<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<br>
<div id="art_info">
<h1><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_a_honduras_coup__no_one_notices.html"><font
size="2">http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_a_honduras_coup__no_one_notices.html</font></a></h1>
<div id="TixyyLink"
style="border: medium none ; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<div id="TixyyLink"
style="border: medium none ; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<div id="art_info">
<h1>Tragedy of Honduras appears lost in news of troop escalation in
Afghanistan </h1>
<p class="byline"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/authors/Albor%20Ruiz%20-%20Ny%20Local"><font
color="#015fb6">Albor Ruiz - Ny Local</font></a> </p>
<p class="datestamp">Thursday, December 3rd 2009, 4:00 AM</p>
</div>
<div class="art_sidebar">
<div class="code_module">
<div class="art_sidebar_hdr">
<h3>Related News</h3>
</div>
<div class="module clear">
<div class="mod_content_related">
<ul class="mod_related">
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/09/27/2009-09-27_latin_leaders_urge_us_to_lift_cuba_embargo.html"><font
color="#015fb6">Ruiz: Latin leaders urge U.S. to lift Cuba embargo</font></a>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/10/09/2009-10-09_us_soccer_team_heading_to_honduras.html"><font
color="#015fb6">U.S. heads to Honduras with victory in mind</font></a>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_ousted_honduras_president_manuel_zelaya_roberto_michelettis_government_sign_pact.html"><font
color="#015fb6">Ousted Honduran president, government sign pact</font></a>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/11/30/2009-11-30_conservative_rancher_wins_postcoup_honduran_vote.html"><font
color="#015fb6">Conservative rancher wins post-coup Honduran
presidential elections </font></a>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_honduras_congress_votes_against_reinstating_ousted_president_manuel_zelaya_.html"><font
color="#015fb6">Honduras Congress votes against reinstating ousted
President Manuel Zelaya </font></a>
</li>
<li class="inform-logo-related last"><br>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Lost in the wake of <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="Barack Obama"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Barack+Obama"><font
color="#015fb6">President Obama</font></a>'s dramatic announcement to
send 30,000 more soldiers to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Afghanistan"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Afghanistan"><font
color="#015fb6">Afghanistan</font></a> is the tragedy of <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Honduras"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Honduras"><font color="#015fb6">Honduras</font></a>.</p>
<p>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 <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="Manuel Zelaya"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manuel+Zelaya"><font
color="#015fb6">President Manuel Zelaya</font></a> was kidnapped at
gunpoint, forcibly expelled from his country and replaced with <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Roberto Micheletti"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Roberto+Micheletti"><font
color="#015fb6">Roberto Micheletti</font></a>, who had tried and
failed three times before to become president. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Sad - and amazingly shortsighted - is that <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Washington" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Washington"><font
color="#015fb6">Washington</font></a>, after initially taking a
principled position and condemning the coup, turned its back on
democracy and now supports the golpistas. </p>
<p>As a result, the historic Latin American mistrust of the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="United States"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/United+States"><font
color="#015fb6">U.S.</font></a> was reinforced after a brief period in
which it seemed that President Obama would erase <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="George W. Bush"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/George+W.+Bush"><font
color="#015fb6">George W. Bush</font></a>'s legacy of neglect,
bullying and ignorance. </p>
<p>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%. <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Porfirio Lobo"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Porfirio+Lobo"><font
color="#015fb6">Porfirio Lobo</font></a>, a rightist who had lost to
Zelaya the last time around, was proclaimed the winner. </p>
<p>But how can an election held under a state of emergency and called
by a de facto regime installed by a coup be democratic? </p>
<p>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 <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brazilian+Ministry+of+Foreign+Affairs"><font
color="#015fb6">Brazilian Embassy</font></a>. 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. </p>
<p>Election Day - no matter what Micheletti and Lobo maintain - wasn't
exactly peaceful. </p>
<p>An incident described by <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Tom Loudon" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Tom+Loudon"><font
color="#015fb6">Tom Loudon</font></a>, head of a delegation of human
rights observers from the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Quixote Center"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Quixote+Center"><font
color="#015fb6">Quixote Center</font></a>, an American social justice
group, is an example of the de facto regime's human rights abuses. </p>
<p>"A peaceful march of over 500 people was just culminating at the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Central Park"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Central+Park"><font
color="#015fb6">Central Park</font></a> of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="San Pedro Sula"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/San+Pedro+Sula"><font
color="#015fb6">San Pedro Sula</font></a> [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." </p>
<p>Javier Zúñiga, a member of the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Amnesty International"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Amnesty+International"><font
color="#015fb6">Amnesty International</font></a> delegation observing
the election, reported the routine detention of protesters. "Justice
seems to have been absent also on Election Day in Honduras," he said. </p>
<p>The Washington-based <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Center for Economic and Policy Research"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Center+for+Economic+and+Policy+Research"><font
color="#015fb6">Center for Economic and Policy Research</font></a>
reported that the regime jammed the signals of opposition broadcasters.
The list goes on. </p>
<p>But the tragedy of Honduras appears lost in the news of the
announced troop escalation in the Afghan conflict - and that's too bad.
</p>
<p>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, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Latin America"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Latin+America"><font
color="#015fb6">Latin America</font></a> will confirm what many there
already suspect: Despite Obama's nice words, little has changed in its
relations with the U.S.</p>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:aruiz@nydailynews.com"><font
color="#015fb6">aruiz@nydailynews.com</font></a></p>
<br>
<div class="clearfix" id="art_bottom"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearfix" id="art_bottom">
</div>
</body>
</html>