[Peace-discuss] Fw: U.S. IMPERIALISM: [Working_Class_News] Obama's First Coup d'Etat:Honduran President has been Kidnapped

[unionyes]

First the stolen Presidential election in Mexico in 2006 via Diebold Inc. 
and now the U.S. State Department supported coup in Hondurus this morning.

David J.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "grok" <grok at resist.ca>
To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 12:14 PM
Subject: U.S. IMPERIALISM: [Working_Class_News] Obama's First Coup 
d'Etat:Honduran President has been Kidnapped


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> From: Williams Camacaro <bosanovanuevoyazul at yahoo.com>
> Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:37:03 -0700 (PDT)
> At: [21stcenturysocialism]
>
> [Note: As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live
> on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers
> entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and
> threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was
> forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew
> him to Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public
> statement condemning the coup, otherwise, it will indicate their
> compliance.]
>
>
> - ----- Forwarded message from Cort Greene <cort.greene at gmail.com> -----
>
> From: Cort Greene <cort.greene at gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:32:28 -0500
> Subject: [Working_Class_News] Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran 
> President has been Kidnapped
> To: Working_Class_News <Working_Class_News at yahoogroups.com>,
> Left-wing at yahoogroups.com, Activism_USA at yahoogroups.com
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> http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4554
>
> Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran President has been Kidnapped [image:
> Printer-friendly version] 
> <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print/4554>[image:
> Send to friend] <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/printmail/4554> June 28th
> 2009, by Eva Golinger
>
> 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.
>
>
> *Tags:* Honduras <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/tag/honduras>
>
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> - -- 
> Beware the bait & switch fraud: "Social Justice" is NOT Socialism!
>
> Build the North America-wide General Strike.
> TODO el poder a los consejos y las comunas.
> TOUT le pouvoir aux conseils et communes.
> ALL power to the councils and communes.
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