Thursday, March 4, 2010

Myths, Missinformation and Media Terrorism: In the light of Carol Cabrera once again blaming the resistance for the murder of Joseph Hernández , pro coup Media endorses further repression carried out by the army/security forces against the population in Resistance

The theory of the two demons (SpanishTeoría de los dos demonios) is a rhetorical device used in Argentine political discourse to disqualify arguments that appear to morally equate violent political subversion with illegal repressive activities carried out by the state
In the case of Honduras, there is no violent political subversion, although many people could argue against this mostly based on the "evidence" provided by the  continuous yellow press  reports of the coup supportive mass media portraying them as violent, as criminals(This doesn't mean that there are no criminals amongst many citizens of any ideology, which still doesn't mean that if there is one criminal amongst a lot, all of them are, hence they must all be repressed and silenced).  However,  the most important Human Rights Organisations worldwide, whose ethical code is nonpartisanship, have been able to confirm the coup supportive media war against the citizenry in resistance and that most protests have been peaceful as well as the fact that it has been the army and state security forces which have been repressive to the point of killing people and shutting down, even burning anti-coup media. Only during this last month, 3 murders of prominent anti coup activists have taken place and they received death threats, were persecuted shortly before they took place.


 The National Front of Popular Resistance is a big part of the population who opposes the coup, who has vowed to protest and take action in a non-violent way. It is not a sect, but instead a plurality constituted by all sorts of people, ranging from teachers, doctors, lawyers, to  campesinos, indigenous peoples, and students, who simply hold an opinion against the coup, the human rights violations, murders and the current regime and/or go out to protest and mobilize against it in a non-violent way. Many people don't go out to protest because of fear of being threatened and killed as it has happened with many, especially when the armed forces and police take pictures of them while they march. In a polarized Honduras, people who consider themselves resistance and people who support the coup can be members of the same family and have the same last name.


Furthermore, people who consider themselves a part of the resistance have different opinions and are not necessarily supportive of Zelaya, unlike certain media outlets refer to this huge part of the population and insist in labelling them as one-- the "Zelaya supporter" myth. Instead their common ground is a common goal:  to achieve a National Constituent Assembly in order to reform a 1982 constitution based on a US supported military-civilian deal to return to democratic rule after almost 20 years of military dictatorship, that does not protect the majority of the population, a Constitution that does not protect worker's rights, not even human rights entirely.


The reelection myth in order to oppose  changes in the Constitution  through the criminalization of the population asking for them, and in order to apologize the coup is another one of these myths. Though  now that Zelaya is no further president, what's more he's not even in the country, and  the National Resistance Front insists in the changes, coup apologists are running out of excuses/scapegoats to continue criminalizing the resistance, in view it has been the genuine and legitimate purpose of this part of the citizenry since the very start to fight for their own rights, not for the right of one man. To assume that the  purpose of  reforming the constitution is to reform the one law forbidding reelection to allow presidency for life, amongst the many laws that form the constitution has indeed been proven wrong after the end of Zelaya's term in office, hence it is  a myth which continues evidencing the blindness of many people who don't want to realize that to adopt an excuse fabricated by the coup regime and its media consisting of  changing this one law is pretty much against logic, because it is not in the interest of the majority of people to change one law, but the other laws that exclude them.


However, in spite of what is mentioned above, the theory of the two demons has been taking place since the coup started and if you have ever lived through a coup, it is not hard to figure out that this has also happened in every single one in Latin America for an obvious reason: If they didn't, coup plotters would have zero support and they  would look like the bad guys. Why the hell would they be honest if they want to stay in power with as much support of the population as possible even if it is through lies and manipulation? Deceiving in order to have power and support becomes not only a necessity, but an obligation. The others need to look as bad as them.


The coup supporting media has been a huge tool to manipulate public opinion, showing anti-coup activists as violent politically subversive and going even further describing them as terrorists and criminals (like said: this  doesn't mean that there are no criminals amongst many citizens of any ideology, which still doesn't mean that if there is one criminal amongst a lot, all of them are, from students to teachers to doctors to campesinos and thousands of citizens,  hence they must all be repressed and silenced, neither does it mean that the media accussations are true).. Many of us who have been on top of news in the last 8 months have witnessed the lies and misinformation that has been spread by them in order to justify the constant repression against citizens in resistance, with the support and consent of the  naive citizenry  who believe religiously in the coup regime, its media, and everything they say to satisfy their own political agenda. The Catholic and Evangelic Church have also played a big role in keeping faithful believers (in them, not in a God per se) on their side, by making speeches or statements publically supportive of the regime and condemning the population against it, deeming them in every possible way as heretics, immorals, and criminals: if you're not with the regime you are immediately labelled as a "communist" and a "traitor", so the population of the  country is living through an ideological Inquisition with the help of religious leaders.


Media Monopoly  held by politicians and businessmen


The richest businessmen in Honduras are  the main media owners holding media monopolies, coincidentally the same ones defending and supporting  the coup:  families that are closely related to the United States and those in power(politicians and actual congressmen, ambassadors, etc). 90% of  all radio and television channels, and major newspapers belong to them. Amongst them Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé (uncle of Marcia Facussé, the vicepresident of Congress, related to Miguel Facussé, the one responsible of kicking illegally the campesinos out of their lands in Bajo Aguán), former president of Honduras from 1998 to 2002, close to Micheletti and suspected of being one of the chief ideologues of the coup who owns a major newspaper La Tribuna in the country.  Jorge Canahuati Larach(several of his relatives are government officials in embassies worldwide), member of the National Party, owner of El Heraldo and La Prensa, and two other Central American country’s main newspapers . Rafael Ferrari, a known member of the Liberal Party is the owner of television channels 3, 5 and 7 (Group Televicentro) and many radio stations (Emisoras Unidas, HRN, Radio Norte, etc.), Marcia Facussé, Vicepresident of Congress is married to one of his nephews. The businessman Ricardo Maduro, a former Central Bank president (1990-1994) and President of the Republic between 2002 and 2006  who before leaving his post to Manuel Zelaya, meekly applied adjustment measures dictated by the IMF (devaluation of the national currency, liberalization of prices ...). Maduro invested in El Salvador and Honduras, where he owns shopping centers (Grupo Roble), banks and media. [To defend the spurious grounds of removal of Zelaya was presented with the Honduran Constitution in hand to Congress in Washington on July 8.] 


Carol Cabrera has once again blamed the population in Resistance for her murder attempt and the assassination of Joseph Hernández. 


It is absolutely irrational and more close to jungle law to religiously believe that a  resistance plurality  has committed the crime Ms Cabrera accusses them of without any solid evidence, only because of political dissent, desire of polemics and controversy seeking attention, as  it is widely known by the Honduran population is her modus vivendi, taking mostly into account that  she  was  proven wrong less  than two months ago by the police, when back then she  and Micheletti were also accussing the resistance of murdering her daugher:
The DNIC(Criminal Investigation Police) stated that  Carol Cabrera's daughter was killed by soccer hooligans—no relation to the Resistance—of Olimpia and Motagua—the Ultrafiel gang of Olimpia fans, vs. the Revo gang of Motagua fans. .
http://www.tiempo.hn/secciones/sucesos/7859-capturan-a-sospechoso-de-asesinar-a-hija-de-periodista-
http://www.elheraldo.hn/Ediciones/2009/12/25/Noticias/Auto-de-prision-por-crimen-de-hija-de-Cabrera
http://www.elheraldo.hn/content/view/full/352804


It is shameless on her part mainly because it is very irresponsible to accuse the population who has been undergoing abuses since June 28th and because it will simply incite to more abuses from part of the security forces, their justification, and probably even killing with the support and consent of the easily fooled more innocent people. 


Besides being irresponsible, she is also acting suspiciously, mainly because of Joseph's father saying that he does not understand why she made her bodyguard, a policeman, get out of the car in the middle of the way when Joseph was taking her home, taking into account he was killed minutes later, when it has been reported that this policeman stayed home to take care of her kids, which is apparently a lie.


Because she was attacked during a live broadcast from her cellphone to her radio program in Radio Voces, there are reports saying that she was complaining about the current administration of taking away her program in State Channel 8 to a point of even commenting that in Olancho, where she originally comes from, a National Party meeting would take place and that she would ask her uncle, who lives there, to prepare guns to receive those members. She was also saying she has a video and that government officials have extra marital sex in government offices, not specifying who. Moreover, in the exact moment of her attack, she was complaining about the regional Governor and about Pepe Lobo saying:
¿Se acuerda usted que el otro día Pepe en conferencia de prensa dijo que se eliminaban los asesores y se eliminaban los consultores? Híjole don Pepe, don Pepe Lolo como le dice mi hijo, la...”,


 "Do you remember the other day when Pepe during a press conference said that the assessors must be eliminated and that the consultants must be eliminated? Whoa don Pepe, don Pepe Lolo like my son calls him,..."


Carol Cabrera is said to have lots of enemies due to her controversial and often offensive comments on TV  about many people in public life in Honduras, not only the resistance. 


Honduras, since the coup  is a very polarized country and it is certainly one of the most violent countries in the Americas, but to intend to dismiss all the reports done by many of the different and most important human rights organizations worldwide, who   have solid evidence to condemn the state sponsored terrorism repressing a big part of the Honduran population, while at the same time sustaining that that "there are no villains nor heros" to prove that the coup supporting media sponsored misinformation is correct and to accept the criminalization of the anti coup population because they are  just "as bad" is as fallacious as thinking the same of any coup regime in Latin America and its resistance--- a very unwise, short-sighted, and convenient stance for opiniated people with a Cold War mentality, aka coup d'etat apologists. 


To state that there are no "villains" in a coup a/o  any violent regime, suggesting that violence is carried out by  "both sides" , meaning the armed forces and the state sponsored repressive bodies  alongside powerful business magnates who pay for the determination of the country's policies for the sake of their economic interests , who have so much more power over the unarmed and poor population,  and the latter group, who in in this case, have vowed to be a peaceful and non-violent movement, would be like saying that during the Pinochet dictatorship  violence simply came" from all sides" (like the regime and its media surely stated) in order to justify political murders and human rights violations, something that has always happened in Latin America and has likewise always been supported by traditional media outlets and the United States.


It's very true to say that there is no "good" or "evil", but to use this as an argument to intend to neutralize public opinion by comparing  state sponsored terrorism and the unarmed people who oppose it is just  sophistry, a very cheap attempt to justify the unjustifiable and endorse further harassment and violence carried out by the army and security forces against the status quo opposition, like it has happened in Honduras during the last 8 months. Greedy, power-hungry people, who would go to the last consecuences to impose their agendas on a whole population to the point of being a violent, repressive dictatorship surely qualifies as a villain in any book without being a supernatural being or myth, neither is supernatural if a population has carried out non-violent protests against such a regime  without breaking the law or hurting anyone.


Ideological fundamentalism, intolerance of dissent, and hatred towards others who think differently  then becomes more than a myth--- a faith in their "evil", when sadly informing yourself further than what mainstream media reports could show you otherwise.


Human Rights and the Coup D'Etat


Since it is a population in resistance, it is clear that they don't all actually talk with each other or even share the exact same ideas like the plurality they are, instead, like mentioned they share the common goal called National Constituent Assembly and disagree with the coup d'etat. It is not a secret sect, but instead many sectors of the population and individual citizens amongst families who did support the coup. They are not all completely organized, unlike the state who controls everything, unlike its security forces and the military, unlike government officials, who have indeed organized state terrorism against everyone who dissents.






In conclusion, the resistance is an abstract and wide term, while the military and state security forces are not. There is no slight chance for anyone against  armed soldiers, policemen, and private mercenaries hired by powerful men (whose presence  in Honduras the United Nations have  already confirmed and denounced). 


To intend to solidify such an abstract and wide front through demonization, stereotyping sponsored by media and group of economic and political power is as pathetic as stating that all Christians rape children, because some priests do, or even more, because the peoples in resistance are fighting exactly against injustice, corruption, and violence and have vowed to do it non-violently, because as conscious peoples, they know what they're fighting against not for, cautious to not become the monsters they fight against, and intelligent enough to know that the media has spread too many lies in order to justify murders and repression, when no one from the population wants to help them go ahead demonizing everyone, in view their own lives are at risk and many already have paid with their own, with the responsible ones unpunished and even given amnesty to.





No comments:

Post a Comment