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Sofia Jarrin has added subtitles to a powerful video documenting
repression in Honduras produced by Cesar Silva. The video is available
at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://quixote.org/repression-honduras">http://quixote.org/repression-honduras</a><br>
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br>
<b style=""><br>
Honduran Coup d’état, a ‘win’ for the U.S.?<o:p></o:p></b>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
January 27, 2010
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
Today, Pepe Lobo will be inaugurated as the new President
of Honduras in what many consider to be an institutionalization of the
coup d’état
which took place seven months ago.<span style=""> </span>Lobo
comes to the Presidency as a result of a highly disputed election
process carried
out by the coup regime. The elections, which have been widely condemned
as
illegitimate were boycotted by a large percentage of the Honduran
population.<span style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
U.S. Undersecretary Thomas Shannon, in a maneuver that totally
subverted an extended negotiation process, announced that the U.S.
would
recognize the election, even if there was not a prior return to
constitutional
order.<span style=""> </span>The U.S. celebrates today’s
inauguration as the ‘way forward’ for Honduras and has aggressively
pressured
other Latin American countries to recognize Lobo’s government.<span
style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
While the United States is eager normalize the situation
and to get on with business as usual, the June 28<sup>th</sup> coup
d’état has yielded
unexpected consequences for Washington, both inside and outside of
Honduras.<span style=""> </span>Unforeseen by the coup plotters and
the
United States, the military takeover of Honduras unleashed a broad
based,
sustained resistance movement inside the country.<span style=""> </span>A
spirit long dormant in Honduras was
awakened, transforming the country into a hub of political activity
previously unimaginable.
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
The resistance movement has brought together people from many
sectors of Honduran society, including large numbers of disaffected
Liberal
Party members.<span style=""> </span>The unifying theme is
that they no longer accept the status quo for their country.<span
style=""> </span>Events of the last seven months have
accelerated and deepened a process demanding deep structural change. <span
style=""> </span>Organizations such as “Los Necios”, a small, left
wing organization of students and young people struggled to maintain a
membership
of around 100.<span style=""> </span>In these few months, their
membership has swelled to over 1000.<span style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
Currently 57 local expressions of the national resistance
organization operate in cities and towns around Honduras. <span
style=""> </span>Confounding the coup leader’s strategy, the
movement is gaining strength despite brutal repression, state terror
and the
attempt to institutionalize the coup via elections.<span style=""> </span>The
resistance movement is holding large protest
marches today and is working to implement a four-year plan for movement
building in preparation for the next national elections. <br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
In Latin America, the coup in Honduras is widely
understood to be a test case for U.S. policy towards Latin America. <span
style=""> </span>By attacking the weakest and most vulnerable
of the ALBA countries, the U.S. hoped to strike a blow to this
alternative economic
block which the U.S. counts as enemy.<span style=""> </span>However,
in the wake of the coup, the U.S. found itself in a historically
unprecedented
position at the OAS.<span style=""> </span>Viewed by Latin American
governments from both the right and the left as a potential direct
threat to
each of them, the OAS took a unanimous position denouncing the coup and
ejecting Honduras from the OAS.<span style=""> </span>The U.S.
was forced to accept this decision. <span style=""> </span>Most
countries in Latin America continue to refuse to recognize the results
of the
coup regime sponsored “elections” on November 29<sup>th</sup> despite
heavy pressure
and arm twisting on the part of the Unites States to do so. <span
style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
Disappointment stemming from the contradiction between
statements of a recently inaugurated President Obama to Latin American
heads of
state at the Summit of the Americas in April of 2009, and a virtually
unchanged
U.S. policy has been articulated by leaders throughout Latin America.<span
style=""> </span>Three recent ‘moments’ have contributed to a
rapid readjustment of expectations.<span style="">
</span>First was the coup in Honduras and refusal of the U.S. to take
proactive
policy measures against it. <span style=""> </span>Second was
the announcement of seven new U.S. military bases in Colombia.<span
style=""> </span>And the third was Secretary of State
Clinton’s declaration that Latin America countries should “think twice
about
flirting with Iran.” <br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
The willingness of Latin American countries to challenge
U.S. positions indicates a slowly changing balance of power in the
Hemisphere. <span style=""> </span>Soon after Arturo Valenzuela was
confirmed as
Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere he paid a visit
to the
Mercosur Countries.<span style=""> </span>Far from the
diplomatic protocol to which the U.S. is accustomed, in Brazil and
Argentina, the
first two countries which he visited, Mr. Valenzuela was not received
by the
President or the Foreign Minister in either country.<span style=""> </span>In
a press statement near the time of
Valenzuela’s visit, Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim criticized
the US
for being “extremely tolerant” of the coup and the de facto regime.<span
style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
What seems most clear is that the U.S.<span style=""> </span>State
Department remains mired in an outdated
cold war mentality, failing to recognize and adapt to the profound and
complex
changes that have occurred in Latin America during the last decade.<span
style=""> </span>Unfortunately, there seem to be few signs
that this will change anytime soon.<span style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
Today’s inauguration in Honduras is happening in a
context in which the old ghosts from the worst decades of U.S. policy
toward
Latin America have been conjured in an attempt to silence opposition.<span
style=""> </span>The sharp escalation of human rights
violations and use of state terror in an attempt to destroy the
resistance
movement has now entered a phase which human rights defenders describe
as
“silent, selective and systematic.”<span style=""> </span>Death
squads and paramilitaries relentlessly pursue those resisting the coup.<span
style=""> </span>Many have been executed, and others have fled
in order to save their lives. <span style=""> </span>
<br>
<o:p> </o:p>
<br>
The repression continues in the context of a people who
are empowered, determined and who are not afraid.<span style=""> </span>The
resistance movement has declared that it
will not recognize Porfirio Lobo as President, but rather consider him
to be
the continuation of the dictatorship imposed though the June 28<sup>th</sup>
military coup.<span style=""> </span>Their non-violent struggle
for deep structural change via a constituent assembly will continue.<span
style=""> </span>What has happened in Honduras serves as a
marker for change in Latin America.<span style=""> </span>It signals
that attempts by the United States to rule the hemisphere through
coercion and
force will be met with new and unexpected challenges and forms of
resistance. <br>
<br>
Tom Loudon<br>
Quixote Center<br>
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Honduras’
Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo: Another Disaster for Central American Democracy
Waiting
in the Wing<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">by
COHA Senior Research Fellow Adrienne Pine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Tomorrow,
January 27th, as the
world’s eyes continue to be riveted on the unfolding disaster in Haiti,
Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo will be installed as Honduras’ president,
succeeding de
facto president Roberto Micheletti. Lobo, a supporter of the June 28th
military
coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, was chosen in a November
election
held under conditions of qualified state terror. As the majority of
Hondurans
boycotted the elections, and dozens of candidates for lower offices
withdrew,
the vast majority of countries around the world classified the ballot
as
illegitimate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
the hours and days following the
election, the illegally-appointed Supreme Electoral Tribunal committed
fraud by
announcing a voter turnout that was indisputably more than 12
percentage points
higher than its own officially-published numbers. The doctored higher
figure
was cited repeatedly by Lobo, Secretary of State Clinton, and other
friendly
faces to legitimize the disputed ballot. Many Honduran and foreign
observers
argue that later international support for the Lobo Administration will
eventually ensure the invalidation of Zelaya’s most important reforms.
This
support will guarantee long-term repression and a growing degree of
tight-fisted control in the country, as well as endangering democratic
institutions and social justice reforms throughout the hemisphere as
the result
of an echo effect. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Though
State Department officials
insist that the Honduras election process was transparent, in fact, no
international observers were present to confirm the tally because—as
announced
by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on September 23rd—the conditions
for a
free and fair election were not present. A scathing 147-page report
released
Wednesday, January 20th, by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission
corroborates this, citing a litany of well-documented human rights
abuses,
including numerous political assassinations committed prior to, and
following
the election. The report describes a militarized environment in which
dissonant
or critical opinions have been officially prohibited in “an egregious,
arbitrary, unnecessary and disproportionate restriction, in violation
of
international law, of the right of every Honduran to express himself or
herself
freely, and to receive information from a plurality and diversity of
sources.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
no official international
observers were on the ground election day, the National Democratic
Institute
(NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) sent “monitors”
to
oversee the Honduran election that the OAS and Carter Center had
refused to
legitimize with their presence. Both the NDI and IRI are funded by the
U.S. Congress
through a highly conservative Reagan-era umbrella organization, the
National
Endowment for Democracy (NED). The archly conservative IRI has
supported
efforts implicated in the ousting of democratically-elected presidents
in Haiti
and Venezuela in recent years. The day of the election, the NDI had its
monitors caught on tape refusing to discuss police violence, which they
had
witnessed outside the polls in Honduras’ industrial city of San Pedro
Sula.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
parallels between Honduras and
Haiti are striking; each country has been saddled by a history of
undeserved
debt—an enduring legacy of colonialism—and in each country’s case
(after over a
century of often U.S.-installed dictatorships) an elected president who
was
responsibly engaged with bringing social justice to its citizens, was
evicted
from office. The vehicle for this was a military coup at least tacitly
backed
by Washington. By aiding the foes of Manual Zelaya in Honduras and
Haiti’s
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Washington indirectly or directly ousted from
power
those who had been prepared to protect public resources from the
pressing
demands of the IMF for privatization, and shrink the public sector
infrastructure of both countries. The skewed development of these
countries, as
well as guidance from private entities and the U.S. government,
subjected the
national interests of Haiti and Honduras to be hostage to the view of
these
outsiders. This is a situation that could turn the smallest windstorm
into a
hurricane, when it comes to a natural disaster’s impacts on the average
resident and outside political manipulations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Although
President Obama initially
joined the international community in condemning the Honduran coup and
calling
for the restoration of democratic order as a precondition for
recognition of
elections in that country, Washington in fact has been aggressively
lobbying
other Latin American presidents to recognize the incoming Lobo
government.
Despite the de facto government’s refusal to reinstate Zelaya or follow
the
time line and process laid out by the Guaymuras Accords, the Obama
Administration has signaled its intention to recognize a “unity”
government
representing only the coup leaders, and to support the Honduran
Congress’
decision to give amnesty to those responsible for the military coup and
the
thousands of human rights abuses that followed. In a recent interview
with
COHA, independent Honduran journalist and filmmaker Oscar Estrada
expressed
some of the opposition’s apprehensions about Lobo:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“With
the entrance on the scene of
Porfirio Lobo Sosa, there begins a new phase in the project of
domination begun
by the June 28th coup d’état. [Lobo’s] recent reconciliation agreement
is
nothing more than an attempt to whitewash the coup and demobilize the
popular
resistance.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lobo,
the man who speaks today of
dialogue and peace, has offered safe conduct for Mel Zelaya to leave
the
country. But, just days ago, he proposed a neoliberal “national plan”
for the
next 28 years. By means of his own legislative bloc, he seeks to
approve an
amnesty that principally favors the country’s violators of human
rights, and
plans to govern with the backing and protection of the paramilitary
structures
that have terrorized the people during the past six months.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Honduran
opponents of the coup, who
since June 28th have organized almost daily protest actions, including
numerous
marches numbering in the hundreds of thousands, similarly plan to
protest
Lobo’s inauguration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
Obama Administration has so
profoundly bungled the situation in Honduras that it has destroyed hope
among
many of its citizens as well as Latin Americans that a ‘new era’ of
relations
with the United States is in the making. Add to that the multiplication
of U.S.
military bases in Colombia, the mistakes being made in response to the
tragedy
in Haiti, and the missed opportunities in Cuba, and one cannot claim
with any
degree of optimism that Obama is off to a robust start to implement an
energized and enlightened new Latin American policy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">COHA
Senior Research Fellow Adrienne
Pine, Ph.D, also serves an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at
American
University. Dr. Pine recently authored the book <i>Working Hard,
Drinking Hard:
On Violence and Survival in Honduras</i> (University of California
Press).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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