Senator Blocks Obama Nominee for Latin America Over Honduras

[cal04]

Source: Bloomberg

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint has placed a “hold” on President Barack Obama’s nominee for the top diplomatic post for Latin America over dissatisfaction with the administration’s handling of Honduras’ political crisis.

In a letter dated today, the South Carolina Republican asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, to put the hold on the nomination of Arturo Valenzuela as the next U.S. State Department official in charge of Western Hemisphere affairs. DeMint also asked Kerry to temporarily block the nomination of Thomas Shannon, who currently occupies that post, as ambassador to Brazil. A copy of the letter was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Wesley Denton, a spokesman for DeMint who confirmed the letter’s authenticity, said the request was made following the officials’ unsatisfactory response to questioning about Honduras during a July 9 committee hearing to evaluate their nominations.

(snip)
DeMint was among 17 Republican lawmakers who complained to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her refusal to meet in Washington with representatives of the interim government named by the Honduran congress after Zelaya was ousted by the military June 28.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aX9larisYurM

[Robb]

1. Can someone remind the GOP that the meter is running? nt

[subsuelo]

2. And why is he so dissatisfied?

“Given the turbulent history of Latin America, we can understand, but disagree with, the rush to label the events of June 28th a coup d’etat,” the senators wrote in a July 8 letter to Clinton. “While you have already met with Mr. Zelaya, we find it discouraging that you are unwilling to meet with Honduran officials that have simply followed their constitution.”

In other words, according to these esteemed senators, it wasn't really a military coup d'etat. They were just following the Honduran constitution.

:crazy:

[atreides1]

7. Wonder if DeMint and company would feel the same way

If the US military actually defended and supported the Constitution as they all have been sworn to do?

[harmonicon]

3. what the fuck?

[subsuelo]

4. More at wash. post

DeMint and other Republicans have said they believe Hondurans were acting lawfully when they ousted Zelaya after he had sought to hold a referendum on overhauling the constitution to allow his re-election.

"President Obama rushed to side with Chavez and Castro before getting the facts. Now it's clear that the people of Honduras were defending the rule of law," DeMint said on Tuesday, through his spokesman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072101860.html

[No Elephants]

6. Acted unlawfully when he sought to hold a referendum? So, would these Republicans support

someone who ran Ahnuld out of Sacramento over putting Prop 8 on the ballot?

Yeah, trying to get the people to vote is grounds for a military coup.


To poop on!

[totodeinhere]

8. No, the referendum was illegal because the country's constitution limits presidents to just one term...

So the referendum would have been unconstitutional. If he wanted to run again, the only legal way to do it would be to amend the country's constitution through legal channels. That's not what he did, and what's more, he threatened to incite his followers to violence if he didn't get his way.

His removal was ordered by the country's legally constituted supreme court, and it was legal.

[subsuelo]

9. "he threatened to incite his followers to violence if he didn't get his way"

quit watching fox news and get the facts straight

there's nothing legal about a military kidnapping an elected president and ousting him from the country

Do you even know what was on the actual referendum?

[totodeinhere]

12. I love it. You don't agree with me so you accuse me of getting my talking points form Fox News.

But that's OK. He was not kidnapped. The supreme court ordered his removal and the army conducted the operation as it saw fit.

[No Elephants]

20. He was asking people to vote on whether they wanted a Constitutional amendment.

Nothing says the Hondouras Supreme Court wasn't in someone's pocket. You know, like ours in 2000.

Or, threatened by the military.

The referencdum he wanted seems innocous enough to me. And, when a Supreme Court decides you're wrong, you stop what you are doing. You don't get removed from office by the military.

I believe the military even admitted that the ouster was illegal under Hondouras law, but they thought it was justified.

On edit The link for the admission by the military that the military committed a crime.

http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2009/07/honduran-military-official-admits-to.html

[Judi Lynn]

21. True misinformation by US media. He would have been completely out of office

before there could have been ANY decision made about anything in their constitution, including term limits was ennacted.

Had nothing to do with Zelaya's own Presidency.

Anything which has been spread to create that belief is pure deceit. They couldn't admit they wanted to get rid of him illegally so they invented an excuse to cover themselves.

[No Elephants]

23. So, you think Zelaya was ousted wrongfully?

Sorry to be obtuse, but I am not up to snuff today.

BTW, Zelaya may have wanted the Constitution amended so he could run another time. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

[Judi Lynn]

29. Any proceedure to rewrite their constitution, as has been done in Honduras

many times, would not have possibly happened during the time left in Zelaya's term as the President.

This would NOT have affected his own Presidency. As as been explained repeatedly by sources outside our corporate media, this has been a tactic used by the Honduran media to generate hostility toward the elected President in order to gain support for their ILLEGAL violent coup.

[Judi Lynn]

30. I wanted to add that the last constitution rewrite in Honduras was during 1982,

and add this quote regarding the circumstances:

The current constitution, written in 1982 during the height of the Reagan Administration's dirty war in Central America, was designed to ensure those in power, both economic and political, would retain it with little interference from the people.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=16833&mesg_id=16833

[No Elephants]

35. Thanks for your response.

[IDFbunny]

11. He was impeached and removed by Congress.

The supreme court issued the arrest warrant and accepted his plea agreement for exile.

[IndianaGreen]

13. You spew rightwing propagand in I/P forum, and you do the same up here

How predictable!

[IDFbunny]

16. That's not propaganda, it's fact.

Are you denying that he was impeached by congress or that the supreme court issued the arrest warrent?

[IndianaGreen]

17. Two corrupt institutions that only represent the elites, the Church, and the military

The axis of evil in Latin America, and in the Philippines.

[IDFbunny]

28. Therefore illigitimate, right?

[No Elephants]

36. Therefore not democratic.

[superduperfarleft]

33. Considering Israel's past support of right-wing dictatorships in LA

It's not surprising that someone named "IDFbunny" would be behind yet another illegal coup against a leftist leader. She's probably got some AKs lying around that she needs to unload on someone for cheap.

[No Elephants]

22. Do you have a link on a plea agreement?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

27. Not the first person to claim this bullshit ....... Do you hear that? It's the sound of crickets. nt

[No Elephants]

37. If I google and cant find something, I always ask for a link. Before I call bull puckey.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

41. Oh believe me I know. I did the same thing with a poster who shows up

every time Zelaya or Honduras are mentioned. Needles to say I'm still waiting for the same link you're requesting.

[EFerrari]

40. LOL.

[No Elephants]

19. But the referendum was to see if people wanted to amend the

Constitution. From the artile linked in the OP:

"Honduras’s institutions and business groups remain united in support of Zelaya’s overthrow. The Supreme Court ruled that Zelaya violated the constitution by trying to hold an illegal poll The court issued a sealed arrest order for the president on June 26, two days before his overthrow."

[EFerrari]

39. Wrong and wrong. The SC had no legal basis for their finding

as the survey has notthing to do with term imites. it is not legal to kidnap sitting presidents in Honduras.

[Judi Lynn]

14. DeMint needs to acknowledge the people of Honduras are in the streets protesting,

and, at this point, should they all disappear, the whole world will know they have been driven back by the hijacked military.

[Beavker]

5. I know stooping to their level is bad policy...

but the DNC needs to target some of these common obstructionist elements (Obama should have outed DeMint regarding the Healthcare/Waterloo quote, though some of the media did). These guys are getting too big for their britches. Though they may feel safely tucked away in their little Red State fox holes, I think the Dems could demonize these guys a bit. Hate to leave it up to the unfortunately hyper-uninformed "i'm too busy with my kids' after school activities and trips to the mall" Americans to come to the conclusion that these GOPosaurs are bad for this Country on their own.

[IndianaGreen]

10. A Bolshevik government would have declared the entire GOP to be enemy combatants

and overnight we would be rid of the whole lot of them.

[David__77]

31. No, just the leaders.

The bulk of them wouldn't be targeted by a Bolshevik government.

[starroute]

15. DeMint is another of these Family/C Street guys

And back in the 80's, the Family was supporting the Honduran dictatorship and death squads.

So there seems likely to be more than a bit of a covert agenda at work here.

[Judi Lynn]

18. The death squads throughout Central America got extreme support from US racist fundie Republicans.

Jesse Helms was the loudest hate-filled right-winger at the time. Fundamentalist monster preachers like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell publicly howled for death to the citizens of Central America for years.

These bastards are apparently hoping to summon a collective resistance among the brain-damanged racists here who are atwitter over the election of the new President, and use it as a weapon against him relentlessly. His only choice to avoid their continual battering would be to kneel down to them and serve right-wing interests which would mean resurrecting Reagan's bloody history of not only meddling in Central America, but also slaughtering citizens there, as well, until THEY bow to US interests and agree to give up hope for food, shelter, education, medical care, and silently accept lives lived in dispair, suffering, relentless hardship.

[No Elephants]

24. That explains a lot. Thanks.

[bemildred]

25. "Up or down vote" nt

[damntexdem]

26. It's time to end this ability of a single senator to block consideration of nominees.

True, senators from both parties are loath to lose this 'privilege'; but the practice needs to be ended for good.

[Wednesdays]

32. K&R

:kick:

[Vidar]

34. Good for Kerry.

[No Elephants]

38. Gottta love Kerry. He's not perfect, but light years better than some.

[alarimer]

42. I am dissatisfied with their behavior for other reasons.

The administration behavior in this case is shameful. Holder once defended Chiquita and Chiquita and Dole plus other American companies are pro-coup. All because Zelaya planned to raise the minimum wage, thus depriving those corporations of their slave labor.
How Holder could defend these piece of shit companies is beyond. And now our (wholly corporate-owned) government is acting on their behest. This is not new with Obama. Clinton and Bush both supported corporations over the people in Latin America. I think it goes back farther than that eve.

Please listen to Democracy Now on this topic.