[HNA] [Fwd: Tragedy of Honduras appears lost in news of troop escalation in Afghanistan]
Tom Loudon
toml at quixote.org
Fri Dec 4 07:12:19 PST 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_a_honduras_coup__no_one_notices.html
Tragedy of Honduras appears lost in news of troop escalation in
Afghanistan
Albor Ruiz - Ny Local
<http://www.nydailynews.com/authors/Albor%20Ruiz%20-%20Ny%20Local>
Thursday, December 3rd 2009, 4:00 AM
Related News
* Ruiz: Latin leaders urge U.S. to lift Cuba embargo
<http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/09/27/2009-09-27_latin_leaders_urge_us_to_lift_cuba_embargo.html>
* U.S. heads to Honduras with victory in mind
<http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/10/09/2009-10-09_us_soccer_team_heading_to_honduras.html>
* Ousted Honduran president, government sign pact
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_ousted_honduras_president_manuel_zelaya_roberto_michelettis_government_sign_pact.html>
* Conservative rancher wins post-coup Honduran presidential
elections
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/11/30/2009-11-30_conservative_rancher_wins_postcoup_honduran_vote.html>
* Honduras Congress votes against reinstating ousted President
Manuel Zelaya
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_honduras_congress_votes_against_reinstating_ousted_president_manuel_zelaya_.html>
*
Lost in the wake of President Obama
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Barack+Obama>'s dramatic announcement
to send 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Afghanistan> is the tragedy of
Honduras <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Honduras>.
The tiny Central American country, one of the poorest in the hemisphere,
had its democracy trampled on June 28 by a military coup. Legitimately
elected President Manuel Zelaya
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manuel+Zelaya> was kidnapped at
gunpoint, forcibly expelled from his country and replaced with Roberto
Micheletti <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Roberto+Micheletti>, who
had tried and failed three times before to become president.
To add insult to injury, Honduras now faces an attempt by the usurpers
to whitewash their actions by cynically portraying the Nov. 29 election
as democratic.
Sad - and amazingly shortsighted - is that Washington
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Washington>, after initially taking a
principled position and condemning the coup, turned its back on
democracy and now supports the golpistas.
As a result, the historic Latin American mistrust of the U.S.
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/United+States> was reinforced after a
brief period in which it seemed that President Obama would erase George
W. Bush <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/George+W.+Bush>'s legacy of
neglect, bullying and ignorance.
Hellbent on making believe the election was legitimate, the de facto
government claims the abstention rate was less than 40%, while Zelaya
insists it was closer to 70%. Porfirio Lobo
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Porfirio+Lobo>, a rightist who had
lost to Zelaya the last time around, was proclaimed the winner.
But how can an election held under a state of emergency and called by a
de facto regime installed by a coup be democratic?
As one international observer remarked, there is an important resistance
movement that asked Hondurans not to vote while Zelaya, the legitimate
president, remained holed up in the Brazilian Embassy
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brazilian+Ministry+of+Foreign+Affairs>.
Yet we are expected to believe that a majority of voters, the same
people who elected Zelaya, massively turned out to take part in the
golpistas' electoral sham.
Election Day - no matter what Micheletti and Lobo maintain - wasn't
exactly peaceful.
An incident described by Tom Loudon
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Tom+Loudon>, head of a delegation of
human rights observers from the Quixote Center
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Quixote+Center>, an American social
justice group, is an example of the de facto regime's human rights abuses.
"A peaceful march of over 500 people was just culminating at the Central
Park <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Central+Park> of San Pedro Sula
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/San+Pedro+Sula> [Honduras' second
largest city] when a large armored tank with high-pressure water cannons
mounted on the top pulled up at the rear of the march - along with a
large truck full of military troops. The 500 peaceful, unarmed
protesters turned around to face the tank and troops - and in unison,
they sat down in the middle of the street. The truck retreated two
blocks. The soldiers got off the truck, and began to put on gas masks.
Suddenly, the crowd was attacked with water cannons and gas. People are
fleeing. There are wounded and detained."
Javier Zúñiga, a member of the Amnesty International
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Amnesty+International> delegation
observing the election, reported the routine detention of protesters.
"Justice seems to have been absent also on Election Day in Honduras," he
said.
The Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Center+for+Economic+and+Policy+Research>
reported that the regime jammed the signals of opposition broadcasters.
The list goes on.
But the tragedy of Honduras appears lost in the news of the announced
troop escalation in the Afghan conflict - and that's too bad.
Washington should not ignore the human rights violations by Micheletti
and his accomplices and should not support a president chosen in a sham
election. Otherwise, Latin America
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Latin+America> will confirm what many
there already suspect: Despite Obama's nice words, little has changed in
its relations with the U.S.
aruiz at nydailynews.com <mailto:aruiz at nydailynews.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hondurasresists.org/pipermail/announce_hondurasresists.org/attachments/20091204/62ea1871/attachment.html>
More information about the announce
mailing list