington-voided Guaymuras Accords, the Obama Administration has signaled its intention to recognize a “unity” government that has no unified support for the Honduran Congress’ decision to give amnesty to the intellectual authors of the military coup and the thousands of documented human rights abuses that followed, in contravention of international human rights norms. In a recent interview with COHA, independent Honduran journalist and filmmaker Oscar Estrada expressed some of the opposition’s apprehensions about Lobo: “With the entrance on the scene of Porfirio Lobo Sosa, there begins a new phase in the project of domination begun by the June 28th coup d’état. [Lobo’s] recent reconciliation agreement is nothing more than an attempt to whitewash the coup and demobilize the popular resistance.” Regarding Lobo, the man who speaks today of dialogue and peace, among other things, has offered a safe conduct pass to Mel Zelaya for him to safely leave the country. But, just days ago, he proposed a neoliberal “national plan” for the next 28 years. By means of his own legislative bloc, he seeks to approve an amnesty that principally favors the country’s violators of human rights, and plans to govern with the backing and protection of the paramilitary structures that have terrorized the people during the past six months. Honduran opponents of the coup, who since June 28th have organized almost daily protest actions, including numerous marches numbering in the hundreds of thousands, similarly plan to protest Lobo’s inauguration. Some would argue that the Obama Administration has so profoundly bungled the situation in Honduras that it has destroyed hope among many of its citizens as well as Latin Americans that a ‘new era’ of relations with the United States is in the making. Add to that the multiplication of U.S. military bases in Colombia, the mistakes being made in response to the tragedy in Haiti, and the missed opportunities in Cuba, and one cannot claim with any degree of optimism that Obama is off to a robust start to implement an energized and enlightened new Latin American policy.  COHA Senior Research Fellow Adrienne Pine, Ph.D, also serves an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at American University. Dr. Pine recently authored the book Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras (University of California Press).

Amnesty International: Lobo must order immediate investigation into rights abuses

Posted: 26 January 2010 Inaction would give ‘green light’ to further violations, says Amnesty International Amnesty International today urged the new Honduran President to order a full investigation into abuses committed by the security forces following June’s coup d’etat or risk condemning the country to further violations. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, who is set to take office tomorrow (27 January), was elected in November last year amidst a political crisis that saw President Manuel Zelaya ousted by military-backed right wing politicians in June. Hundreds of people opposed to the coup d’état were beaten and detained by the security forces as protests erupted during the following months. At least ten people were killed during the unrest. Kerrie Howard, Americas Deputy Director at Amnesty International, said: “President Lobo must ensure a fresh start on human rights in Honduras by ensuring abuses committed since the coup d’état are not forgotten and do not go unpunished.” The organisation also called on Honduran security forces to cooperate with any investigations into alleged abuses. Since the presidential elections, the Honduran Congress has discussed the possible introduction of an amnesty law that would reduce or deny punishment for those responsible for human rights violations. Kerrie Howard added: “Proposals to introduce amnesty measures for human rights violations are simply unacceptable. Failure to sanction abuses that took place during the coup d’etat could give a green light to further violations in Honduras.” According to dozens of testimonies collected by Amnesty International’s researchers in Honduras during two visits to the country, human rights abuses spiralled following the June coup d'etat. Demonstrators against the coup d’etat were targets of widespread excessive use of force by the security forces, including unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment. And there were also hundreds of arbitrary arrests. The police and military also widely misused tear gas and other crowd control equipment. Human rights activists, opposition leaders and judges suffered threats and intimidation, media outlets were closed and journalists were censored. There were also reports of security force personnel committing acts of sexual violence against women and girls. No-one has been held to account for these abuses and few investigations have been opened as yet. Background: Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Rosales was forced from power on 28 June 2009 and expelled from the country by a military backed group of right-wing politicians led by Roberto Micheletti, former president of the national Congress. A de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti remained in power until the end of the year. President Zelaya returned clandestinely to the country and took up residency in the Brazilian Embassy in September. Despite the failure of political negotiations mediated by the Organisation of American States to restore the elected government, in November the de facto authorities proceeded with elections, Porfirio Lobo of the National Party won 88% of the vote and will take office tomorrow (27 January 2010). On 27 November 2009, 32-year-old Angel Salgado was driving home in the capital Tegucigalpa with three friends when, according to eye witnesses military, officials fired shots at their car as it drove by an unmarked check point. Angel Salgado was hit in the head by a bullet. He lost control of the vehicle, which then crashed and injured several bystanders. According to eye witnesses, military personnel began cleaning the scene of evidence immediately after the incident took place. After spending five days in a coma, Angel Salgado died in hospital on 2 December. On 14 August 2009, a police officer sprayed lawyer Nicolás Ramiro Aguilar Fajardo directly in the face with an unknown chemical spray, temporarily blinding him. At the time, Nicolás was trying to stop the police officer from beating a colleague. Find out more about human rights in Central America http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18588