The Coup and the US Administration: does the official story add up ? by: Andrew Taylor

John Negroponte, long-time US State Department executor in Central America


Last week President Obama restated the position that the coup against president Zelaya of Honduras was "illegal". However, Secretary of State H.R.Clinton told reporters at a State Department scrum that the US government was not declaring the removal of Zelaya a “coup.”

(No US aid can legally be given to a country whose elected head of government is ousted by a military coup.)

On the Monday following the coup, Secretary Hillary Clinton was asked if the stated US objective of “restoring democratic order in Honduras” included demanding the return of Zelaya to power. “We haven’t laid out any demands that we’re insisting on,” Mrs.Clinton replied.

The Washington Post last week reported that John Negroponte, veteran US State Department war-lord, said that Clinton’s remarks “appeared to reflect US reluctance to see Zelaya returned unconditionally to power.” Negroponte said, “I think she wants to preserve some leverage to get Zelaya to back down from his insistence on a referendum.”

Negroponte knows what he’s talking about. He was US ambassador in Tegucigalpa during the 80s and conducted a key role in directing the US proxy war against Nicaragua that had its Headquarters in Honduras.

Which all leads me to think and feel that the US position on the coup is an unfinished compromise reflecting the fissures in the position of the US Ruling Class toward the coup in Honduras. The situation on the bloody ground of fortress Honduras is worsening day by day. Will The US act and speak unambiguously - decisively to ensure the return of president Zelaya to power? If not, why not?

I believe the US administration would like democratically elected Zelaya restored - since if the coup plotters remain in power the entire narrative power upon which Obama came to power will be radically undermined. He will be politically weakened if this thing stands. But the US and Central American Ruling Class will not accept Zelaya's attempts to continue Honduras's leftward reforms. So the powers are between a rock and a hard place and the working class needs the victory in Honduras to avoid a sharp braking-action on the revolutionary process in the whole of the Americas.