Whom the gods would destroy, part 4: The crisis in Honduras.

[Downwinder]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/14/171929/96?new=true

[Peace Patriot]

1. K&R! This is a VERY well-researched article with A LOT OF important info on Honduras, the US,

Latin America and the world.

Stuff I didn't know. For instance, that Opus Dei was involved in the coup. (The article names names.) And that some bishops and priests concluded that they were lied to, by the junta, about Mel Zelaya's "crimes," and have dissented from the coup.

And here's a powerful conclusion that ought to be headlined. The article discusses the various and diverse interests at play in Honduras--the Church, the military, the US, etc. Thence to:

"The fifth force is international opinion and non-governmental organizations. Although there is some diversity of opinion, the only countries which have fully endorsed the US position of accepting the tainted elections are heavily dependent on US goodwill. Those which lean toward the US position are dependent on the US. A remarkable number of countries, even traditional allies of the US, have rejected the elections and are refusing for the time being to recognize the dictatorship. The press has made a great deal out of the nuanced position adopted by, for example, Brazil, but the damage is done. Quiet agreement has been reached that whatever was done in Honduras reeks of US meddling, and that the State Department is both incompetent and mendacious. The US probably lost almost as much trust over its handling of Honduras as it did over all the lies it told to justify the Iraq invasion."

I have to say that this is close to my assessment as well: "Quiet agreement has been reached that whatever was done in Honduras reeks of US meddling, and that the State Department is both incompetent and mendacious."

However, I wasn't sure of the vast extent of the damage to US/Latin American relations, and to world relations. It's hard to tell, reading corpo-fascist 'news' sources, what is really going on, in our own foreign policy or anyone else's--and we have little else to go on. So, when Brazil, for instance, says that it might establish some kind of relations with the coup-elected 'president' of Honduras, we entirely miss--because it isn't stated--that president Lula da Silva has a spine of steel when it comes to the sovereignty of Latin American countries. You have to have read a lot about him to know this. Any room he might leave for talks with the coupsters or the US is for diplomatic purposes--for finding peaceful solutions, something he very much believes in--and is NOT him "weakening" on the fundamental issue of an illegitimate, violent, US-aided coup in Honduras. Anyway, I knew this about Lulu--from vast and eclectic reading--but what of other entities like the EU, or the more US-friendly Chile, or of the rightwing government of Mexico (which, even though US-friendly, has a lot of sovereignty concerns). How badly has the Obama administration damaged these relations? This well-researched and well-written article says VERY badly.

One thing I'm not sure of, in the article's sentence above, is the State Department being "incompetent." It could well be that the State Department accomplished exactly what it set out to accomplish--to adhere to Bushwhack anti-democratic policy in Latin America while trying to create the appearance of not doing so (i.e., providing the corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies with the means of fuzzying the matter over); and to instill the fear of US military power and US toppling of democracies in Latin America once again, if its leaders won't comply with Pentagon and US corporate wishes--and also to throw that fear around in other places as well, as a ripple from Honduras. It is vital to know that, simultaneous with the Honduran coup, the US was signing a secretly negotiated agreement with Colombia for SEVEN new US military bases in Colombia, NO LIMIT on the number of US troops and 'contractors' who can be deployed there, unlimited diplomatic immunity for whatever US troops and 'contractors' do there, and US military use of all civilian airports and other facilities, for "full spectrum military activities throughout the region." When this secret agreement was finally leaked, it caused paroxyms of concern among all the other leaders of the region--who feel threatened, insulted and shocked by the extent of the Obama administration's deception on a "new" policy of peace and respect.

The Honduran coup did not occur in a vacuum. It occurred in this larger picture of US secrecy and threats. It's as if Hillary Clinton were saying, 'Let this be a lesson to you. This is what will happen to YOU, if you won't invite the US "war on drugs" into your country, if you won't accept ruinous World Bank loans, if you resist US "free trade for the rich" and dare to form your own trade groups and dare to assert an independent foreign policy such as having diplomatic and trade relations with Iran." In fact, recently, Clinton issued an explicit threat to Brazil, Venezuela and other Latin American countries about the "consequences" to them of their diplomatic/trade relations with Iran. She did not say what the "consequences" would be, but she didn't have to.

This may ultimately be a suicidal US policy, but "incompetent"? It's not incompetent if that is exactly what was intended. (It's like calling the Bush Junta "incompetent" on "the war on terror." What was their purpose? To stop terrorists, or to promote terrorism and profit from it? If the latter--which is my view--then they are not incompetent. They have created thousands of new "terrorists" and have reaped mindboggling profits from it.)

Anyway, this article is a MUST read--for understanding Honduras and related topics.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for posting Part 4. Really appreciate the author's work. This merits another look:

The regime has not rested in its terrorism, however. Among other incidents, men clad in camouflage and believed to be police gunned down five young men who had done organizing for the resistance, and narrowly missed executing a young mother of four, Wendy Molina. She escaped only because she played possum when they lifted her by the hair <128>. And now, five people have been kidnapped, presumably by police. Four were ordered never to return to their homes, and the fifth, Santos Corrales García, was decapitated <129>. The State Department, which has always labeled such acts to be barbaric war crimes when committed by Muslims, is silent now that this despicable deed has been committed by the government it birthed.

So painfully correct. How can they be this obvious? I think it's because they realize how many people are not likely to do any investigation, discussion, thinking about these things, and even less likely to be informed of them by our consistantly classist, empire-serving corporate media.