U.S. Groups That Supported Coups in Haiti and Venezuela Will Observe Elections in Honduras

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: The Center for Economic and Policy Research

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), organizations that receive funding from the U.S. State Department, are planning on sending delegations to observe the November 29 elections in Honduras, according to a statement issued by Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The IRI is a group that has supported the ouster of democratically elected presidents in Haiti and Venezuela in recent years. Both groups are apparently planning to assist with observation of the elections, despite the fact that the electoral process will be effectively controlled by thousands of military troops and police officers -- the same forces who have committed innumerable human rights violations, including killings, rapes, beatings and thousands of detentions, since the June 28 coup d'etat.

"I am surprised to see NDI joining the International Republican Institute in its efforts to legitimize another coup," Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said. "NDI has generally been less willing to support coups and anti-democratic regimes than has its Republican counterpart."

Weisbrot noted that NDI steered clear of IRI's involvement in the ouster of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, which became the subject of controversy following a major 2006 investigative report in the New York Times. When IRI publicly applauded the 2002 coup d'etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in a press release, the NDI remained silent. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) -- the primary funder of both IRI and NDI -- expressed its disagreement with IRI for voicing its support for an "unconstitutional" action.

NDI's plans to observe the elections have been surprising because Democratic leaders in Congress, including Senator John Kerry and Representative Howard Berman, have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the coup, and other congressional Democrats have urged President Obama not to recognize elections held under the coup regime.


Read more: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2226/68/

[fascisthunter]

1. disgusting

[Peace Patriot]

2. Yup, it's the new American Way--hold meaningless elections and then...

the rich get to get filthy rich, and murder hundreds of thousands of people, and torture people, and rob the country blind, and become honored guests on corporate TV.

The Honduran oligarchy is just imitating its masters.

:mad:

[Wilms]

3. A little background on the IRI.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=488796

[redqueen]

4. *sigh*

[EFerrari]

5. I hear Ken Blackwell will be in the delegation!

[Vidar]

6. Exporting our brand of government: corruption & election fraud.

[knightinwhitesatin]

7. What's next

will Blackwater be giving sensitivity training to police? Just when you think can't get more rotten

[LaPera]

8. The rerpublican right-wing fix is in - New puppet dictator for the corporations - Who's next?

Lots of corporate profits to be made in Latin America, as has been a fact for many decades, with agriculture, cheap labor, tourism and other resources...Keep the natives poor & uneducated is the key to no uprising, and the Death Squads will keep the progressive liberal socialist in line (or dead).

The more right-wing puppet dictators in the region the better for the republican corporate fascist, the corporations believe it's their own backyard for huge profits....the natives are just there for slave labor and to produce more generations of uneducated slave labor for Muti-national corporations profits!

[santamargarita]

9. Republicans now advise others on how to steal elections

:puke:

[EFerrari]

12. You bet they do.

Where is Hillary Clinton?

[era veteran]

10. Haiti should be an embarrassment to our hemisphere

Poor & starving amid plenty.

[donheld]

11. Maddening