Hillary Lost My Vote in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

March 2, 2016
Hillary Lost My Vote in Honduras

by Alexandra Early

I am one of the many young women who to the consternation of so many pundits is just not Ready for Hillary in 2016. And it’s not because I am a bad feminist, it’s because I am judging Hillary Clinton, just as she has asked to be judged, on her record and her foreign policy credentials. I spent nearly five years in Central America working as a cross-border solidarity activist and I now work with immigrants in Massachusetts who have fled the violence in that region. So, I might have been moved by Clinton’s recent pledge to “campaign for human rights” and take on immigration reform. But I have seen first-hand how Clinton failed on that front when top military commanders in Honduras (all men, of course) overthrew its democratically elected president Manual Zelaya in 2009.

Since that military takeover, nearly all sectors of Honduran society—union organizers, farmers and teachers, women and young people, gays, journalists, political activists, anyone who resisted the coup—have faced systematic repression. Honduras has become one the most violent countries in the world not formally engaged in a civil war, and it’s now a leading source of forced migration to the U.S.

President Obama initially criticized Zelaya’s ouster and forced exile as a threat to democracy throughout the region. But the Obama administration, led by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, refused to formally recognize that a military coup had taken place and never cut U.S. military aid to Honduras. Clinton’s State Department even lobbied the Organization of American States, which strongly condemned the coup, to readmit Honduras after its suspension from the OAS. In November 2009, the Administration recognized the election of Porfirio Lobo, even though most opposition parties and major international observers boycotted the election. Since the coup, the U.S. has built two new military bases in Honduras and increased its support and funding for the Honduran military and police.

While living in El Salvador, I participated in four human rights delegations to Honduras and witnessed how the country’s democratic institutions were destroyed by the military takeover and its aftermath. During each visit, we interviewed multiple victims of physical threats, beatings, kidnappings, and imprisonment and heard stories about growing government corruption.

In November of 2013, I was part of a group of 40 international observers from El Salvador and the U.S. who traveled to Honduras together to observe the presidential elections. In this national election, Xiomara Castro, the wife of Manuel Zelaya, ran with wide public support. However, as Rights Action reported, more than 30 candidates of her new left-wing party, Libre, were murdered or suffered violent attacks in the run up to the election. The common refrain we heard among poor Hondurans before the day of the big vote was, ‘Xiomara will win, if they let her’.“They” did no such thing, of course. Instead, the right wing candidate, Juan Orlando Hernandez was declared the winner, even though numerous international groups observing the election found evidence of vote buying, intimidation and other irregularities.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/02/hillary-lost-my-vote-in-honduras/

Also posted in General Discussion: Primaries:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511397747

[tk2kewl]

1. In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday and Hillary's coups and wars

not meant to say Hillary = Hitler but that war kills kids
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511327192

[Judi Lynn]

6. You nailed it. Not so much the "defender of children" she claims. Thanks for your link. n/t

[noiretextatique]

2. Kick...I want to hear the spins on this

Despicable coup.

[stillwaiting]

3. This is definitely one of the times that Hillary has lost my vote.

Unfortunately, there have been so VERY many other times as well.

This Primary has been one gigantic WTF for me.

[DLnyc]

4. Maybe this was how she got to be such good friends with Henry Kissinger!

[Peace Patriot]

5. Yup, Honduras is actually worse than H. Clinton having Kissinger for an advisor.

Or, I guess I should say, it's all of a piece.

For those of us following the Honduran coup and its aftermath, to have the U.S. Sec of State (Clinton) on the WRONG side of those dreadful events was appalling. She might as well have been Condi Rice or...Henry Kissinger.

The word unforgivable comes to mind, as with the "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad. Democracy destroyed in the case of Honduras, with terrible repression to follow; and 100,000 innocent people slaughtered and the ME destabilized in the other.

That's some "brand" she's selling as "feminism."

[Judi Lynn]

7. So true. No difference at all from the others in that office. Shameful, and not Democratic. n/t