Wednesday, July 8, 2009

DAY 11: "NEGOTIATION" MEETING TO TAKE PLACE THURSDAY IN COSTA RICA BETWEEN PRESIDENT ZELAYA & COUP LEADERS

Just a couple of quick updates today. Thousands of people are still in the streets of Tegucigalpa, protesting the coup government and calling for the unconditional return of President Zelaya. A variety of different non violent actions are being taken by protesters, including shutting down major roadways, striking and maintaining a popular resistance front to keep people unified against the coup government. There are reports of over 600 detentions by the armed forces of Zelaya supporters.

On Thursday - tomorrow - President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica will host the first "negotiation" meeting between President Manuel Zelaya and several of the individuals who ousted him in the military coup on Sunday, June 28. Zelaya denounced earlier today that the coup leaders are sabotaging the negotiation efforts. The coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, has stated that he won't - under any circumstances - allow President Zelaya to return to power as president of Honduras. This kind of complicates things. The whole point here is to assure Zelaya's return to the presidency, so Micheletti's hardline stance makes that difficult.

The question still remains as to why negotiations - imposed by the United States - are even taking place. By giving the coup government equal participation in a "dialogue" to find a solution, their illegal actions are being legitimized. This creates a dangerous and unacceptable precedent for other undemocratic groups seeking to remove their elected leaders from power and then "negotiate" a resolution, gaining ground politically and weakening the democratic system. The opposition to President Chávez in Venezuela is already trying to play this up by calling on the Organization of American States (OAS) to intervene in their favor, since they claim human rights and constitutional guarantees are being violated by the government. Despite this not being true, the opposition in Venezuela is using Honduras as an example to attract attention.

For example, a leader of the April 2002 coup against President Chávez, Antonio Ledezma, now the mayor of greater Caracas (don't ask), went on a hunger strike at the OAS offices in Venezuela just days after the coup in Honduras. His purpose was to demand the OAS intervene in Venezuela as it has done in Honduras. Today he ended his strike after a ridiculous 6-day show. He did get a phone call, allegedly, from OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, stating he would look into the mayor's complaints.

And the president of Globovision, the most rancid, anti-Chávez television station in Venezuela, also heavily involved in the April 2002 and ongoing media war (Globovision is a thousand times worse than Fox News Network, if you can fathom that), was received yesterday afternoon by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the State Department offices, just after she gave her press conference on her meeting with President Zelaya of Honduras. Alberto Federico Ravell, president of Globovision, together with Leopoldo Castillo, the moderator of the station's most biased, hateful program (like a million times worse than the O'Reilly Factor), were given a 20 minute interview with Clinton and a photo op, which they are drooling over and repeating nonstop. This meeting is clear evidence of the State Department's (Obama Administration's) support for hate-TV Globovision and the Venezuela opposition. Globovision has become the new political party of the opposition.

Obama's first 6 months as president are not looking well in Latin America. From down here, we are seeing the same old folks engaging in the same old intervention and domination tactics. Luckily, Latin America is not the same old backyard of the United States. The people's movements here have risen up and are alert and holding ground against the imposition of US imperialism and aggression.

Stay tuned for the outcome of tomorrow's meetings in Costa Rica. Oh, and I do have some more goodies coming soon regarding the U.S. role in the Honduran coup...the old gang is back!

6 comments:

Zhandra said...

Hola... Justo después de que terminé de escribir el comentario que hice a tu post de ayer, vi en la página de Globovisión lo de la reunión entre Clinton y Ravell. Mantengo mi posición: Mucha hipocresía disfrazada de diplomacia y poca efectividad.

Ahora resulta que la salida a la "crisis política" (eufemismo usado por los medios para no decir golpe de Estado) en Honduras debe pasar por una negociación entre el Presidente Zelaya y los golpistas, una "idea genial" de la administración Obama, que pone como negociador nada más y nada menos que a Oscar Arias, supuesto artífice de la paz centroamericana, pero derechista y pro estadounidense comprobado.

Mientras ellos divagan en reuniones, el pueblo hondureño es reprimido.... Misterios de la ciencia, de la ciencia ficción, como diría el Profesor Lupa.

Anonymous said...

Yo le tengo un odio a la gente de Globovision por terroristas, fascistas y peligrosos para la humanidad.

Globovision es el canal mas terrorista de este planeta

Estimados amigos: solo les queria recordar que no se pueden olvidar de que la cadena Globovision esta mintiendo abiertamente sobre el golpe de estado en Honduras. Ellos (Globovision) alegan que nunca hubo golpe de estado en Honduras. Cuando todo el mundo en este planeta incluyendo a EE.UU estan a favor de Zelaya. Los unicos que estan en contra de Zelaya son Micheletti y Globovision.

Anonymous said...

A decent summary of obama's reactions to the israeloamerican 21st century nazi coup in Honduras:

Vendredi, 03 Juillet 2009 07:44

The Honduras Coup: Is Obama Innocent?
Michael Parenti

Many people ask : is Obama really innocent about what happens in Honduras ? Many also believe this president is "different". www.michelcollon.info asked his opinion to the famous US writer Michael Parenti...

Is President Obama innocent of the events occurring in Honduras, specifically the coup launched by the Honduran military resulting in the abduction and forced deportation of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya? Obama has denounced the coup and demanded that the rules of democracy be honored. Still, several troubling questions remain.

First, almost all the senior Honduran military officers active in the coup are graduates of the Pentagon's School of the Americas (known to many of us as "School of the Assassins"). The Honduran military is trained, advised, equipped, indoctrinated, and financed by the United States national security state. The generals would never have dared to move without tacit consent from the White House or the Pentagon and CIA.

Second, if Obama was not directly involved, then he should be faulted for having no firm command over those US operatives who were. The US military must have known about the plot and US military intelligence must have known and must have reported it back to Washington. Why did Obama’s people who had communicated with the coup leaders fail to blow the whistle on them? Why did they not expose and denounce the plot, thereby possibly foiling the entire venture? Instead the US kept quiet about it, a silence that in effect, even if not in intent, served as an act of complicity.

Third, immediately after the coup, Obama stated that he was against using violence to effect change and that it was up to the various parties in Honduras to resolve their differences. His remarks were a rather tepid and muted response to a gangster putsch.

Fourth, Obama never expected there would be an enormous uproar over the Honduras coup. He hastily joined the outcry against the perpetrators only when it became evident that opposition to the putschists was nearly universal throughout Latin America and elsewhere in the world.

Fifth, Obama still has had nothing to say about the many other acts of repression attendant with the coup perpetrated by Honduran military and police: kidnappings, beatings, disappearances, attacks on demonstrators, shutting down the internet and suppressing the few small critical media outlets that exist in Honduras.

Sixth, as James Petras reminded me, Obama has refused to meet with President Zelaya. He dislikes Zelaya mostly for his close and unexpected affiliation with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. And because of his egalitarian reformist efforts Zelaya is hated by the Honduran oligarchs, the same oligarchs who for many years have been close to and splendidly served by the US empire builders.

Seventh, under a law passed by the US Congress, any democratic government that is the victim of a military takeover is to be denied US military and economic aid. Obama still has not cut off the economic and military aid to Honduras as he is required to do under this law. This is perhaps the most telling datum regarding whose side he is on.

As president, Obama has considerable influence and immense resources that might well have thwarted the perpetrators and perhaps could still be applied against them with real effect. As of now his stance on Honduras is too little too late, as is the case with too many other things he does.

Michael Parenti’s recent books include: Contrary Notions (City Lights); and God and His Demons (Prometheus, forthcoming). For further information, visit his website: www.michaelparenti.org.

NuestraAmericaNews said...

I am tired of this talk btw President Zelaya. I mean I am tired of the Honduras coup and I think that special task forces from each country of the ALBA should destabilize the coup. There should be a defense mechanism intacted to deal with situations like this. With a cooperative manual in dealing with coups, counter-insurgency and propaganda. The people need to strike and start a guerrilla warfare campaign. Find the where abouts of the current gov'ts family members and capture them. Demand the re-installment of Zeyala. The coup fascist are not talking they didn't choose that root. They choose to attack with guns. So what are we suppose to do go talk to them? They aren't here to talk if they where we wouldn't be in this predicatment. They think they can hit us and continue to hit us. Well no. Strike hit the main opposition supporters. Get Them! Burn There Buildings! Ran Sack there quarters and do not retreat! Check out my blog...for Puerto Rico Independence and latin America news...Nuestra America..Gracias!

Roger Milbrandt said...

Eva,

You raise the question of why these negotiations are even taking place. I think the question can be focused more precisely. It is easy to see why the coup leaders would welcome this dramatic elevation of their international prestige and it is easy to see why the US would have undertaken this adroit step towards the normalization of the coup. It is also, as Zhandra shows, quite easy to undertand why Oscar Arias would be compliant. What I cannot understand is Zelaya's thinking. I find it hard to connect the Zelaya who vowed on Sunday to return to Honduras as soon as possible, at whatever risk, with the pathetic, traitorous dishrag willing to do whatever the US government asks him to do. And, what happened to Morales, Chavez, and Correa and Ortega?

Anonymous said...

A MESSAGE FOR MY HONDURANS, HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH AND ALL TRAGIC-HEROES AND ACTIVE-NIHILIST UBERMENSCH (OVERMAN) FRIENDS !!

Hey u all by the way: I saw a video once in which chavez said he was a fan of Nietzsche !! Well, here are a couple of Nietzschean inspirational, motivational, self-help quotes in these depressive, and sad times that the whole world is living today !!

And remember: NO PAIN, NO GAIN !!

WARS LEAD TO FREEDOM !!

"The great men are necessary, the time in which they appear is accidental; that they almost always become masters over their age is only because they are stronger, because they are older, because for a longer time much was gathered for them." -Twilight of the Idols


WARS LEAD TO FREEDOM !! War educates for freedom. For what is freedom? That one has the will to assume responsibility for oneself. That one maintains the distance which separates us. That one becomes more indifferent to difficulties, hardships, privation, even to life itself. That one is prepared to sacrifice human beings for one's cause, not excluding oneself. Freedom means that the manly instincts which delight in war and victory dominate over other instincts, for example, over those of "pleasure."

The human being who has become free and how much more the spirit who has become free spits on the contemptible type of well-being dreamed of by shopkeepers, Christians, cows, females, Englishmen, and other bourgeoise. The free man is a warrior. How is freedom measured in individuals and peoples? According to the resistance which must be overcome, according to the exertion required, to remain on top.

The highest type of free men should be sought where the highest resistance is constantly overcome: five steps from tyranny, close to the threshold of the danger of servitude. This is true psychologically if by "tyrants" are meant inexorable and fearful instincts that provoke the maximum of authority and discipline against themselves; the most handsome type: Julius Caesar.

"My types of disciples: To those men who are of any concern to me I wish them suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, and indignities. I also wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: And i have no compassion for them, because I wish them the only thing that reveals value in a man: that they should endure firmly !!" -(The Will to Power, Sec. 905)

"You want, if possible and there is no more insane "if possible" to abolish suffering. And we? It really seems that we would rather have it higher and worse than ever. Well-being as you understand it, that is no goal, that seems to us an end, a state that soon makes man ridiculous and contemptible, that makes his destruction desirable. The discipline of suffering, of great suffering. Do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of man so far?" -(Beyond Good and Evil, p 225 )

"I do not point to the evil and pain of existence with the finger of reproach, but rather entertain the hope that life may one day become more evil and more full of suffering than it has ever been." -Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900)


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