At UN, Brazil's Lula demands Zelaya reinstatement

[JackRiddler]

Source: Reuters

Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:22pm IST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the first world leader to address the U.N. General Assembly, called on Wednesday for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to be reinstated.

"The international community demands that Mr. Zelaya immediately return to the presidency of his country and must be alert to ensure the inviolability of Brazil's diplomatic mission in the capital of Honduras," Lula said, drawing applause from the hall.

Zelaya remained holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital. He had been due to address the General Assembly on Wednesday as part of the general debate attended by heads of state and government from around the world.

Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of the leftist Zelaya, said the United Nations should demand that the deposed president be reinstated. Speaking to reporters before the opening of the General Assembly, Chavez described Zelaya's return to the Honduran capital as courageous.

SNIP - MORE AT LINK

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42658620090923

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Viva Brazil!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K & R

[roody]

2. Wow...some leadership.

[JackRiddler]

3. Remarkable.

Brazil has suffered CIA-backed coups and a junta that took part in the 1970s Condor alliance of nations organized by the US. They tortured, disappeared and executed tens of thousands of dissidents and ultimately implemented a neoliberal shock program that starved much of the population.

Lula knows and understands this, as do most of the modern Latin American leaders. That is why they are united against the right-wing coup and that is why Lula is showing this remarkable courage. They know they must stamp out military dictatorship on the traditional CIA model anywhere it appears, in their own defense.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Good points here

I know several Brazilians who lived there in the darker days and are glad and excited at the extent to which their country has moved on.

I agree that what is happening in Honduras is very dangerous.

[JackRiddler]

7. Thanks...

We're talking about a horrific 20-plus-year era of Latin American history, from the 1960s to the 1980s, when dictatorship visited nearly every country. Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and the Central American countries (which had been afflicted far longer). The US free-market propaganda actually looks back on this horror as a rugged age of economic reform! Of course Latin Americans are in the main going to see it differently, and fight any signal that might prompt a return to those days. (Those outside the Miami elite, anyway.)

[JackRiddler]

4. Oi, are people exhausted with this? Too busy with Gaddafi's tent, perhaps?

[LeftishBrit]

5. k&r for Lula and some sense

[Overseas]

8. K&R. Hoping the UN complies.

Wish Reuters didn't find it so necessary to add "leftist" before Zelaya's name.

How about "democratically elected" Zelaya who was ousted in a military coup.

[JackRiddler]

9. An all too obvious and common distortion in the corporate press...

when they even cover this story at all.

Is the tip-off that CIA-CNN did not color-code this particular overthrow of an elected government, so you're not supposed to pay attention to it?

[rabs]

10. Latest news update

I am listening to resistance station Radio Globo online. As of 10:30 p.m. Honduras time (12:30 Eastern):

-- Brazilian Embassy is still under siege. About 250 troops and police are stationed around embassy and in neighboring houses. Searchlights have been set up to illuminate the embassy grounds from all sides.

-- Callers to radio are reporting police are shooting into the air in several neighborhoods.

--Zelaya just spoke on the radio, said there are about 100 people in the embassy with him, including one woman who is about to give birth.

-- Zelaya's family today tried to deliver food to the embassy but was turned away.

-- Zelaya said that if the golpistas tried to assassinate him, it would be suicide for the golpistas.

-- He said although his life was at risk, he was not afraid and asked that his followers remain calm.

-- Earlier the station reported that at least 10 people had been killed since last night. There could be many more, according to callers.

Spanish speakers can follow what is happening here:

http://www.radioglobohonduras.com/

[JackRiddler]

11. kick

[LeftishBrit]

12. kick