Chavez welcomes US decision to cut aid to Honduras

[bemildred]

Source: AP

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is welcoming the United States' decision to cut millions of dollars in aid to Honduras.

Chavez says "it's about time" Washington took action against the government that has been in charge in Honduras since a June 28 coup ousted his ally, President Manuel Zelaya.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly announced the decision to cut more than $31 million in non-humanitarian assistance on Thursday.

Kelly added that the U.S. would not recognize the results of Honduras' upcoming presidential elections under current conditions.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZQ5yglEJugbpNb20h1HR2Drij-wD9AGRHQG5

[IDFbunny]

1. Next we re-install Zelaya.

It's never more legitimate than when a foreign power installs a president.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Your sarcasm might have a point, if John McCain had not been funneling $43 million

of US taxpayer money to rightwing, coup-supporting political groups in Honduras (thru his US taxpayer-funded International Republican Institute, via the USAID), and Hillary Clinton hadn't been funneling more multi-millions to rightwing, coup-supporting big businessmen in Honduras (thru the US taxpayer-funded "Millennium Corporation"), or the US hadn't been propping up the rule of the rich oligarchy in Honduras and its enforcer, the Honduran military, with multi-millions in military and other aid, or if the US hadn't been grossly interfering in Honduras for about ten decades, or the US hadn't used Honduras as the "lily pad" country from which to launch death squads into Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s, or Honduras wasn't a "free trade for the rich" client state of the US, dependent on the US for most of its trade, or the US didn't have a military base in Honduras, where the US commanders sat on their hands while their Honduran military pals flew the elected president of Honduras--whose house they had just shot up, and whom they had kidnapped at gunpoint--into the US air base, refueled the plane and flew him out of the country as a deported prisoner, and then failed to help him return to Honduras when the Honduran military blocked airports and roads, or if the US embassy in Honduras hadn't admitted that they knew about the coup days in advance.

The issue here is not the US interfering--in order to restore the elected president and democratic order in Honduras. The issue is, when will the US stop interfering in Honduras, remedy this "made in the USA" coup, and permit the Honduran people to reform their troubled democracy and address the highest poverty rate in the hemisphere? The US has a responsibility in Honduras. It is not an innocent party. Rightwing forces here--and Puke moles in the Pentagon, at the State Dept. and other places--backed this coup. The Honduran oligarchy would not have perpetrated it without such support. One of the top Honduran generals involved in the coup said that, by this coup, they had "stopped communism from Venezuela reaching the United States." Now, where do you suppose he got that idea?

Obama and Clinton now appear to be doing the right thing, which is to de-fund this coup and force them to step down and restore democratic order. The OAS and virtually every country in Latin America wants the US to do this, because the US is the only thing propping this junta up! Everybody knows this. And it is a plain threat to the democratic order in every one of their countries, all of which have coup-plotting fascist groups. But the biggest threat is to Honduras' immediate neighbors--El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala--all three of whom recently elected leftist governments, and to Venezuela, which the coupsters--and rightwing forces here--particularly hate, because of its inspiring and powerful social justice policies. Venezuela also has a whole lot of oil, and, in case anyone has forgotten, the US just recently slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq to steal their oil. Venezuela has a particular stake in not seeing Honduras become a US 'lily pad' again.

As almost all Latin American leaders have said, this is a security issue in their own countries, as well as a matter of democratic policy and the rights of the Honduran people. Chavez is by no means alone in this--as our corpo/fascist press would like us to believe. Latin America is united on this matter. They all know that this coup was "made in the USA" and can be undone by the USA. It may have been a Bushwhack plot to begin with, but it happened on Obama's watch, and he cannot wash his hands of it--Pontius Pilate style--and it appears that he has finally realized that.

[troubledamerican]

3. Amen. Every word.

[ronnie624]

4. Agreed.

And not one of the anti-democracy one-liner wingnuts who haunt these Latin American threads will make a serious attempt to rebut it. As usual, they will probably simply pretend it doesn't exist.

[sabrina 1]

5. Excellent post

And absolutely correct that Chavez is not alone in his concerns for the security of his country against US interventialism.

The US has been behind three coups since this century began, Haiti, Venezuela and now Honduras. But the winds of change have swept through S.A. over the past decade and it isn't just one country. They are united in their determination not to allow the US to stop the spread of Democracy or the rights of their people to choose their own leaders.

Colombia's Uribe is the fox in the henhouse, a man with history of drug cartel connections and corruption beyond belief. It is generally believed that he dare not stand up to the US or his past, which they are willing to overlook as long as he plays the role required of him

Should he ever develop a conscience and decide not to cooperate with the US, he would suffer the same fate as former US puppet, Noriega. As one S.A. journalist said, he better get re-elected, in order to protect himself.

Noriega was a warning to all puppets. And I'm sure there isn't a day that goes by that Uribe isn't reminded of that.

Chavez never put himself in the position of being beholden to anyone but his own people. He is the worst nightmare of the Multi Corps, unwilling to sell his people and country for power and money.

It took them awhile, but I'm glad the Obama administration has finally taken some steps in the right direction. Maybe because Latin American countries have had enough time, while the US was busy in the ME, to gain enough strength as they are unified with a common goal, to send a message that cannot be ignored.

It's hard being an Empire. Hiring mercenaries to do the dirty work, as in Colombia and Afghanistan, is fine, but Empires always fall as they spread themselves too thin, become too greedy and alienate too many people. It seems the US is teetering on the edge of being just one more failed Empire, unless this administration changes course, and begins the process of returning to Democratic principles. We can then deal fairly and respectfully with other Democracies like Venezuela. Maybe it's not too late.

[Peace Patriot]

9. "The US has been behind three coups...". Four, actually. Bolivia, September 2008.

Late last summer, in Bolivia, the US/Bushwhack embassy was funding and organizing white separatist rioters and murderers right out of the US embassy. That's why Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, threw the US ambassador out of the country. Chile's president, Michele Batchelet, then called an emergency meeting of UNASUR--South America's newly formalized (summer '08) "common market"--to back up Morales 100% and help him restore order, and peace, in Bolivia. The white separatists were trying to secede from Bolivia, and take Bolivia's main gas/oil reserves with them (in the eastern provinces). Among other things, they open fired on unarmed peasant farmers killing some 30 people. In addition to Chile's important role in stopping this US-sponsored coup, Brazil and Argentina brought economic pressure to bear. They are Bolivia's chief gas customers and they made it very clear that they were would not recognize or trade with a secessionist state.

Batchelet--who had taken the UNASUR reps on a tour of Chile's Pinochet museum, to remind them of the consequences of US coups--later told this joke to a group of US investors: "Why has there never been a coup in the United States?" Answer: "Because there is no US embassy in the United States."

This coup was aborted by the people of South America, acting through their elected leaders--chosen in elections that are far, far more transparent than our own--in unprecedented political and economic cooperation for the benefit (and the defense) of all. It was an event, writ large, similar to the one in Venezuela in 2002, when tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured out of their hovels, and surrounded Miraflores Palace (the seat of government) to peacefully turn back that US-sponsored coup--an event documented in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Venezuelans were pretty much alone at that time. They were the vanguard. Now, most of South America--and about half of Central America--is of a similar mind. They will not put up with this any more. And they have gotten very well organized in resisting it, in South America, and increasingly well-organized in Central America. Brazil has even called for a "common defense" in the context of their new "common market." A united, and politically and economically integrated, South America has only one enemy--the U.S.--or, I should say, it has only one enemy, the U.S. global corporate predators who control our government and its foreign policy (and its wars) in their interest. The rest of us are not enemies of South America. We, too, are the victims of these Corporate Powers. And we should take heart from their resistance, and learn practical lessons from them--for instance, the importance of transparent vote counting (which we have lost to rightwing, corporate-controlled electronic voting machines).

NOTE: There is another corpo/fascist target that I should have mentioned--Ecuador. Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, recently said, "After Zelaya, I'm next" (--based on Ecuadoran and South American intelligence). Ecuador's oil provinces are adjacent to Colombia to the south. The US is establishing seven new US military bases in Colombia, which is adjacent to Venezuela's main oil provinces (to the north) as well. Last year, the US/Colombia dropped ten 500 lbs US "smart bombs" on a temporary FARC guerrilla camp just inside Ecuador's border, blowing away 25 sleeping people without benefit of trial. This very nearly started a war between the US/Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela. The Colombian "Office of Special Plans" has since been manufacturing evidence that Correa and Chavez are "terrorist lovers." In the plan for Oil War II that Rumsfeld left sitting around, it is quite likely that they would want to pick off Ecuador first, then Venezuela--or Venezuela's northern oil provinces, in a fascist secessionist scenario similar to the one that failed in Bolivia.

Fascist politicians in both Ecuador's and Venezuela's northern oil provinces openly talk of secession. Correa has said publicly that there is such a plan--fascist secession--for three countries (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia). And Donald Rumsfeld was--I have no doubt--referring to this plan, in an op-ed he published in the Washington Post, on 12/1/07 (a year after he 'retired'), entitled, "The Smart Way to Defeat Tyrants Like Chavez," in which he urges "swift action" by the US in support of "friends and allies" in South America. I think there must have been some expectation, on the war planners' part, that the US would be taking "swift action" in support of the white separatists in Bolivia (about a year after Rumsfeld's op-ed), but this "support" got foiled--possibly by the election of a leftist president in adjacent Paraguay, combined with UNASUR's strong backing of Morales--or maybe it got pre-empted by the Bushwhack Financial 9/11, which occurred at the same time as the Bolivian white separatist coup attempt (Sept '08), in the final months of the Bush Junta, with the massive looting of the US federal treasury taking precedence.

[sabrina 1]

11. Yes, Morales, you're right. I forgot about that.

I followed that story and was terrified they would succeed. Two failed coups, and a possible forced reversal on Honduras. Things are getting tougher for the Corporate Terrorists.

Regarding Ecuador, I'm sure Correa is correct, but if the US is forced to condemn the coup in Honduras, his chances of survival are better. I do believe he would survive anyhow, as the tide has changed in that part of the world, and many still living have memories of the US idea of 'democracy'. Ch

I think the governments there are smarter now and know where to look for subversive and treasonous activity in their countries.

What's sad is that this administration appears to be conducting business as usual there, and now Obama lost the trust of the people in S.A. That's probably for the best. Trusting any US president would be foolish on their part.

.... when tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured out of their hovels, and surrounded Miraflores Palace (the seat of government) to peacefully turn back that US-sponsored coup--an event documented in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Venezuelans were pretty much alone at that time. They were the vanguard. Now, most of South America--and about half of Central America--is of a similar mind. They will not put up with this any more. And they have gotten very well organized in resisting it, in South America, and increasingly well-organized in Central America. Brazil has even called for a "common defense" in the context of their new "common market."

I remember it well. I was posting on a dem. newsblog at the time and we followed the events, with help from a Venezuelan who was in the country at the time airc. That was when I first began to learn that the US was not the 'good guys' I had always thought, but still not willing to believe how bad it was, I blamed it all on the Bush administration.

And I began to read about S.A. And was shocked and saddened by the horrific past inflicted on them that most Americans were not aware of.

I had a difficult time locating 'The Revolution Will not be Televised' but finally found it on a public access station by accident. It was riveting and leaves no doubt about the spirit of the Venezuelan people. Yes, both they and the people of Bolivia have sent a clear message to Washington and elsewhere. It will not be easy to do what they are used to doing.

I feel sad that the US, Americans anyhow, are not absolutely cheering for what is happening in S.A. It is exciting to be a witness to the historical events there. If it were presented truthfully, people would be watching and cheering on tv for the success of the incredible progress they've made.

Maybe, in the not too distant future, it will be from that region of the world that the US learns it's lesson and changes its policy of murder and torture and destabilization of democracies, to becoming a partner in trade because I have a feeling other countries will be doing so, and if we do not, the US will be left behind with not much support from anywhere. Chavez is building alliances around the world, and the demonization tactics are only working here, and not too well this time around, as more of us are on to them.

[fascisthunter]

7. perfect response

[defendandprotect]

12. How in the hell could that be legal???? Didn't know that!!

[RedCloud]

6. How about when Teddy carved Panama away from Colombia?

That's what the real face of imperialism looks like and behaves.

[Boku-Wa]

14. Another shill for the Honduran coup government?

There are more than a few slinking across DU. Maybe IDF(Israel Defense Force?)Bunny needs to explain how complying with US law requiring the cut-off of non-humanitarian aid to coup governments approaches what she has suggested.

Besides, this will give the IDF the opportunity to weigh in AGAIN on the side of a murderous government. (sarcasm!) Just like they supported South African apartheid and death squads in Central America.

[fascisthunter]

8. And I welcome the US decision too as a Tax Paying Citizen

thank ya Chavez


*right wingos heads are exploding... sounds like popcorn.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. Disappointing to read, ".... under current conditions," but progress on the geopolitical level,

even for a moribund empire in a radically-changing world, is not going to be easy for a while.

[defendandprotect]

13. k i c k

[oct2010]

15. Chavez welcomes his ministers decision to shut down more radio stations

Chavez minister vows more Venezuela radio closings
CARACAS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo Chavez's government said on Saturday, just weeks after dozens of other outlets were closed in a media clampdown.

Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was "democratizing" media ownership. Critics say the move limits freedom of expression and has taken critical voices off the airwaves.

The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez's government. "Another 29 will be gone before long," he told thousands of Chavez supporters at a political rally, without giving details which stations would be closed or when.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0520744720090905

The radio stations are spreading anti democratic messages against Chavez. Twitter also must be better controled for the misinformation being put out over the internet