Honduras: Can You Have A Democratic Coup? What May Matter Most About Honduras, Truly… The USA’s Long Involvement There

http://themoderatevoice.com/37405/what-may-matter-most-about-honduras-truly-the-usas-long-involvement-there/




Posted by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, Assistant Editor, Columnist in Economy, International, Places, Politics, Society, War.
Jun 29th, 2009

What May Matter About Honduras Now… and likely has for a long long time…



1. The Generalisimo Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez, who forced out and banished President Manuel Zelaya at dawn one day last week, is reported to have surrounded the presidential palace with two-hundred armed soldiers and tanks while tear-gassing a crowd gathered outside…

2. President Zelaya is the democratically elected President of Honduras

3. Generalisimo Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez is a two-time graduate of the United States Army School of the Americas, located in Georgia, USA.

4. Generalisimo Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez pushed out President Zelaya after Zelaya tried to present a controversial referendum to the people’s vote that would have allowed him, via a presumed Constitutional amendment if possible, to lift a one-time-only term-limit on running for presidential office again.

5. Generalisimo ROVV forced Zelaya under armed guard to be taken by the army to a Honduran Air Force Base, where Zelaya was forced to board a plane that had received clearance–from whom in Costa Rica or beyond is not yet known, but surely will be soon– to land in Costa Rica.

6. For years now, many American religious groups, Quakers, Maryknoll missionaries and priests, Protestant and Jewish groups of conscience, have been trying to close down The School of the Americas that Generalisimo Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez has graduated from twice, as this particular Army school has been known to consistently train men from Central and South America in torture and coup-making and other nefarious endeavors…

7. The Pentagon did close the School of the Americas down in 2000, only to reopen it under a new name: “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.”

8. Since Generalisimo Vásquez Velásquez has been in power in Honduras this past week, Peace Activists in the US and elsewhere have rapidly stepped up pressure to close the school down again. The US school is nicknamed by activists, The School of Torture. It is also called “the School of Coups.”

9. Here, from National Catholic Reporter online, by Linda Cooper and James Hodge, who are the authors of Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas. SOA Watch is the conglomerate group that has been protesting publicly and informing the US citizenry/taxpayers about what the School of the Americas teaches, and how it gives millions of US dollars, US weaponry, and lends US military ‘advisors’ to wars/initiatives/ overthrows throughout Latin America.

While the Defense Dept. promised transparency, it refused to release the names of the new graduates after SOA Watch found that the school was enrolling well-known human rights abusers. One — Salvadoran Col. Francisco del Cid Diaz, a 2003 graduate — was cited by the 1993 U.N. Truth Commission for commanding a unit that dragged people from their homes and shot them at point-blank range.

Last week the House approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010, which would force the release of the names of its graduates, including their rank, country of origin and courses.
The bill - offered by Congressmen Jim McGovern (D-MA), Joe Sestak (D-PA), Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and John Lewis (D-GA) - has to survive a House and Senate joint conference committee.

In overthrowing the government Sunday, Vásquez Velásquez , the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, joins earlier SOA Honduran graduates who seized power, Gen. Juan Melgar Castro and Gen. Policarpo Paz Garcia.

Melgar Castro ruled the country from 1975 to 1978, the years when one of his underlings – another SOA graduate, Jose Enrique Chinchilla - conducted an operation that tortured and executed two priests, Michael Cypher and Ivan Betancur. The two were tortured and killed along with two women and five peasants who were baked alive in bread ovens.

Melgar was overthrown in 1978 by fellow SOA graduate, Paz Garcia, whom the US Army installed into SOA’s “Hall of Fame.” His tenure was also marked by brutal military repression, including the formation of Battalion 3-16, a military death squad that worked closely with the CIA in targeting suspected leftists in the 1980s. Paz Garcia’s military commander was another SOA grad, Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who ran 3-16 and ordered the execution of Fr. James Carney, a US missionary to Honduras.

The three Honduran generals fit into a larger pattern of coup leaders trained by the US Army school, which used to boast about how many of the school’s graduates had become heads of their countries.

The boasting, which stopped after the graduates’ undemocratic paths to power became known, celebrated such figures as

-Argentine Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri who overthrew in a bloody coup another grad, Gen. Roberto Viola who’d come to power in 1981 during the Dirty War.
-Guatemalan dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt who seized power in a coup in 1982.
-Panamanian dictator Gen. Omar Torrijos who overthrew a civilian government in a 1968 coup.
-Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, who ran the country while on the CIA payroll.
-Ecuadoran dictator Gen. Guillermo Rodriguez who came to power in 1972 by overthrowing the elected civilian government.
-Bolivian military dictator Gen. Hugo Banzer Suarez who came to power in a violent coup in 1971.
-Bolivian dictator Gen. Guido Vildoso Calderon who took power in 1982.
-Peruvian dictator Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado who toppled the elected civilian government in 1968.
In ousting the Honduran president Sunday, Vásquez Velásquez had the help of other SOA graduates, including Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, the head of the
Honduran Air Force.

Retired Gen. Daniel López Carballo, also a two-time SOA grad, told CNN that the coup was justified because Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez would be running Honduras by proxy if the military had not acted.

Records show that Vásquez Velásquez took a basic combat arms course at SOA in 1976 and another course on small unit instruction in 1984, while Prince Suazo took a 1996 course on joint operations.

Zelaya was a businessman who had leaned to the right when he was elected in 2006. He surprised many when he started to loosen the strong ties Honduras has had with the United Stats, which had controlled the country to such a degree that it was once called the USS Honduras.

Zelaya enjoyed wide support among the poor and union leaders, but increasingly drew the wrath of the powers that be in the country, clashing with oil interests when he sought to reduce the price of oil for Hondurans.

Restricted by law to a 4-year term, he attempted to have a referendum asking voters to change the constitution and permit a second term. Zelaya said a single four-year term makes it impossible to address long-standing poverty issues in a country where half of the residents live on less than one dollar a day and have little voice in how the government operates.

The controversy heated up when Zelaya dismissed a Supreme Court ruling that held that the referendum was illegal. “The court,” he said, “offers justice for the rich, the powerful and the bankers, but only causes problems for democracy.”

Zelaya also dismissed Vásquez Velásquez from his military post after he refused to give logistical support for the referendum; his dismissal led up to the coup.

U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann said he “categorically condemns the criminal action by the army” and asked the UN to find a peaceful way to restore the president to power.

He also called for President Obama to condemn the coup, noting that Obama announced a new policy toward Latin America at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad last month. But he added, “Many are now asking if this coup is part of this new policy as it is well known that the army in Honduras has a history of total collaboration with the United States.”

The US has sent mixed signals about the coup. In the latest statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made clear that the United States is not insisting that the President be restored to power.

10. THe people of Honduras deserve far better: a democracy that votes for what it would like, a citizenry that does not in any way have to live in fear of being dragged away and tortured, and a stable peace with enough time to bring education to all, and prosperity … with neither peace nor prosperity being stolen by and for foreign interests’ sake.

Pakistan Taliban 'scrap peace deal' The deal was scrapped because of Pakistani failure to stop US drone attacks against the Taliban [EPA]

Source: Al Jazeera

Pakistan Taliban 'scrap peace deal'
The deal was scrapped because of Pakistani failure to stop US drone attacks against the Taliban [EPA]

Taliban fighters in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan say they have pulled out of a peace deal with the Pakistan government.

The fighters in North Waziristan blamed continuing US military assaults and the Pakistani army offensive in the region against them for their decision on Tuesday.

"This accord is being scrapped because of Pakistan's failure to stop the American drone attacks in North and South Waziristan," Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, told the Associated Press by telephone.

"Since the army is attacking us in North and South Waziristan, we will also attack them."

'Serious concerns'

The announcement came after 27 Pakistan soldiers and officers were killed in a Taliban ambush on a Pakistan military convoy in North Waziristan.

Israeli Navy Threatens "Spirit Of Humanity" In International Waters "All We Want Is To Reach Gaza. We Do Not Seek A Confrontation."

2009-06-30

Go to http://www.swp.ie/index.php?page=17&dept=Misc
Israeli Navy Threatens "Spirit Of Humanity" In International Waters
"All We Want Is To Reach Gaza. We Do Not Seek A Confrontation."
Activists aboard Gaza justice boat demand they be allowed to visit their friends & family in besieged Gaza, and deliver their cargo of medical supplies, children's toys, and reconstruction kits. They invite the world to join them.

(At Sea, 60km off the coast of the Gaza Strip) - Human Rights activists aboard the Free Gaza ship, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, today demanded that the Israeli Navy immediately stop threatening them.

“This aid is desperately needed by the people of Gaza,” said Mairead Maguire, winner of the Noble Peace Prize and Pacem in Terris Award for her work in Northern Ireland. “President Obama has called upon the Palestinians to abandon violence but Israel is denying them the right to non-violently resist the siege of Gaza.”

The unarmed justice ship departed Larnaca Port in Cyprus at 7:30am Monday with its crew of 21 human rights activists, humanitarian workers and journalists from 11 different countries, including Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat, a converted ferry, hopes to arrive in Gaza Tuesday afternoon, following a grueling 30 hour sea voyage.

At 1:30am, Israeli warships surrounded the small civilian boat and threatened to open fire if they did not turn around. When the activists refused to be intimidated, Israeli Occupation Forces began jamming their instrumentation, blocking their GPS, radar, and navigation systems. This jamming was in direct violation of international maritime law, threatening the welfare and safety of the civilian ship.

Responding to this intimidation, Congresswoman McKinney declared, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs. We are unarmed civilians aboard an unarmed boat delivering medical and reconstruction aid to other human beings in Gaza. Why in God's name would Israel want to attack us?"

Huwaida Arraf, Chairperson of the Free Gaza movement and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage, said, "All we want is to reach Gaza. We want to visit our friends and deliver our cargo of medical supplies, children's toys, and reconstruction materials. Our ship was searched and received security clearance from the Port Authorities in Cyprus before we departed."

Arraf continued, "We do not seek a confrontation. We have traveled from Cypriot waters to international waters and will enter Gazan waters. We've never gone anywhere near Israel. Israel’s closure of Gaza is an act of collective punishment and a blatant violation of international law. We call upon our governments to take action to uphold their obligations under the Fourth Geneva Conventions. If they won’t or until they do, we will act. We will come to Gaza again and again until this brutal siege is broken. We invite the good people of the world to join us."

Free Gaza boats are the first international ships in 41 years to sail to the Gaza Strip. Since August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement has organized 8 sea missions, successfully arriving to Gaza on 5 separate occasions. One two earlier occasions, Israeli Occupation Forces used violence to stop the ships, physically ramming and almost sinking the DIGNITY boat in December 2008, and threatening to fire on and kill unarmed passengers in January 2008. The fate of this, the eighth mission to Gaza, is still uncertain.
###

For more information, please contact:
Greta Berlin (English/French) or Caoimhe Butterly (English/Arabic/Spanish) at 00357 99 081 767 / friends@freegaza.org
www.FreeGaza.org
--
Niamh Moloughney
Irish Free Gaza Coordinator
niamh@freegaza.org
091 472279/085 7747257

AFL-CIO: Honduras Coup Is ‘Unconscionable’ by James Parks, Jun 30, 2009

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/06/30/afl-cio-honduras-coup-is-unconscionable/


The AFL-CIO today called on the U.S. government and the international community, particularly the Organization of American States and the United Nations, to “make every effort” to restore constitutional order in Honduras and reinstate democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup Sunday.

In a statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the coup “an unconscionable attack on the fundamental rights and liberties of the Honduran people.” He urged governments to condemn the coup and withhold recognition of the current government. Zelaya was ousted after pushing for a referendum on proposed changes that would allow the president to run for re-election and create new procedures for amending the constitution.

The recent internal conflict relating to the proposed constitutional referendum cannot in any way justify the extra-constitutional measures undertaken by the armed forces. These measures are a flagrant violation of the most basic democratic principles and of the rule of law.

Sweeney said eyewitness reports are coming in that thousands of people, including trade union members, were tear-gassed by the military simply for assembling to demand the return to democratic order and the reinstating of Zelaya.

We call on the United States government to also take all measures within its diplomatic powers to ensure that all Honduran civilians, and particularly trade unionists and social activists denouncing the coup, are safe and secure and will not be victimized by violence and repression.

Sweeney said the federation stands in solidarity with our sister organizations of Honduras, the national trade union centrals—the Unitary Central of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH) and the General Workers Central (CGT)—as well as with the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), representing more than 45 million workers of this hemisphere, in condemning the coup.

Meanwhile, three major public-sector unions in Honduras announced plans for a general strike today in support of Zelaya, according to CNN. “It will be an indefinite strike,” Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union told CNN.

We don’t recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy and we will mount our campaign of resistance until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power.

Garcia estimated that 30,000 public-sector workers, as well as some private-sector workers and peasant farmers, might join the strike.

Finally, a group of five U.S. union members led by Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento (Calif.) Labor Council, who were visiting Honduras and got caught up in the turmoil of the coup, were able to leave the country yesterday and return home.

Correction: Honduran Presidential Candidate Is Still Alive Posted by Kristin Bricker - June 28, 2009

Congressman Cesar Ham is a Zelaya Ally and Organizer of the Opinion Poll on a New Constitution

Correction: News reports translated by Narco News on Monday that Honduran political leader Cesar Ham had been assassinated appear not to be accurate. This report says otherwise, that Ham is alive and well. Narco News apologized for any confusion caused by our first report, and share in the world's relief that the reports we initially translated were inaccurate.

Radio Es Lo de Menos Front Page Verse!

http://www.radioeslodemenos.org/



Luchar, luchar siempre… ante la adversidad, ante la inopia, ante la indiferencia, ante la falsaria cercanía de la traición, ante la unanimidad aquiescente, ante los disensos de la sin razón, ante la medieval comodidad de los conformes, ante los dogmas imperantes, ante los cataclismos inevitables, ante las catástrofes anunciadas, ante la caída de los muros, ante la construcción de barreras de ignominia, luchar… luchar siempre… como un sino endemoniado, como una marca indeleble de la vida, como una necesidad vital, como convicción certera, como sueño, como pesadilla, luchar… luchar siempre… por la vida, por la muerte, por el amor, por todos…

(translation by Andrew - very rough)

Fight, fight ... always in the face of adversity, before poverty, before the indifference to the proximity of forged treason, before the unanimous acquiescence to the dissent without reason, before the medieval mode pf conformism to enforced dogma , before the inevitable cataclysms, announced before the disaster, before the fall of the walls, the construction of barriers to shame, to fight ... a fight ... yet always possessed, as an indelible mark of life, as a vital necessity, with certain conviction, as dream, nightmare like, forever ... fight ... fight for life, through death, through love for all ...

Reports: Two Military Battalions Turn Against Honduras Coup Regime by Al Giordano - June 29, 2009

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/al-giordano/2009/06/reports-two-military-battalions-turn-against-honduras-coup-regime
By Al Giordano
Community Radio “Es Lo de Menos” was the first to report that the Fourth Infantry Battalion has rebelled from the military coup regime in Honduras. The radio station adds that “it seems” (“al parecer,” in the original Spanish) that the Tenth Infantry Battalion has also broken from the coup.

Rafael Alegria, leader of Via Campesina, the country’s largest social organization, one that has successfully blockaded the nation’s highways before to force government concessions, tells Alba TV:

“The popular resistance is rising up throughout the country. All the highways in the country are blockaded…. The Fourth Infantry Battallion… is no longer following the orders of Roberto Micheletti.”

Angel Alvarado of Honduras’ Popular Union Bloc tells Radio Mundial:

"Two infantry battalions of the Honduran Army have risen up against the illegitimate government of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. They are the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the city of Tela and the Tenth Infantry Battalion in La Ceiba (the second largest city in Honduras), both located in the state of Atlántida."

(You can see Tela and La Ceiba on the map, above, along the country's northern coast.)

Meanwhile, defenders of the violent coup d’Etat now have to eat the fact that their favored regime has extended its wave of terror to the press corps, censoring all independent media in the country, including CNN and Telesur. Reuters reports:

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras has shut down television and radio stations since an army coup over the weekend, in a media blackout than has drawn condemnation from an international press freedom group.

Shortly after the Honduran military seized President Manuel Zelaya and flew him to Costa Rica on Sunday, soldiers stormed a popular radio station and cut off local broadcasts of international television networks CNN en Espanol and Venezuelan-based Telesur, which is sponsored by leftist governments in South America.

A pro-Zelaya channel also was shut down.

The few television and radio stations still operating on Monday played tropical music or aired soap operas and cooking shows.

At the White House this afternoon, US President Obama reiterated his government’s non-recognition of the coup regime. According to the White House pool report by David Jackson of USA Today (obtained by Narco News via email):

Obama criticized the Honduras coup as "not legal," and said it would set a "terrible precedent" for the region. "We do not want to go back to a dark past," he said. "We always want to stand with democracy."

If Rafael Alegría - a serious man who gets serious results - says that the highways of the country are successfully blockaded, I tend to believe him. He likewise is not one to spread rumors about the Fourth Infantry Battalion without having solid information.

It seemed inevitable that once the cat is got of the bag regarding the total international rejection of the coup d'etat that military divisions would revolt and point their tanks in the opposite direction: toward the coup plotters above them. We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of a short-lived coup in Honduras.

Keep refreshing the front page of Narco News for more updates, sure to shortly come.

Update: TeleSur TV is reporting that its correspondents in Honduras, as well as those of Associated Press, have been arrested by the coup regime.

Update II: Here is a fuller text of US President Obama's statement at the aforementioned press conference:

President Zelaya was democratically elected. He had not yet completed his term. We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there. In that, we have joined all the countries in the region, including Colombia and the Organization of American States.



I think it's -- it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections.

The region has made enormous progress over the last 20 years in establishing democratic traditions in Central America and Latin America.

We don't want to go back to a dark past. The United States has not always stood as it should with some of these fledgling democracies. But over the last several years, I think both Republicans and Democrats in the United States have recognized that we always want to stand with democracy, even if the results don't always mean that the leaders of those countries are favorable toward the United States. And that is a tradition that we want to continue.

So we are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president. And we will work with the regional organizations, like OAS, and with other international institutions to see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way.

Local Hondurans Seek U.S. Condemnation Of Coup By Jess Bidgood, Boston

BOSTON — After a day of uncertainty and frantic phone calls home, Boston’s Honduran community is responding to this weekend’s coup d’etat in their home country.

The Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zaleya on Sunday, amid low popularity rates and concerns he might try to suspend the rule limiting presidents to a single term.

In Boston, members of a group called Proyecto Hondureno are working to get the state’s congressional delegation to condemn the coup. They’ve also joined a national effort to convince President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support U.N. resolutions condemning the coup, explained Proyecto Hondureno coordinator Angel Meza.

“We’re asking them not to recognize any person to arrived to power in Honduras by any coup d’etat, and we are asking to help restore the elected government of Manuel Zaleya to its position,” Meza said, adding that his organization does not sanction military intervention.

He said that the local Honduran community, which he estimates to have about 15,000 members, is dealing with the shock of the coup.

“People are really upset about it,” he said. “It’s a step back for Honduras and for our community. The fact that it’s a coup d’etat… we thought that was a ways behind our political system.”

Adding to the stress, said Meza, is the confusion that comes from limited information. Many locals have family in rural areas, which receive little media coverage.

“The government is saying they’re not going to do anything repressive, but we don’t know,” he said. “Nobody knows for sure what is going on in the interior part of the country, where there was a lot of support for the government from poor people.”

Meza said that locals have been making phone calls and following independent sources of news on blogs and other web sites. He said that the community is not making much use of Twitter, which altered coverage of political turmoil in Iran.

Proyecto Hondereno hopes to join other organizations in an as-yet-unscheduled demonstration on Thursday.

“Honduras is a very tiny country, and very poor,” Meza said. “If the international community puts on a lot of pressure, we can get Manuel Zaleya back.”

Israeli peace activist faces jail over homes demolition protest

Israeli peace activist faces jail over homes demolition protest:Ezra Nawi expects sentence of up to 18 months for resisting 'dehumanisation' of Palestinians


* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 June 2009


A prominent Israeli peace activist is expected to be sentenced to several months in jail tomorrow in a high-profile prosecution which began after he tried to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Although activists who challenge the Israeli occupation are often arrested or detained for short periods, Ezra Nawi, a plumber from Jerusalem, is expecting a sentence of up to 18 months. He said he would lodge an immediate appeal, which may keep him out of prison initially, but it is likely he will be jailed within weeks.

In March he was convicted by a judge at a Jerusalem court of taking part in a riot and assaulting a police officer, charges he denies. The incident happened when the Israeli military sent bulldozers to demolish Palestinian shacks near the settlement of Carmel, close to Hebron, in February 2007.

Nawi, who is in his 50s, has worked with vulnerable Palestinian families in the hills around Hebron for at least eight years. But he is an unusual figure, even among Israel's shrinking circle of leftwing activists.

Born to a Jewish Iraqi family from Basra, he speaks Arabic and lives on the modest earnings of his plumbing work, not a typical story for leftwing activists. Instead, he said, most Israelis from his Middle Eastern background have strong rightwing views and often serve in the border police force that arrested him in the first place.

He is also gay and has frequently faced homophobic taunts from Israeli police, soldiers and settlers in Hebron who, by now, are used to his regular presence in the area. He is motivated, he says, by a will to resist the "dehumanisation" of the Palestinians.

"I have seen the checkpoints, the barriers. I've seen everything with my own eyes and I think any decent person cannot sit indifferent to this. It is beyond the issue of Jews and Arabs," he said. "Here everybody sees it, but not everybody refers to it … the settlement is a few metres from them on their land, and they are in heartbreaking poverty, and then the police come to demolish the house, and this is legal? It's beyond politics."

His trial has sparked a broad campaign of support from academics, musicians and artists. "You have here the whole misery and cruelty of the occupation in a nutshell," David Shulman, a Hebrew University professor and activist with the Israeli-Palestinian peace group Ta'ayush, wrote in the Ha'aretz newspaper.

"Inside the occupied Palestinian territories is a shadow state where the only real law is the law of the gun, where land is being taken away from its rightful owners every day, and where the very few who stand up to protest, without violence, like Ezra Nawi, are sent to prison."

Another Hebrew University academic and peace activist, Amiel Vardi, who teaches classics, said: "I don't know of anyone as dedicated as Ezra." Vardi, too, said Nawi was different from most. "We are others. Even for those who work with us for years and perhaps understand more or less what we are doing, we are still others," he said. "Not Ezra. Ezra is accepted as a human being, meaning they both belong to the same group. He is not so much of an other."

The case against him relies on the testimony of two border police officers who allege Nawi punched them during the demolition. The demolition was videoed, but the alleged incident took place inside one of the shacks and is not caught on film. Nawi admits he shouted, protested and lay in front of the bulldozer, but insists he is committed to non-violence and did not strike the officers.

Neither officer mentioned any punch in their initial statements, but Judge Eilata Ziskind said their testimonies were still reliable. In her verdict she said: "Freedom of speech is not the freedom to act in an inciting manner or to take steps to prevent or disturb police work … freedom of speech is not the permission to be unruly and certainly not to use violence."

Once he has been arrested and cuffed, the video shows Nawi sitting in the back of a border police van as the officers laugh at him. He tells them: "Yes, I was also a soldier, but I didn't demolish houses. There's a big difference. The only thing that will be left here is hatred."

We’ll Give a Lesson to the US Empire and the Extreme Right Wing, says Chavez, by Onelio Castillo Corderí/ Radio Cadena Agramonte

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez condemns the military coup in Honduras.Camagüey, Jun 28

During a special edition of the television and radio program "Alo, Presidente!" seen here, Venezuela’s Head of State Hugo Chávez Frías stated that in the face of the coup d'etat in Honduras, the peoples of Latin America will give another lesson to the US Empire and the extreme right wing of the continent, similar to what happened in his country on April 2002.

“From here, we hold the Honduran military high command and the right wing responsible for what is happening”, noted Chávez, who reaffirmed the solidarity of his people, the member nations of the ALBA and of the entire region with Honduras.

The Bolivarian leader called the soldiers who took part in the coup to put their rifles on the side of their people and not against them, as he also appealed to the patriotic sentiment of the soldiers, instead of acting driven by the “gorillas” of the rancid national oligarchy.

Likewise, Hugo Chávez explained that “this is a military coup against all of us, and we will do everything we ought to do”.

The Venezuelan President also informed about his phone conversations with the Presidents of de Cuba, Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador, and specially with Fidel Castro Ruz, who like Chávez, condemned this new swipe by the imperialism against the dignity of the peoples of Latin America.

GMA could suffer same fate as Honduras leader, Binay warns, By Rhodina Villanueva, Updated June 30, 2009

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=482432&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines – Opposition leader and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said Mrs. Arroyo might end up like ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya if she and her allies persist in trying to stay in power beyond 2010.

“Mrs. Arroyo should view the events in Honduras as a wake-up call. She should not test the patience of the people, especially the military, with the supposed plan to force the current Armed Forces chief into early retirement to pave the way for a diehard Gloria loyalist,” Binay said.

Zelaya was ousted in a military coup and forced into exile after announcing plans to change the Constitution to allow him to run again for president after the end of his fixed four-year term. His country’s Supreme Court had declared the planned term extension illegal.

Binay also said the planned “self-coup” by generals perceived as rabidly pro-Mrs. Arroyo would further fuel unrest within the military and galvanize opposition to her regime.

The reported “self-coup” within the military leadership – dubbed “Oplan August Moon” – is supposedly intended to put generals identified with Class ’78 of the Philippine Military Academy in key positions before the end of the year. Mrs. Arroyo is an adopted member of Class ’78.

“Such a plan falls in place with the recent moves by Mrs. Arroyo to extend her hold on power by pushing for amendments to the Constitution,” he said.

“Nothing happens by accident under the regime of Mrs. Arroyo. And a plan to consolidate her hold on the military leadership would be a logical part of a larger plan to stay in power beyond 2010,” he said.

“Should Oplan August Moon turn out to be true, then we should prepare for the worst, since you will have both the AFP and even the PNP under the command of known Gloria loyalists, and this will happen during the election period, a very critical period for the country but most especially for Mrs. Arroyo,” he said.

In the alleged coup plot, AFP chief of staff Gen. Victor Ibrado would be “forced into retirement” and replaced by Army chief Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit.

Binay said he also got reports that a certain police general has been telling people that he would be the next PNP chief by December.

“During the election period, Mrs. Arroyo will have complete control over the AFP and PNP leadership. She will definitely use this to her advantage, whether to ensure the victory of her anointed candidate, or to impose emergency rule and even martial law,” Binay said.

Denunciation

Cuba’s Ambassador to Manila condemned the coup in Honduras and said his country will never recognize the regime installed by the military.

“We denounce the coup d’etat in Honduras. The Cuban position is not to negotiate with the military. This is not the solution and this (new leadership) is not the government of the people,” Ambassador Jorge Rey Jimenez told The STAR.

Jimenez also condemned the Honduran military’s violation of the diplomatic immunity of Cuba’s Ambassador to Tegucigalpa Juan Carlos Hernandez, who was kidnapped and beaten along with Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas in the presence of the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors.

“Nobody knows what happened to her (Rodas). And the kidnapping of ambassadors is a violation of diplomatic immunity of ambassadors in Honduras. This fascist coup and break of constitutional situation and democratic situation in Honduras took the president who was legally voted,” Jimenez added.

Hours later, Hernandez was released and, with the help of friends, returned to the Cuban embassy. – With Pia Lee-Brago

Non-Aligned Movement,(NAM), Statement on Honduran Coup : 2009/06/29, fr: Mathaba

Communiqué By The Chair Of The Coordinating Bureau Of The Non-Aligned Movement On The Situation Resulting From The Coup D`État Against The Constitutional President Of The Republic Of Honduras


(map: members of NAM)


From Magbana

URGENT

The Chair of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), expresses its strongest denunciation and condemnation of the brutal coup d’état carried out in the early hours of this morning against the Constitutional President of the Republic of Honduras, a sister nation that is full member of the Movement.

President Manuel Zelaya, legitimately elected by the Honduran people, was brutally kidnapped by a group of pro-coup military and expelled from the country, in an attempt to prevent, through violence, the realization of the democratic referendum to be held today in the Republic of Honduras.

Likewise, the Chair of the Coordinating Bureau denounces the kidnapping of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Honduras, H.E. Mrs. Patricia Rodas, and demands her immediate release and respect for her personal safety and integrity. The Armed Forces of that country are responsible for the life and dignity of the Foreign Minister.

The Chair of the Coordinating Bureau condemns also the outrage against several Ambassadors accredited to Honduras, including the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, who were kidnapped and beaten, by those who took part in the coup.

The Chair of the Coordinating Bureau strongly calls upon all countries, international organizations and other members of the international community, to firmly condemn the military coup d’état and call for the reinstatement of the Rule of Law in the Republic of Honduras, including the return and full reinstatement of its legitimate and constitutional President Mr. José Manuel Zelaya.

New York, 28 June 2009

Canadian Secret police Wiretaps fly under the Radar Warrantless Eavesdropping prompts questions over Privacy, June 29, 2009, By Dave Seglins, CBC News

Bob McMynn knows first-hand how Canada's laws allow police to eavesdrop and use emergency wiretaps without a judge's approval.

He says Section 184.4 of the Criminal Code helped to save his son Graham's life after a group of young men abducted the then 23-year-old university student at gunpoint in April 2006, in what turned out to be a kidnapping for ransom.

"[The emergency wiretap] was paramount in solving where my son was," McMynn told CBC News. "Without that and other fantastic police work, we may never have got him back."

Vancouver police had little time to ask a judge for permission, so they used the Criminal Code provisions to eavesdrop on a group of key suspects without court approval. Eight days later, police moved in to arrest the gang and free the younger McMynn.
Total use of emergency wiretaps, 2000-08
Calgary police 2
Charlottetown police 0
Edmonton police 12
Halifax regional police 2
London city police 0
Montreal city police 32
Ontario Provincial Police* 3
P.E.I. RCMP "L" Division 0
Quebec provincial police No response
RCMP** 205
Regina city police 0
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary 0
Saskatoon city police 0
Toronto city police*** 9
Vancouver city police 2
Winnipeg city police 0
York Regional Police 0
Total use: 267

*No data before 2002.

**Data only collected 2000-04. Represents national numbers.

***No data before 2005.

CBC News has learned that McMynn's case is just one of at least 267 cases between 2000 and 2008 where major police forces across the country used warrantless wiretaps.

The information was obtained through freedom of information and access to information requests. Some forces — including Toronto, London and Winnipeg — released only partial information, citing secrecy provisions in the Criminal Code, and the Quebec provincial police never responded.

"There might be a lot more instances in which it is being used and that's what's troubling," says James Stribopoulos, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.

"I think people would be alarmed to know, there are no checks on the exercise of that power."
'No accountability'

Typically, police apply to a judge for permission to conduct a wiretap and must notify the target once the investigation is complete. Reports are also submitted each year to Parliament on the number of judge-granted wiretaps used.

The restrictions are aimed at protecting a person's right to privacy and ensuring some oversight of police activities.

But emergency wiretaps remain highly secretive, with no requirements for police to keep records or report on their use.

Karen Bastow, a Vancouver lawyer who represented one of the accused in the 2006 McMynn abduction, says warrantless wiretaps were used appropriately in the kidnapping case, but questions other uses.
Mohawk protester Shawn Brant, shown in a 2007 photo, says police wiretaps on his communications were 'flat out illegal.'Mohawk protester Shawn Brant, shown in a 2007 photo, says police wiretaps on his communications were 'flat out illegal.' (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

"The peril is the case where one doesn't ever know that one's been intercepted. A member of the public could have their phones intercepted and never know about it … unless it went to trial. There's no accountability," says Bastow.

Proper use of emergency wiretaps came into question when Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) eavesdropped on Mohawk protesters from the Tyendinaga First Nation in June of 2007 ahead of a planned highway blockade.

OPP knew about the protest for months in advance.

In the days leading up to the blockade of Highway 401 and CN Rail tracks through Eastern Ontario, OPP officers prepared paperwork to go before a judge. But on the last day, they opted for emergency wiretaps.

The OPP listened in on the phone conversations of Shawn Brant, his friends Mario Baptiste and Mario Baptiste Jr., as well as Brant's brother, who is a lawyer.

OPP Det.-Insp. Ian Grant wrote in his notes that he requested the emergency wiretap on the basis of Brant's "history of promoting violence, public statements of weapons confrontation and threats to police safety."

Brant denies any intention to harm anyone, adding that "[The wiretap] was flat out illegal. The OPP knew about this protest for weeks."

Stribopoulos says the use of wiretaps in the Brant case appears to go beyond the intended use of the emergency provision, since there was no evidence that anyone was threatened with physical harm.

"It has to be an urgent situation, so urgent that they don't have a few hours to go before a judge … someone's going to die … someone's going to be seriously injured."
Emergency wiretaps cut in B.C.

In B.C., where police are confronting a rise in drug and gang-related kidnappings, the provincial Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional, forcing police to notify people who are targets of warrantless wiretaps.

The 2008 ruling found that secrecy and lack of oversight surrounding warrantless wiretaps violated Charter of Rights and Freedoms protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Tom Caverly says his officers have been forced to adjust to the new rules, but finds the notification requirement just "makes sense."

"I mean all we're really doing is being accountable for our actions, and letting that individual know … 'Hey … by the way, we were intercepting your private communication.'"
History of emergency wiretaps

Enacted by Parliament in 1994, then federal justice minister Pierre Blais said the emergency wiretap provisions were for "unusual circumstances" such as a hostage-takings or hijackings.

But two courts have recently taken issue with the powers.

In R. vs. Six Accused, a 2008 kidnapping case, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional, saying it is too broad due to lack of oversight.

Also in 2008, the Ontario Superior Court questioned secrecy around emergency wiretaps in the R. vs. Riley case, but ruled the law is acceptable under certain conditions.

Meanwhile, the federal justice department has proposed amending the Criminal Code to require annual reports to Parliament on how many times police use emergency wiretaps, but only when cases result in charges. Those targeted wouldn't be notified, nor would a judge be able to review the use of secret wiretaps even once an emergency is over.

...

Documents show Canada knew about Afghan rape law in advance: NDP (excerpts)

By Murray Brewster, June 29, 09

OTTAWA — Canadian diplomats were tipped weeks before Afghanistan passed its so-called rape law but did not alert their political masters, newly released documents indicate.

Officials at the embassy in Kabul were warned Feb. 15 that other countries were worried about the proposed Shiite family law.

But the diplomats had no specific knowledge about the provisions of the law or when it was to be considered by the Afghan parliament, say the documents obtained by the federal New Democrats.

The law gives sweeping powers to Shiite husbands over their wives, effectively legalizing rape within a marriage. The legislation triggered international outrage when it was signed into law by President Hamid Karzai five weeks later.

A written timeline outlining Ottawa's response to the crisis was tabled in the House of Commons after a formal question by New Democrat MP Paul Dewar on Parliament's order paper.

The four-page summary also shows that officials with the Canadian International Development Agency, which has been mentoring Afghans in human rights and democracy, knew as far back as October last year that the law was being drafted but were unaware of its wording.

Dewar said someone should have been asking questions.

"We're supposed to be there keeping an eye on human rights," Dewar said, noting that Ottawa is the principal funding source for the Afghan human-rights commission.

"I would have thought if this had been noted to our officials they would have been on it immediately."

Both Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day have said they weren't aware of the legislation before it led to censures from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama and other international leaders.

Cannon and Day visited Kandahar and Kabul in early March. Dewar questioned why officials there did not pass along the warning in the myriad of briefings the pair would have received.

Asked about any foreknowledge of the proposed legislation, a Foreign Affairs official said the department "did not hear of any other concerns, nor did it have any knowledge as to when the law would be considered by the National Assembly."

Jean-Bruno Villeneuve also noted that in the aftermath of the controversy, Ottawa deployed a legal team to Kabul to help the Afghans vet legislation.

In an appearance before a special House of Commons committee on Afghanistan, a senior bureaucrat overseeing the file said Canadian officials were taken by surprise.

"The law was not a focus of Afghan national political debate. We are unaware of any domestic media coverage in Afghanistan during this legislative process," Yves Brodeur said in testimony in May.

Soraya Sobharang, a prominent member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, testified before the same committee via teleconference that Western countries let down the women of her country. She said Canada needs to be more vigilant about intervening on human-rights matters.

...

Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America? # 4 ILEA:

# 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?



Sources:
Upside Down World, June 14, 2007
Title: “Exporting US ‘Criminal Justice’ to Latin America”
Author: Community in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador

NACLA Report on the Americas, March/April 2008
Title: “Another SOA?: A Police Academy in El Salvador Worries Critics”
Author: Wes Enzinna

CISPES, March 15, 2007
Title: “ILEA Funding Approved by Salvadoran Right Wing Legislators”
Author: Community in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador

AlterNet, August 31, 2007
Title: “Is George Bush Restarting Latin America’s ‘Dirty Wars’?”
Author: Benjamin Dangl

Student Researchers: Courtney Snow, Erica Elkinton, and April Pearce
Faculty Evaluator: Jessica Taft, PhD, and Jeffrey Reeder, PhD

A resurgence of US-backed militarism threatens peace and democracy in Latin America. By 2005, US military aid to Latin America had increased by thirty-four times the amount spent in 2000. In a marked shift in US military strategy, secretive training of Latin American military and police personnel that used to just take place at the notorious School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia—including torture and execution techniques—is now decentralized. The 2008 US federal budget includes $16.5 million to fund an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in El Salvador, with satellite operations in Peru. With provision of immunity from charges of crimes against humanity, each academy will train an average of 1,500 police officers, judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials throughout Latin America per year in “counterterrorism techniques.”

The academy in El Salvador is part of a network of ILEAs created in 1995 under President Bill Clinton, who touted the training facilities as a series of US schools “throughout the world to combat international drug trafficking, criminality, and terrorism through strengthened international cooperation.” There are ILEAs in Budapest, Hungary; Bangkok, Thailand; Gaborone, Botswana; and Roswell, New Mexico.

According to ILEA directors, the facility in El Salvador is designed to make Latin America “safe for foreign investment” by “providing regional security and economic stability and combating crime.” Most instructors come from US agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the FBI, the latter of which has had a remarkably large presence in El Salvador since opening its own office there in 2005. Most of the school’s expenses are paid with US tax payers’ dollars.

Salvadorans refer to the ILEA as a new School of the Americas (SOA) for police. Suspicions are exacerbated by comparable policies of secrecy. As with SOA, the ILEA list of attendees and graduates is classified, as is course content. Many observers are troubled by this secrecy, considering how SOA atrocities came to light with Washington Post reporter Dana Priest’s discovery, in September 1996, of SOA torture training manuals, and later with the acquisition by the founder of SOA Watch, Father Roy Bourgeois, of a previously classified list of SOA graduates, many of whom were recognized as leaders of death squads and notorious counterinsurgency groups.

After Condoleezza Rice announced plans for the ILEA in San Salvador at a June 2005 Organization of American States meeting in Miami, Father Roy wrote, “The legacy of US training of security forces at the SOA and throughout Latin America is one of bloodshed, of torture, of the targeting of civilian populations, of desaparecidos . . . Rice’s recent announcement about plans for the creation of an international law enforcement academy in El Salvador should raise serious concerns for anyone who cares about human rights.”

Suspicions are further aggravated by the US-mandated immunity clause that exempts ILEA personnel from crimes against humanity.

Though lack of transparency makes it impossible to know the content of courses, the conduct of the Salvadoran police—who compose 25 percent of the academy’s graduates—has shown an alarming turn for the worse since the ILEA was inaugurated. In early May 2007, the Archbishop’s Legal Aid and Human Rights Defense Office (Tutela Legal) released a report implicating the Salvadoran National Police (PNC) in eight death squad–style assassinations in 2006 alone. Meanwhile, the Salvadoran Human Rights Defense Office has also published reports connecting the PNC to death squads and repeated cases of corruption and misconduct.

While US interest in ILEAs is to ensure an environment that protects free trade and US economic interests, the PNC has played an active role in a crackdown against civil liberties, aimed at curbing both crime and social protest. Free trade agreements like CAFTA have been highly contentious, and President Saca’s administration has gone to significant lengths to ensure that they succeed—including passing an anti-terror law in September 2006, modeled on the USA PATRIOT Act, that has been used to arrest everyone from anti-water-privatization activists to street venders who violate CAFTA’s intellectual property rules (see Story #11).

As ILEA graduates are employed throughout Latin America, the US military is establishing similar mechanisms of cooperation throughout the region as well. The ILEA joins a host of other police and military training facilities that are run by US agencies such as the FBI, ICE, and the DEA, as well as programs run by private US security companies like DynCorp International and Blackwater.

Ben Dangl notes that in carrying on the legacy of Latin America’s “Dirty Wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, in which kidnapping, torture, and murder were used to squash dissent and political opponents, Colombia and Paraguay also illustrate four characteristics of right-wing militarism in South America: joint exercises with the US military in counterinsurgency training; monitoring potential dissidents and social organizations; the use of private mercenaries for security; and the criminalization of social protest through “anti-terrorism” tactics and legislation.

UPDATE BY WES ENZINNA

On May 22, the US Congress approved the “Merida Initiative,” which, as part of a $450 million package for anti-gang and anti-crime programs in Mexico and Central America, provides $2 million for the ILEA San Salvador’s 2009 budget. With these new funds the academy will step up its efforts, training police from throughout the hemisphere, without public oversight or transparency as to the academy’s operations or curriculum. What exactly is taught at the school remains a secret, and the involvement of the National Civilian Police (PNC) at the academy continues unabated, as does alleged PNC abuse.

While Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Centroamericana (IDHUCA) director Benjamin Cuellar’s presence at the school has been the source of scorn and criticism in El Salvador—a topic I focused on in my article—a US human rights organization, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), has publicly come to Cuellar’s defense. At the same time, WOLA is currently negotiating with the State Department to work jointly with Cuellar and IDHUCA to monitor the ILEA. While WOLA’s logic is that they hope “to press for greater transparency and accountability within the institution,” they have not articulated a plan for how exactly they are going to accomplish what Cuellar has been unable to achieve (making the school more transparent, making the curriculum public), nor have they addressed the way in which their presence at the school, like Cuellar’s, might offer legitimacy to the ILEA’s activities without actually producing any changes in the way the academy operates. As Lesley Gill pointed out in my original piece, the use of human rights discourse and the co-optation of human rights advocates by US military and police institutions in Latin America is a tried-and-true public relations strategy pioneered at the infamous School of the Americas, and it is not, Gill reminds us, “indicative of any effort by the US to reform the military or police forces they are involved with.”

Only time will tell whether or not WOLA’s planned partnership with the State Department to monitor the ILEA will help make the school more transparent, or whether it will lend legitimacy to an academy that continues to be linked to copious human rights abuses.

The signs, however, are not promising. In March, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by this writer for ILEA course materials was rejected because, as the rejection letter states, “disclosure of these training materials could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law. Additionally, the techniques and procedures at issue are not well known to the public.”

Since publication of my article, PNC abuse and political assassinations in El Salvador have continued, and ILEA secrecy appears only to have become more entrenched, despite Cuellar and IDHUCA’s involvement and despite increased international protest. It is still unclear whether or not the ILEA will turn out to be “another School of Assassins,” as critics call the academy. If the present situation is any indication, however, these critics may prove to be correct.

UPDATE BY BENJAMIN DANGL

A number of recent developments have dramatically changed the military and political landscape of Latin America. While some electoral victories in Latin America signal a regional shift to the left, Washington continues to expand its military and navy presence throughout the hemisphere.

On April 20, 2008, left-leaning Fernando Lugo was elected president of Paraguay. His victory broke the right-wing Colorado Party’s sixty-one-year rule. Lugo, a former bishop who endorses Liberation Theology, joins a growing list of left-of-center leaders throughout the region and has pledged to crack down on Paraguay’s human rights violations linked to US–Paraguayan military relations. Shortly after his victory, Lugo told reporters that Washington must acknowledge the new regional environment in which Latin American governments “won’t accept any type of intervention from any country, no matter how big it is.”

In neighboring Bolivia, leftist indigenous president Evo Morales has faced increased resistance from the right-wing opposition. US government documents and interviews on the ground in Bolivia prove that Washington has been spending millions of dollars to empower the Bolivian right through the US Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. (For more on this topic, see “Undermining Bolivia,” The Progressive, February 2008, http://www.progressive.org/mag_dangl0208.)

On March 1, 2008, the Colombian military bombed an encampment of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Ecuadorian soil, sparking a regional crisis. This attack was part of a decades-long conflict fueled by US military training and funding of the Colombian military.

The following month, on April 24, the Pentagon announced that the US Navy’s Fourth Fleet would be repositioned to monitor activity in the Caribbean and Central and South America. The Fourth Fleet hadn’t been operating in the area since 1950. Analysts in the region suggest that the Fourth Fleet’s reactivation is a warning to Latin American leaders, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, that are working to build a progressive regional bloc outside of Washington’s influence.

Though Washington continues to expand its reach throughout an increasingly leftist Latin America, regional alliances such as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas are growing between progressive Latin American leaders. Such political, economic, and military cooperation is effectively countering US hegemony. At the same time, the future of US–Latin American relations will depend largely on how the next US president interacts with this radically transformed region.

While most corporate media ignores Latin America, their reporting on the region is usually biased against the region’s leftist leaders and social movements. Two online publications that provide ongoing reporting and analysis on the region are UpsideDownWorld.org, a website covering activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. Activists interested in confronting US military aggression in Latin America could visit the School of the Americas Watch website: soaw.org. For information on US military operations in the region and the hopeful response among progressive governments and social movements, see my book, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press).

"Changing Obama's Mindset", Written by Howard Zinn, The Progressive, Sun, 17 May 2009

http://www.progressive.org/zinn0509.html

We are citizens, and Obama is a politician. You might not like that word. But the fact is he's a politician. He's other things, too - he's a very sensitive and intelligent and thoughtful and promising person. But he's a politician.

If you're a citizen, you have to know the difference between them and you -the difference between what they have to do and what you have to do. And there are things they don't have to do, if you make it clear to them they don't have to do it.

From the beginning, I liked Obama. But the first time it suddenly struck me that he was a politician was early on, when Joe Lieberman was running for the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat in 2006.

Lieberman - who, as you know, was and is a war lover - was running for the Democratic nomination, and his opponent was a man named Ned Lamont, who was the peace candidate. And Obama went to Connecticut to support Lieberman against Lamont.

It took me aback. I say that to indicate that, yes, Obama was and is a politician. So we must not be swept away into an unthinking and unquestioning acceptance of what Obama does.

Our job is not to give him a blank check or simply be cheerleaders. It was good that we were cheerleaders while he was running for office, but it's not good to be cheerleaders now. Because we want the country to go beyond where it has been in the past. We want to make a clean break from what it has been in the past.

I had a teacher at Columbia University named Richard Hofstadter, who wrote a book called The American Political Tradition, and in it, he examined presidents from the Founding Fathers down through Franklin Roosevelt. There were liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats. And there were differences between them. But he found that the so-called liberals were not as liberal as people thought-and that the difference between the liberals and the conservatives, and between Republicans and Democrats, was not a polar difference. There was a common thread that ran through all American history, and all of the presidents-Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative-followed this thread.

The thread consisted of two elements: one, nationalism; and two, capitalism. And Obama is not yet free of that powerful double heritage.

We can see it in the policies that have been enunciated so far, even though he's been in office only a short time.

Some people might say, "Well, what do you expect?"

And the answer is that we expect a lot.

People say, "What, are you a dreamer?"

And the answer is, yes, we're dreamers. We want it all. We want a peaceful world. We want an egalitarian world. We don't want war. We don't want capitalism. We want a decent society.

We better hold on to that dream - because if we don't, we'll sink closer and closer to this reality that we have, and that we don't want.

Be wary when you hear about the glories of the market system. The market system is what we've had. Let the market decide, they say. The government mustn't give people free health care; let the market decide.

Which is what the market has been doing - and that's why we have forty-eight million people without health care. The market has decided that. Leave things to the market, and there are two million people homeless. Leave things to the market, and there are millions and millions of people who can't pay their rent. Leave things to the market, and there are thirty-five million people who go hungry.

You can't leave it to the market. If you're facing an economic crisis like we're facing now, you can't do what was done in the past. You can't pour money into the upper levels of the country -and into the banks and corporations - and hope that it somehow trickles down.

What was one of the first things that happened when the Bush Administration saw that the economy was in trouble? A $700 billion bailout, and who did we give the $700 billion to? To the financial institutions that caused this crisis.

This was when the Presidential campaign was still going on, and it pained me to see Obama standing there, endorsing this huge bailout to the corporations.

What Obama should have been saying was: Hey, wait a while. The banks aren't poverty stricken. The CEOs aren't poverty stricken. But there are people who are out of work. There are people who can't pay their mortgages. Let's take $700 billion and give it directly to the people who need it. Let's take $1 trillion, let's take $2 trillion.

Let's take this money and give it directly to the people who need it. Give it to the people who have to pay their mortgages. Nobody should be evicted. Nobody should be left with their belongings out on the street.

Obama wants to spend perhaps a trillion more on the banks. Like Bush, he's not giving it directly to homeowners. Unlike the Republicans, Obama also wants to spend $800 billion for his economic stimulus plan. Which is good - the idea of a stimulus is good. But if you look closely at the plan, too much of it goes through the market, through corporations.

It gives tax breaks to businesses, hoping that they'll hire people. No - if people need jobs, you don't give money to the corporations, hoping that maybe jobs will be created. You give people work immediately.

A lot of people don't know the history of the New Deal of the 1930s. The New Deal didn't go far enough, but it had some very good ideas. And the reason the New Deal came to these good ideas was because there was huge agitation in this country, and Roosevelt had to react. So what did he do? He took billions of dollars and said the government was going to hire people. You're out of work? The government has a job for you.

As a result of this, lots of very wonderful work was done all over the country. Several million young people were put into the Civilian Conservation Corps. They went around the country, building bridges and roads and playgrounds, and doing remarkable things.

The government created a federal arts program. It wasn't going to wait for the markets to decide that. The government set up a program and hired thousands of unemployed artists: playwrights, actors, musicians, painters, sculptors, writers. What was the result? The result was the production of 200,000 pieces of art. Today, around the country, there are thousands of murals painted by people in the WPA program. Plays were put on all over the country at very cheap prices, so that people who had never seen a play in their lives were able to afford to go.

And that's just a glimmer of what could be done. The government has to represent the people's needs. The government can't give the job of representing the people's needs to corporations and the banks, because they don't care about the people's needs. They only care about profit.

In the course of his campaign, Obama said something that struck me as very wise-and when people say something very wise, you have to remember it, because they may not hold to it. You may have to remind them of that wise thing they said.

Obama was talking about the war in Iraq, and he said, "It's not just that we have to get out of Iraq." He said "get out of Iraq," and we mustn't forget it. We must keep reminding him: Out of Iraq, out of Iraq, out of Iraq-not next year, not two years from now, but out of Iraq now.

But listen to the second part, too. His whole sentence was: "It's not enough to get out of Iraq; we have to get out of the mindset that led us into Iraq." What is the mindset that got us into Iraq?

It's the mindset that says force will do the trick. Violence, war, bombers-that they will bring democracy and liberty to the people.

It's the mindset that says America has some God-given right to invade other countries for their own benefit. We will bring civilization to the Mexicans in 1846. We will bring freedom to the Cubans in 1898. We will bring democracy to the Filipinos in 1900. You know how successful we've been at bringing democracy all over the world.

Obama has not gotten out of this militaristic missionary mindset. He talks about sending tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan.

Obama is a very smart guy, and surely he must know some of the history. You don't have to know a lot to know the history of Afghanistan has been decades and decades and decades and decades of Western powers trying to impose their will on Afghanistan by force: the English, the Russians, and now the Americans. What has been the result? The result has been a ruined country.

This is the mindset that sends 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and that says, as Obama has, that we've got to have a bigger military. My heart sank when Obama said that. Why do we need a bigger military? We have an enormous military budget. Has Obama talked about cutting the military budget in half or some fraction? No.

We have military bases in more than a hundred countries. We have fourteen military bases on Okinawa alone. Who wants us there? The governments. They get benefits. But the people don't really want us there. There have been huge demonstrations in Italy against the establishment of a U.S. military base. There have been big demonstrations in South Korea and on Okinawa.

One of the first acts of the Obama Administration was to send Predator missiles to bomb Pakistan. People died. The claim is, "Oh, we're very precise with our weapons. We have the latest equipment. We can target anywhere and hit just what we want."

This is the mindset of technological infatuation. Yes, they can actually decide that they're going to bomb this one house. But there's one problem: They don't know who's in the house. They can hit one car with a rocket from a great distance. Do they know who's in the car? No.

And later-after the bodies have been taken out of the car, after the bodies have been taken out of the house-they tell you, "Well, there were three suspected terrorists in that house, and yes, there's seven other people killed, including two children, but we got the suspected terrorists." But notice that the word is "suspected." The truth is they don't know who the terrorists are.

So, yes, we have to get out of the mindset that got us into Iraq, but we've got to identify that mindset. And Obama has to be pulled by the people who elected him, by the people who are enthusiastic about him, to renounce that mindset. We're the ones who have to tell him, "No, you're on the wrong course with this militaristic idea of using force to accomplish things in the world. We won't accomplish anything that way, and we'll remain a hated country in the world."

Obama has talked about a vision for this country. You have to have a vision, and now I want to tell Obama what his vision should be.

The vision should be of a nation that becomes liked all over the world. I won't even say loved - it'll take a while to build up to that. A nation that is not feared, not disliked, not hated, as too often we are, but a nation that is looked upon as peaceful, because we've withdrawn our military bases from all these countries. We don't need to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars on the military budget. Take all the money allocated to military bases and the military budget, and - this is part of the emancipation - you can use that money to give everybody free health care, to guarantee jobs to everybody who doesn't have a job, guaranteed payment of rent to everybody who can't pay their rent, build child care centers.

Let's use the money to help other people around the world, not to send bombers over there. When disasters take place, they need helicopters to transport people out of the floods and out of devastated areas. They need helicopters to save people's lives, and the helicopters are over in the Middle East, bombing and strafing people.

What's required is a total turn­around. We want a country that uses its resources, its wealth, and its power to help people, not to hurt them. That's what we need. This is a vision we have to keep alive. We shouldn't be easily satisfied and say, "Oh well, give him a break. Obama deserves respect."

But you don't respect somebody when you give them a blank check. You respect somebody when you treat them as an equal to you, and as somebody you can talk to and somebody who will listen to you.

Not only is Obama a politician. Worse, he's surrounded by politicians. And some of them he picked himself. He picked Hillary Clinton, he picked Lawrence Summers, he picked people who show no sign of breaking from the past.

We are citizens. We must not put ourselves in the position of looking at the world from their eyes and say, "Well, we have to compromise, we have to do this for political reasons." No, we have to speak our minds.

This is the position that the abolitionists were in before the Civil War, and people said, "Well, you have to look at it from Lincoln's point of view." Lincoln didn't believe that his first priority was abolishing slavery. But the anti-slavery movement did, and the abolitionists said, "We're not going to put ourselves in Lincoln's position. We are going to express our own position, and we are going to express it so powerfully that Lincoln will have to listen to us."

And the anti-slavery movement grew large enough and powerful enough that Lincoln had to listen. That's how we got the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

That's been the story of this country. Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it's been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn't just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that's what we have to do today.

Reflections by comrade Fidel: A SUICIDAL MISTAKE

Reflections by comrade Fidel

A SUICIDAL MISTAKE

Three days ago, in the evening of Thursday 25th, I wrote in my Reflections: "We do not know what will happen tonight or tomorrow in Honduras, but the courageous behavior adopted by Zelaya will go down in history."

Two paragraphs before I had indicated that: "The situation that might result from whatever occurs in that country will be a test for the OAS and the current US administration."

The prehistoric Inter-American institution met in Washington the following day and in a halfhearted and spiritless resolution promised to immediately make the necessary efforts to bring about harmony between the contending parties; that is, a negotiation between the putschists and the Constitutional President of Honduras.

The high ranking military chief who was still in command of the Honduran Armed Forces was making public statements different from the President’s position while recognizing his authority in a merely formal way.

The putschists needed barely anything else from the OAS. They couldn’t care less for the presence of a large number of international observers who had traveled to that country to bear witness to a referendum and who had been talking with Zelaya until late into the night. Today, before dawn, they launched on the President’s home about 200 well-trained and equipped professional troops who roughly set aside the members of the Guard of Honor and kidnapped Zelaya --who was sleeping at the moment-- taking him to an air base and forcibly putting him on a plane to Costa Rica.

At 8:30 a.m. we learned from Telesur of the assault on the Presidential House and the kidnapping. The President was unable to attend the initial activity related to the referendum that was to take place this Sunday and his whereabouts were unknown.

The official television channel was silenced. They wanted to prevent the early spread of the news of the treacherous action through Telesur and Cubavision Internacional, which were reporting the events. Therefore, they first suspended the broadcasting centers and then cut off electricity to the entire country. At the moment, the Supreme Court and the Congress involved in the conspiracy had yet to make public the decisions that justified the plot. They first carried out the indescribable military coup and then legalized it.

The people woke up to a fait accompli and started to react with growing indignation. Zelaya’s destination was unknown. Three hours later the people’s reaction was such that we could see women punching soldiers with their fists and the latter’s weapons falling off their hands as they were nervous and confused. At the beginning, their movements resembled a strange combat with ghosts; later, they tried to cover Telesur’s cameras with their hands and nervously aimed their guns at the reporters. Sometimes, when the people advanced the troops stepped back. At this point, armored vehicles carrying cannons and machineguns were sent in as the people fearlessly discussed with the crews of the armored vehicles. The people’s reaction was amazing.

Approximately at 2:00 in the afternoon, a tamed majority in Congress --in coordination with the putschists—toppled Zelaya, the Constitutional President of Honduras, and appointed a new head of State announcing to the world that the former had resigned and showing a forged signature. A few minutes later, from an airport in Costa Rica, Zelaya related everything that had happened and categorically refuted the news about his resignation. The plotters had placed themselves in a ridiculous situation in the eyes of the world.

Many other things happened today. Cubavision took all of its time to expose the coup and keep our people informed.

Some events were purely fascist in nature and even if expected they are still astonishing.

Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas was the putschists’ main target, second only to Zelaya. Another detachment was sent to her residence. She was brave and determined, and she acted quickly; she did not waste time and started denouncing the coup in every way possible. Our ambassador contacted Patricia to learn about the situation; other ambassadors did likewise. At a given moment, she asked the diplomatic representatives of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to meet with her since she was being fiercely hounded and required diplomatic protection. Our ambassador, who from the first moments was authorized to offer the minister all the constitutional and legal support, proceeded to visit her in her own residence.

When the diplomats were already in her house, the putschist command sent Major Oceguera to put her under arrest. The diplomats stood between the woman and the officer and claimed she was under diplomatic protection and could only be moved accompanied by them. Oceguera discussed with them in a respectful fashion. A few minutes later, 12 or 15 men in uniform and covering their faces with ski masks rushed into the house. The three ambassadors embraced Patricia but the masked men using force managed to separate the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors; Hernandez held her so strongly by one arm that the masked men dragged them both to a van and drove to an air base where they finally separated him and took her away. As he was there in custody, Bruno, who had news of the kidnapping called him to the cell phone; one of the masked men tried to violently snatch the phone out of his hands and the Cuban ambassador, who had already been punched in Patricia’s home, shouted: "Don’t push me, cojones!" I don’t remember if the term was ever used by Cervantes, but there is no doubt that ambassador Juan Carlos Hernandez has enriched our language.

Later, he was abandoned in a road far from the Cuban mission not before being warned that something worse could happen to him if he talked. "Nothing can be worse than death," he answered with dignity, "and still I’m not afraid of you." Then people from the area helped him to return to the embassy and from there he immediately called Bruno again.

There is no way to negotiate with that putschist high command. They must be asked to abdicate while other younger officers, uninvolved with the oligarchy, take charge of the military command; otherwise, there will never be in Honduras a government "of the people, by the people and for the people."

There is no hope for the cornered and isolated putschists if the problem is faced with determination.

Even Mrs. Clinton stated this afternoon that Zelaya is the only President of Honduras and the Honduran putschists can’t even breathe without the support of the United States of America.

Zelaya, a man who was in his pyjamas just a few hours ago, will be recognized by the world as the only Constitutional President of Honduras.


Fidel Castro Ruz
June 28, 2009
6:14 PM.

US GOVT CONFIRMS IT KNEW HONDURAS COUP WAS COMING: Honduran anti-imperialist patriots gather in defiance of the military coup, 29 June 2009

Source: Sons of Malcolm
Chavez Code

A New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html) has just confirmed that the US Government has been "working for several days" with the coup planners in Honduras to halt the illegal overthrow of President Zelaya. While this may indicate nobility on behalf of the Obama Administration, had they merely told the coupsters that the US Government would CUT OFF all economic aid and blockade Honduras in the event of a coup, it's almost a 100% guarantee that the military and right wing parties and business groups involved in the coup would not have gone through with it.

So, while many make excuses for the Obama Administration's "calculated" statements, had they been more firm with the coup leaders, instead of "negotiating", the coup may never have happened. Also, the State Department says they believed "dialogue" was the best way to resolve the situation, but their lack of clarity and firm position has caused multiple human rights violations to occur in Honduras and a lot of tension to take place in the region.

And during the April 2002 coup against Chávez in Venezuela, the State Department also claimed it knew of the coup and tried to "stop" it. Later, in my investigations, it was discovered through documents from State and CIA declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that CIA, State and other US agencies, funded, supported, advised and armed the coup leaders....

Urgent Call: In Solidarity with the Organizations of Via Campesina and the People of Honduras

Source: Narco Sphere

"In Solidarity with the Organizations of Via Campesina and the People of Honduras"
"The social organizations of Honduras have gone out into the streets to repudiate this deed and demand the return of President Zelaya"

By Via Campesina International
Translated to English by Laura Carlsen

June 28, 2009

Urgent Call: In Solidarity with the Organizations of Via Campesina and the People of Honduras

With the objective of deepening democracy and achieving broader democratic participation, for several months the social organizations of Honduras along with President Manuel Zelaya Rosales have promoted holding a non-binding referendum this June 28, 2009.

To our great surprise, today at 5:00 A.M. the armed forces carried out a coup d’etat against President Zelaya, blocking in this way, the democratic aspirations of the population that was preparing to carry out the popular survey.

On hearing this news, the social organizations of of Honduras, including those of Via Campesina, have gone out into the streets to repudiate this deed and demand the return of President Zelaya to that functions that they law mandates.

The government of President Zelaya has been characterized by its defense of workers and campesinos, it is a defender of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), and during his administration it has promoted actions that benefit Honduran campesinos.

We believe that these deeds are the desperate acts of the national oligarchy and the hardcore right to preserve the interests of capital, and in particular, of the large transnational corporations. To that end, that have made use of the military forces and the institutions of the country such as the parliament, ministers, neoliberal press and others.

Faced with this unacceptable situation, Via Campesina International demands:

1. Re-establishment of the constitutional order, without bloodshed

2. We call on the army not to repress the population of Honduras that demands a return to democracy

3. That the physical integrity of social leaders, including Rafael Alegria-international leader of Via Campesina-is respected

4. We demand the return of President Zelaya to his functions in Honduras

5. That the authorities guarantee the full democratic exercise of the popular consultation (non-binding referendum), which is clearly a form of free expression.

From Via Campesina International, we are concerned for the safety of our leaders and organizations of Via Campesina, as well as what could happen to the people of Honduras, in these difficult times.

We also call on campesina organizations and other social movements to protest in front of the Honduran embassies and send letters rejecting the coup d’etat to the embassies in each of their countries.

We express our solidarity with our campesina organizations in Honduras.

International Coordinating Committee (CCI) of Vía Campesina Globalize the Struggle!! Globalize Hope!! Mali, África, June 28, 2009

Honduran Military Reportedly Assassinated Leftist Presidential Candidate: by Kristin Bricker - June 28, 2009

Congressman Cesar Ham Was a Zelaya Ally and Organizer of the Opinion Poll on a New Constitution










Cesar HamCesar Ham, presidential candidate and the head of Honduras' only registered leftist political party, the Democratic Unification of Honduras, is dead, reports Notimex. He was killed by a squad of soldiers who arrived at his home this morning to arrest him.

The military has rounded up many of Zelaya's allies within the government. Chancellor Patricia Rodas remains kidnapped.

Honduran police confirmed Ham's death to Notimex. The official version of events, as reported by Notimex, is that Ham confronted the military squad that came to his house with a gun, "and therefore he had to be killed."

Despite being from a different party, Ham was a close ally of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Ham's party, the Democratic Unification of Honduras, is Honduras' only registered leftist party. Zelaya is from the conservative Liberal Party; he became a populist leftist after being elected.

Ham, at the time of his reported assassination, was a member of Congress. He wholeheartedly supported President Zelaya's initiative to form a constitutional convention to write a new Constitution, and he was one of the main organizers of today's thwarted opinion poll that would have gauged public opinion on forming a constitutional convention.

Ham has come under fire this year from fellow members of Congress, with help from Honduras' right-wing media. Gregorio Baca, a dissident member of Ham's party who opposed an alliance with Zelaya, accused Ham of receiving "millions of dollars" from President Zelaya in exchange for his support of a referendum on a new constitutional convention. Right-wing newspaper El Heraldo accused Ham and his deputy Misael Castro of embezzling government money to pay for luxury cars. Neither of the accusations were ever verified by a court of law.

This past March the Democratic Unification party chose him as its presidential candidate by a vote of 104-4. The coup plotters had previously announced that the November 2009 elections would go on as planned. If reports that Ham has been assasinated are true, it means that the only leftist candidate in the upcoming elections is now dead.