[Peace-discuss] How Secretary of State Clinton Enabled the Coup in Honduras

[David Johnson]

Published on 

Friday, February 19, 2016

by 

 <http://www.commondreams.org> Common Dreams

How Secretary of State Clinton Enabled the Coup in Honduras

The rule of law in Honduras has
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/congress-end-anti-corruption-charade-H
onduras> still not recovered from the coup that the Democratic candidate for
president enabled

by

 <http://www.commondreams.org/author/robert-naiman> Robert Naiman

 
<http://commons.commondreams.org/t/secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-enable
d-the-coup-in-honduras/18699> 19 Comments

Description:
http://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/views
-article/clinton_lobo_0.jpg?itok=qElfcpdy

In this handout picture released by the Guatemalan Presidency, Hondura’s
President Porfirio Lobo talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton in Guatemala City on March 5, 2010. (Photo: Guatemala
Presidency/Handout)

On June 28, 2009, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State,
democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by a
military coup. The United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization
of American States condemned the coup, and on July 5, Honduras was suspended
from the OAS.

Under longstanding and clear-cut U.S. law, all U.S. aid to Honduras except
democracy assistance, including all military aid, should have been
immediately suspended following the coup.

On August 7,
<http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/Letter%20to%20Obama%20re%20Honduras%208.7
.09.pdf> fifteen House Democrats, led by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, sent a letter
to the Administration which began, "As you know, on June 28th, 2009 a
military coup took place in Honduras," and said: "The State Department
should fully acknowledge that a military coup has taken place and follow
through with the total suspension of non-humanitarian aid, as required by
law."

Why wasn't U.S. aid to Honduras suspended following the coup? The
<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/aug/128373.htm> justification given
by Clinton's State Department on August 25 for not suspending U.S. aid to
Honduras was that events in Honduras were murky and it was not clear whether
a coup had taken place. Clinton's State Department
<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/aug/128373.htm> claimed that State
Department lawyers were studying the murky question of whether a coup had
taken place.

 

This justification was a lie, and Clinton's State Department knew it was a
lie. By July 24, 2009, the State Department, including Secretary Clinton,
knew clearly that the action of the Honduran military to remove President
Zelaya on June 28, 2009 constituted a coup. On July 24, U.S. Ambassador to
Honduras Hugo Llorens
<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/28/world/20101128-cables-viewer.
html?hp#report/cables-09TEGUCIGALPA645> sent a cable to top U.S. officials,
including Secretary of State Clinton, with subject: "Open and Shut: The Case
of the Honduran Coup," thoroughly documenting the assertion that "there is
no doubt" that the events of June 28 "constituted an illegal and
unconstitutional coup."

Why did Clinton's State Department lie and pretend that it was murky whether
a coup had taken place when it knew the fact that a coup had taken place was
clear-cut? Because Hillary Clinton wanted the coup to succeed. Clinton's
strategy to help the coup succeed,
<http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/24/hillary-clinton-emails-and-hon
duras-coup> as revealed in her emails, was "delay, delay, delay," as Donald
Trump might say. Delay any action that might help force the coup government
to stand down and allow the democratically elected President to be restored
to office. As she later
<http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/hillary-clinton-honduraslatina
mericaforeignpolicy.html> confessed in her book, her goal was to "
<http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/hillary-clinton-honduraslatina
mericaforeignpolicy.html> render the question of [President] Zelaya moot."

Today, the rule of law in Honduras
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/congress-end-anti-corruption-charade-H
onduras> still has not recovered from the coup that Secretary Clinton helped
enable. That's a key reason that refugees have fled Honduras to the United
States, only to find themselves
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/halt-child-refugee-deportations-to-cen
tral-america> hunted by the Department of Homeland Security raids that
Secretary Clinton
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/opinion/mrs-clintons-mixed-immigration-me
ssage.html> supported before she opposed them.

President Obama is going to visit Cuba, and that's wonderful. Ending the
embargo and normalizing relations with Cuba is a key step the U.S. must take
to restore normal relations with Latin America. But it's not the only change
we need. There is a two hundred year legacy of U.S. military intervention
and subversion in Latin America that didn't stop in January 2009. It's hard
to have confidence that former Secretary Clinton will end this legacy as
President when she used her power as Secretary of State to turn the clock
backwards.

 

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