Zelaya to Set Up Bases in Nicaragua as Honduras Talks Progress

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg

Zelaya to Set Up Bases in Nicaragua as Honduras Talks Progress
By Eric Sabo and Blake Schmidt

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he will set up bases in Nicaragua to press for his return to office as Latin American leaders urge him to continue negotiations with the interim government.

Supporters who cross over from neighboring Honduras will receive food, water and shelter, Zelaya told reporters while hiking up a hill along the border. About 3,000 people have made their way into Nicaragua so far, he said.

“There are more than 300 hidden routes through the mountains,” Zelaya said in an interview late yesterday, taking a pause under a tree. “There will be more ways to resist.”

Nicaragua’s largest opposition party denounced Zelaya’s encampments, saying in an e-mailed statement yesterday they may cause a military conflict with Honduras. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias meets with regional leaders today to push for acceptance of his 11-point proposal to end the stalemate.

“There is no possibility that this agreement will pass without the reinstatement of Zelaya,” Arias said in a news conference late yesterday near the town of Tamarindo on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a3c_nPqBXNvw

[Judi Lynn]

1. US escalates war build-up against Latin American revolution

US escalates war build-up against Latin American revolution
Federico Fuentes, Caracas
25 July 2009

The US State Department and the coup regime in Honduras have publicly stated what many of us already knew: the June 28 military coup was not just directed against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, but also Venezuela and the unfolding Latin American revolution.

On July 20, US state department spokesperson Phillip Crowley said he hoped Zelaya now understood that in “choosing a model government and a model leader for countries of the region to follow”, the US believes “the current leadership in Venezuela would not be a particular model”.

“If that is the lesson that President Zelaya has learned from this episode, that would be a good lesson.”

The same day, vice foreign minister of the Honduran coup regime, Marta Alvarado, said: “Honduras is playing a very important role in the sense that the continuity or otherwise of the avalanche of the ALBA countries depends on Honduras, and whether the people who are under the pressure of the ALBA countries wake up.”

ALBA, an initiative of the revolutionary Venezuelan and Cuban governments, unites nine Latin American and Caribbean countries into an anti-imperialist bloc that combines solidarity-based trade agreements with a coordinated political intervention into regional politics.

In response to the global economic crisis, the ALBA bloc has denounced the capitalist system. It has proposed radical measures that place the burden for the crisis on the capitalist elites who created it — not the workers and poor.

This revolutionary challenge is a dangerous threat to an empire in decline.

The June 28 coup in Honduras shows that, as the crisis deepens, Washington is increasingly turning to military solutions to “solve” this problem.

With two failed coup attempts so far this century (Venezuela in 2002 and Bolivia in 2008) and one successful one (Haiti in 2004), this strategy is not new. But extending this strategy is becoming more likely — and more dangerous, as military incidents threaten to spill over the borders and become a regional conflict.

Pro-imperialist governments in Latin America are aiding the US in this task.

Colombia, which in March 2008 bombed Ecuadorian territory, has just opened the door to five new US military bases on its territory. This occurred just days after the US began to move out of its base in Ecuador, from which the government of President Rafael Correa expelled it.

This move has been combined with a heightened propaganda campaign against Venezuela, not unlike the one that preceded the Iraq invasion.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/804/41355

[Judi Lynn]

2. How Obama betrayed Honduras

How Obama betrayed Honduras
The United States must honour its promises to Central America by refusing to support the coup leaders in Honduras

Hugh O'Shaughnessy guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 July 2009 11.30 BST

Let's hope that the United States finally decides that it's going to do what its president said it would do for Central America. It should be a simple task, that of cutting off its support of the bad guys in Honduras and starting to honour the commitment to democracy that Barack Obama clearly announced when he met the leaders of Latin America at the Summit of the Americas.

So far the administration's actions towards the gang of semi-educated ruffians who took over in Tegucigalpa and who feel, for racial reasons, that the US leader is beneath their contempt, has been – to put it kindly – ragged. The almost universal cry of "foul" went up when the legally elected Manuel Zelaya was sent out of the country in his pyjamas by Roberto Micheletti, an obscure politician and businessman, who had seized power.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was first off the starting block when she condemned the impostor's action. Then Barack came along to say what she had chosen not to say: that the real president should be returned to the office he rightfully exercised.

Now however the word from every involved agency in Washington is that Zelaya should be allowed back on the strict condition that he does not upset friends of the US, the Republican party and the telecommunication companies in DC with his state-owned corporation Hondutel. This is ridiculous for two reasons. The first is to do with simple justice – Zelaya won a victory in clean elections. The second has to do with the US president's image in the western hemisphere. The last eight years in the Middle East and the unfolding debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan should have taught the US and the British governments that if they attempt the impossible – such as trying to invade and occupy countries on spurious grounds and with recourse to kidnapping and torture – they will get egg all over themselves. And egg stains never look good on presidential or prime ministerial lounge suits – much less on military uniforms, gold braid and medal ribbons.

Yet Obama is presiding over a group of politicians and civil servants who appear to think that they have it in their power to convince Latin Americans and the world that a Honduran coup d'etat is not a coup d'etat and that a dictatorship which imposes curfews and gags the media as part of a drive to help the interests of foreign businessmen is a democratic government.

The leaders of all the members of the Organisation of American States have condemned Micheletti, as have the UN and the EU. If Clinton and the survivors of the wilder rightwing fringes of the Bush administration to whom she is bizarrely allied have their way US reaction to the impostor will be ineffectual.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/29/honduras-coup-barack-obama

[timeforpeace]

3. It's almost as if Obama isn't concerned about reactions to his blocking the spread of this movement.

[L. Coyote]

4. LOL. "as Honduras Talks Progress"

The only "progress" I have seen is in the revival of death squads in Honduras.

"Change in the direction Fascists believe in" wasn't what we had in mind!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Please take the time to check Joanne98's video, "Golpe en Honduras."

Beautifully done:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=344774&mesg_id=344774

[Vidar]

6. K&R.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Rights Leader Challenges U.S. Stance on Honduras

Rights Leader Challenges U.S. Stance on Honduras
Roberto Lovato, New America Media Roberto Lovato, New America Media
Wed Jul 29, 1:52 pm ET

Editor's Note: Concerns raised by Bertha Oliva, co-founder and head of Honduras' leading human rights group, about the Obama administration's policy towards the Honduran coup reflects what many fear is a growing distance between the White House and democracy movements.

NEW YORK, Jul 29 (OneWorld.net) - When finally reached by telephone, the very hard-to-reach Bertha Oliva was in the middle of a typically tragic day in post-coup Honduras. " just bombed a nearby labor union," she said. Oliva leads the Tegucigalpa-based Committee for the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH), which is recognized worldwide as her country's leading non-governmental human rights organization. "Fortunately," she said, "all of the members of the union were at the burial of one of the boys the death squads killed on Saturday near El Paraiso , and no one was killed this time."

"They are following our every move," Oliva added. "They're surveilling our offices and we've received threatening phone calls. And they make it extremely difficult or impossible to take water, medicine and food to all the people they've detained," she said.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, while making camp at the Nicaragua-Honduras border last Friday, called for new protests in Honduras. This prompted U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to declare: "'President Zelaya's effort to reach the border is reckless. It does not contribute to the broader effort to restore democracy and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis."

When asked about Clinton's statement, Oliva quickly responded, "Bombs are going off, people are being detained without due process, young men's bodies are found with signs of torture and 45 stab wounds. declarations and her silence about human rights are strengthening criminals and signaling to those committing crimes against humanity that they can keep on doing it. Isn't that 'reckless?'"

"Instead of disqualifying Zelaya," she continued, "Secretary Clinton should take actions in favor of democracy, in favor of constitutional order. That can really help us, that would be a great contribution."

If a recent report by COFADEH is any indicator, there has been an exponential rise in the number of human rights violations since the June 28 coup. The report documented over 1,100 cases of arbitrary detentions, attacks on the media, killings and other human rights violations.

~snip~
As she looks at the numbers and as she visits killing fields, prisons, private homes and other sites where human rights violations are taking place, Oliva said she couldn't help but be reminded of the past.

She and her family founded COFADEH along with 12 other families that, like hers, had lost a family member disappeared by death squads linked to the U.S.-trained Honduran military. Her husband is still "disappeared," she noted. "Some of the same businesspeople and military officials involved in the disappearances and killings of the 1980's are the same people behind the coup today," said Oliva. "And as happened back then, the United States government seems willing to back them politically by sponsoring talks that make the coup leaders look like legitimate partners to negotiate with."

Oliva saved her most impassioned pleas for Hillary Clinton. "As a Honduran that has worked for justice her entire life, I ask Mrs. Clinton to listen to her heart and formally declare this a coup so that (coup leaders) know that her country stands for human rights," she said. "As someone who has sought the truth, I ask you, Mrs. Clinton not to hide the truth about what's happening here. And, finally, as a creator of life, as a mother, I plead with you to put yourself in the shoes of so many mothers whose sons are victims of repression by the government. I know will listen to you. With God as my witness, I know it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20090729/wl_oneworld/world3657391248896337

[Judi Lynn]

8. Honduras: more repression in Tegucigalpa; "resistance camp" on border

Honduras: more repression in Tegucigalpa; "resistance camp" on border

Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 03:52. Several were wounded and more than 250 arrested July 30 in clashes between protesters and security forces at several locations around Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. Police and army troops used both rubber bullets and live rounds, and fired tear gas from helicopter. The worst violence occurred at El Durazno, on the northern outskirts, where protesters took over the highway and one was shot in the head. Protest leaders accused police of firing on peaceful protesters. TV footage showed some protesters armed with sticks and pick-axes. (NYT, Comun-Noticias, Honduras Resists, July 30)

Also that day, the US ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, arrived in Managua to meet with ousted President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Meanwhile, in another sign of his growing isolation, coup-installed President Roberto Micheletti appealed to international mediators for a dialogue table "with all the forces" of Honduras. (Honduras Resists, July 30)

In a joint communiqué, the popular organizations OFRANEH, COPINH, COFADEH, Juventud Popular Morazanista and Acción Universitaria announced the establishment of a "Honduran Resistance Camp" at a location "somewhere on the frontier between Honduras and Nicaragua." The camp is named "Pedro Magdiel Muñoz" after the young protester evidently killed by security forces on the border. The statement said a "Peace Column" made up of representatives of the popular organizations crossed the mountains along the border to join the camp, evading the army. (COPINH, July 28)

The Managua-based Nicaraguan Social Movement "Otro Mundo es Posible" is organizing humanitarian aid for the public encampment Zelaya has established at Ocotal. A growing number of Honduran exiles are erecting shelters with tarps at the camp. Nicaraguan officials would not respond to queries from the Managua daily Nuevo Diario as to how many Hondurans have entered the country since last weekend's confrontation at the border. (Nuevo Diario, July 30

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/7640