Resiste Honduras

A State of Siege in Northern Honduras: Land, Palm Oil and Media

2010-12-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

Written by Peter Lackowski

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 18:42

Palm oil is a convenient source of biodiesel, and oil palms grow very well in the valley of the Bajo (Lower) Aguan River of northeastern Honduras. This valley is the home of some of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Their poverty is due, in large part, to the fact that most of the land in the region has been appropriated by powerful corporations controlled by members of the Honduran oligarchy, led by one of the richest and most ruthless of them all, Miguel Facusse.
Facusse owns massive tracts of land throughout the country, much of which he has obtained by fraudulent deals made possible by the corruption of government officials. In the early 1990's, 5000 acres in the Bajo Aguan was awarded to peasants after the closure of a military base on which personnel were trained by the USA in the use of torture and other methods of repression. Facusse bribed "community leaders" to make deals to sign this and other land over to him for bargain prices. He also employs hundreds of heavily armed "security" personnel who are used to intimidate and murder those who stand in his way, so any peasants who objected to this process were "neutralized." (resistenciahonduras.hn November 16)
One of the reasons that President Manuel Zelaya was deposed on June 28, 2009 was the fact that he was actively carrying out a program of land reform, implementing laws that were on the books but never enforced, actively investigating and rectifying cases of fraud and corruption that had deprived campesinos of their land. Miguel Facusse was a prominent supporter of the coup, along with other members of the oligarchy who opposed Zelaya's land reform, his raising of the minimum wage, and various other things he was doing to benefit and empower the popular classes. Zelaya's ouster put an end to these efforts.
With or without the help of president Zelaya, the peasants of the Lower Aguan were living in such extreme poverty that they had no choice but to continue with their struggle for land. Around the beginning of 2010 they began invading the land in question and planting subsistence crops. Facusse's thugs moved in and began killing and beating peasants and destroying their property. But the current president, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, who came to power in an election tainted by repression, censorship, and massive abstention, was faced with the task of obtaining diplomatic recognition for his post-coup de facto government, and this did not look good to international observers. So Lobo began negotiating with Facusse and the campesinos to use public funds to buy him off. Meanwhile, he moved thousands of Honduran troops into the region to set off fears of a massacre that might be carried out under the cover of clearing out "illegal squatters." The clear intention was to motivate the campesinos to accept the terms of whatever deal he struck--or else. Of course the troops were said to be there in the interest of public safety, to prevent acts of "terror" by those lawless, land invading peasants. In April 2010 Lobo announced a deal according to which the campesinos would get a lot less land than they were demanding, with the added requirement that half of that land would have to be used to grow palm oil, and that the palm fruits would have to be sold to Facusse for processing.
But Facusse was not satisfied after all, and things went back to where they were, with steady pressure on the campesinos in the form of property damage, physical attacks, and occasional murders (3 on August 17, another one September 10.) Then on the morning of November 15, after peasants occupied a tract of land that Facusse illegally occupies in the "El Tumbador" section, approximately 300 of Facusse's guards tried to evict them. An exchange of gunshots followed, lasting four hours, resulting in the deaths of five peasants and the serious wounding of four others.
President Lobo decided to take action--he sent in thousands of army personnel. But he did not disarm Facusse's private army, since they are licensed to carry weapons. Instead he had the army set up checkpoints throughout the region to confiscate any unauthorized weapons that people might be carrying. This is in response to a huge propaganda campaign that the corporate press has been carrying on all along, but which has now reached a fever pitch: they have claimed that all of the problems in the Bajo Aguan are caused by outside agitators, from Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela--wherever. Now they are saying that "insurgents" have been trained in Nicaragua, and that thousands of assault rifles and heavier weapons have been shipped to the peasants. They have presented no evidence of any of this, but they constantly repeat the same claims. The one relatively balanced and honest large daily newspaper, El Tiempo of San Pedro Sula, reported on November 25 that after the massive crackdown the net result was 27 miscellaneous undocumented firearms carried by random citizens, mainly revolvers and automatics, with one 12 gauge shotgun. Apart from confident assertions from members of the oligarchy (including Facusse), there has been no concrete confirmation of either arms or foreign "advisors."
One very worrisome aspect of this claim that the area has been "militarized" by "outside forces" has been the the fact that it is the pretext for the occupation of the offices of the National Agrarian Institute in the town of Tocoa. Word came from the president's office that there are boxes of assault rifles stored there, "up to a thousand." The police raided the office, supposedly to search for these weapons, and the campesinos who are involved in the legal dispute with Facusse are very concerned. Records that are pertinent to their cases are stored in that office. The employees of the Institute have not been allowed to enter to see what the police are doing, and there is serious concern that the records will be destroyed, stolen, or altered. Karen Spring of Rights Action reports that there is also concern that there will be "an attempt to frame the state institute for providing arms and supporting the campesino struggles in the region." (http://quotha.net/node/1399)
It happens that the building of the National Agrarian Institute has been serving as an emergency shelter for 60 families who are victims of the disastrous hurricane Matthew last September. The more than 300 troops and police who invaded the building destroyed all of their belongings and their meager furniture, stole their money, and threw them out. They are appealing to international agencies for assistance and justice (ellibertador.hn Nov. 26, 2010.)
The role of the Honduran corporate press is interesting. Their reporting has constantly referred to the peasants as the instigators of violence. Whenever leaders of the Resistance (which includes far more than the peasant organizations) are murdered, they pass it off as some kind of personal affair, sometimes even suggesting darkly that unspecified criminal activity might have been involved. When Nahum Palacios, the only journalist who actually reported the peasants' side of the story, was murdered they denied that it had anything to do with his work--it must have been a mysterious personal matter. Similarly, they suggest that the killings of campesinos could be due to internal dissension. The press simply accepts the fact that there is rarely even a superficial investigation, and the killers are never found. Recently there was a report by journalists from La Prensa of San Pedro Sula who were traveling with police and encountered some campesinos with automatic rifles. Their take on this was that the campesinos were attacking their "freedom of expression," since they felt threatened by them. (laprensa.hn Nov. 26, 2010)
It should be mentioned that not all of the media in Honduras are so one-sided. The newspaper El Libertador appears monthly in print, but maintains an active and informative website at elibertador.hn. (It's personnel have been threatened and tortured.) Radio Globo and TV Channel 36 reported honestly on the coup, and as a result had their equipment destroyed and were off the air for a time. El Tiempo of San Pedro Sula (tiempo.hn) often reports points of view that differ from the standard propaganda. But these are a relatively small part of the media.
The power of the corporate media was demonstrated at the time of the coup that deposed Zelaya, when the corporate newspapers constantly ran stories about how he wanted to change the constitution so as to be president for life. While this could conceivably have been in his mind, what he was actually calling for was a poll to ask whether the country needed a new constitution. The possibility of his being re-elected was no more than a hypothetical proposition, and it would only have been possible after a new president and a new constitution would have been in place. But by constantly repeating the claim that he wanted to be re-elected for life, they introduced enough confusion so that people who didn't like his policies had a superficially plausible reason to accept a blatantly illegal military coup.
One of the secret diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks was an analysis of the legal basis of the coup sent to Washington by the US ambassador, Hugo Llorens, in July 2009. He described it as illegal and unconstitutional, saying that "...the actions of June 28 can only be considered a coup d'etat by the legislative branch, with the support of the judicial branch and the military, against the executive branch." The revelation of the ambassador's honest (though secret) assessment of the coup has caused quite a stir in Honduras.
The media campaign to blame Nicaragua for the problems in the Bajo Aguan is following a pattern similar to the campaign to get rid of Zelaya. The ugly facts of Facusse's terroristic attack on his impoverished victims is being smothered in a froth of indignant condemnation of foreigners for being at the bottom of it all, implying that the campesinos of Baja Aguan would be perfectly content if it were not for those evil agitators.
There actually is a lot of foreign interference in the affairs of Honduras, but it is coming from the United States, and it is likely to be even more intense now that Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will be the chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Ros-Lehtinen is famous for her extreme views, including advocating the assassination of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and support of terroristic attacks on the people of countries she looks upon as enemies of the US. She has traveled to Honduras to offer her support for the coup, and she is likely to join in the condemnation of Nicaragua and other "enemies" for their supposed interference in Honduras. But even before the midterm election the Obama administration went out of its way to try to get other countries to recognize the de facto government, and enabled the World Bank to loan Facusse $30 million to finance biofuel production.
Another foreign presence was reported in the Bogota, Colombia newspaper El Tiempo on September 14, 2009. It seems that dozens of paramilitaries who had been working for Colombian drug lords were being recruited by Honduran landowners to work as security guards on their plantations. These men are experienced in assassination and violent intimidation, and the monthly salary of $750 plus living expenses was attractive by Latin American standards.
The situation in Bajo Aguan has been described as a "state of siege" (El Libertador, September 22) The roadblocks and arrests continue, and campesinos are being driven out of the plantations they have accupied. President Lobo announced on November 29 that he would soon visit the region himself to "move this process of dialogue ahead and to bring closure to this problematic situation."
Meanwhile, Karen Spring reports that, "In an outcry against the killings and in an act of solidarity, campesinos from six departments of Honduras (Atlantida, Colon, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Cortez and Choluteca) began land occupations shortly after the November 15th murders. To pressure the government and demonstrate their force, campesinos will be arriving in Tegucigalpa on Thursday [December 2] for a gathering outside of the National Congress." (http://quotha.net/node/1399)

Source: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2800-a-state-of-siege-in-northern-honduras-land-palm-oil-and-media

Is Wikileaks a smoke curtain?

2010-11-29T21:11:00.000-08:00

Everyone is entitled to be skeptical about everything and the leaks regarding diplomats around the world don't really reveal relevant information about what is actually taking place and who is behind it, but is more based on personal attacks which are more reminiscent of a soap opera rather than serious international affairs. It is very doubtful that Berlusconi, Merkel, Westerwelle, Sarkozy, Preval (all of which share good relations with the United States) will mind being called the things they were called, yet this is the greatest show on Earth being presented as ultra-secret files, as if Berlusconi's sex scandals weren't spread by the media on an almost weekly basis, or as if Westerwelle and all of these politicians were highly popular or accepted in their countries, something which is curiously not the case of almost all of these political figures (apparently not coincidentally either).

It shouldn't be so extraordinary to ask oneself if this is just a smoke curtain to distract people from the relevant things going on by making a big media show out of nothing, because it is very possible that all of these diplomats did not only previously know what was going to take place, but that they also agreed on it for the important events and changes they are making in their countries to be lost among the big superficial drama in the news. It could even help them acquire the popular support they don't have, instead of potentially stirring conflict with the US. Big media shows are the way politics operate to distract the masses while governments do and undo(See the Chilean miners showcase)

A very good example of this leak being a smoke curtain is it taking place exactly yesterday, Haitian Election Day amid a cholera outbreak that killed already over 1,500 people, while many were protesting, plus allegations of fraud and irregularities not only by citizens, but by 12 out of 18 candidates themselves. In the meantime, everyone was too busy reading the leaks and the" big nasty thing" a US diplomat said about Preval.

Regarding Honduras, ambassador Llorens didn't really reveal anything most of us didn't know and the US official stance was never really inconsistent with its actions, since the Library of Congress report on the coup determines it as "constitutional". One could even dare to say that this leak whitewashes Llorens(and even the US's in general) role during the coup putting him as a guy "who knew what was right" but was almost like a victim of the whole situation, unrelated to the "inevitable" circumstance that was going on around him, when some of his statements during this time showed the opposite: indirectly justifying the coup by implying that Zelaya had provoked the whole thing.

We must also remember that yesterday, November 28, Haitians are not the only one "celebrating" elections, but it is the first anniversary of the Honduran fraudulent elections which took the Lobo coup continuation government to office, elections with results that were fully recognized by the United States, its Secretary of State even pushing for recognition in several Latin American tours, so there is no contradiction here. The CIA factbook has allegedly real data on it, so why would a "secret" cable contain false information on it? Would it have made a difference had this cable been published earlier, now, or in a few years? Surely not. After all, Llorens did say it was a coup all along as did the US.

Some people might argue that "it damages the US more than it benefits it" and see this as a measure of reliability, but I am not so sure about that, because in games, sometimes players risk some things, or even make many concessions or apparent concessions in order to gain advantages in the long term. Any thinking human being can observe that The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel are not really exactly anti status quo media, but the opposite, just with a slight touch of "progressive" make-up here and there. They are big business too and very likely, just like so many of them, not quite at the service of the vast majorities, but of their and their clients' own interests. As far as we know, this might all be unilateral. Skepticism will never ever hurt, even if there is no evidence for now. Time will tell.

CONFLICT AND MILITARIZATION CONTINUES IN COLON AFTER MASSACRE OF CAMPESINOS

2010-11-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

By Karen Spring, spring.kj@gmail.com

On Tuesday, November 23 at 7:00 am, between 300-400 military officers and a reported seven military commanders occupied the offices of the National Agrarian Institute (INA) in the department of Colon.

The occupation of the INA office occurs just eight days after the murder of five campesinos and the severe injury of four members of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) by private security guards of large African palm producer, Miguel Facusse in Bajo Aguan, Colon. Facusse's African palm company, Dinant Corporation is the recipient of a $30 million dollar loan from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. (For more information, see Annie Bird's article below).

Since the massacre a week ago, the region has been heavily militarized by state forces and various check points have been set up along the major roads to 'guarantee the security of the region.' The military and police forces are accused by various campesinos organizations in the region of acting in favour of the large land owners, arriving hours after the conflicts and deaths occur and not carrying out the proper investigations often solely accusing the campesinos as being at fault.

INA, the state office responsible for titling land and working to resolve land disputes, and its director Caesar Ham have been publicly accused by large land owner Miguel Facusse to be assisting the campesinos in the region in the efforts to recuperate land illegally taken from them. It is speculated that today's occupation of the INA office is an attempt to frame the state institute for providing arms and supporting the campesino struggles in the region.

In an outcry against the killings and in an act of solidarity, campesinos from six departments of Honduras (Atlantida, Colon, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Cortez and Choluteca) began land occupations shortly after the November 15th murders. To pressure the government and demonstrate their force, campesinos will be arriving in Tegucigalpa on Thursday for a gathering outside of the National Congress.

"WE ARE JUST POOR CAMPESINOS FIGHTING FOR OUR CHILDREN": IN THE HOSPITAL AWAITING AN OPERATION

Julian from the community of Guadalupe Carney and one of the four MCA campesinos injured was shot in the head during the confrontation with Facusse's security guards. He remains in the hospital where he is awaiting an operation to reconstruct parts of his face.

A bullet entered in the right side of his face just below his cheek bone, passed through his upper lip area and exited on the left side of his face, fracturing his cheek bone. "The upper part of my mouth is destroyed. I can't eat, just liquids but not other types of good." Almost all of Julian's upper teeth and gums have been destroyed.

FUNDS ARE NEEDED:

The Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) and the families of the nine affected campesinos have many medical expenses and funeral costs.

TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS

Make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

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Memo Reveals US State Department Knew Honduras Coup Was Illegal, Did Not Follow Own Advice

2010-11-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

Posted by Erin Rosa - November 28, 2010 at 11:55 pm

Leaked Cable, Early During Coup, Defined Removal of President Manuel Zelaya as Illegitimate

Less than month after the coup d'état that removed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office at gun point, the US Embassy in the country's capital sent a memo to State Department headquarters in Washington DC ripping apart arguments used by the coup plotters.

“...The military and/or whoever ordered the coup fell back on what they knew – the way Honduran presidents were removed in the past: a bogus resignation letter and a one-way ticket to a neighboring country,” reads a confidentialcable from Tegucigalpa, signed by US Ambassador Hugo Llorens (pictured right) and published today by the organization Wikileaks.

The agency did not heed the warnings written by Llorens. The document, which was sent to the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the military, is in contrast to the State Department's position to back a coup supporter to be the future president of the country months after the memo was sent. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was later found to be involved ingiving millions to the coup regime through a US government-financed corporation she helped manage.

In the July 9, 2009 document, titled “Open and Shut: The Case of the Honduran Coup,” Llorens writes that after consulting legal specialists and analyzing the country's constitution it's clear that “the actions of June 28 can only be considered a coup d'etat by the legislative branch, with the support of the judicial branch and the military, against the executive branch.”

On that date soldiers forced their way into the democratically-elected president's home in the capital and put Zelaya on a plane to San José, Costa Rica after the country's Supreme Court had issued a secret arrest warrant. “Accounts of Zelaya's abduction by the military indicate he was never legally 'served' with a warrant; the soldiers forced their way in by shooting out the locks and essentially kidnapped the President,” Llorens says in the memo.

Zelaya's alleged “crime” according to coup backers was proposing to have a vote to create an assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. Later that day the National Congress passed a resolution to remove Zelaya from office, while presenting a fake resignation letter. Roberto Micheletti, President of the National Congress, was declared the new president of a de facto government run by coup supporters.

The cable says “it is not clear” that promoting a vote to change the constitution is unconstitutional, and that regardless of the legal arguments, the armed forces are not allowed to execute judicial orders and Congress had no authority to remove Zelaya from office.

“Zelaya's arrest and forced removal from the country violated multiple constitutional guarantees, including the prohibition on expatriation, presumption of innocence and right to due process,” Llorens writes. “Furthermore, a source in the Congressional leadership told us that a quorum was not present when there [sic] solution was adopted, rendering it invalid. There was no recorded vote, nor a request for the 'yeas' and 'nays.'”

Despite calling the Micheletti government “illegitimate” and the coup a product of a “hasty, ad-hoc, extralegal, secret, 48-hour process,” it was Llorens and the State Department who later began to support the coup. The US-financed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which had “hands on” management by Clinton on its board of directors, gave $6.5 million to the coup regime after Zelaya was ousted. The agency then backed coup supporter Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo as the winner of a presidential election held five months after Zelaya was removed. Lobo denied a coup had taken place, and as president he later gave amnesty to everyone involved in plotting it.

In other words, while it is now clear that the State Department knew the coup was illegitimate and unconstitutional, why did the agency get so involved with funding the coup regime and backing one of its key supporters in elections that were marked by well-document abuses and fraud?

That question could be answered soon. The cable in one of hundreds from Honduras that will be made available over the next few months according to Wikileaks, and they may explain the State Department's handling of the first Latin American crisis under the Obama administration.

Source: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/erin-rosa/2010/11/memo-reveals-us-state-department-knew-honduras-coup-was-illegal-did-not-f

First Leaked State Department Cable on Honduras Coup

2010-11-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

DOMINGO 28 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2010 18:06 EDITOR

Around 250,000 cables from the State Department and its branches in the world were leaked recently by the internet operator Wikileaks. From those at least 2000 are from the Tegucigalpa embassy.

Western media, particularly five newspapers from Western Europe and the United States, are revealing information since last October about US military activity. This week the State Department got in contact with foreign governments to warn them on the contents that were going to be released in order to prevent a diplomatic crisis in the world. French Le Monde published an article explaining why it was publishing this information, and about the editorial process most, if not all, of the cables were passing through in order to protect the interests of those individuals directly involved and without interfering with ongoing intelligence activity.

We believe not only to protect individuals but also the interests of political adventures undertaken by the State Department itself, although calling the Honduras Coup a Coup, manipulation of information of the Honduras cable is clearly evident in El Pais and the New York times most likely from the writer (Llorens) but perhaps also from the editors (NYT/EP). Information was also accessible for The Guardian, Le Monde and German Der Spiegel . These transnational media outlets would never dare to seriously damage the interests of the United States in front of the world’s public opinion specially in matters of this delicate nature (Latin American insurgency).

Le monde says about this “in common, the five newspapers have carefully edited the raw texts used in order to withdraw all names and data for which divulgation could imply risks for physical individuals”. Is the word individual here to be understood as Miguel Facussé for instance?

The first important Tegucigalpa cable dated 2009-07-24 appeared in El Pais clearly shows a dismissal of significant information of the story told from the viewpoint of Hugo Llorens in which he appears to be arguing on the basis of only one topic; the golpistas argument on the legality of the coup as if they never made it to sell a credible story on the Honduras crisis. The Tegucigalpa Embassy over analyzes the arguments from pro-coup sectors and only in the last line it states that there might be two sides and leaves untold that, perhaps, the second side might have different supportive statements and positions regarding the constitutional issues in Honduras at that time.

The message seems to focus blame on how the oligarchy of Honduras failed on doing a smarter job completely denying the arguments of lawyers supporting Zelaya on the legality of the survey taking place on Sunday the 28th and the democratic procedures undertaken by his administration to propose the writing of a new constitution. Llorens once again inteligently covers his very Golpista drive in this now world public cable published by the New York Times and El Pais which we believe millions will eventually read.

On the other hand, tt is interesting to note at the end of the script that amongst the destinations for that cable were Cthe aracas Embassy and Southcom in Miami, FL.

However, we wonder, is this really something we would have had to wait years or decades to see otherwise?

Source for the following information was The New York Times:

DATE 2009-07-24 00:23:00
SOURCE Embassy Tegucigalpa
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
C O N F I D E N T I A L TEGUCIGALPA 000645
SIPDIS
WHA FOR A/S TOM SHANNON
L FOR HAROLD KOH AND JOAN DONOGHUE
NSC FOR DAN RESTREPO
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, KJUS, TFH01, HO
SUBJECT: TFHO1: OPEN AND SHUT: THE CASE OF THE HONDURAN COUP
REF: TEGUCIGALPA 578

Classified By: Ambassador Hugo Llorens, reasons 1.4 (b and d)

1. (C) Summary: Post has attempted to clarify some of the
legal and constitutional issues surrounding the June 28
forced removal of President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya. The
Embassy perspective is that there is no doubt that the
military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired
on June 28 in what constituted an illegal and
unconstitutional coup against the Executive Branch, while
accepting that there may be a prima facie case that Zelaya
may
have committed illegalities and may have even violated the
constitution. There is equally no doubt from our perspective
that Roberto Micheletti's assumption of power was
illegitimate. Nevertheless, it is also evident that the
constitution itself may be deficient in terms of providing
clear procedures for dealing with alleged illegal acts by
the President and resolving conflicts between the branches
of government. End summary.
2. (U) Since the June 28 removal and expulsion of President
Zelaya by the Honduran armed forces, the Embassy has
consulted Honduran legal experts (one cannot find a fully
unbiased professional legal opinion in Honduras in the
current politically charged atmosphere) and reviewed the
text of the Honduran Constitution and its laws to develop a
better understanding of the arguments being parlayed by the
coup's supporters and opponents.
-------------------------------
Arguments of the Coup Defenders
-------------------------------
3. (SBU) Defenders of the June 28 coup have offered some
combination of the following, often ambiguous, arguments to
assert it's legality:
-- Zelaya had broken the law (alleged but not proven);
-- Zelaya resigned (a clear fabrication);
-- Zelaya intended to extend his term in office
(supposition);
-- Had he been allowed to proceed with his June 28
constitutional reform opinion poll, Zelaya would have
dissolved Congress the following day and convened a
constituent assembly (supposition);
-- Zelaya had to be removed from the country to prevent a
bloodbath;
-- Congress "unanimously" (or in some versions by a 123-5
vote) deposed Zelaya; (after the fact and under the cloak
of secrecy); and
-- Zelaya "automatically" ceased to be president the moment
he suggested modifying the constitutional prohibition on
presidential reelection.
4. (C) In our view, none of the above arguments has any
substantive validity under the Honduran constitution. Some
are outright false. Others are mere supposition or ex-post
rationalizations of a patently illegal act. Essentially:
-- the military had no authority to remove Zelaya from the
country;
-- Congress has no constitutional authority to remove a
Honduran president;
-- Congress and the judiciary removed Zelaya on the basis
of a hasty, ad-hoc, extralegal, secret, 48-hour process;
-- the purported "resignation" letter was a fabrication and
was not even the basis for Congress's action of June 28;
and
-- Zelaya's arrest and forced removal from the country
violated multiple constitutional guarantees, including the
prohibition on expatriation, presumption of innocence and
right to due process.
-------------------------------------------
Impeachment under the Honduran Constitution
-------------------------------------------
5. (U) Under the Honduran Constitution as currently
written, the President may be removed only on the basis of
death, resignation or incapacitation. Only the Supreme
Court may determine that a President has been
"incapacitated" on the basis of committing a crime.
6. (U) There is no explicit impeachment procedure in the
1982 Honduran Constitution. Originally, Article 205-15
stated that Congress had the competence to determine
whether "cause" existed against the President, but it did
not stipulate on what grounds or under what procedure.
Article 319-2 stated that the Supreme Court would "hear"
cases of official or common crimes committed by high-level
officials, upon a finding of cause by the Congress. This
implied a vague two-step executive impeachment process
involving the other two branches of government, although
without specific criteria or procedures. However, Article
205 was abrogated in 2003, and the corresponding provision
of Article 319 (renumbered 313) was revised to state only
that the Supreme Court would hear "processes initiated"
against high officials. Thus, it appears that under the
Constitution as currently written, removal of a president
or a government official is an entirely judicial matter.
7. (U) Respected legal opinion confirms that the removal of
a president is a judicial matter. According to a 2006 book
by respected legal scholar Enrique Flores Valeriano -- late
father of Zelaya's Minister of the Presidency, Enrique
Flores Lanza -- Article 112 of the Law of Constitutional
Justice indicates that if any government official is found
to be in violation of the Constitution, that person should
be removed from office immediately with the ultimate
authority on matters of Constitutionality being the Supreme
Court.
8. (U) Many legal experts have also confirmed to us that
the Honduran process for impeaching a President or other
senior-level officials is a judicial procedure. They
assert that under Honduran law the process consists of formal
criminal charges being filed by the Attorney General
against the accused with the Supreme Court. The Supreme
Court could accept or reject the charges. If the Court
moved to indict, it would assign a Supreme Court
magistrate, or a panel of magistrates to investigate the
matter,
and oversee the trial. The trial process is open and
transparent and the defendant would be given a full right
of self-defense. If convicted in the impeachment trial,
the magistrates have authority to remove the President or
senior official. Once the President is removed, then the
constitutional succession would follow. In this case, if a
President is legally charged, convicted, and removed, his
successor is the Vice President or what is termed the
Presidential Designate. In the current situation in
Honduras, since the Vice President, Elvin Santos, resigned
last December in order to be able to run as the Liberal
Party Presidential candidate, President Zelaya's successor
would be Congress President Roberto Micheletti.
Unfortunately, the President was never tried, or
convicted, or was legally removed from office to allow a
legal succession.
-----------------------------
The Legal Case Against Zelaya
-----------------------------
9. (C) Zelaya's opponents allege that he violated the
Constitution on numerous grounds, some of which appear on
their face to be valid, others not:
-- Refusing to submit a budget to the Congress: The
Constitution is unambiguous that the Executive shall submit
a proposed budget to Congress by September 15 each year
(Art. 367), that Congress shall approve the budget (Art.
366) and that no obligations or payments may be effectuated
except on the basis of an approved budget (Art. 364);
-- Refusing to fund the Congress: Article 212 states that
the Treasury shall apportion quarterly the funds needed for
the operation of the Congress;
-- Proposing an illegal constitutional referendum: The
Constitution may be amended only through two-thirds vote of
the Congress in two consecutive sessions (Art. 373 and
375); a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution,
as Zelaya promoted, is therefore unconstitutional; however,
it is not clear that proposing a constituent assembly in
itself violates the constitution, only that any changes
ensuing from that assembly would be invalid;
-- Defying the judgment of a competent court: Zelaya
insisted on pushing ahead with his constitutional reform
opinion poll after both a first-instance court and an
appeals court ordered him to suspend those efforts;
however, while he clearly intended to follow through with
the poll, he never actually did it;
-- Proposing to reform unreformable articles: Since
Zelaya's proposed constituent assembly would have unlimited
powers to rewrite the constitution, it violated Article
374, which makes certain articles unamendable; once again,
though, Zelaya never actually attempted to change the
so-called "carved in stone" articles; it was only assumed
he intended to;
-- Dismissing the armed forces chief: The Supreme Court's
Constitutional Hall ruled June 25 that Zelaya was in
violation of the Constitution for dismissing Defense Chief
Vasquez Velasquez; the Constitution (Art. 280) states that
the President may freely name or remove the chief of the
armed forces; but the court ruled that since Zelaya fired
him for refusing to carry out a poll the court had ruled
illegal, the firing was illegal.
10. (C) Although a case could well have been made against
Zelaya for a number of the above alleged constitutional
violations, there was never any formal, public weighing of
the evidence nor any semblance of due process.
-----------------------
The Article 239 Cannard
-----------------------
11. (U) Article 239, which coup supporters began citing
after the fact to justify Zelaya's removal (it is nowhere
mentioned in the voluminous judicial dossier against
Zelaya), states that any official proposing to reform the
constitutional prohibition against reelection of the
president shall immediately cease to carry out their
functions and be ineligible to hold public office for 10
years. Coup defenders have asserted that Zelaya therefore
automatically ceased to be President when he proposed a
constituent assembly to rewrite the Constitution.
12. (C) Post's analysis indicates the Article 239 argument
is flawed on multiple grounds:
-- Although it was widely assumed that Zelaya's reason for
seeking to convoke a constituent assembly was to amend the
constitution to allow for reelection, we are not aware
that he ever actually stated so publicly;
-- Article 239 does not stipulate who determines whether it
has been violated or how, but it is reasonable to assume
that it does not abrogate other guarantees of due process
and the presumption of innocence;
-- Article 94 states that no penalty shall be imposed
without the accused having been heard and found guilty in a
competent court;
-- Many other Honduran officials, including presidents,
going back to the first elected government under the 1982
Constitution, have proposed allowing presidential
reelection, and they were never deemed to have been
automatically removed from their positions as a result.
13. (C) It further warrants mention that Micheletti himself
should be forced to resign following the logic of the 239
argument, since as President of Congress he considered
legislation to have a fourth ballot box ("cuarta urna") at
the November elections to seek voter approval for a
constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. Any
member of Congress who discussed the proposal should also
be required to resign, and National Party presidential
candidate Pepe Lobo, who endorsed the idea, should be
ineligible to hold public office for 10 years.
--------------------------------------------- -
Forced Removal by Military was Clearly Illegal
--------------------------------------------- -
14. (C) Regardless of the merits of Zelaya's alleged
constitutional violations, it is clear from even a cursory
reading that his removal by military means was illegal, and
even the most zealous of coup defenders have been unable to
make convincing arguments to bridge the intellectual gulf
between "Zelaya broke the law" to "therefore, he was packed
off to Costa Rica by the military without a trial."
-- Although coup supporters allege the court issued an
arrest warrant for Zelaya for disobeying its order to
desist from the opinion poll, the warrant, made public days
later, was for him to be arrested and brought before the
competent authority, not removed from the county;
-- Even if the court had ordered Zelaya to be removed from
the country, that order would have been unconstitutional;
Article 81 states that all Hondurans have the right to
remain in the national territory, subject to certain narrow
exceptions spelled out in Article 187, which may be invoked
only by the President of the Republic with the agreement of
the Council of Ministers; Article 102 states that no
Honduran may be expatriated;
-- The armed forces have no/no competency to execute
judicial orders; originally, Article 272 said the armed
forces had the responsibility to "maintain peace, public
order and the 'dominion' of the constitution," but that
language was excised in 1998; under the current text, only
the police are authorized to uphold the law and execute
court orders (Art. 293);
-- Accounts of Zelaya's abduction by the military indicate
he was never legally "served" with a warrant; the soldiers
forced their way in by shooting out the locks and
essentially kidnapped the President.
15. (U) The Armed Forces' ranking legal advisor, Col.
Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, acknowledged in an interview
published in the Honduran press July 5 that the Honduran
Armed Forces had broken the law in removing Zelaya from the
country. That same day it was reported that the Public
Ministry was investigating the actions of the Armed Forces
in arresting and deporting Zelaya June 28 and that the
Supreme Court had asked the Armed Forces to explain the
circumstances that motivated his forcible exile.
16. (C) As reported reftel, the legal adviser to the
Supreme Court told Poloff that at least some justices on
the Court consider Zelaya's arrest and deportation by the
military to have been illegal.
------------------------------------------
Congress Had no Authority to Remove Zelaya
------------------------------------------
17. (C) As explained above, the Constitution as amended in
2003 apparently gives sole authority for removing a
president to the judiciary. The Congressional action of
June 28 has been reported in some media as acceptance of
Zelaya's resignation, based on a bogus resignation letter
dated June 25 that surfaced after the coup. However, the
June 28 Congressional resolution makes no mention of the
letter, nor does it state that Congress was accepting
Zelaya's resignation. It says Congress "disapproves" of
Zelaya's conduct and therefore "separates" him from the
office of President -- a constitutional authority Congress
does not have. Furthermore, a source in the Congressional
leadership told us that a quorum was not present when the
resolution was adopted, rendering it invalid. There was no
recorded vote, nor a request for the "yeas" and "nays."
18. (C) In sum, for a constitutional succession from Zelaya
to Micheletti to occur would require one of several
conditions:
Zelaya's resignation, his death, or permanent medical
incapacitation (as determined by judicial and medical
authorities), or as discussed previously, his formal criminal
conviction and removal from office. In the absence of any of
these conditions and since Congress lacked the legal
authority to remove Zelaya, the actions of June 28 can only
be considered a coup d'etat by the legislative branch, with
the support of the judicial branch and the military, against
the executive branch. It bears mentioning that, whereas the
resolution adopted June 28 refers only to Zelaya, its effect
was to remove the entire executive branch. Both of these
actions clearly exceeded Congress's authority.
-------
Comment
-------
19. (C) The analysis of the Constitution sheds some
interesting light on the events of June 28. The Honduran
establishment confronted a dilemma: near unanimity among
the institutions of the state and the political class that
Zelaya had abused his powers in violation of the
Constitution, but with some ambiguity what to do about it.
Faced with that lack of clarity, the military and/or
whoever ordered the coup fell back on what they knew -- the
way Honduran presidents were removed in the past: a bogus
resignation letter and a one-way ticket to a neighboring
country. No matter what the merits of the case against
Zelaya, his forced removal by the military was clearly
illegal, and Micheletti's ascendance as "interim president"
was totally illegitimate.
20. (C) Nonetheless, the very Constitutional uncertainty
that presented the political class with this dilemma may
provide the seeds for a solution. The coup's most ardent
legal defenders have been unable to make the intellectual
leap from their arguments regarding Zelaya's alleged crimes
to how those allegations justified dragging him out of his
bed in the night and flying him to Costa Rica. That the
Attorney General's office and the Supreme Court now
reportedly question the legality of that final step is
encouraging and may provide a face-saving "out" for the two
opposing sides in the current standoff. End Comment.
LLORENS

DESTINATION
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHTG #0645/01 2050023
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 240023Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0237
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS IMMEDIATE 0735
RHEHAAA/THE WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUMIAAA/USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL IMMEDIATE

Source: http://resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1660:first-declassified-state-department-cable-on-honduras-coup-&catid=101:news&Itemid=349

Dreams of an Insurgency

2010-11-26T14:41:00.000-08:00

by RNS, from the blog, Honduras Culture and Politics

On November 15, armed guards at one of Miguel Facussé's African palm plantations in the Bajo Aguan community of El Tumbador,shot and killed 6 campesinos who they said were trying to invade the plantation.

The police declined to investigate the latest shootings. They neither recovered the bodies nor collected any evidence.

After these latest killings, Porfirio Lobo Sosa ordered the complete militarization of the zone.

Oscar Alvarez, Honduras' security minister, claims to have information through the Police intelligence unit that there are armed groups intending insurrection forming in the Bajo Aguan.

This is not a new claim; it was made at least as early as Februaryof this year. There's no public evidence to support the claim.

Then on Wednesday, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, declaring that there was good evidence that there was an arms cache somewhere in the Bajo Aguan with 1000 AK-47s and M-16s in the hands of groups being trained to attack the government of Honduras. Lobo Sosa knows this because Security Minister Alvarez told him it was true.

Lobo Sosa indicated a massive, secret operation was underway in the Aguan, to clean out all the known arms caches in the Bajo Aguan:

"We have traces of the people who have been voyaging outside of Honduras to receive training, we have them all located, including the places where they are being trained outside of here, of Honduras; it's a large quantity of arms they have, and we're going after them."

No one outside of the military and the national police knows the target(s) of this investigation. Lobo Sosa claims the current operation will put an end to the killings in the Bajo Aguan.

The first, and so far, only target, was the INA regional office in the Bajo Aguan, which the military and police took over in an early morning raid yesterday morning.

They found nothing.

Why target INA? it might have something to do with the history of the land where the latest massacre of peasant activists took place.

El Tumbador, the site of the massacre, in the 1980s formed part of the Centro Regional de Entrenamiento Militar (CREM). CREM, just outside Trujillo, was where US military advisers trained Salvadoran, and later Nicaraguan Contra forces, in the US's battle against leftists in Central America.

There's a long history of conflict over this land, home to some important archaeological remains investigated in the 1970s by Paul Healy. In 1983 I was advised by the Honduran military that the US base commander had denied me permission to verify the safety of the Selin Farm archaeological site, which I was checking as a representative of the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia.

After the CREM facility was decommissioned, campesinos moved in and established the community of Guadalupe Carney in the remains of the base. Guadalupe Carney has been the site of killings of as many as 17 campesinos in struggles over rights to the land.

Today, both the Movimiento Unificado de Campesino del Aguan (MUCA) and the US citizen Temistocles Ramirez claim El Tumbador. So how does Miguel Facussé come into it?

The Instituto Nacional Agrario (INA) says that the government, not Miguel Facussé, owns the land in question at El Tumbador.

The documentation is stored in the INA regional office in Sinaloa, in the Bajo Aguan. César Ham, current head of INA (a cabinet position in the Lobo Sosa government, remember), said that Facussé appropriated 565 hectares of government land inappropriately, land which belongs specificially to INA, land that was part of CREM.

Oscar Alvarez, the security minister, says that armed groups in the Bajo Aguan are funded by NGO's that are trying to destabilize Honduras. According to him, it's Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who are supporting these supposed clandestine groups. This charge has drawn a categorical denial by Nicaraguan Authorities.

Rafael Alegria, campesino leader and one of the voices of the FNRP called Alvarez's allegations a smoke screen designed to disorient public opinion.

The de facto regime made similar claims about the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) right after the coup, and harrassed and deported many Central Americans during its 7 month reign. In fact, Oscar Alvarez goes further, and revives a claim that in the 1980s, "several Hondurans were recruited in Nicaragua and then trained in Cuba to try to destabilize the Honduran government".

In fact, there is a large paramilitary organization in the Bajo Aguan right now, armed with AK-47s and M-16s, and protected by powerful individuals, just as Porfirio Lobo Sosa claimed. Except that it's not a campesino group. It's the armed guards hired by DINANT corporation to guard facilities in the Bajo Aguan.

Honduran resistance members argue that these private police forces are being trained by Colombian groups like the Mano Blanco, linked to similar violence against campesinos in Colombia. Reportsof former AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia) operatives being hired by Honduran elites were treated seriously by the UN in fall 2009. It is publicly acknowledged by Honduras and Colombia that security forces from Colombia are in Honduras this year on a "training" mission.

It was the spokesperson for DINANT corporation, Roger Pineda, who told HRN radio the unbelievable story that the El Tumbadorfinca guards were attacked by a group of 200 campesinos armed with AK-47 rifles. Press photographs circulated that showed several of the corpses allegedly holding (in what appeared to me to be a completely unnatural manner) AK-47s.

It's among DINANT corporation's paramilitary guards that Oscar Alvarez needs to look for his arms cache.

But instead, credit the new military operation for the successes it can report: in traffic stops they found 27 people carrying pistols and even a shotgun, without having the proper documentation of their right to own these guns

So José Luis Muñoz Licona, director of the National Police called the operation a success.

Source: http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2010/11/dreams-of-insurgency.html

The Snakes Sleep: Attacks against the Media and Impunity in Honduras

2010-11-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

Written by Sandra Cuffe

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 17:21

In Honduras, there is a particular quote by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano that has been adopted into the country's rich lexicon of idioms: “Justice is like snakes. They only bite the barefoot.”
Of the thousands of human rights violations committed in Honduras since the coup in June 2009, in most cases the only serious investigations have been carried out by the grassroots organizations involved with the Human Rights Platform and the resistance movement. Very few charges have been laid against the human rights violators who ordered and carried out illegal detentions, kidnappings, beatings, torture, rape, and extrajudicial executions.
At the international level, however, there have recently been positive signals that spark the hope that justice may one day be served. Last week, the International Criminal Court announced that preliminary investigations are underway to determine whether or not the Court has jurisdiction over a case related to Honduras. Essentially, the Court is investigating whether or not war crimes and/or crimes against humanity have been committed in Honduras since the coup on June 28, 2009.
Also earlier this month, Honduras faced its Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations, a process that each UN member State undergoes every four years. Tellingly, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia did not attend because they do not recognize the government of Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who was elected President in November 2009 in highly controversial elections that many contend were simply the prolongation of the illegitimate rule of the civic and military authorities that coordinated the overthrow of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador and Ecuador explicitly clarified that they do not recognize the government of Honduras, but intervened in the Review process nonetheless in order to support the human rights of the Honduran people.
At the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, several concerns were voiced about the impunity surrounding human rights violations in general, and the murder of journalists in particular. Nine journalists have been murdered in Honduras in 2010 to date. According to the “Death Watch” compiled by the International Press Institute (IPI), Honduras is now the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only to Mexico. Prior to 2010, the countries with the most murders of journalists were mainly countries officially deemed to be in conflict, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Somalia. When the Honduran population of less than eight million is taken into account, the statistics are exponentially more serious.
According to the IPI's research, from 1997 when the Institute started the “Death Watch” until the coup, only seven journalists were killed. At the Universal Periodic Review, UN member States demanded investigations and justice in the cases of the nine journalists killed in 2010 alone. While the final report will not be adopted until the Human Rights Council meets again to discuss the case in March 2011, the Honduran government stated its acceptance of the 129 recommendations during the Review process earlier this month. In the case of the journalists, however, the promise to investigate and to prosecute those responsible did not come without a rebuttal.
“In none of the cases investigated have the victims or their families alleged political motivations, nor have the investigations turned up evidence that such a pattern exists,” said Honduran Vice President Maria Antoineta Guillen de Bogran during the Review.
Earlier this year, in an interview with the Tribuna newspaper on May 3^rd, Honduran Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez went even further, stating: “I guarantee that in all of the cases [of the journalists' murders], there is no connection to indicate that it is due to their work as journalists. That is to say that there is no person or people trying to silence journalists; it is simply that, just as other people, after their work as reporters, journalists spend their time on their own personal situations.”
Of course, as murdered journalists themselves, Gabriel Fino Noriega, Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, David Meza Montesinos, Nahum Palacios, Jose Bayardo Mayrena, Manuel Juarez, Jorge Alberto Orellana, Luis Arturo Mondragon, and Israel Zelaya Diaz are not able to contest the statements by Vice President Guillen and Security Minister Alvarez. In most cases, however, journalists who have been threatened, kidnapped, beaten, and tortured have demonstrated the clear connection between their work as critical journalists supporting or reporting on the resistance movement and the human rights violations they have endured.
In the case of direct attacks against media outlets, the evidence is clear. Most of the violent assaults against radio stations and the confiscation of equipment took place either on June 28^th, 2009, the morning of the coup, or three months later, on September 28^th, 2009, after a specific executive decree including more curfews and martial law also addressed media outlets. The decree established a State of Emergency and restricted several basic rights and freedoms, including the freedom of expression, giving authorities the green light to “halt the coverage or discussion through any media, be it verbal or printed, of demonstrations that threaten peace and public order” or that compromised the “dignity” of government authorities or decisions.
“The decree [defined] the framework of a military dictatorship,” asserted well-known radio journalist Felix Molina.
"Honduras had not seen - not even during the dirty war of the 1980s, when the military governed with a civilian facade - something like what we saw the morning of June 28th 2009, which was repeated the morning of September 28th 2009, exactly three months later. The arrival in person of soldiers to a media outlet. Confiscation. Well, on June 28^th, there was no confiscation of equipment, but in September, Channel 36's equipment was destroyed and confiscated and completely confiscated from Radio Globo," explained Molina after the military assault on Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur, the only radio and television stations, respectively, with nation-wide coverage to clearly identify with the resistance movement against the coup.
"In the 24 hours after the publication of the decree in the official newspaper, the army invoked it to take away equipment and take two media outlets off the air... And we could have expected anything to happen, but as a journalist, I would have never expected that a media outlet be physically dismantled by the army, and yet that is what we saw at dawn on September 28^th," said Molina.
On June 28^th, in the hours after the Honduran army sprayed the house of elected President Zelaya with bullets and forced him onto a flight to Costa Rica, several radio stations around the country reporting the urgent news were targeted by the armed forces and forced off the air. That same morning, a nation-wide consultation was to have taken place for people to express their support or opposition for a fourth ballot box in the 2010 elections concerning a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution. The initiative was supported and coordinated both by Zelaya and much of the Honduran social movement. Many of the media outlets that would later support the coup either simply did not report anything that morning, or reported the official version of events involving Zelaya's resignation and voluntary departure. Electrical power blackouts also occurred in much of the country.
One of the radio stations attacked and forced to stop broadcasting on June 28^th 2009 was Radio Juticalpa, located in the state of Olancho, home to both ousted President Zelaya and current controversial President Lobo. When station director Martha Elena Rubi arrived before dawn, she found the windows and walls of the studio shot up from outside. The shells inside the studio were all from M-16s, the assault rifles assigned to the Honduran army. Witnesses also identified the armed forces as responsible for the violent attack, but Rubi went ahead and broadcast the news of the coup.
“We thought that this time, if we informed the people of what was really going on, we would help neutralize it. So, knowing that I was going to do this work, what they did was that when I got here, at about five thirty or five o'clock in the morning, [they thought that] I would realize that they had shot up the station and that I would be afraid and not even go on air,” said Rubi.
“I knew they were going to come,” added Rubi, “so I had little time to tell people the truth, and for the town to realize the way in which they were trying to silence what we were, in an impartial way, saying: the truth. So I knew that I was racing against the clock and I committed to getting people to wake up to reality. About two or three hours later, they came with orders for me to shut down the station.”
There was a power blackout in Juticalpa, but Radio Juticalpa had a solar plant and therefore became the only radio station on the air in the entire region. When the heavily armed soldiers were approaching, Rubi stopped her news coverage and switched to music. However, the station was forced off the air for the rest of the day. Luckily, Rubi and her colleague Andres Molina were able to prevent the army from confiscating their equipment.
Likely due in large part to the persistence of Honduran human rights organizations and mounting international pressure, Colonel Rene Javier Palao Torres and sub-official Juan Alfredo Acosta Acosta were charged with Abuse of Authority for the assault on Radio Juticalpa and sentenced to prison in Juticalpa, Olancho. The military officials appealed the verdict, however, and the sentence was overturned earlier this month by the Court of Appeals.
The number of cases in which charges have not even been laid is unfortunately far greater than those that have at least made it to court. Flying in the face of the statements by Vice President Guillen and Security Minister Alvarez, one such case is the kidnapping and torture of 29-year-old Delmer Membreno on September 28^th 2009, the same day as the military attacks on Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur. A former photographer for the Tribuna newspaper and the Spanish News Agency, the resistance-supporting El Libertador newspaper photographer Membreno was forced into a vehicle by armed men in Tegucigalpa.
"They put a balaclava over my head, they handcuffed me, and they burned my body. They hit me, and they uttered threats against the newspaper I work for: El Libertador," said Membreno, with the bruises and burn marks still visible on his face and body.
"They beat me. They burned my body with cigarettes. Here [on my arm], my face, and my chest. They ripped my shirt and left me without shoes... 'Cry, cry! Why aren't you crying, you commie?' That's what they said... They said that the director better be careful, that they were following him, and that what they had done to me was nothing in comparison to what they were going to do to him," narrated the wounded photographer.
When the torture of Membreno took place, there had already been so many cases of human rights violations against journalists and media outlets that the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) had petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for precautionary measures specifically for a long list of journalists and media outlets that had been attacked. From July 2009 on, the IACHR granted precautionary measures to a long list of journalists and media outlets; however, during two separate IACHR hearings that took place one month ago in Washington DC, evidence began to pile up that Honduras had not been carrying out the measures.
On July 24^th, 2009, the IACHR granted precautionary measures to television journalist Nahun Palacios, the news director of Aguan Television on channel 5 in Tocoa, Colon, in the Aguan Valley. Palacios had immediately and publicly voiced his opposition to the coup and reported on the mobilizations against the coup and in support of the fourth ballot box and the Constituent Assembly. Only two days after the coup, on June 30^th, soldiers raided Palacios' home, intimidated his family, held his children at gunpoint, and seized his vehicle and some work-related equipment.
Despite the IACHR precautionary measures granted the following month, Palacios never received any communication from the State, let alone any effective protection. Eight months later, on March 14th, 2010, 34-year-old Nahun Palacios was traveling home when his vehicle was intercepted and gunned down with AK47s, automatic weapons that are illegal but easily acquired in Honduras. Two unknown men fled the scene, leaving Palacios dead in the street, his body and vehicle riddled with dozens of bullets. Another passenger in the car was seriously injured and died later in the hospital.
As in many of the other murders of journalists this year, all of which remain unsolved, police did not carry out a proper investigation at the scene of Palacios' murder. After failing to gather sufficient evidence from the body back in March, the police exhumed Palacios' body in August, further upsetting his distraught relatives who still wait for justice eight months later, despite the State's international assurances that they are carrying out investigations and precautionary measures.
Nahun Palacios' murder in March 2010 was only one of five journalists killed that month. Due to the overwhelming impunity in the country, others have been forced to flee into exile. Many have also remained in Honduras, carrying out their vital work despite the ongoing threats and attacks.
"They can intimidate. You know, yes, of course there is fear, but I don't think that it will stop us from informing the people of the truth," said Delmer Membreno after his kidnapping and torture.
The announcement of the International Criminal Court about its preliminary investigations into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Honduras, as well as the ongoing pressure within the United Nations and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, would not be possible without the work of the innumerable committed Honduran journalists, media outlets, and human rights organizations from day one.
For now, back in Honduras, however, the snakes of justice are far from trying their fangs out on the high-ranking military, police and political leaders behind both the coup and outrageous human rights violations. Justice may simply be sleeping like so many court cases in the country. Or perhaps Zelaya and democracy were not the only ones forced into exile at gunpoint on June 28^th, 2009.
Sandra Cuffe is a writer and activist of no fixed address. After living and working in Honduras for four years from 2003 to 2007, she returned five days after the coup, and stayed through April 2010, collaborating with COFADEH and other local organizations.

Source: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2795-the-snakes-sleep-attacks-against-the-media-and-impunity-in-honduras

Terrorism Act: a threat to the National Resistance Front

2010-11-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

voselsoberano.com | Friday November 19, 2010 16:26

The law was passed in the middle of the night, without it being known by any organization.

Red Morazánica de Información

Tegucigalpa November 19, 2010. The approval of a "Terrorism Act", by the National Congress CN, is a direct threat to the National Front of Popular Resistance FNRP, and must "be one of the main things of concern to the Front" considered the lawyer Jari Dixon Herrera, member of the political organization created after the coup against Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

The former public prosecutor said the approval of this law carries a dedication against the FNRP, "first because there are no terrorist acts in Honduras, second, it must be remembered that the current Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said when he took possession that the National Resistance Front had to be disappeared. "

The lawyer believes that the aim to pass this bill is to dissolve the resistance movement, since by that law " the National Resistance Front of People is being listed as terrorist."

Last night and during early Friday, Congress passed the "Terrorism Act", but by no means transcended the content of that law.

The law is a proposal by the Minister of Security of Porfirio Lobo Sosa, Oscar Alvarez. The official is the nephew of General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, responsible for the enforced disappearance of dozens of Hondurans during the 80's.

According to statements published by the newspaper La Prensa, attributed to the deputy of the Christian Democrats, Agusto Cruz Asensio, said "the measure is taken just because of the seizure of dollars that have occurred in recent months, the forfeiture of aircraft and other actions which in no share resemblance to the popular protests, as it could be interpreted", a statement that could be interpreted against the FNRP.

According to the media, "in the Act nongovernmental organizations, NGOs are obliged to report to the state any gift, donation or support superior to two thousand dollars, as well as vehicles or equipment, in order to regulate any activity that may have a different purpose. "

Herrera believes that dialogue with the government of Lobo Sosa shouldn't be held, for he believes it is an illegal government that the people should make use of article three which establishes the constitutional right to insurrection.

Source: http://voselsoberano.com/v1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8391:ley-antiterrorista-una-amenaza-para-el-frente-nacional-de-resistencia&catid=1:noticias-generales

"Terrorism Act" by Oscar Alvarez was approved in closed session

2010-11-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

voselsoberano.com | Friday November 19, 2010 10:05

Red Morazánica de Información

Tegucigalpa, MDC, Thursday, November 18, 2010 .- At closed door, between Wednesday night and early Thursday, hidden from journalists, media, and especially the people of Honduras, members of the National Congress of Honduras approved the Terrorism Act submitted by the Secretary for Security of the National Party regime of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, Oscar Alvarez.

Alvarez presented the Draft of the Anti-Terrorism Act to Congress on the night of November 7, arguing that "funds for subversive groups enter as remittances or through NGOs" and mentioning the threat of drastic sanctions to the country by UN agencies, which he didn't specify then, if this legislation was not approved.

The seizures of dollars that have occurred in Honduras in recent months, forfeiture of aircraft and other actions are part of the excuses offered by the few Congressmen who stood up to defend the "Alvarez Law."

Christian democrat Congressman Augusto Cruz Asencio, reported that the Act requires nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to report any donation over two thousand dollars, vehicles or equipment.

From the statements made by Mr Cruz Asencio, it is known that the law was discussed on the evening of Wednesday 17 until the morning of Thursday 18 November, which contains over 80 articles and through it the aim is to bring international funding to combat terrorism .

One pro-coup media owned by a firearm dealer has created the fiction of a guerilla in Honduras in Aguán.

A law preceded by massacres

Before the presentation of the draft law by the Secretary of Security Oscar Alvarez, the country was shocked by the slaughter of civilians for no apparent nor rational reason.

On September 17, 18 young workers without any criminal record or apparent links to organizations branded as criminals by the police, were killed while working in an artisan shoe factory in San Pedro Sula.

Nearly a month later, on October 14, another six youths were killed in a residential home located in Villa Real in a massacre allegedly linked to drug trafficking.

A third slaughter took place on Saturday October 30, while the 15 victims were witnessing a sporting event in a football field of the Colonia Felipe Zelaya of San Pedro Sula.

After these massacres Minister Alvarez achieved a grant from the business sector worth more than two million Lempiras (U.S. $ 100,000.00) to install 40 surveillance cameras and monitoring in the city of San Pedro Sula.

The massacres chase Álvarez

In the last presidential administration of nationalist Ricardo Maduro (2002-2006), being Oscar Alvarez also its Security Minister, the country experienced similar massacres in two major prisons in the country (San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba).

In the Prison Farm in El Porvenir, Atlántida department, in the month of April 2003 the lives of 69 inmates who allegedly were active in gangs were sacrificed.

The trial courts of the city of La Ceiba condemned this year, seven years after the slaughter, 22 police officers involved in the murder of young prisoners at the prison farm.

The script of Colombian paramilitary imported by Alvarez

Roger Armando Sosa Iglesias, an army officer in Honduras who participated in the slaughter of El Porvenir prison farm and was sentenced to 31 years in prison, was recently shot dead in front of a business in the city of La Ceiba prison while he was supposed to be in a prison institution.

The second slaughter of young gang members during the Maduro presidency with Alvarez as Secretary for Security, occurred in the prison of San Pedro Sula and in it 104 people were massacred, coincidentally, all gang members.

Source: http://voselsoberano.com/v1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8390:se-aprueba-a-puerta-cerrada-ley-antiterrorista-de-oscar-alvarez&catid=1:noticias-generales

Colombian police 'training' Honduras forces

2010-11-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2010 11:47

by TERESA WELSH

Honduras' special investigation services (DNSEI) announced Friday that Colombian police are only in the country to train their Honduran counterparts, and are not participating in any operations, reports El Heraldo.

The announcement was made in response to speculation that the Colombian forces were present in Honduras to directly assist police missions. A Honduran official said the Colombians are there to provide "technical and educations, not operative" support.

The training sessions for members of the DNSEI, as well as other Honduran police authorities, will reportedly last several weeks.

Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera told El Pais on Wednesday that the police were in Honduras as part of a cooperation agreement that exists between Colombia and 13 other countries. Rivera also said that Colombian forces had helped in the rescue of Mario Filiberto Lobo Moya, cousin of Honduras President Porfirio Lobo.

In February, Colombia and Honduras signed an agreement to share intelligence on drug trafficking, kidnapping and organized crime.

Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/12888-colombian-police-no-missions-hounduran-counterparts.html

Israel offers aid to Honduras to combat drug trafficking

2010-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Fri, 11/19/2010 - 22:50 — translated by Adrienne Pine

[Needless to say, this article is translated from one of the golpista newspapers]
Israel offers aid to Honduras to combat drug trafficking
La Tribuna National Section, 18 November, 2010

TEGUCIGALPA.- Israel has offered Honduras aid to combat drug trafficking, terrorism and other projects in the areas of agriculture, animal husbandry, science and technology, according to an official source in Tegucigalpa today.

Both governments entered into an agreement to combat drug trafficking and terrorism, according to the Honduran designated president [while Lobo is in Colorado] Víctor Hugo Barnica./Radio Jai

The designated president, Víctor Hugo Barnica, said in a press conference that in order to formalize the Israeli cooperation, in the coming days a letter of intent would be signed by both countries.

Barnica made the announcement following his return from Israel, where he said he had met with high government officials and agreed to establish commercial relations around the production of sugarcane and other agricultural industry in the western region of Honduras.

The high-level Honduran official referred to as "very positive" his trip to Israel, where he says he was received by the president, Shimon Peres; the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman; the head of the Parliamentary League of Israel-Honduras Friendship, Danny Ayalon and with authorities of the International Cooperation Program.

According to Barnica, the cooperation of Israel will extend to areas like large-scale agriculture, management of agricultural waste, drainage systems, veterinary services, large-scale cultivation of vegetables, intensive management of cattle herds and integrated planning, among other things.

Israel was one of the first countries to recognize the Government of Honduras presided over by Porfirio Lobo since January 27th, following the political crisis that occurred in the country. ACAN-EFE

Israel ofrece ayuda a Honduras en combate al narcotráfico
Nacionales 18 Noviembre, 2010

TEGUCIGALPA.- Israel ha ofrecido a Honduras ayuda para el combate del narcotráfico, el terrorismo y otros proyectos en materia de agricultura, ganadería, ciencia y tecnología, informó hoy una fuente oficial en Tegucigalpa.

Ambos gobiernos suscribieron un acuerdo para combatir el narcotráfico y el terrorismo, informó el designado presidencial hondureño Víctor Hugo Barnica./Radio Jai

El designado presidencial, Víctor Hugo Barnica, dijo en rueda de prensa que para formalizar esa cooperación israelí, en los próximos días se suscribirá una carta de intenciones entre ambos países.

Barnica hizo el anuncio tras su regreso de Israel, donde indicó que se reunió con altos cargos del Gobierno y se convino en establecer relaciones comerciales en materia de producción de caña de azúcar y el desarrollo de la industria agrícola en la región occidental de Honduras.

El alto funcionario hondureño calificó de “muy positivo” su viaje a Israel, donde dijo que fue recibido por el presidente, Shimon Peres; el ministro de Exteriores, Avigdor Lieberman; el titular de la Liga Parlamentaria de Amistad Israel-Honduras, Danny Ayalon y autoridades del Programa de Cooperación Internacional.

Según Barnica, la cooperación de Israel se extenderá a áreas como agricultura extensiva, manejo de residuos agrícolas, sistemas de riego, servicios veterinarios, cultivo masivo de huertos, manejo intensivo de un hato lechero y planificación integral, entre otras.

Israel fue uno de los primeros países en reconocer al Gobierno de Honduras que preside Porfirio Lobo desde el 27 de enero pasado, tras la crisis política que vivió el país. ACAN-EFE

Source: http://quotha.net/node/1352

WORLD BANK-FUNDED BIOFUEL CORPORATION MASSACRES SIX HONDURAN CAMPESINOS

2010-11-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

By Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org

MASSACRED WHILE WORKING THEIR FIELDS

Approximately six months ago, campesino farmers in Trujillo, Colon organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, were awarded provisional title to a farm which neighbors their community, as part of a long standing negotiation with Dinant Corporation, a biofuel company, whose land claims are illegitimate.

Since that time, the small farmers worked the land. In recent weeks they had noticed incursions into their land by armed security forces employed by the biofuel company, Dinant.

On Monday, November 15, the farmers went to their fields but were then attacked by Dinant security. Six were killed in the massacre and two more are in critical condition.

The massacre occurred the same day that the de facto Honduran president Pepe Lobo had planned to meet with the director of the US government development fund, the Millennium Challenge, in Denver to ask for funding for so called "renewable energy" - in Honduras, principally biofuels and dams.

WORLD BANK AND OTHER "DEVELOPMENT" GROUPS SHARE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MASSACRE

The "renewable energy" plan Lobo is shopping around may be the result of an Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) funded technical support grant (T-1101) to the de facto government ushered in after the June 28 military coup. In November 2009, under a coup government and amidst grave human rights violations, the World Bank's (WB) International Finance Corporation gave Dinant Corporation a $30 million loan for biofuel production, and now shares responsibility in the massacre.

Policies supposedly intended to stop climate change are in reality fueling climate change. The world must invest in a renewable way of life, not destructive "renewable energy". Scientists have analyzed that biofuel industry together with the climate change prevention mechanisms currently promoted could actually result in the destruction of half of the planets forests.

In the same way that massacres cannot be stopped when justice systems are destroyed by military coups, the destruction of our planet cannot be stopped when the systems of governance have been hijacked by corporations who can buy off, or that failing, militarily intervene in nations attempting to build just forms of governance. Human rights and the environment cannot be separated.

US MILITARY BASE BOUGHT FOR AGRARIAN REFORM AND STOLEN FOR AGRIBUSINESS

During the past decade, campesinos in Honduras have challenged a series of illegitimate land titles obtained by agro-businessmen in a massive former US military training center known as the CREM.

On this land, over 5,000 hectares, the US military trained military forces from across Central America, particularly the Contra paramilitary forces attacking the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Once the CREM center's operations ended, the Honduran government bought the land from a US citizen through the Honduran land reform program.

However, instead of being sold to small farmers, as the government was obligated by law to do, the land was illegally divided up between several large landholders as a result of corruption and fraudulent titling processes. A coalition of land rights organizations in Honduras organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, to challenge the illegal titles. Little by little the land titles were awarded to groups of campesinos organized in the MCA.

The titling process has been slow and marked by violent attacks by the large landholders who have influence in the government, police and military forces. Among the last of the CREM lands to remain in the hands of agribusiness interests is the farm called El Tumbador, approximately 700 hectares controlled by the Dinant Corporation, property of Honduras' most powerful agro-businessman, Miguel Facusse.

A biofuel businessman with interests in several corporations, Miguel Facusse is infamous for the use of fraudulent methods, including intimidation and violence, to obtain lands throughout the country.

THE WORLD BANK BACKS THE CORRUPT AND VIOLENT DINANT CORPORATION

Since the military coup in June 2009, Honduras has been ruled by illegitimate, repressive regimes.

In November 2009, the WB extended a loan of $30 million to Dinant for its biofuel production in that region, despite a widely documented history of violence and corruption by the biofuel company. The WB failed in its human rights obligations in this case and shares responsibility for this massacre.

Given the conditions in Honduras, the WB must suspend both private and public sector funding to Honduras, and freeze funding of biofuels in the region. The biofuel industry in Central and South America violently displaces small farmers and contributes to global warming.

Another multinational public fund that finances international private investment, the Interamerican Investment Corporation, has also recently funded Dinant.

"GREENWASHING" AND CORPORATE WELFARE - THE HIJACKING OF CLIMATE CHANGE FUNDS

Biofuels are one of the fastest growing industries, a sector that sees high levels of investment from venture capitalists. This massive growth has been stimulated by taxpayer dollars pouring into renewable energy through many funding agencies, but particularly the IADB, the WB, and carbon emissions trading markets.

The trade in carbon credits was created as an element of the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997. It attempts to implement a market based system to curb global warming by levying penalties against heavy polluting industries that produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon burning energy generation plants. But those penalties can be paid off, or offset, by the purchase of carbon credits.

Carbon credits are given to industries that undertake activities that reduce emission of gases that generate climate change, and those can then be sold on the market to companies that generate global warming.

The system is riddled with problems, beginning with the fact that the big money to be made in "green" industry creates a big incentive to greenwash, to disguise polluting activities as activities that do not pollute in order to cash in on climate change funds.

This is the case with biofuels.

BIOFUELS COULD DESTROY HALF THE WORLD'S FORESTS

Even as governments pour taxpayer money into biofuels, it is being demonstrated that biofuel production contributes significantly to global warming, through the destruction of wetlands, displacement of small farmers and food production, often to cut forests, direct clear cutting of forests for biofuel production, and even cutting forests to generate wood pellets that make ethanol.

One study published in Science magazine in October 2009 analyzed regulation set up in the Kyoto Accords which promotes the use of biofuels, but finds that these measures could result in the loss of up to half of the world's forests.

As the negative impacts were beginning to be felt, though the extent is only beginning to be understood, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and others committed to market incentives for polluters, set up the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil.

This body certifies palm oil as having been 'sustainably' produced. In May 2010, WWF signed an agreement with Miguel Facusse's Dinant Corporation to begin the process of certifying Dinant palm oil. The WB, in November 2009, shortly after disbursing Dinant's loan, froze palm oil funding while it created its palm oil strategy, expected to be completed in March 2011.

US CORPORATIONS COULD MAKE $27 TRILLION OFF "LESSER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES" CONVERSION TO BIOFUELS

By the time these impacts were being seen, big corporations, with their lobbies, were drooling over the potential profits. The WWF is strongly committed to paying off big business to reduce emissions. A recent WWF study urges taxpayer money be poured into renewable energy in "lesser developed countries" (LDCs) in order to stimulate job growth in the United States.

Governments are committing to insuring that a certain percentage of fuel consumption be converted to biofuel consumption around the world but especially in "LDCs." This will generate a huge market for technology to convert engines and other existing infrastructure, which according to WWF could represent a $27 trillion dollar market for US corporations.

Faced with the powerful corporate lobby corrupting and pressuring governments around the globe, and sometimes promoting military interventions to back their interests, changing policies to really fight climate change as opposed to subsidizing corporations seems a quixotic dream, as was seen in the failed summit on climate change in Copenhagen last year.

At the 16th international summit on climate change in Copenhagan, nations agreed to set up an, as yet, unclear mechanism called the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), which would focus on curbing deforestation. Paradoxically, incentives for forest preservation are still banned, and the potential for biofuel stimulated deforestation of half of the world's forests is still not addressed.

It is important to remember that the WWF and others who believe in and promote environmental market economics have promoted a system of biosphere privatization which allows degrading activities to be carried out by private companies that subsidize non-governmental organizations that manage the biospheres, while ignoring the rights of campesino communities and indigenous peoples.

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD INVEST IN THE POOR, NOT IN THE SUPER RICH

The international community's failure to substantively address climate change is a result the unwillingness to acknowledge and name the economic and political policies and actors that are responsible for climate harm.

The "free" market cannot correct the damage it has done, further investing in the same actors and under the same policy framework that generated climate change cannot reverse it.

To reverse climate change, the wealthiest nations and people of the world must change how they live. Indigenous and campesino communities have more sustainable ways of life, have learned to live in a sustainable way with the resources they produce. But they are being displaced and massacred to usher in the concentration of land and wealth, the genocide of a sustainable way of life.

Rather than subsidizing corporate mass destruction, the nations of the world must invest in a different way of life, and hold accountable those that destroy human life and destroy our only and irreplaceable, planet.

(Annie Bird is co-director of Rights Action, annie@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org. Feel free to re-publish this article, citing author & source)

MINUSTAH Responds to Day of Protests By Tear-Gassing IDP Camp

2010-11-19T15:43:00.000-08:00

Despite Everything, Haitian Government Continues to Move Ahead With Flawed Elections

by Center for Economic and Policy Research

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 11:27

Despite the outbreak of cholera which has already claimed over 900 lives and spread to all 10 of Haiti’s provinces, despite new protests against authorities including the UN for possibly starting the outbreak (something which the UN continues to deny, while defensively claiming that the protests are “politically motivated”, “aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of the elections”), and despite public concerns from various Haitian politicians and parties, 45 members of the U.S. Congress,Senator Lugar, newspapers, and numerous NGO’s, the Haitian government still seems prepared to move ahead with November 28’s elections as scheduled.

As readers of numerous press reports and past blog posts know, controversy around the elections centers around the Provisional Electoral Council’s banning of some 14 political parties from the ballot, including the most popular, Fanmi Lavalas. Many Haitians and observers are also concerned about voter access in the wake of the January quake that displaced over a million people.

Now a new constituency of people with experience and knowledge of Haiti are weighing to voice opposition to what they see as rigged elections:returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCV’s). As TruthOut describes:

This letter was also signed by Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, which is the leading organization of RPCVs and represents a network of 30,000 individuals. Quigley supports the former volunteers' petition, which urges that the US condition funding for the Haitian elections on the full participation of currently banned political parties and active engagement to ensure that voters among the 1.5 million internally displaced Haitians are not disenfranchised. RPCV Neil Ross ('62-'64), founding president of the NGO Friends of the Dominican Republic, an NPCA affiliate for the Dominican Republic, also signed the petition.

Truthout goes on to say

The RPCVs ended their petition with a short list of recommendations for the US: (1) withholding financial support for elections "until the CEP is replaced by a new Council chosen through a process that ensures neutrality, competence and credibility with Haiti's voters"; (2) the adoption of a "clear, firm position on the need for the upcoming elections to be free, fair and open to all of Haiti's political parties"; and (3) "adequate funding and technical assistance for a fairly-chosen CEP to prepare elections." This would include production and distribution of lost or destroyed CINs, the updating of the electoral list and ensuring that polling stations are accessible to internally displaced, poor and disabled Haitians. Extensive voter education was also suggested.

A new interview with former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide sheds new light on the flimsy pretexts by which the CEP has banned Fanmi Lavalas from participating:

Last year I received a letter from the Provisional Electoral Council, by the way, a council that was selected by the president, which is why they do what he wants. Excluding Lavalas was the implementation of the will of the government of Haiti.

I received a letter from them inviting me to a meeting and I said to myself, “Oh that is good. I am ready. I will go.” Then they said in the letter, “If you cannot come, will you send someone on your behalf?” So I said okay and I replied in a letter (1), which became public, asking Dr. Maryse Narcisse to represent Lavalas and to present the candidates of Lavalas based on the letter I received from the CEP. But they denied it because the game was to send the letter to me and assume that I would not answer. Then they could tell the Haitian people, “Look he does not want to participate in the election.” So they were using a pretext to pretend that they are intelligent, but in reality to hide the truth.

Did they not claim it was false at some point, or that it was not your signature?

They claimed that the mandate from me should have been validated by the Haitian consulate in South Africa, when they know that there is no representative of the Haitian government in South Africa, you see.

No embassy at all?

No. When I was President, I had named an Ambassador to South Africa, but that ended with the coup...

Meanwhile – all but ignored by the foreign press -- thousands of people in Port-au-Prince came out on November 1 for a demonstration in support of Aristide’s return and to support the candidacy of Jean-Henry Céant, who is reportedly making Aristide’s right to return to Haiti a key part of his platform. See photos here.

This demonstration and the new protests targeting the UN for its role in the cholera crisis could also be a harbinger of things to come if the Haitian government moves ahead with elections that will, again, leave the Haitian people without a popularly elected leader. With over 1 million displaced, many of them confined to tarp and tent camps with inadequate sanitation and a cholera epidemic underway, many Haitians may not have much patience for a government that has no legitimacy -- especially if the new government is as ill-prepared to deal with the ongoing crises as the outgoing one.

The U.S. role in enabling such flawed elections could lead to yet another disaster. As RPCV Neal Riemer states: "If we care about promoting democracy, it's just much easier and more practical to not financially and logistically support fraudulent elections with our tax dollars," and "demand real democratic features in exchange for funding."

Source: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/despite-everything-haitian-government-continues-to-move-ahead-with-flawed-elections

MINUSTAH Responds to Day of Protests By Tear-Gassing IDP Camp

Thursday, 18 November 2010 17:40

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in various Haitian cities today in a day of protestagainst MINUSTAH, which is now widely believed to have been the source of the cholera outbreak. Marchers in Port-au-Prince, Cap Haitian, and elsewhere are protesting the UN mission’s role in the outbreak and other misdeeds, with many calling on the forces to leave Haiti.

A third protester – this week – was killed during protests yesterday. APreports:

Witnesses told an AP Television News cameraman that the peacekeepers opened fire, killing a demonstrator and wounding one protester in the face, one in the stomach and another in the leg. The dead man's body was displayed to reporters with a fatal gunshot wound in his left armpit.

The U.N. denied its peacekeepers fired, insisting there wasn't any shooting at the scene by anyone. The U.N. acknowledged earlier in the week when a peacekeeper killed one of the two other demonstrators who have died, saying the soldier shot in self-defense.

MINUSTAH’s denials, whether in regards to the origins of the cholera outbreak, the shootings of demonstrators, the death of Gerald Jean Gilles, or numerous other scandals, seem to be routine. MINUSTAH continues to deny its troops were the cause of the cholera outbreak, despite a Swedish diplomat’s assertions, and scientific evidence, to the contrary. Instead of MINUSTAH’s leaders – or higher ups at the UN – taking the evidence of Nepalese troops causing the cholera outbreak seriously, the overall UN response has generally been one of denial – sometimes attributing it to “appalling luck” – and MINUSTAH itself has been the most defensive. As Ansel Herz described in an interview with Democracy Now today:

I mean, it’s been interesting to see how the U.N. here has responded to these riots, because they—and protests, because they’ve actually claimed that people are sort of being manipulated and that it’s not a legitimate sort of spontaneous political movement. But, of course, I was here in this city a year ago, actually, and I was interviewing people on the street, and they were telling—there were protests at that time, peaceful protests, against U.N. peacekeepers. And they were telling me that they were tired of an occupation in their country, that the peacekeepers have an enormous budget, but very little of it is spent on, you know, concrete humanitarian activity that could actually improve education and healthcare in this country.

And, of course, also, back in August, a young boy, a 16-year-old boy, was found hanging from a tree inside a U.N. peacekeeping base here in Cap-Haïtien. That’s a story that’s been totally ignored by basically the entire U.S. media. And U.N. troops claim that he committed suicide. But people just across from the base at a hotel said that they heard his screams. They heard that he was being strangled. And there’s a lot of suspicion that he was, in fact, murdered by peacekeepers for maybe stealing a small amount of money.

MINUSTAH also attacked marchers with tear gas (read Melinda Miles’ on-the-scene account here) and an IDP camp. According to Aljazeera:

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner in Port-au-Prince, said that rioting has escalated a great deal in the capital.

"The military wing of the national police have fired tear gas directly into the homeless camp across the road from the national parliament - Champ de Mars.

"Sources are telling us that there are scenes of parents and kids running around there trying to escape the tear gas.

"There are also UN troops monitoring this, and there are reports that they earlier fired tear gas at protesters. So really things are coming to a head now."

Hundreds of people have been living in tents in the Champ de Mars camp since January when a disastrous earthquake struck the country, particularly affecting the capital.

Independent journalist Isabeau Doucet describes some of the motivations behind the new demonstrations:

As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers filled with rubbish and human excrement.

Despite the billions of dollars in international aid that flowed into this country before the earthquake, these neighbourhoods can be found in any town or city across Haiti. Ten months and more billions later, things are much worse, and after suffering in relative silence, with elections just a fortnight away, many here, it seems, have now had enough.

Chants such as "We refuse to vote while living under tarps", have been replaced with "UN peacekeepers and cholera are brothers". The difference now is that in some parts of the country the songs are accompanied by burned-out cars, flaming tyres, broken glass and the coffins of cholera victims blocking movement, forcing aid workers to suspend operations and leaving people to die in the street.

Meanwhile, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hasdirected the Haitian government to stop evicting IDP’s when safe shelter is not available to them. We can only speculate on what the IACHR might have to say about shooting up IDP camps with tear-gas.
Source:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/minustah-responds-to-day-of-protests-by-tear-gassing-idp-camp

In Response to Protests, MINUSTAH Disregards Legitimate Grievances

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 15:10

Protests against the UN and MINUSTAH in Cap-Haitien and elsewhere throughout the country yesterday resulted in at least two civilian deaths and numerous injuries. Yet the response from MINUSTAH completely ignores the legitimate concerns of the citizens about the source of the Cholera outbreak and the role of MINUSTAH in Haiti. The UN News Center reports:

“The way the events unfolded suggests that these incidents were politically motivated, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of elections,” the mission, known as MINUSTAH, said in a statement.

“MINUSTAH calls the people to remain vigilant and not be manipulated by enemies of stability and democracy in the country,” the mission added.

The protesters, according to news reports, largely held MINUSTAH responsible for bringing cholera (with a death toll now over 1000) into Haiti, where it had not been seen for decades. Despite calls from public health experts like Paul Farmer to pin point the cause of the epidemic, and the popular anger directed at MINUSTAH, officials have shied away from such an investigation. As reported by the Associated Press, a World Health Organization official said today that "at some time we will do further investigation but it's not a priority right now."

MINUSTAH's statement on the protests says that "One of the demonstrators was killed when he was hit by a bullet fired by a UN peacekeeper, who shot back in self-defense. An investigation is under way to determine the exact circumstances of the death." However Ansel Herz, writing for Inter-Press Service, reports that "At least two protesters have been reported killed, one shot in the back, a local official told the media." If indeed the protester was shot in the back, it would seem to discredit the explanation of shooting in self-defense.

Also, as Herz points out, there are outstanding issues with MINUSTAH that have angered Haitians in the past:

Anger at U.N. troops has simmered and boiled over into peaceful protests several times since the body of teenaged Gerard Jean Gilles was found hanging from a tree inside a Cap-Haitien peacekeeping base in late August.

Days later, a peacekeeping patrol responded with tear gas after being bombarded with stones. One soldier was injured, according to an internal U.N. report.

Seventeen civil society organisations authored an open letter to the head of MINUSTAH requesting an independent inquiry and condemning what they called "your decision to obstruct Haitian justice in this case".

Although MINUSTAH is ostensibly in Haiti to ensure a "secure and stable environment", when it becomes the cause of instability and violence, it calls into question whether their presence is really necessary, especially given the long list of prior complaints and abuses.
Source:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/in-response-to-protests-minustah-disregards-legitimate-grievances

False picture of foreign aid to Haiti

2010-11-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

by The Guardian

The UN forces came to police the 92% of Haitian voters who had electedPresident Aristide and protested about his overthrow by a US coup. They were never "heroes" – except to the elite "cocooned in luxury and indifference" who backed the coup (Heroes to zeros, 17 November 2010).

Before accusations of having brought cholera to Haiti (many believe intentionally), UN troops stood accused of murdering and raping Aristide supporters. According to the Lancet (UN peacekeepers in Haiti, 2 September 2006): "In just 22 months – from the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the end of 2005 – 8,000 people were murdered and 35,000 women sexually assaulted." While "criminals" were blamed, "police, armed forces, paramilitaries and foreign soldiers were also implicated".

You have got some things right: Haiti is a "republic of NGOs"; "aidtourism" does hinder reconstruction; and subsidised US imports were responsible for "destroying home-grown agriculture". (Bill Clinton apologised for the starvation his policies inflicted). But your claim that US troops are "popular and many people want them back", and the fact that US-financed elections on 28 November exclude Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party from the ballot, disregard the will of a people who, despite every obstacle, continue to let their will be known.

Twice before, in April and June 2009, 90% of the Haitian electorate boycotted US-funded elections which illegally excluded Fanmi Lavalas. In June 2010, Haitians brought to the US Social Forum a petition signed by over 20,000 female earthquake survivors demanding Aristide's return from forced exile. If Aristide were home, Haitians would not be at the mercy of NGOs and others for whom they are merely a business opportunity.

Selma James and Nina Lopez

London

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/19/false-picture-aid-to-haiti

Major Aid Organizations "Duped Donors" and "Failed Haiti" Group Charges

Georgianne Nienaber

Investigative journalist, author, Haiti relief worker

"Cholera should not be spreading in Haiti."

The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) released an online petition today, targeting leaders of major disaster relief and aid organizations for failing to do more to prevent the cholera outbreak in Haiti ten months after a devastating earthquake killed up to 300,000 and left 1.5 million homeless. Major relief organizations raised billions of dollars, while telling the public that their relief efforts included water and sanitation work. With half of the funds raised still in the bank, DAP says that aid organizations failed to use the funds with the same urgency conveyed to donors, and that a cholera epidemic was avoidable.

Executive Director Ben Smilowitz says the failure of aid organizations to respond quickly to the epidemic is different from donor nations promising aid that never materialized.

"Donors have been duped. They generously donated in response to urgent appeals to save lives and help the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Now, after billions in cash was raised, earthquake survivors are dying of cholera because conditions are so poor and the donated money is sitting in the bank. This is not what donors had in mind and it underscores the importance of transparency and accountability in relief and aid situations," Smilowitz said yesterday in a phone interview.

The petition targets the leadership of major aid organizations by name, accusing them of "not doing their jobs" and allowing the epidemic to become a major threat. Quoting the Chronicle of Philanthropy, DAP named major charities involved in sanitation and water projects.

Each of these organizations stated that they worked on Water and Sanitation after the Haiti earthquake. As of July 2010 - six months after the Haiti earthquake, American Red Cross raised $464 million and spent $117 million; Catholic Relief Services raised $140.8 million and spent $30.6 million; Oxfam America raised $29 million and spent $11 million; Salvation Army raised $20.5 million and spent $6.8 million; Food for the Poor raised $20.5 million and spent $10.7 million; Mercy Corps raised $14.9 million and spent almost $2.9 million; International Medical Corps raised $13 million and spent $4.5 million. World Vision raised $44 million ($192,000,000 worldwide) and spent $56 million worldwide and CARE raised $18.2 million and spent $9.6 million worldwide. It is unclear how much World Vision and CARE spent in Haiti, since they did not provide that information.

When asked about the skewed World Vision numbers, Smilowitz said that "these groups try to make their numbers look as impressive as possible. The bottom line is that they did not clearly answer the question about how much money World Vision raised and spent in Haiti."

"The international community and Haitian government failed to sufficiently invest in clean water and sanitation after the quake. Now, living conditions are so deplorable and infrastructure so poor, the situation is ripe for the cholera epidemic. The cholera death toll is expected to soar into the thousands," the DAP petition says.

The petition also quotes World Health Organization (WHO) documents which say cholera outbreaks are "closely linked to inadequate environmental management" and that "typical at-risk areas include peri-urban slums, where basic infrastructure is not available, as well as camps for internally displaced people or refugees, where minimum requirements of clean water and sanitation are not met."

Pan American Health Organization epidemiologists have said the disease has not peaked and will likely worsen and spread. 270,000 may be affected in the coming years.

Tarp camps for Haitians displaced by the earthquake lack sanitation facilities and many do not have clean water.

On November 17, the Ministère de la Sante Publique et de la Population (MSPP) reported that the cumulative number of hospital admissions and deaths due to cholera as of November 15 as 18,382 and 1110, respectively.

Six months after the Haiti earthquake, Disaster Accountability Project released a report detailing a "shocking lack of transparency" in Haiti relief operations.

The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving disaster management systems through policy research and advocacy, promoting transparency and engaging citizens to become more involved in preparedness and relief, and helping to ensure that people know what is happening on the ground during a disaster.

DAP was founded in 2007 in reaction to the response to Hurricane Katrina.

A toll-free hotline (866-9-TIP-DAP) is available as a public service for disaster survivors, workers and volunteers to report critical gaps in disaster prevention, response, relief, and recovery services or planning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/major-aid-organizations-d_b_785847.html

Haiti: Property of the International Community

Let’s face this bleak reality, the Haiti of today is not a sovereign state and has not been for quite some time. Haiti is an orphan state at the custody of the international community (IC), more precisely the United States of America.

Like a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, Haiti is quickly disintegrating as the people are dying from subhuman conditions and one disaster after another. The weak state of the Haitian government has rendered it practically incapable of addressing any of the people’s issue. It seems that the more the international community wants to be the savior of Haiti, the more the country is falling into the abyss.

As a people it is not too late to reclaim our country. I am fully aware of how hard such a task would be, but protecting our rights to exist would fully validate the undertaking. We are not short on who to blame for our constant meager conditions, but often time the solutions are not easy to come by, let alone finding the courage to implement anything that could work. It is time for a re-evaluation of our commitment to our country.

Haiti has been in a state of crisis management for most of the past two decades. The presidential elections of 2000 were heavily criticized, and in 2004 we saw the removal of a duly elected president and a return of UN forces on our soil. Right after, we had a care-taker government, which was headed by Gerard Latortue, who himself was the choice of the international community. In 2006, the people had to take the streets to make sure that their votes were counted and respected, and as an outcome Rene Preval became president for a second time.

Fast forward to 2010, which will probably be recorded as one of the worst years in Haitian history in term of natural disasters, and the exposition of what failing policies can do to a people. Top-down, we have witnessed a disenfranchised people unable to help themselves during the hardest moment in generations. After the earthquake, it became evident that Haitians do not control their destiny and that its very survival is at the mercy of the international community. The same scenario repeated itself as a cholera outbreak potentially have reached our shore from South Asia, have killed and sickened scores of Haitians, only to once again witnessed the people left at the mercy of the international community to come to their rescue.

The Haitian authorities cannot speak to the people until they are ordered to do so from their proprietor, even if that means, watching hopeless people die. As the earthquake and the cholera outbreak clearly exposed the incompetence of Haitian authorities and their willingness to submit to orders from the international community, as a concerned citizen I believe the time has come for us to implement the changes that we want for our children.

The plan of the international community for our country is to let Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) do the job that could and shall be done by Haitians. It is clear and evident that our country is completely dependent on the charity of the IC and Haitians more than ever are being excluded from major decisions relating to their country.
The UN military forces under the banner of MINUSTHA have provided a safe heaven for foreigners to do their work in Haiti, while millions of Haitians continue to suffer. There is a false sense of peace in the country because the people know any attempt to voice their discontent will be met by force from the UN soldiers. All along, the Haitian government has allowed this situation to continue. The MINUSTHA also protects the status quo of the few Haitians in power all at the detriment of the people.

The reconstruction effort is being co-led by President Bill Clinton, a part-timer UN envoy to Haiti, and Max Bellerive, the current sitting Prime Minister of Haiti. There is no doubt who is really in charge between those two individuals. Haiti is an occupied territory that no one wants to acknowledge. The weak state of the Haitian government is a direct result of the international community policies towards Haiti, and unfortunately many of us are too naïve to want to accept this basic reality.

The way forward starts with a bottom-up approach, where the people stop falling for the trap of survival and start investing in the future of their children. Haiti became an independent state in 1804 because for the most part our ancestors came to the realization that they would rather die than to see us living the same life they lived. Hence, a movement towards a free Haiti began and succeeded in defeating the French colonialists. Today’s situation is no different. We face the prospect of not seeing a better tomorrow, but we can fight for the welfare our children. It is the moment for us to take ourselves out of the equation, and lay everything on the line for the sake of those who have yet to be born.

As we live in a global age, the new reality of occupation and colonization has changed. Instead of one country being in charge of a lesser weaker state, we now see multi-national forces, usually dominated by great powers, taking the lead to impose their policies on impoverished countries like Haiti. It would be one thing to be the property of the international community and have access to the most basic necessities of life, but it is completely unacceptable to live this daily humiliation in our own homeland, and yet still forced to live in sub-human conditions.

The face of slavery may have change, but Haiti and Haitians remain in bondage. We must once again break the chain of oppression and reclaim our rightful place among civilized nations in this world. The international community has failed and is continuing to fail us.

Source: http://haitirewired.wired.com/profiles/blogs/haiti-property-of-the

“All Elements of Society Are Participating” – Impressions of Cap Haitien’s Movement Against the UN

2010-11-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

CAP-HAITIEN – The first barricade looked harmless enough. Foot-long rocks piled next to each other in a line.

But as the bus driver slowed down, flying rocks landed in the street – thrown by youths crouching in the bushes up the hill.

“We don’t really have a country! The police don’t do anything!” a nun sitting across from me complained after the bus driver negotiated, with a little cash, our way past.

The man next to her said the country will always be mired in problems until a leader like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro takes power.

We must have passed a dozen more barricades, most unmanned.

After Limbe, where cholera has killed at least 100 people, we came to the biggest “barikad” yet in the highway. Thick trees lay across the road and hundreds of people, a few holding machetes, blocked the way.

The bus driver once again descended to negotiate, but didn’t appear to be making any progress. Most passengers grabbed their belongings and got out.

I decided to go too. As I gathered my things, there was a debate among the remaining passengers:

“He’s a blan (foreigner), he’s going to get hurt.”
“No no no, he speaks Creole, he’ll be fine.”
“They’re going to think he’s MINUSTAH. They’re not logical.”

MINUSTAH is the acronym for the UN peacekeeping mission. As I stepped off the bus, people standing on at the road called me over and urged me not to go. It was the third day of so-called “cholera riots” against foreign troops blamed for introducing the disease into the country.

Someone said the protesters are violent “chimere,” a word for political gangs. I explained that it’s my job as a journalist to go talk to them.

Then two Haitian journalists who were on the bus pushed their way through the crowd and wrapped their arms around me. Everyone agreed, finally, that together with the two guys I could get through the barricades.

Elizer and Duval were coming back home to Cap Haitien. They were scared for me, saying under no circumstances should I talk with protesters or take photos. I reluctantly agreed to follow their instructions.

I wondered if perhaps the UN peacekeeping mission was right in saying these were protests were organized by a politician or gang. “Enemies of stability and democracy,” MINUSTAH mission head Edmond Mulet called them. So far, I’d only seen young men in the street.

But as we passed through each barricade, everyone – young girls and rotund market women mingling with demonstrators yelled out, “MINUSTAH ou ye?”

I yelled back, “Non, mwen se yon journalis Amerikan.” The suspicious stares softened into smiles and understanding looks. After passing the third barricade that way, we started laughing.

One teenager who threw a rock at us as we approached on motorcycle said, “pa gen pwoblem” – no problem – after I held out my press badge.

As we arrived on the outskirts of Cap Haitien proper, the streets were deserted except for people gathered around barricades. One was still flaming. At another, dozens of men milled around a burnt out car.

Read the rest at Mediahacker.org →

Source:http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/11/all-elements-of-society-are-participating-impressions-of-cap-haitiens-movement-against-the-un/#more-2351

http://haitirewired.wired.com/

Are UN Troops "peaceful"? Do "peacekeepers" call protestors "enemies" and kill people? If my last name is "Peace" does it mean that I am peaceful?

2010-11-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

UN Troops in Haiti -- Timetable for Withdrawal?

Robert Naiman

Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy

This week, there have been several days of protests in Haiti against the presence of United Nations troops in the country. The immediate catalyst has been the widespread belief among Haitians that UN troops are responsible for the outbreak of cholera in Haiti -- a belief that is not proven, but a belief for which there is considerable evidence, and a belief that the UN has encouraged by its refusal to support an investigation into the causes of the cholera outbreak, ignoring calls from Haitian officials and international public health experts for such an investigation.

The cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,100 people, and the Pan-American Health Organization estimates that it may kill 10,000.

Haitian protesters have been chanting: "MINUSTAH go home," MINUSTAH being the name of the UN force.

Why do UN troops remain in Haiti? What are their plans for leaving? Is there a timetable for the withdrawal of UN forces from Haiti? If not, why not?

If the demands by Haitian protesters for UN forces to leave are not just, shouldn't someone have to explain why? No explanation is being given for why UN troops should remain in Haiti indefinitely.

On the contrary, press reports are lending credence to the view that there is no justification for UN troops to remain in Haiti indefinitely. The Guardian reports:

Many Haitians, however, have long criticised the outsiders as a cumbersome occupation force that squanders $500m better spent on building up ramshackle local police and courts.

"Speaking in a personal capacity, I don't know why we have them," said Prospery Raymond, country director of the UK-based NGO Christian Aid. "Yes, we have some gangs but we don't have a war or insurgents."
Most of the population believed the cholera came from the Nepalese [UN troops] and that the UN will do its best to hide it, he said. "If it is confirmed to be from them this will be damaging for the UN and their peacekeeping all over the world."

Al Jazeera presents an even more critical view:

Professor Peter Hallward, an expert in Haitian politics at Kingston University in the United Kingdom, told Al Jazeera that the UN mission was seen by many Haitians as an "occupying force".

"The UN has been there since 2004, to police the consequences of a coup, a coup that overthrew Jean Betrande Aristide, who was elected with a huge mandate several years before that." he said.
"It is seen as the force that came in to pacify the people and persuade them to accept this coup that was a violation of their sovereignty."
Hallward said he believed that Haiti would be able to function without the UN force. "It didn't need the UN before, it didn't need the coup... The fundamental problem here is that the coup overturned the political system, the continuity of a government that was trying to improve the situation of the people," he said.

Regardless of whether one agrees with these views, the burden of proof is on anyone who wishes to justify the UN military presence in Haiti. It is not "normal" for UN troops to be in Haiti. If their presence cannot be justified, plans should be made for their orderly and timely departure.

And there are several reasons why this is a particularly appropriate time to raise the question of what the plans are for the UN forces to leave, in addition to the protests.

First, the cholera outbreak and the UN response raise fundamental questions about the accountability of the UN military force to the Haitian government and the Haitian people. Why have calls for investigation of the cause of the cholera outbreak been dismissed?

Second, the UN's dismissive and provocative statements in response to the protests indicate a partisanship in Haitian politics that is the opposite of what one would expect from a genuine "peacekeeping" force. The UN has referred to the protesters as "enemies." Really? Wouldn't you expect a genuine "peacekeeping" force, charged with being the cause of a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,100 and may kill 10,000, to show a little humility, empathy, and compassion? Wouldn't you expect a genuine "peacekeeping" force to make some kind of reasonable concession, like agreeing to participate in an independent investigation of the cause of the outbreak?

Third, the UN, in its dismissals of the protests, has sought to refocus attention on the elections scheduled for Nov. 28. OK, what about these elections? In June, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee published a report prepared under the direction of Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking member, calling for Haiti's electoral council to be reformed so that all parties could participate, instead of some parties -- like the Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted and exiled President Aristide -- being arbitrarily excluded. Senator Lugar's report was ignored. In October, 45 members of the House wrote to Secretary of State Clinton urging her to make it clear that Washington would withhold funds for the election if they were not going to be free, fair and inclusive. They were ignored.

These are the elections that are so urgent, according to the UN, that they must occupy all of our attention, so that we cannot afford to investigate the cause of the cholera outbreak.

Let's assume -- just for the sake of discussion -- that these concerns about the elections will continue to be ignored, and that the Nov. 28 elections go forward as planned, despite these problems and others. The UN will undoubtedly claim the election as a success, regardless of how many people participate. Since, according to the UN, the resulting government will be the legitimate government of Haiti, should not we expect the UN to be planning to handover all responsibility for security in Haiti to this new government? Why is the UN not broadcasting its plan to do so?

Fourth, the lead government in the UN force is Brazil. Brazil is now undergoing a transition from the government of President Lula to President Dilma, who will take office in January. The arrival of a new administration is an opportunity for a fresh start, even when the new president is from the same political party, even when the new president served in the previous government. The Colombian government under President Santos appears to be moving decisively to improve relations with Venezuela, even though Santos served as Defense Minister in the previous Uribe government, which pursued a policy of confrontation with Venezuela. Dilma can turn a new page in Brazil's relations with Haiti by supporting a timetable for withdrawal for the UN troops.

Finally, while there are no U.S. troops in the UN force, we pay for the UN force with our tax dollars. As members of Congress consider ways to cut the international affairs budget that won't harm useful programs, they should consider calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/un-troops-in-haiti---time_b_785981.html?ref=tw

Cholera outbreak close to Haitian elections: Coincidence?

2010-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops

The crisis in Haiti follows decades of economic exploitation and gifts with chains attached – no wonder its citizens are angry

- Isabeau Doucet
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 11.30 GMT
- Article history

A UN peacekeeper at a refugee camp in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, where there has been an outbreak of cholera. Photograph: Andres Martinez Casares/EPA

You may have heard about the civil unrest in Haiti over recent days, on the heels of a hurricane that thwarted efforts to contain a cholera epidemic that is now a national emergency. All this may fit the image often painted of this much-maligned country: crushing poverty, endemic corruption, the threat of violence so constant that international peacekeepers are required to stop Haitians tearing each other apart.

Well, the poverty and the corruption may be true. But on Thursday, demonstrations calling for the departure of the UN troops, known asMinustah, will be held throughout Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, by students, grassroots organisations, opposition groups excluded from the elections, and – most importantly – citizens united by a common cause: that Haiti's escalating nightmares must end now.

As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers filled with rubbish and human excrement.

Despite the billions of dollars in international aid that flowed into this country before the earthquake, these neighbourhoods can be found in any town or city across Haiti. Ten months and more billions later, things are much worse, and after suffering in relative silence, with elections just a fortnight away, many here, it seems, have now had enough.

Chants such as "We refuse to vote while living under tarps", have been replaced with "UN peacekeepers and cholera are brothers". The difference now is that in some parts of the country the songs are accompanied by burned-out cars, flaming tyres, broken glass and the coffins of cholera victims blocking movement, forcing aid workers to suspend operations and leaving people to die in the street.

Many accuse the Nepalese UN troops of dumping cholera-infected fecal matter into the Artibonite river, and are now demanding the departure of all UN forces. Officials claim the protests are a politically motivated attempt to disrupt an election timetable they continue to cling to in the face of disaster. If the vote is ultimately postponed, as it surely should be, the international media will no doubt dismiss Haitians as unfit for democracy, still in the grips of Duvalierest dictatorship or too deeply entrenched in anarchy to organise and manifest their popular will.

It's a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world's attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame.

The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?

A decade ago, money was in place to address the country's failing water system. In 2000, a $54m (£34m) loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) should have given the Haitian government means to rehabilitate its urban and rural water systems, but US foreign policy objectives of destabilising the democratically elected Aristide government got in the way. Sources have suggested the US government asked the IDB to block the loan, as well as others totalling $146m for investment in health, education and sanitation infrastructure, while electoral disputes were worked out, yet the aid freeze continued after they were resolved. A UK study from 2002 still rated Haiti's water as the worst in the world.

An independent investigation should be carried out on the Minustah latrines, but ultimately it could have been anyone – conditions were ripe for cholera because international policy towards Haiti hasn't changed in decades. Economic exploitation, political intervention, NGO gifts with chains attached, media misrepresentation, the same mistakes have been made over and over again. Sadly, even an earthquake doesn't seem to have changed that. It's little wonder Haitians are manifesting their anger in increasingly heated protests.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/18/haiti-crisis-un-troops