Honduras night curfew reimposed

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 04:31 GMT, Thursday, 16 July 2009 05:31 UK
Honduras night curfew reimposed

The interim government in Honduras has reimposed a night-time curfew after accusing opponents of seeking to provoke disturbances.

The measure, which the authorities say is due to "continued threats", runs from midnight to 0500.

Supporters of the ousted President, Manuel Zelaya, had earlier said they would call strikes and block roads.

Mr Zelaya, who is recognised internationally, says his backers have "the right to insurrection".

The curfew had been lifted at the weekend, two weeks after the ousting of Mr Zelaya.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8153128.stm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Honduras: Micheletti seeks normalization; Zelaya invokes "right to insurrection"

Honduras: Micheletti seeks normalization; Zelaya invokes "right to insurrection"

Submitted by WW4 Report on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 02:20. Honduras' de facto President Roberto Micheletti told a report in Tegucigalpa July 15 that he is "willing to leave office if at some point that decision is needed to bring peace and tranquility to the country, but without, I stress, the return of former President Zelaya." The move comes as Zelaya supporters threatened to call widespread strikes to protest his ouster.

Labor leader Israel Salinas told thousands of demonstrators who marched through the capital July 15 that workers at state-owned companies plan walk-outs later this week. He said protest organizers were talking with union leaders at private companies to see if they could mount a general strike. He also said sympathetic unions in neighboring Nicaragua and El Salvador would try to block border crossings later this week "in solidarity with our struggle."

At the five-hour march, protesters threw rocks at government buildings. Protest leader Miriam Miranda told the crowd: "We are going to install the constitutional assembly. We are going to burn the Congress."

Talks in Costa Rica are scheduled to resume this weekend. On July 13, Zelaya said that if the de facto government did not agree to reinstate him at the next round, "the mediation effort will be considered failed and other measures will be taken." (AP, July 15)

Teachers' strike weakens; roadblocks continue
Some 38,000 Honduran teachers returned to class July 13 at the de facto government's request, while more than 20,000 remain on strike to protest the coup. Most of the children affected by the walkout returned to class, said teacher's union Eulogio Chávez.

But that same day, 300 Zelaya supporters blocked a main road connecting the Caribbean coast to the capital for two hours. (AP, July 13) Roads were also blocked over the weekend.

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7592

[Judi Lynn]

2. Honduran interim leaders reinstate curfew citing threat of rebellion

Source: Associated Press

Honduran interim leaders reinstate curfew citing threat of rebellion
Associated Press - July 16, 2009 10:23 AM ET

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Honduras' interim president says supporters of his deposed predecessor are taking up arms and may be planning to try to return Manuel Zelaya to power by force.

Interim President Roberto Micheletti qualified his comment by saying he didn't know whether the reports were true, but he'd heard through unofficial channels that Zelaya would try to return to Honduras through the Nicaraguan border on Saturday. Micheletti also said that forces, who he did not identify, were handing out guns to foment rebellion.

Earlier this week, Zelaya said Hondurans have a constitutional right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government.

While Micheletti says he remains confident that the leadership crisis will be resolved through dialogue, Zelaya warns he'll pull out of talks if the interim government doesn't soon leave.



Read more: http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10737020&nav=menu192_2

[Judi Lynn]

3. Honduras braces for protests ahead of talks

Honduras braces for protests ahead of talks
Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:58pm BST

By Simon Gardner and Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA, July 16 (Reuters) - Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya gathered at main entry points to the capital on Thursday, planning to pressure the interim government with street protests ahead of weekend mediation talks.

Caretaker President Roberto Micheletti's administration, installed by Honduras' Congress after the June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya, stepped up security around the country and reimposed a curfew late on Wednesday after a pro-Zelaya peasant leader vowed nationwide demonstrations.

The renewed protests, following a call by Zelaya for "popular insurrection" to back his reinstatement, came two days before Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was due to host talks between the rival sides in the Honduran crisis.

At the southern entrance to Tegucigalpa, about 100 protesters congregated on Thursday morning, holding a banner that read "Liberals against the coup" and watched by police in full riot gear.

Protesters were also gathering at the eastern entry road.

"I'm here because they have called on the people to demand the return of President Zelaya," said 33-year-old out-of-work electrician Leonidas Lopez. "They have told us he will soon be here (back in Honduras). It depends on us."

Juan Barahona, leader of the National Front for Resistance Against the Coup which is campaigning for Zelaya's return, said his supporters would try to block access highways into Tegucigalpa and the other main city, San Pedro Sula.

"We're going to hold two big demonstrations, taking over the roads to strike at the economy of the coup-supporting businessmen," he told Reuters by telephone.

More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN1641016520090716?rpc=401&&pageNumber=1

[Peace Patriot]

6. "CARETAKER President Roberto Micheletti..." ?! That's a good one!

The rotters at Reuters seem to be choking over the word 'coup.' And one wonders if they even know what the word "president" means.

A violent rightwing military coup can call someone "president." That doesn't make him one. And I don't care how many members of the filthy rotten Honduran oligarchy salute him. He was not elected. Zelalya was. End of story.

Robert Micheletii is NOT the president of Honduras--"caretaker" or otherwise. (He has certainly "taken care," though, to hire one of the highest paid lobbyist whores in Washington DC to paint the white roses red, so to speak. ("Alice in Wonderland"--bad Red Queen). Let's see, what other "care" has he "taken"? He took care to get the real president out of the country--getting the US taxpayer funded Honduran military to shoot up the presidential palace, and roust the elected president from his bed at gunpoint, and spirit him out of the country. He took care to shut down the media, arresting and harassing even Associated Pukes reporters. And he took care to suspend all Constitutional civil rights. A lot of "care" went into this coup. So maybe "caretaker" is not all that...um...propagandistic. On its face, though, it's a howler.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Many DUers may not be aware of it, but U.S. Latin American policy and relations

with Latin America are being determined RIGHT NOW. Whatever Obama has said about wanting to institute a new policy of respect and cooperation with Latin American countries is being undermined by John McCain's US taxpayer-funded "International Republican Institute" and its backing of the rightwing coup in Honduras, and other US taxpayer funds--USAID-NED, Pentagon, DEA--supporting rightwing groups in Honduras and the Honduran military. The new democratic leftist leadership of Latin America--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala--is well aware of, a) the history of US support of rightwing coups in Latin America, including the RECENT Bushwhack sponsorship of the white separatist coup attempt in Bolivia (and its other plots against Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and others), and b) Obama's funding power to shut down this rightwing coup in Honduras. THEY see it as a litmus test of the Obama administration's sincerity, and every day that goes by, with the US funding the coup government and its repressive military, Obama is failing that test. That may be one of McCain's and the rabid rightwing's main purposes. Obama needs to bust this cabal of US fascists supporting Latin American fascists, and he needs to do it now--or there will be a permanent breach between the northern and southern halves of this hemisphere.

Obama and Clinton need to prove their sincerity in Latin America. That is the historical and current reality. Latin Americans have no reason to trust them--none! And their continued funding of this coup speaks much louder than words. There are already at least 600 political prisoners in Honduras, and several deaths. The US-funded Honduran military open fired on a crowd of peaceful Zelaya supporters last week, killing a youngster and wounding many. The opposition and neutral media have been shut down (with troops surrounding TV stations, as well as public buildings). Constitutional rights have been suspended. And the elected president was rousted out of his bed at gunpoint and flown out of the country as a prisoner!

The coup's justifications for these actions are entirely bogus--and have been written in rightwing "think tanks" in Washington DC. Their real beefs with Zelaya are that he raised the minimum wage, criticized US-dominated "free trade" as impoverishing Honduran workers, got a good deal on oil from Venezuela, joined ALBA (Venezuelan-organized barter trade group), and proposed fundamental reform--an advisory referendum, for a non-binding vote of the people, on whether or not to form a constitutional assembly to discuss, rewrite and vote on a new constitution. (The current one was written by the Reagan regime.) These are not "crimes" in a democracy! They are not even borderline illegal. They are entirely legal under the current Constitution (bad as it is). The Honduran oligarchy has accused Zelaya of "treason"--but the only "treason" that he has committed is "treason" against his class--against the rich elite that rules Honduras, of which he was a member (something our own FDR was accused of as well). Their accusations betray them.

Latin Americans know all this. Is this kind of US-sponsored fascist terrorism, bullying, exploitation and grossly anti-democratic policy going to continue, or is it truly a new day in US/Latin American relations? Honduras is the pivot point. If Obama and Clinton fail to act, and soon, their opportunity for better relations will be gone. Is that what they want? Is this a good cop/bad cop scene--with McCain leading the fascist charge, and Obama/Clinton play-acting at better relations but in truth supporting the coup? That is what I'm beginning to think--and you can be sure that most Latin Americans are already thinking it.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Recommended reading...

KOZLOFF: "The Politics of Destabilization - McCain and Honduras" -Telecoms, etc.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x18910

Washington & the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence
By Eva Golinger
15 July 2009
http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/washington-coup-in-honduras-here-is.html

The Role of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the Honduran Coup
The International Republican Institute talks of “coup” in Honduras, months before
By Eva Golinger
6 July 2009
http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/role-of-international-republican.html

Who's behind Lanny Davis' putsch paycheck?
Following the money trail in the Honduran coup
by Bill Conroy 7/14/09
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/07/whos-behind-lanny-davis-putsch-paycheck