[Marxism] Fwd: URGENT! Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran President has been Kidnapped

[Fred Fuentes <fred.fuentes@xxxxxxxxx>]

OBAMA’S FIRST COUP D’ETAT

President Zelaya of Honduras has just been kidnapped

By Eva Golinger (evagolinger@xxxxxxxxxxx or evagolinger@xxxxxxxxx)
28 June 2009





Caracas, Venezuela -  The text message that beeped on my cell phone
this morning read “Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d’etat
underway in Honduras, spread the word.” It’s a rude awakening for a
Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were
preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first
time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a
constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the
center of the controversary is today’s scheduled referendum, which is
not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or
not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process
to modify their constitution.



Such an initiative has never taken place in the Central American
nation, which has a very limited constitution that allows minimal
participation by the people of Honduras in their political processes.
The current constitution, written in 1982 during the height of the
Reagan Administration’s dirty war in Central America, was designed to
ensure those in power, both economic and political, would retain it
with little interference from the people. Zelaya, elected in November
2005 on the platform of Honduras’ Liberal Party, had proposed the
opinion poll be conducted to determine if a majority of citizens
agreed that constitutional reform was necessary. He was backed by a
majority of labor unions and social movements in the country. If the
poll had occured, depending on the results, a referendum would have
been conducted during the upcoming elections in November to vote on
convening a constitutional assembly. Nevertheless, today’s scheduled
poll was not binding by law.



In fact, several days before the poll was to occur, Honduras’ Supreme
Court ruled it illegal, upon request by the Congress, both of which
are led by anti-Zelaya majorities and members of the
ultra-conservative party, National Party of Honduras (PNH). This move
led to massive protests in the streets in favor of President Zelaya.
On June 24, the president fired the head of the high military command,
General Romeo Vásquez, after he refused to allow the military to
distribute the electoral material for Sunday’s elections. General
Romeo Vásquez held the material under tight military control, refusing
to release it even to the president’s followers, stating that the
scheduled referendum had been determined illegal by the Supreme Court
and therefore he could not comply with the president’s order. As in
the Unted States, the president of Honduras is Commander in Chief and
has the final say on the military’s actions, and so he ordered the
General’s removal. The Minister of Defense, Angel Edmundo Orellana,
also resigned in response to this increasingly tense situation.



But the following day, Honduras’ Supreme Court reinstated General
Romeo Vásquez to the high military command, ruling his firing as
“unconstitutional’.  Thousands poured into the streets of Honduras’
capital, Tegucigalpa, showing support for President Zelaya and
evidencing their determination to ensure Sunday’s non-binding
referendum would take place. On Friday, the president and a group of
hundreds of supporters, marched to the nearby air base to collect the
electoral material that had been previously held by the military. That
evening, Zelaya gave a national press conference along with a group of
politicians from different political parties and social movements,
calling for unity and peace in the country.



As of Saturday, the situation in Honduras was reported as calm. But
early Sunday morning, a group of approximately 60 armed soldiers
entered the presidential residence and took Zelaya hostage. After
several hours of confusion, reports surfaced claiming the president
had been taken to a nearby air force base and flown to neighboring
Costa Rica. No images have been seen of the president so far and it is
unknown whether or not his life is still endangered.



President Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, speaking live on
Telesur at approximately 10:00am Caracas time, denounced that in early
hours of Sunday morning, the soldiers stormed their residence, firing
shots throughout the house, beating and then taking the president. “It
was an act of cowardness”, said the first lady, referring to the
illegal kidnapping occuring during a time when no one would know or
react until it was all over. Casto de Zelaya also called for the
“preservation” of her husband’s life, indicating that she herself is
unaware of his whereabouts. She claimed their lives are all still in
“serious danger” and made a call for the international community to
denounce this illegal coup d’etat and to act rapidly to reinstate
constitutional order in the country, which includes the rescue and
return of the democratically elected Zelaya.



Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have
both made public statements on Sunday morning condeming the coup
d’etat in Honduras and calling on the international community to react
to ensure democracy is restored and the constitutional president is
reinstated. Last Wednesday, June 24, an extraordinary meeting of the
member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA),
of which Honduras is a member, was convened in Venezuela to welcome
Ecuador, Antigua & Barbados and St. Vincent to its ranks. During the
meeting, which was attended by Honduras’ Foreign Minister, Patricia
Rodas, a statement was read supporting President Zelaya and condenming
any attempts to undermine his mandate and Honduras’ democratic
processes.



Reports coming out of Honduras have informed that the public
television channel, Canal 8, has been shut down by the coup forces.
Just minutes ago, Telesur announced that the military in Honduras is
shutting down all electricity throughout the country. Those television
and radio stations still transmitting are not reporting the coup
d’etat or the kidnapping of President Zelaya, according to Foreign
Minister Patricia Rodas. “Telephones and electricity are being cut
off”, confirmed Rodas just minutes ago via Telesur. “The media are
showing cartoons and soap operas and are not informing the people of
Honduras about what is happening”. The situation is eerily reminiscent
of the April 2002 coup d’etat against President Chávez in Venezuela,
when the media played a key role by first manipulating information to
support the coup and then later blacking out all information when the
people began protesting and eventually overcame and defeated the coup
forces, rescuing Chávez (who had also been kidnapped by the military)
and restoring constitutional order.



Honduras is a nation that has been the victim of dictatorships and
massive U.S. intervention during the past century, including several
military invasions. The last major U.S. government intervention in
Honduras occured during the 1980s, when the Reagain Administration
funded death squads and paramilitaries to eliminate any potential
“communist threats” in Central America. At the time, John Negroponte,
was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras and was responsible for directly
funding and training Honduran death squads that were responsable for
thousands of disappeared and assassinated throughout the region.



On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS), convened a
special meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras, later issuing a
statement condeming the threats to democracy and authorizing a convoy
of representatives to travel to OAS to investigate further.
Nevertheless, on Friday, Assistant Secretary of State of the United
States, Phillip J. Crowley, refused to clarify the U.S. government’s
position in reference to the potential coup against President Zelaya,
and instead issued a more ambiguous statement that implied
Washington’s support for the opposition to the Honduran president.
While most other Latin American governments had clearly indicated
their adamant condemnation of the coup plans underway in Honduras and
their solid support for Honduras’ constitutionally elected president,
Manual Zelaya, the U.S. spokesman stated the following,  “We are
concerned about the breakdown in the political dialogue among Honduran
politicians over the proposed June 28 poll on constitutional reform.
We urge all sides to seek a consensual democratic resolution in the
current political impasse that adheres to the Honduran constitution
and to Honduran laws consistent with the principles of the
Inter-American Democratic Charter.”



As of 10:30am, Sunday morning, no further statements have been issued
by the Washington concerning the military coup in Honduras. The
Central American nation is highly dependent on the U.S. economy, which
ensures one of its top sources of income, the monies sent from
Hondurans working in the U.S. under the “temporary protected status”
program that was implemented during Washington’s dirty war in the
1980s as a result of massive immigration to U.S. territory to escape
the war zone. Another major source of funding in Honduras is USAID,
providing over US$ 50 millon annually for “democracy promotion”
programs, which generally supports NGOs and political parties
favorable to U.S. interests, as has been the case in Venezuela,
Bolivia and other nations in the region. The Pentagon also maintains a
military base in Honduras in Soto Cano, equipped with approximately
500 troops and numerous air force combat planes and helicopters.



Foreign Minister Rodas has stated that she has repeatedly tried to
make contact with the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, who
has not responded to any of her calls thus far. The modus operandi of
the coup makes clear that Washington is involved. Neither the Honduran
military, which is majority trained by U.S. forces, nor the political
and economic elite, would act to oust a democratically elected
president without the backing and support of the U.S. government.
President Zelaya has increasingly come under attack by the
conservative forces in Honduras for his growing relationship with the
ALBA countries, and particularly Venezuela and President Chávez. Many
believe the coup has been executed as a method of ensuring Honduras
does not continue to unify with the more leftist and socialist
countries in Latin America.

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