U.S. to restart aid to Honduras as crisis ends

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

U.S. to restart aid to Honduras as crisis ends
Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:52am IST

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it will restart aid to impoverished Honduras after toppled President Manuel Zelaya flew into exile and the country swore in a new leader, ending a long political crisis.
The United States cut off more than $30 million in non-humanitarian aid to Honduras following the June 28 coup that ousted Zelaya, part of a $450 million international aid freeze. The European Union, Venezuela, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank also suspended aid.

The move, however, failed to unseat de facto leader Roberto Micheletti while hurting Hondurans, especially the poor. Honduras received about $1 billion a year in foreign loans, humanitarian aid and subsidized Venezuelan fuel before the coup.

That represented some 20 percent of its national budget.

Other donors have yet to say if they will restart their aid programs. Brazil, Canada, Mexico are among the nations that do not recognize Honduran President Porfirio Lobo because the November elections were organized by the de facto government.

The United States has recognized Lobo.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-45820420100130?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

[IDFbunny]

1. Presidente Lobo

[Judi Lynn]

2. Photo of the "President", Porfirio Lobo Sosa

From Times Online November 30, 2009

Right-wing rancher Porfirio Lobo wins Honduras election

http://www.timesonline.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/multimedia/archive/00652/LOBO2_PIXEL_SIZE_38_652741a.JPG

Porfirio Lobo, a right-wing businessman from Honduras' political old guard has been voted in as the country's new president, in a controversial election which Honduran leaders hoped would turn the page on the June coup that ousted leftist Manuel Zelaya.

Exit polls indicated that Mr Lobo, a wealthy rancher and the National Party's candidate, had won by 55% of the vote and early today his his closest rival, Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal Party, conceded defeat.

As the partial election results were announced hundreds of Mr Lobo supporters waved flags and danced in a victory celebration in Tegucigalpa, the capital.

But the election itself threatened to bring further upheaval to a country left isolated on the international stage and bitterly divided by the removal of Mr Zelaya. It has driven a wedge between Washington, which has backed the vote, and Latin American governments who regard it as illegitimate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6937304.ece

[LarryNM]

4. The Times like the US MSM

refers to those they oppose in Latin America as "leftist" but those they support like Lobo are identified as right-wing, businessmen or conservative, never as "rightist".

[UTUSN]

3. Ding DONG!1 OH, Crown ZELAYA was NOT a "rich" timber harvester?!1

Manuel Zelaya talks on his mobile phone within the Brazilian embassy while his white cowboy hat is held by a bodyguard, Boris Muños. Photograph: Esteban Felix/AP

[EFerrari]

5. The crisis isn't over. People are still being detained, and disappeared

and killed and raped.

[Bacchus39]

10. a man of the people indeed. and now he is living in rustic accomodations in Punta Cana n/t

s

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Next stop - Venezuela. nt

[EFerrari]

7. Maybe Ecuador. It's small. Someone or something is trying to

undo the coalition by setting indigenous groups and labor against Correa.

[Bacchus39]

11. Correa is doing that himself, calling the Shuar "infantile minorities"

http://www.latinamericanpost.com/index.php?mod=seccion&secc=39&conn=5807

[Joanne98]

8. What is it going to take to get them to listen?

[Judi Lynn]

9. The US game in Latin America

The US game in Latin America

US interference in the politics of Haiti and Honduras is only the latest example of its long-term manipulations in Latin America

Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk,
Friday 29 January 2010 19.00 GMT

When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these countries to try and control or topple their governments. These are small, poor countries with little in the way of resources or markets. Why should Washington policymakers care who runs them?

Unfortunately they do care. A lot. They care enough about Haiti to have overthrown the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide not once, but twice. The first time, in 1991, it was done covertly. We only found out after the fact that the people who led the coup were paid by the US Central Intelligence Agency. And then Emmanuel Constant, the leader of the most notorious death squad there – which killed thousands of Aristide's supporters after the coup – told CBS News that he, too, was funded by the CIA.

In 2004, the US involvement in the coup was much more open. Washington led a cut-off of almost all international aid for four years, making the government's collapse inevitable. As the New York Times reported, while the US state department was telling Aristide that he had to reach an agreement with the political opposition (funded with millions of US taxpayers' dollars), the International Republican Institute was telling the opposition not to settle.

In Honduras last summer and autumn, the US government did everything it could to prevent the rest of the hemisphere from mounting an effective political opposition to the coup government in Honduras. For example, they blocked the Organisation of American States from taking the position that it would not recognise elections that took place under the dictatorship. At the same time, the Obama administration publicly pretended that it was against the coup.

This was only partly successful, from a public relations point of view. Most of the US public thinks that the Obama administration was against the Honduran coup, although by November of last year there were numerous press reports and even editorial criticisms that Obama had caved to Republican pressure and not done enough. But this was a misreading of what actually happened: the Republican pressure in support of the Honduran coup changed the administration's public relations strategy, but not its political strategy. Those who followed events closely from the beginning could see that the political strategy was to blunt and delay any efforts to restore the elected president, while pretending that a return to democracy was actually the goal.

Among those who understood this were the governments of Latin America, including such heavyweights as Brazil. This is important because it shows that the State Department was willing to pay a significant political cost in order to help the right in Honduras. It convinced the vast majority of Latin American governments that it was no different from the Bush administration in its goals for the hemisphere, which is not a pleasant outcome from a diplomatic point of view.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/29/us-latin-america-haiti-honduras

[ronnie624]

12. I hope it's okay if I post another excerpt from your article.

Not surprisingly, the Obama administration's closest allies in the hemisphere are rightwing governments such as those of Colombia or Panama, even though Obama himself is not a rightwing politician. This highlights the continuity of the politics of control. The victory of the right in Chile, the first time that it has won an election in half a century, was a significant victory for the US government. If Lula de Silva's Workers' party were to lose the presidential election in Brazil this autumn, that would be another win for the state department. While US officials under both Bush and Obama have maintained a friendly posture toward Brazil, it is obvious that they deeply resent the changes in Brazilian foreign policy that have allied it with other social democratic governments in the hemisphere, and its independent foreign policy stances with regard to the Middle East, Iran, and elsewhere.

The US actually intervened in Brazilian politics as recently as 2005, organising a conference to promote a legal change that would make it more difficult for legislators to switch parties. This would have strengthened the opposition to Lula's Workers' party (PT) government, since the PT has party discipline but many opposition politicians do not. This intervention by the US government was only discovered last year through a Freedom of Information Act request filed in Washington. There are many other interventions taking place throughout the hemisphere that we do not know about. The United States has been heavily involved in Chilean politics since the 1960s, long before they organised the overthrow of Chilean democracy in 1973.

In October 1970, President Richard Nixon was cursing in the Oval Office about the Social Democratic president of Chile, Salvador Allende. "That son of a bitch!" said Richard Nixon on 15 October. "That son of a bitch Allende – we're going to smash him." A few weeks later he explained why:

The main concern in Chile is that can consolidate himself, and the picture projected to the world will be his success ... If we let the potential leaders in South America think they can move like Chile and have it both ways, we will be in trouble.

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/29/us-latin-america-haiti-honduras>

[Judi Lynn]

14. Thanks for highlighting these points, Ronnie624. It's a shame our own media won't discuss them. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

13. A Lobo in Sheep’s Clothing?

February 3, 2010
A Lobo in Sheep’s Clothing?
New Honduran president’s legitimacy questioned as ‘one-sided civil war’ deepens human rights crisis, national bankruptcy declared
By Jeremy Kryt

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—It was all supposed to be different once Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo took over as the new president of Honduras. Human rights crisis finished. Dictatorship deterred. Even after a highly-contested election in November—which most of the world refused to recognize and more than half of Hondurans didn’t participate in—many both here and abroad still clung to the hope that a new executive officer might resolve what some experts have called a “one-sided civil war” because only the military-backed regime has employed violent means.

The diverse anti-coup resistance movement has maintained a nonviolent stance, refusing to respond even when authorities have attacked peaceful marches and gatherings with chemical-based crowd control weapons, rubber bullets and live rounds. Dozens of peaceful resistance members have been killed by soldiers, police and government-funded paramilitaries since the armed coup against democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009. Even more worrisome, local human rights groups report that clandestine death squads, reminiscent of groups that terrorized the country in the 1980s, are once again roaming the streets at night.

~snip~
During his time in office, Zelaya had initiated reforms aimed at increasing quality of life for the more than 70 percent of Hondurans who live in poverty. (More than half of the people in this small textile- and coffee-exporting nation get by on less than a dollar a day.) Zelaya had raised the minimum wage and provided primitive social security and financial aid for students. Then, last spring, when hundreds of thousands of Hondurans petitioned Zelaya to hold a nonbinding referendum on changing the draconian, outdated Honduran Constitution, in favor of a more democratic and participatory national charter, the president agreed to a public opinion poll on the issue.

But the oligarchic Congress, the Supreme Court, and the dozen or so wealthy families who have traditionally ruled Honduras, fearing Zelaya’s reforms would endanger their control over the Honduran economy, aligned themselves with the country’s military to stage a putsch. Zelaya was kidnapped in his pajamas around dawn on June 28, and flown into exile in Costa Rica. The official excuse: that Zelaya had sought to re-write the constitution to extend presidential term limits. But, even after months of searching, there is still no evidence for this, and Zelaya himself had never mentioned it.

“He was the president, and the military attacked him for political reasons,” said Barahona, who was also one of Zelaya’s chief negotiators during the embassy siege. “He never committed any sort of crime.”

~snip~
For many in the crowd, the departure of Zelaya—who before boarding his plane pledged to return to Honduras—was a profoundly emotional moment.

“I could not believe how many people I saw weeping,” said Ena Lopez, 22, a student from the capital who attended Zelaya’s farewell rally. “There were grown men crying like frightened children,” Lopez said. “It is a sad day for my nation. And for all those anywhere in the world who love freedom.”

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5509/a_lobo_in_sheeps_clothing/

[Judi Lynn]

15. Consolidating the Coup in Honduras

February 5 - 7, 2010

Pepe Lobo, Imperialism and the Resistance
Consolidating the Coup in Honduras
By TODD GORDON and JEFFREY R. WEBBER

A country of sharp inequality and class polarization, Honduras recently returned to the frontlines in the battle for Latin America’s soul. The terrain of struggle has shifted on multiple occasions over the last seven months, following the military coup against the democratically-elected President, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. The battle entered its latest phase last week with the ascension to power of Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo. Lobo was inaugurated on January 27, following his victory in the fraudulent November 29 election last year. Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans greeted the inauguration with a spirited march through the capital, Tegucigalpa, against the coup and his presidency.

Zelaya, a member of the broad tent Liberal Party who defeated Lobo in the 2005 Presidential campaign, was removed from power and forced into exile in the middle of the night on June 28, 2009. This was the first successful coup d’état in Latin America – following unsuccessful attempts against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in April 2002 and Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2008 – since Alberto Fujimori’s auto-golpe in Peru in 1992. Roberto Micheletti, a member of the Liberal Party’s right-wing faction, was quickly installed as the coupist President.

The Error of His Ways

Zelaya’s mistake was the adoption of moderately progressive measures designed to improve the lives of the poor Honduran majority. Among other things, the minimum wage was raised by 60%, mining exploration restricted, free school enrolment introduced, and subsidized gas was purchased from Venezuela. Zelaya also led Honduras into the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). While Zelaya’s progressive credentials and proximity to Chávez – the Honduran elite like to claim that he had become a puppet of the Venezuelan leader – shouldn’t be overstated, these measures angered the Honduran elite, an obscenely privileged and tiny fraction of the country’s population, uninterested in even a modest redistribution of wealth. It was, however, Zelaya’s efforts, supported by the social movements, to initiate constitutional reform – misleadingly presented by the elite and regurgitated unquestioningly by the North America mainstream press as a power grab – that constituted the final straw.

The new Lobo regime and the golpista press are presenting the transfer of power as a return to democracy and thus an end to the coup. Lobo, they claim, marks a new beginning for a democratic Honduras under a new government of national reconciliation. Unsurprisingly, this position is being echoed by U.S. and Canadian imperialism. These same powers supported the coup, their claims to the contrary nothwithstanding. They have consistently ignored the documented repression of the anti-coup movement, and have helped circumvent Zelaya’s efforts to return to power at every turn (for backgrounder on Canadian and American support for the coup see T. Gordon, http://www.counterpunch.org/gordon06302009.html, press releases by Canadian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on Honduras, Peter Kent at www.international.gc.ca/ministers-ministres/kent_news-communiques.aspx, and Greg Grandin’s articles at www.thenation.com).

Political Repression and Mock Election

According to the Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH), a human rights organization founded in the 1980s, at least 36 anti-coup activists have been assassinated, almost certainly a low estimate they acknowledge, as many families of those killed are too afraid to come forward for fear of reprisal. Many political murders are covered up, COFADEH argues, as gang killings. El Frente, the national resistance front, puts the number of assassinations at more than 130. COFADEH has also documented at least 95 cases of torture and the illegal detention of hundreds more.

This reign of terror cast its long shadow over voting day on November 29. An atmosphere of military repression and intimidation prevailed. Little more than bad theatre, the election was boycotted by the anti-coup resistance movement, offered no candidates opposing the coup, and has not been recognized by most Latin American governments. The official voter turnout figure of over 60% provided by the Honduran Electoral Tribunal is almost certainly inflated. One official with the Tribunal, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the Real News that the figure was pure invention. Hagamos Democracia, an NGO contracted by the Tribunal to provide early reporting, put the turnout at 47.6%. Drawing on grassroots reports from across the country, leaders of the Resistance suggest that turnout was probably closer to 30%.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/webber02052010.html

[Judi Lynn]

16. Honduras’ Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo: Another Disaster for Central American Democracy Waiting in the Wing

Honduras’ Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo: Another Disaster for Central American Democracy Waiting in the Wing
Written by Adrienne Pine
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 13:17

Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Tomorrow, January 27th, as the world’s eyes continue to be riveted on the unfolding disaster in Haiti, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo will be installed as Honduras’ president, succeeding de facto president Roberto Micheletti. Lobo, a supporter of the June 28th military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, was chosen in a November election held under conditions of qualified state terror. As the majority of Hondurans boycotted the elections, and dozens of candidates for lower offices withdrew, the vast majority of countries around the world classified the ballot as illegitimate.

In the hours and days following the election, the illegally-appointed Supreme Electoral Tribunal committed fraud by announcing a voter turnout that was indisputably more than 12 percentage points higher than its own officially-published numbers. The doctored higher figure was cited repeatedly by Lobo, Secretary of State Clinton, and other friendly faces to legitimize the disputed ballot. Many Honduran and foreign observers argue that later international support for the Lobo Administration will eventually ensure the invalidation of Zelaya’s most important reforms. This support will guarantee long-term repression and a growing degree of tight-fisted control in the country, as well as endangering democratic institutions and social justice reforms throughout the hemisphere as the result of an echo effect.

Though State Department officials insist that the Honduras election process was transparent, in fact, no international observers were present to confirm the tally because—as announced by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on September 23rd—the conditions for a free and fair election were not present. A scathing 147-page report released Wednesday, January 20th, by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission corroborates this, citing a litany of well-documented human rights abuses, including numerous political assassinations committed prior to, and following the election. The report describes a militarized environment in which dissonant or critical opinions have been officially prohibited in “an egregious, arbitrary, unnecessary and disproportionate restriction, in violation of international law, of the right of every Honduran to express himself or herself freely, and to receive information from a plurality and diversity of sources.”

While no official international observers were on the ground election day, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) sent “monitors” to oversee the Honduran election that the OAS and Carter Center had refused to legitimize with their presence. Both the NDI and IRI are funded by the U.S. Congress through a highly conservative Reagan-era umbrella organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The archly conservative IRI has supported efforts implicated in the ousting of democratically-elected presidents in Haiti and Venezuela in recent years. The day of the election, the NDI had its monitors caught on tape refusing to discuss police violence, which they had witnessed outside the polls in Honduras’ industrial city of San Pedro Sula.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2337--honduras-porfirio-pepe-lobo-another-disaster-for-central-american-democracy-waiting-in-the-wing