Clinton Urges OAS to Forget Coup, Readmit Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

Clinton Urges OAS to Forget Coup, Readmit Honduras
Written by Rosemary A. Joyce and Russell N. Sheptak
Wednesday, 09 June 2010 08:47

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at the Organization of American States (OAS) annual meeting in Lima, Peru on Monday urged countries in the hemisphere to readmit Honduras into the regional organization. The OAS suspended Honduras after the military coup which overthrew President Manuel Zelaya last June.

"We saw the free and fair election of President Lobo, and we have watched President Lobo fulfill his obligations under the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord – including forming a government of national reconciliation and a truth commission. This has demonstrated a strong and consistent commitment to democratic governance and constitutional order," said Clinton.

This is a message the U.S. has been consistently advancing for months.

"Other countries in the region say that they want to wait a while. I don’t know what they’re waiting for, but that’s their right, to wait," said Clinton during a visit to Costa Rica in March. "We believe that President Lobo and his administration have taken the steps necessary to restore democracy."

The problem is that Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and other countries in the region disagree.

"Honduras's return to the OAS must be linked to specific means for ensuring re-democratisation and the establishment of fundamental rights" said Brazil's deputy foreign minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota.

These nations want to see former President Zelaya free to return to Honduras. They want recent dismissals of judges opposed to the coup to be reversed. And they are also waiting for human rights violations to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2531-clinton-urges-oas-to-forget-coup-readmit-honduras-

[rabs]

1. Did you notice the response to hil ....

"Honduras's return to the OAS must be linked to specific means for ensuring re-democratisation and the establishment of fundamental rights" said Brazil's DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER Antonio de Aguiar Patriota. (caps mine)

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It was by a second-tier Brazilian diplomat dispatched by Itamaraty to the OAS meeting in Lima.

Normally, it would be hil's diplomatic equal, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who would respond, but no, Lula sent a much lower level diplomat. A diplomatic cream pie in the face for hillary.

Shows how much Brasilia's relations with hil/obama have dipped because of the Brazil/Turkey/Iran deal and now with hil blathering about re-admitting Honduras to the OAS, which in itself is a semi-moribund organization.

And your other thread about Lobo claiming there is a plot to oust him Zelaya-style makes hil look even more foolish. Guess if lobo is booted out by the gorilettis, he could always seek political asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Teguz, courtesy of Ms. Clinton.
:rofl:

[Bacchus39]

2. the Brazil/Turkey deal is dead. Iran was just playing them

the US got sanctions through.

Yeah, I am sure Lobo could go to the embassy just like Zelaya's family did.

[Peace Patriot]

3. The Brazil/Turkey deal may provide Brazil, Turkey and others with justification for

defying the U.S.-instigated "sanctions." It was the same deal that the U.S. proposed for Iran, which the U.S. then rejected when proposed by Brazil/Turkey. That unreasonable U.S. position will give countries who have trade and other agreements with Iran reason to ignore and defy whatever dictates come out of Washington as to "isolating" Iran. We'll see what happens but I think it's much too early to declare the Brazil/Turkey deal "dead." Its proponents surely knew that the U.S. was bent on sanctioning Iran no matter what and that the chances of the U.S. taking a peaceful stance were very slim. So, why did they do it? Likely, to lay the ground work for defying U.S. dictates on this matter. Turkey and Brazil both have issues with U.S. dictation and world domination, as do others. In considering the deal they brokered, we need to include the probability that it is part of a long term strategy to create a better, more just, balance of power in the world, and, if that is true, then we have not heard the last about the deal they brokered. If, for instance, the U.S. tries to interfere with a bilateral trade agreement between Iran and Brazil, or Iran and Turkey, Iran, Turkey, Brazil and others may collaborate to get around U.S. sanctions. Personally, I think the U.S. push to punish Iran for having all that oil is as insane and foolish as letting BP write their own regulations. Oil is the root of all evil, to re-write a phrase. It has led to the horrors of war. It has led to the horrors in the Gulf. It drives U.S. policy. And we will, as before, pay dearly for this unto the 7th generation and more.

[Bacchus39]

4. I believe if other countries defy the UN sanctions, then they can be penalized as well

now, will Iran abide by the UN sanctions? of course not. do you think they would abide by the Turkey/Brazil agreement either?

[Peace Patriot]

7. Would they abide by the Turkey/Brazil agreement? They were PARTY TO that agreement.

Why wouldn't they? Bilateral trade agreements--Iran/Brazil, Iran/Turkey, Iran/others--would in part depend on it. They would have INCENTIVES to abide by it. U.S. policy, on the other hand, is driven by PUNITIVE intentions and ultimately by the great thirst of the U.S. war machine for more and more oil, and its established pattern of sanctions/heinous war. Iran is independent, and largely peaceful*, with no evidence of territorial ambitions, and furthermore with a long history to worry about, of egregious U.S. interference, and the recent horrors of the U.S. war and occupation right next door in Iraq, to make them fearful of, and defiant of, U.S. goals. They have absolutely no reason to believe that they are safe from U.S. interference and U.S. attack. They have absolutely no reason to cooperate with us.

As for "they can be penalized as well," I think that this U.S. blitzkrieg to punish Iran for its independence may well turn out to be a UN-destroying action--much like the U.S. embargo of Cuba is destroying the OAS. The "third world" is fed up with this tyrannical U.S. behavior. There is a proposal on the table in Latin America to replace the OAS with a Latin America-only institution that excludes the U.S., following upon a trend in various events over the last few years whereby Latin American leaders have gotten together among themselves--in UNASUR, in the Rio Group and other organizations--specifically excluding the U.S., to solve problems largely created by the U.S. In other words, U.S. behavior is leading to the increasing irrelevance of institutions in which the U.S. wields far too much power, on the side of multinational corporations and war profiteers.

------------------------


*(It's interesting that the police in Iran shoot one demonstrator and there is no end of corpo-fascist vilification of Iran as undemocratic and inhumane, and the Israeli military shoots and kills at least nine unarmed peace activists, on an unarmed ship, with possible additional deaths that were thrown overboard, and our corpo-fascist press--at best, AT BEST--treats it like a P.R. mistake, and fills the airwaves and the print press with EXCUSES for this horror.

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Gaza-flotilla-deathtoll-39higher-than.6340319.jp

Again, the police kill one protestor in Iran--something that has happened in numerous western countries, including here--and Iran is painted as evil, dictatorial and a menace, yet U.S. allies, guilty of far, FAR worse, anti-humane, anti-democratic crimes, including but not limited to Israel and Colombia, are given every benefit of the doubt and constantly supported in their excuses and justifications for their plain crimes against humanity--and U.S. crimes against humanity, including widespread torture of prisoners and the slaughter of a million innocent people in Iraq, to steal their oil, have already passed into the corpo/fascist 'news' monopoly "river of forgetfulness."

Hypocrisy, writ very large, indeed!)

[Bacchus39]

8. I think they made the agreement with Brazil and Turkey to avoid sanctions

It didn't work though did it?? Yes, the UN resolution is punitive, and it passed. The Brazil/Turkey agreement has been ignored. Perhaps Brazil feels undermined but that's world politics. I don't see any difficulty with US/Brazil relations in the long term do you?? do you want there to be?? It seems you like to cheer countries antagonistic to the US no matter which party is in power.

You brought up Cuba and the OAS. that's a good comparison to the Brazil/Turkey accord. The OAS member states voted for Cuba's re-entry, ignoring the US position. In the Iran case, the majority of UN security council nations are ignoring Brazil and Turkey.

When I say countries that defy the UN resolution will also be penalized, I meant of course countries that trade with Iran in items banned by the sanctions. I couldn't tell from your post if you understood that UN members are bound by UN approved sanctions.

The organization of just latin countries is fine. They already have the Iberoamerican summit which involves Latin countries, Spain, and Portugal. I have no problem with the formation of such an organization. The OAS never has been particularly relevant. I don't see an organization without the US being particularly relevant either.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Interesting point, rabs. A deputy foreign minister, indeed!

And our Secretary of State is kind of a "deputy foreign minister" herself, in service to our corporate rulers and war profiteers. She got put exactly where she deserves to be put, on the diplomatic ladder.

It occurs to me that--in this new world inadvertently created by the Bush Junta, wherein our nakedness as a bloody empire has been exposed, and the people of many countries have meanwhile gotten a lot smarter, as to electing leaders who truly represent their interests--the U.S. is destroying organizations, such as the OAS and the UN, in which the power of these various peoples can be expressed. This seems especially true with regard to Latin America and the OAS (but I see a parallel, too, at the UN). Old U.S. tactics--strong-arming other countries to bend them to the will of U.S. corporate/war profiteer forces--within these organizations, have resulted, in Latin America, in a movement to create NEW structures of cooperation that EXCLUDE the U.S. The Bushwhack support of the murderous white separatist rebellion in Bolivia is a good case in point. Latin American leaders convened UNASUR--which had only just been formalized--and got a unanimous resolution against the U.S.-supported coup as well as immediate action to support the besieged Morales government in Bolivia (circa 2008). They DELIBERATELY did NOT take the matter to the OAS. Earlier that same year--prior to the formalization of UNASUR--when the U.S./Colombia bombed Ecuador, they took the matter to the Rio Group--an all Latin American, informal dispute resolution group which excludes the U.S., and extracted an apology from Colombia and a promise never to do such a thing again. The OAS weakly condemned Colombia and was almost irrelevant in that situation. All the collaboration and peacemaking occurred in the Rio Group, which excludes the U.S. And now, there is a formal proposal on the table, in Latin America, to form a parallel organization to the OAS, which will exclude the U.S.

This is the result of anti-democratic U.S. activity in the service of multinational corporations and war profiteers. And it is very typical of multinational corporations and war profiteers to attempt to destroy the democratic mechanisms that actually create wealth and prosperity and to go for maximum profit for the very rich at the expense of the general welfare--whether by slaughtering a million innocent people in Iraq, to steal their oil, or slaughtering tens of thousands of peasant farmers, union leaders, political leftists and others, to steal their land and resources, in Colombia, or outsourcing jobs to the cheapest, most unprotected labor markets abroad, or cutting corners on safety regulations and buying regulators and dumping millions of gallons of toxic goo into endangered coral reefs and fisheries and onto pristine beaches in the United States of America. These things--very unfortunately, and tragically--are now U.S. policy here and everywhere else and how that could happen, in what was once the prototype of democracies, is no accident.

:think: :cry: :patriot: :grouphug: :patriot: :cry: :think:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks for highlighting the meaning of sending the Deputy Foreign Minister.

Hope Hillary was adult enough to recognize it and not react negatively to the man who was sent with the message.

Their maneuvering to completely override Latin Americans' right to conduct their own business needs to be rebuked in ways they notice. _{George Bush} would have defied them, but someone who has long term goals like future cooperation in the hemisphere would need to start thinking far more like an actual neighbor, less like a bully.