Honduran Government Ends State of Siege

[L. Coyote]

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune

TEGUCIGALPA ....

“Everything, the entire decree, is completely revoked,” he (Micheletti) said, accompanied by several members of the cabinet and by U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Micheletti also said that those responsible for expelling Zelaya from Honduras on the day of the putsch would be “punished” for their “error” in exiling the ousted head of state to Costa Rica.

While stressing the end of restrictions on constitutional freedoms, he said that the two pro-Zelaya media outlets shut down under the state of siege would have to apply to the courts for the restoration of their broadcasting licenses.


Read more: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=345047&CategoryId=23558

---

The Honduras government lifted the state of siege imposed 10 days ago,
but did not undo the harm done to democracy during the decree,
a lawless excuse to silence the political opposition.
The media outlets supporting democracy remain dismantled and silenced!

===========================
Jesuits in Honduras receive death threats
Statement of the National Caritas of Honduras on the State of Siege - http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=14937

The statement below from Caritas Honduras addresses - among other issues - the threats to the director of the Jesuit-run Radio station.

.... Caritas of Honduras declares its deep concern and dismay in the face of the direction the country is going which troubles and frightens even more large parts of the population; therefore, we join the different voices which have let themselves be heard in this moment and we express our longing in order that we together may construct a nation in peace, tranquillity, and liberty.

2. The critical situation in which we have lived since before June 28 and which was deepened from that date on, has been exacerbated increasingly until it has come to the taking of extreme measures by those who are now at the front of the nation, such as the declaration of a state of siege for 45 days, an act which we consider disproportionate in terms of the force imposed, as well as illegitimate and an obstacle to dialogue, because it damages the fundamental rights of the person, such as freedom of expression, assembly, association, normal circulation - rights and guarantees contained in articles 69, 72, 78, 81, and 84 of the Constitution of the Republic.

3. We are worried about the manner that in the pursuit of maintaining an alleged social peace, the life and physical integrity of so many people who have participated in the marches of the resistance have been wounded. We reject the death threats that Father Ismael Moreno SJ has received and the boycott (interruptions?) of the transmissions of Radio Progreso in the diocese of Yoro, Radio Santa Rosa in Copán and other means of communication.

...............

=====================
A Shameful Silence on Human Rights in Honduras
http://thefastertimes.com/diplomacy/2009/10/05/honduras-human-rights/

Jim DeMint picked a hell of a time to travel to Honduras. The right-wing South Carolina senator embarked on a “fact-finding trip” to Honduras last Friday — leading a congressional delegation that included fellow Republicans Peter Roskam, Doug Lamborn, and Aaron Schock — after overriding the objections of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry. The delegation met with leaders of the de facto government that deposed President Manuel Zelaya in a June coup, including acting President Roberto Micheletti.

The Republican delegation’s trip is indicative of the strong support that the post-coup regime enjoys from the American right. While the coup and its aftermath have been condemned by Latin American leaders across the political spectrum — including rightists like Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Felipe Calderon of Mexico — their counterparts in the U.S. have demonstrated no such qualms, offering unqualified support for the Micheletti government.

To be sure, some of this is simply reflexive anti-Obama animus: the right wants to give the new administration a black eye, and sniping at his anti-coup stance (which has in fact been quite restrained compared to other leaders in the region) is an easy way to cause headaches for the president. But right-wing support for the coup has also reflected a sort of residual Cold War hangover — recalling the days when neoconservatives and other avid Cold Warriors in the Reagan administration threw their support behind brutal military juntas and death squads throughout Latin America. ...............

==================
Previous Recent Threads:
U.S. lawmakers demand restoring aid to Honduras - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4091402
Rights Groups Denounce Murder of Anti-Coup Protester in Honduras - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4089640

[L. Coyote]

1. NY Times: Honduran Security Forces Accused of Abuse

Honduran Security Forces Accused of Abuse
ELISABETH MALKIN - October 5, 2009 - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/americas/06honduras.html?_r=1&hp


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Rosamaria Valeriano Flores was returning home from a visit to a public health clinic and found herself in a crowd of people dispersing from a demonstration in support of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. As she crossed the central square of the Honduran capital, a group of soldiers and police officers pushed her to the ground and beat her with their truncheons.

She said the men kicked out most of her top teeth, broke her ribs and split open her head. “A policeman spit in my face and said, ‘You will die,’ ” she said, adding that the attack stopped when a police officer shouted at the men that they would kill her.

Ms. Valeriano, 39, was sitting in the office of a Tegucigalpa human rights group last week, speaking about the assault, which took place on Aug. 12. As she told her story, mumbling to hide her missing teeth, she pointed to a scar on her scalp and to her still-sore left ribs.

.........

“In the 1980s, there were political assassinations, torture and disappearances,” said Bertha Oliva, Cofadeh’s general coordinator, in an interview last week, recalling the political repression of the country’s so-called dirty war. “They were selective and hidden. But now there is massive repression and defiance of the whole world. They do it in broad daylight, without any scruples, with nothing to stop them.”

...........

[EFerrari]

2. On this, silence from the White House. n/t

[bitchkitty]

3. The silence speaks volumes.

I'd like to be cynical and unscathed by that one little fact, but it hurts. :(

[Vidar]

4. Seems like good news.

[flamingdem]

5. It's very bad news for anyone who believes in democracy,

unless you like the way the old Bush warriors still in government and the Miami Mafia operate.

[Vidar]

6. Not at all. I just don't Micheletti.

[L. Coyote]

7. Seems like political manipulations at work to solidify killing off the Left.

The work of the suspension of the Constitution is done, the media on the left are gone. Let the Presidential campaigning continue.
Imagine if Bush had silenced half of the media so McCain's opposition could not be heard during the 2008 campaign. Good news?

Let's pretend to be good guys by lifting a 45-day suspension in 10 days! :rofl:

That's like saying, "Here's the good news: We were going to kill 45 people, but we only killed ten."
?? "Therefore, we are now the good news guys." :rofl:

[timeforpeace]

8. So we see the names Bush and McCain mentioned here but not Obama, who is the president now.

[L. Coyote]

9. Obviously not Monroe or Teddy Roosevelt. In Latin America, that's a good thing!

Oh, I almost forgot:

Polk's Manifest Destiny campaign promise to steal California from Mexico if elected.

Taft's promise that the US flag would fly from pole to pole because of the superiority of our race.

One out of two ain't bad! :rofl:

[L. Coyote]

10. WITNESS - Holed Up In Embassy With Ousted Honduran President

October 6, 2009 - 10:55 a.m. ET - http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/06/world/international-uk-honduras-witness.html

Edgard Garrido, 33, has worked for Reuters for 2-1/2 years as a photographer in Chile and Honduras. A Chilean, he is married with an 18-month-old son. In the following story, he recounts his experience being trapped inside an embassy for two weeks with ousted President Manuel Zelaya at the centre of Honduras' political crisis.

By Edgard Garrido

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - For two weeks, I have slept with my finger on the shutter button, just meters from where Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a coup, waits in refuge and hopes for a return to power.

As a Reuters photographer in Honduras, I was one of the few reporters who managed to slip into Brazil's embassy when Zelaya crept back into the country and sought refuge here, almost three months after troops toppled him and sent him into exile.

.... I'm tired of sleeping on the floor and being short of food, and my nerves have been shot by intimidation from the troops outside and the uncertainty about when this will end.

.... supporters celebrated and slept outside. With a cement floor as my mattress and a backpack as pillow, I got no sleep amid the screams and chanting.

The government responded quickly, with soldiers and police ......

[L. Coyote]

11. President Zelaya dismisses decree decision "Micheletti continues to mock the people"

Ousted Honduran leader dismisses decree decision
By BEN FOX (AP) – 2 hours ago - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9B5MFRO0


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday dismissed the withdrawal of an emergency decree that curbed civil liberties, calling it a meaningless gesture from a coup-imposed government that refuses to restore him to power.

Zelaya criticized Interim President Roberto Micheletti for lifting the emergency decree only after security forces arrested dozens of protesters and closed down to critical media outlets. He expressed frustration that interim leaders continue to oppose his reinstatement less than two months before Nov. 29 presidential elections.

"Roberto Micheletti continues to mock the people, declaring that he is completely revoking the decree after achieving the most possible harm," Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy with dozens of supporters, said in a statement.

He said refusal to return him to power "puts the electoral process at risk and deepens the institutional and political crisis in our beloved Honduras."

Pro-Zelaya demonstrators gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa for the first march since Micheletti announced Monday that the Sept. 27 decree had been revoked. More than 100 police and soldiers equipped with riot shields and helmets stood by.

..................

[L. Coyote]

12. Micheletti: Lifting of Emergency Decree Does Not Apply to All Media Outlets

Ros-Lehtinen Discovers Antidote to Honduran Tourism Crisis in Visiting US Congress Members
By Belén Fernández - The Narco News Bulletin - October 6, 2009 - http://www.narconews.com/Issue60/article3858.html

Coup Leader Admits that Lifting of Emergency Decree Does Not Apply to All Media Outlets

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, OCTOBER 5, 2009: Two days prior to the scheduled visit to Honduras of a delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS), an abridged version of international diplomacy arrived in Tegucigalpa yesterday morning in the form of Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who was nonetheless defined as US Senator by prominent Honduran newspapers. Ros-Lehtinen starred in a mid-day press conference at the presidential palace, an event also qualifying as abridged based on the lack of representatives of the anti-coup press.


In happier times for the right-wing ex-Cuban Congressional Caucus, US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart got to endorse the kidnapping of nine-year-old Elián González. Today they’re in the minority party and reduced to promoting coup regime tourism in Honduras.

The absence from the conference of Channel 36 TV and Radio Globo – the two media outlets forced off the air last week with coup president Roberto Micheletti’s decree of a state of emergency – was called into question when Micheletti assured the audience that his decree had been completely revoked. The possibility that the coup government might thus return confiscated broadcasting equipment to its rightful owners was promptly declined, however, when Micheletti declared that said owners would have to earn back their rights in a court of law.

The stated purpose of Ros-Lehtinen’s visit to Honduras was to assess the current state of affairs in Honduras, something coup president Roberto Micheletti has repeatedly accused the rest of the world of being blissfully oblivious to. Evidence suggesting that the assessment was conducted prior to arrival includes Ros-Lehtinen’s introduction last month of a House resolution urging recognition of the legitimacy of the upcoming Honduran elections without the restitution of legitimate President Mel Zelaya as a prerequisite, and Ros-Lehtinen’s silence yesterday at the selective lifting of emergency decrees .............

[Judi Lynn]

22. Journalists in Honduras: "They know who we are"

Journalists in Honduras: "They know who we are"
Testimony from Marvin Ortiz, a journalist with Radio Globo in Honduras

Amnesty International
September 30, 2009

On Monday at 5am, we started broadcasting with our normal schedule, starting with the Radio Globo news from 5 to 8am, presented by the director of our radio station and two other journalists. At around 5.20am, they heard someone beating on the door and people shouting "get outside!". They were soldiers and police who had come to confiscate all the radio equipment.
My colleagues heard the sound of shots aimed at the lock on the door, as if to break it and get inside the building. At that moment, several journalists decided to jump from the third floor of the radio station building. Now they're bruised and wounded. Luckily, a passerby saw them, gave them first aid and took them to a safe place.

When the soldiers and police entered the radio station, without warning, they took all the equipment, everything you need to run the radio, computers, microphones, the console, the telephone switchboard, the amplifiers, and even the aerials. They destroyed the news table. They took everything away in a police patrol car.

After that they started to occupy the building. As well as the radio station, a state agency also works in the same building -- the National Register of Persons -- and when the staff of that agency arrived, the police wouldn't let them in. All they could do was punch in their time cards and go home.

I arrived at the radio station at around 7am. I was with a colleague. Straight away the police and soldiers started to harass us. They threatened and harassed us. They took photos of us and insulted us.

They confiscated the equipment of several journalists who were covering the shut-down of the radio, and arrested some of them.

More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/honduras/6338.html

[L. Coyote]

13. The COUP BLAME GAME. Posturing to avoid criminal charges?

Honduras: Micheletti Blames Armed Forces of Expelling Zelaya from the Country
http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2009/1006culpamicheletti.htm


HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 6 (acn) The head of the de facto government in Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, said it was a mistake to take President Manuel Zelaya out of the country, and emphasized that it was not his call but the Armed Forces’ decision.

According to Bolivarian News Agency’s reports Micheletti said: “Yes, it was a mistake (...), I was not responsible for that decision, I was just informed of the proceeding later,” and then he blamed the Honduran military.

Micheletti’s statements do not coincide with what General Romeo Vázquez Velásquez, head of Honduras’ Armed Forces, said a few days earlier when he stated that arresting Zelaya by force was not the army’s idea ....

[Judi Lynn]

15. Can only hope Micheletti continues his trend of alienating himself from his henchmen!

With any luck, the next step will to be to wildly antagonize his resurrected death squad commander, Billy Joya!

We've heard of rumors of division within the military from the beginning. This would be a superior time for them to step away from this filthy business.



Billy Joya

A Cold War Ghost Reappears in Honduras
By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: August 7, 2009
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras

THE coup here has brought back a lot of Central America’s cold war ghosts, but few as polarizing as Billy Joya, a former police captain accused of being the former leader of a death squad.

He didn’t sneak quietly back into national politics. He made his reappearance on a popular evening talk show just hours after troops had rousted President Manuel Zelaya out of bed and loaded him onto a plane leaving the country.

Mr. Joya’s purpose, he said, was to defend the ouster and help calm a public that freed itself from military rule less than three decades ago. Instead, he set off alarms among human rights activists around the world who worried that the worst elements of the Honduran military were taking control.

“The name Billy Joya reverberated much more than Micheletti,” Mr. Joya protested, perhaps a little too strenuously, referring to the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, installed by the military. “Instantly, my image was everywhere.”

Mr. Joya’s conflicting images — a vilified figure who portrays himself as a victim — are as hard to reconcile as his life story. Human rights groups consider him one of the most ruthless former operatives of an American-backed military unit, known as Battalion 316, responsible for kidnapping, torturing and murdering hundreds of people suspected of being leftists during the 1980s.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/world/americas/08joya.html

Image found at Inca Kola News:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_7Se7iswAanA/Skwhmv-vQCI/AAAAAAAAIHQ/HMpEMYP4MqQ/s400/diego-rivera.jpg

"The magnificent mural "Gloriosa Victoria" by Diego Rivera, 1954. A
celebration of the Guatemala coup backed by the United Fruit Company"

http://www.incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/07/honduras-congress-suspends.html

[L. Coyote]

14. Hand back power, Lula tells Honduras coup leaders = amnesty?

Hand back power, Lula tells Honduras coup leaders - Summary
Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:59:19 GMT - http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/288949,hand-back-power-lula-tells-honduras-coup-leaders--summary.html


Stockholm - Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti should step down immediately in return for an amnesty, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday. "For us the solution will be easy if those that participated in the coup leave power and allow the legitimately elected president to take power," Lula told journalists at a summit with European Union leaders in Stockholm.

If Micheletti "leaves and allows (ousted president Manuel) Zelaya to call elections there will be an amnesty, because we want Honduras to live well," he said.

..............

Lula stressed that Honduras could solve the problem instantly if the coup leaders returned Zelaya to power.

"There is only one thing wrong in Honduras, there's someone in the presidency that shouldnt be there," he said.

At the summit, Lula, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, issued a joint statement condemning Micheletti's takeover.

"The EU and Brazil condemn the violation of the constitutional order in Honduras and reaffirm their deep concern over the ongoing political crisis in that country," the statement said.

.............

[L. Coyote]

16. TRUTHOUT: Honduras - 100 days of Repression and Resistance

Honduras - 100 days of Repression and Resistance
Tuesday 06 October 2009 - http://www.truthout.org/10060910


Today marks 100 days since a military coup was carried out against President Zelaya in Honduras. It also marks 100 days of massive, sustained, nonviolent resistance on the part of the Honduran people who are saying no to this brazen attempt to return to the days of dictators.

In the face of uncontainable resistance, the coup regime has employed increasingly draconian measures. Most disturbing includes a resurgence of death squad activity, wholesale suspension of constitutional rights and the criminalization of social protest. Currently, over 80 people are detained and face charges of sedition. Conservative estimates document 14 murders in the last 14 weeks; two of those occurred during the last week.

...........

..... in what now appears to have been a targeted attack on individuals inside the Embassy, on Friday, September 25, several people reported similar symptoms: nasal bleeding, blood in stools, coughing up blood and severe throat irritations. It was first suspected that this may have been the result of a chemical weapon, however, symptoms did not affect everyone inside the Embassy. Further investigation suggested that these symptoms may have been caused by a sophisticated experimental weapon called a Maser. Apparently, this weapon sends a microwave beam, similar to a laser beam, that impacts the cell functioning of those exposed to its effects.

On Sunday, September 27, four of the five OAS officials who had come as an advance team to begin a dialogue process were expelled. Later that day, faced with increasing inability to contain mounting protests or to control the country, coup President Micheletti issued an executive decree suspending all fundamental constitutional guarantees for 45 days.

..............

[L. Coyote]

17. Pinochelettis pose with Dictator = "Republican pirates"

Loathing America by Republican pirates and the new old filibuster
October 6, 3:55 PM - Karen Harper - http://www.examiner.com/x-5890-Obama-Administration-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Loathing-America-by-Republican-pirates-and-the-new-old-filibuster



Honduras's interim President Roberto Micheletti, second from right, poses for pictures with Republican Doug Lamborn of Colorado, left, Republican Peter Roskam of Illinois, second from left, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, third front left and Republican Aaron Schock of Illinois, after a meeting at the presidential house in Tegucigalpa, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009.The U.S. senator and the three congressmen met with Micheletti in defiance of official Washington policy barring contact with the architects of the military coup that ousted the nation's president Manuel Zelaya.

......... Republican pirates are attempting to destroy the reputation of the United States government.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R), Illinois, went to China back in early summer to meet with Chinese leaders in order to tell them not to trust the United States of America.

In September, Senator Jim Inhoffe, (R), Oklahoma, announced he would be attending the UN Climate change forum in Copenhagen in December as a "one man truth squad" to explain that global warming is a hoax to the world's leading scientists on climate change. Inhoffe says his mission is to tell the conference not to believe what the United States says about global warming and climate change.

Senator Jim Demint, (R), of South Carolina has already visited the Honduras, with the full support of Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, where there has been a military overthrow of that country's democratically elected leader. The new military regime government of Honduras is not recognized by the United States government but that hasn't deterred Demint from cozying up to the military regime that has overthrown the government there. Since returning from Honduras, Demint has declared the visit a success, calling it "productive."

.................

[Judi Lynn]

18. Painfully stupid looking people, rigid, deeply stunted, dumb as mud. Embarrassing.

Clearly greedy, nasty, little racist tyrant Micheletti wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and intelligent, responsible adults.

[L. Coyote]

19. And such creative choices in wardrobes.

Ties come in more than three colors? :rofl:

[L. Coyote]

29. DeMint: Hondurans admit violating their own law in removing Zelaya.

On Fox News, Sen. DeMint relates how the Hondurans know they pulled off a coup by ejecting Zelaya from Honduras, but they offered a good excuse:

:rofl: "...they felt like (Zelaya) had presented a danger to people because of his ability to use Chavez's money to instill riots." :rofl:

Well, my dears, I guess we better overthrow a democracy, because WE feel that maybe someone might present a danger due to an ability to use money to maybe start a riot someday maybe .... MORANS!!
Just how stupid does this moran think the American public is?


====================
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561545,00.html

....

DEMINT: All of the facts and the objective observers of the collaborative Congress top legal person has said that it was constitutional .....

VAN SUSTEREN: So they said they did it right.

DEMINT: They did it right. The only thing they know that is not specifically according to the Constitution was taking Zelaya...

VAN SUSTEREN: Putting them on the plane and throwing them out of the country.

DEMINT: They said the Constitution allows for exceptional situations, and they felt like he had presented a danger to people because of his ability to use Chavez's money to instill riots.

[Judi Lynn]

30. You'd have to be wildly drunk to think DeMint makes sense, either that, or Republican!

There had never been ANY riots during Zelaya's Presidency before they violently kidnapped him.

With right-wingers, it NEVER matters what the truth is. They'll TELL you what the truth is. If you don't accept it, you'll be visisted by death squads in fascist-controlled countries.

Ask the coup's dead, and death-threatened, badly beaten, tortured citizens, and the indigenous citizens seeking assylum in the Guatemalan embassy in Tegucigalpa, and many people fleeing the country altogether.

[L. Coyote]

20. VIDEO: Zelaya supporters 'jailed for demonstrating' - 05 Oct 09

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x383847

[L. Coyote]

21. President Zelaya demands release of political prisoners, media restorations

Ousted Zelaya demands release of political prisoners
2009-10-07 08:30:44 - http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/07/content_12189292.htm


MANAGUA, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya demanded on Tuesday the de facto government immediately release its political prisoners and stop repression on the people.

Zelaya's staff added in a statement issued in Managua that the ousted president and those resistant to the June 28 coup demand frequency restoration of Honduras' Radio Globo and TV channel Canal 36 as well as the return of their seized equipment.

..........

[Judi Lynn]

23. Downwinder posted a link containing part of a press conference by a State Dept. spokesman yesterday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x23789

Check for it in Downwinder's link, 2nd article on blog by DU member magbana.
It refers to the fact few of us realized: the US embassy played host, provided transportation, etc. to ALL these right-wing traitors sticking their nasty noses into the country's official foreign affairs business, trying to repudiate it publicly.

Really something to think about. It really, REALLY iritates you the longer you think about it....

[L. Coyote]

25. McConnell, R.-KY, who arranged for DeMint to travel to Honduras aboard a military aircraft.

We have to pay big bucks for these fascist confabs!

[Judi Lynn]

26. Not to mention the ugly truth Clintons' ally, Lanny Davis is a strategist for Micheletti's group.

Took a quick, superficial search for just one article which might add more light, found this:

~snip~
U.S. Corporate Interests at Work

Who were these outside officials who may have been involved in the planning and execution of the coup and what other possibly compromising actions may they have been associated with in recent months? Evidence points to Senator John McCain, Otto Reich, the heavily ideological policy advisor on Latin America for the McCain campaign, and Robert Carmona-Borjas, a Venezuelan lawyer, columnist and academic, all of whom may have had significant financial and politicized ties to the U.S. telecommunications industry. Senator McCain and the International Republican Institute (IRI), of which he is chairman, have both received significant funding from AT&T. In return, the IRI has fought tirelessly against Latin American democracies that refuse to privatize their telecommunication companies. By chance, Zelaya has been one of the chief opponents to privatization. Additionally, connections between this corporate agenda and Carmona-Borjas, who fled to the U.S. in 2002 after Chávez had been briefly ousted, have since been discovered. Carmona-Borjas is now a co-founder of the Arcadia foundation, an institute that has launched fierce attacks against Zelaya, accusing him of alleged fraud and corruption involving Hondutel, the Honduran state telecommunications company that he has refused to privatize. A fierce opponent of Zelaya and an acquaintance of Carmona-Borjas, rightwing ideologue Otto Reich has contested any reinstallment of the Zelaya administration. Perhaps this is because his firm, Otto Reich Associates, is the paid agent of a number of clients promoting the free trade ideology in Latin America, which has closely coincided with the push for privatization of the Honduran telecommunications industry. Now, with Zelaya at least temporarily removed from office, the history of the U.S. having its way in Latin America appears to be repeating itself with McCain, Carmona-Borjas, and Reich all playing a coordinated role in maintaining influence over a country that historically has been a prototype of the classic Central American banana republic.

U.S. Administration’s Knowledge Prior to the Coup

One also may speculate how much foreknowledge the present U.S. administration had over the planning and implementation of the coup. Former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs Thomas Shannon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly were in Honduras the week prior to the coup, meeting with figures who later participated in the ousting of Zelaya.

Somewhat questionable behavior was also displayed by current U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens and former Ambassador John Negroponte. Llorens is on record as stating that, “One cannot violate the constitution in order to create another constitution,�(Eva Golinger, Washington and the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence). This chiding of Zelaya is based on a false inference that he was contemplating altering the constitution in order to extend his own term, when his call for a referendum was meant to stage a consultation with the electorate in the future to discuss extending upon the one presidential term.

Following the coup, when asked by journalist Allan Fisher if he had previous knowledge of the events that took place on June 28, Llorens replied with a laugh, “No, no, not really�(Belén Fernández, U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens Discloses Secrets of the Honduran Coup). The somewhat flip nature of his reply calls into question how much U.S. officials actually knew about the planned coup. His predecessor as ambassador, several decades before, John Negroponte, shares Llorens’ casual disposition regarding Democratic niceties. Negroponte, who is famous for his selective amnesia when it came to recalling the details of his knowledge of the operations of Honduran death squads in the 1980’s during the period of the U.S.-Contra War against the Sandinistas, had visited Honduras just prior to the coup to discuss with Zelaya his opposition to turning the U.S. airbase at Palmerola into a civilian airport. He used this same trip as an opportunity to sit down with future coup leader Roberto Micheletti and other opposition members. Evidence pointing to U.S. officials having prior awareness of the coup is difficult to ignore.

More:
http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Analyses_12/The-Honduran-Coup.shtml

[L. Coyote]

24. Indigenous Hondurans demand asylum in Guatemala embassy

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:17:07 GMT - http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/289017,indigenous-hondurans-demand-asylum-in-guatemala-embassy.html


Tegucigalpa, Honduras - A group of 12 indigenous Lenca Indians entered Guatemala's embassy in the Honduran capital Tuesday, demanding political asylum, news reports said. One of the protestors, Salvador Zuniga, said that his people, who are opposed to the ouster of president Manuel Zelaya, were being suppressed by the de-facto government of Roberto Micheletti.

Zuniga is a leader of the Lenca, Honduras' largest group of indigenous people. ..............

[Judi Lynn]

27. Apparently indigenous people DON'T believe the state of seige has ended.

Indigenous Hondurans demand asylum in Guatemala embassy
Posted : Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:17:07 GMT
By : dpa

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - A group of 12 indigenous Lenca Indians entered Guatemala's embassy in the Honduran capital Tuesday, demanding political asylum, news reports said. One of the protestors, Salvador Zuniga, said that his people, who are opposed to the ouster of president Manuel Zelaya, were being suppressed by the de-facto government of Roberto Micheletti.

Zuniga is a leader of the Lenca, Honduras' largest group of indigenous people.

Talks between the two opposing government factions were to begin Wednesday in Tegucigalpa under the mediation of foreign ministers from the Organization of American States.

Small-scale protests by Zelaya's supporters followed a decision by interim leader Micheletti to lift a decree limiting freedom of movement and freedom of expression.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/289017,indigenous-hondurans-demand-asylum-in-guatemala-embassy.html

[L. Coyote]

28. Lifting of state siege does not guarantee restoration of media diversity

Lifting of state siege does not guarantee restoration of media diversity
7 October 2009 - http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=34656


De facto President Roberto Micheletti’s decision yesterday to lift the state of siege after one week does not unfortunately mean that real press freedom has been restored. By suspending basic freedoms on 28 September, the government that took over after ousting President Manuel Zelaya in June has succeeded in silencing the two main opposition broadcast media, Radio Globo and the Canal 36 TV station.

Despite the censorship, Radio Globo is managing to operate as web radio from a clandestine studio in a Tegucigalpa neighbourhood. But it has no prospect of being able to resume normal broadcasting until it has recovered the frequency that was taken away by the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) – probably a lengthy procedure.

Radio Globo will also have to recover the equipment that was confiscated by the security forces on 28 September. As for Canal 36, its broadcast equipment was completely destroyed when soldiers raided its studios on 28 September.

“In practice, the restoration of public freedoms changes nothing as the repression continues and the opposition mouthpieces have been reduced to silence,” Bertha Oliva, the coordinator of the Committee of Families of Detained and Disappeared Persons in Honduras (Cofadeh), told Reporters Without Borders.

.........

[Judi Lynn]

31. GOP Delegation Violates the Logan Act : Are Republicans Breaking US Law in Honduras?

October 7, 2009

GOP Delegation Violates the Logan Act
Are Republicans Breaking US Law in Honduras?
By BRENDAN COONEY

As if the right needed to add to its anti-democratic pedigree, Republican leaders have flocked to Tegucigalpa to bolster the junta in Honduras.

Nine Congressional Republicans – including seven in the past week as the crisis heats up -- have now met with Roberto Micheletti, who took power after a military coup June 28.

This is a coup that has been denounced by everyone from the Organization of American States to the United Nations, which passed a resolution calling “categorically on all states to recognise no government other than that” of the elected president, Manuel Zelaya. No state has recognized Micheletti as president.

But U.S. Republicans have.

“He is the president of Honduras,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Monday. “Some people tell me 'de facto' government, but under the Constitution of the Republic I am seated here with the president of this country and it’s a great honor.”

Leading us further down the rabbit hole is South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, a member of the Foreign Relations committee, who visited Micheletti and his backers Oct. 2: “We saw a government working hard to follow the rule of law, uphold its constitution, and to protect democracy for the people of Honduras.”

Consistent with every other country, from Venezuela on the left to Colombia on the right, U.S. President Barack Obama’s policy has been to not recognize or meet with Micheletti.

Since contact with Micheletti is in direct conflict with stated U.S. interests, these nine Republicans, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has aided them, seem to have broken U.S. law. The Logan Act says that anyone who without government authorization “directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cooney10072009.html