SLIDESHOW: Inside the World’s Newest Police State

[Judi Lynn]

January 9, 2010
SLIDESHOW: Inside the World’s Newest Police State

Photos of Honduras in crisis, all taken since President Mel Zelaya was ousted from power by a military coup last June.
By Jeremy Kryt

Photos of Honduras in crisis, all taken since President Mel Zelaya was ousted from power by a military coup last June.
By Jeremy Kryt

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—It’s the worst political and humanitarian crisis to hit Central America since the terrible wars of the 1980s, and it doesn’t seem likely to go away any time soon.

The coup that deposed President Mel Zelaya last June ignited a firestorm of nonviolent but determined resistance, but the business-military junta—under the leadership of de facto president Roberto Micheletti—reacted to the peaceful marches and demonstrations by cracking down hard on protesters. More than 3,000 people have been detained, and hundreds more have been beaten, with many requiring hospitalization for their wounds. At least 28 members of the resistance have been killed by soldiers, police, or political assassins during the last five months.

Zelaya’s term will officially end on January 27. His successor, Porfirio Lobo, is widely seen as having cooperated with the coup. The turnout for an election in late November was the lowest in the Honduras’ history, and the coup government was caught in the act of fixing the numbers. Meanwhile, Zelaya remains trapped in the Brazilian embassy, allowed to leave the country safely only if he first renounces the presidency.

In the weeks since the election, the human rights situation has deteriorated. Shooting and killings are becoming increasingly common in the streets, as the coup government’s harsh policies have led to a troubling rise in poverty and violent crime. And last month, the regime itself was accused of torturing and murdering two resistance activists.

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5385/slideshow_inside_the_worlds_newest_police_state/

[Peace Patriot]

1. "the worst humanitarian and political crisis"--and they also looted and busted the economy

See "Honduras is broke," posted by Downwinder:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x29029

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Stupid murdering torturing assholes--just like their U.S. counterparts in the Pentagon and the State Department. Corpo-fascists, thy name is STUPID.

What makes a healthy economy and a livable society? Everything that Mel Zelaya did--helping the workers, doubling the minimum wage, lowering bus price tickets for poor workers with an oil deal with Venezuela, feeding poor children with school lunch programs so they feel cherished by society and grow up with their brains well-nourished, collaborating with the teachers union to improve education, collaborating with unions and grass roots community groups on needed legislation and reform, joining with the leftist leaders of other countries--in a trade group, ALBA--for long term, cooperative economic planning, instead of isolated poor countries looking to Washington for handouts, bolstering the country's sovereignty visa vis multinational corporations, proposing conversion of the U.S. military base to a badly needed commercial airport for international travel, shifting budget priorities from profoundly regressive military spending to investing in people and economic development, curtailing the regressive tendencies of the "ten families" rich elite, and stimulating new ideas and creativity throughout the land.

Gone, all gone.

All the things that make for a positive outlook in the society--including free speech and other civil rights--gone. And in its place, a fascist 'paradise' where human life is cheap, multinational corporations do whatever they goddamn please, terror reigns and the rich fortify their castles with paramilitaries from Colombia.

Same here--on a grander scale but with more manipulative methods. The rich and the corporate rip up the Constitution, loot government coffers with impunity, and squeeze every last dime out of the pockets of workers and the poor; outsource manufacturing to the cheapest labor markets around the globe; destroy the middle class; destroy "the commons"; kill "the golden goose" and then hijack the military for corporate resource wars. Our people are still useful as "cannon fodder."

These are regressive, downward spiral policies that end in catastrophe. Honduras is now the U.S. in miniature--looted, brutalized, broke, seething. The Obama team had their chance to do something better. This is what they did: Honduras. It is a very ill omen, indeed.

[Judi Lynn]

2. All that hard work done quickly with full investment of heart and soul by Zelaya is lost.

Of course all the right-wingers running things after their assaults with help from the US upon their populations set term limits to PREVENT any possible social improvement from getting a fair chance of succeeding, as it did with FDR.

The greedy ones learned that goodness, and justice, and quality can break out if they don't scheme and connive and remove the human beings among us who seek office, and hope to lighten the suffering of the downtrodden, and helpless majority.

Power stolen from others actually WEAKENS those who stole it, as it isn't rightfully theirs. Time will teach them the lesson they have refused to learn.