The next coup 2?

Americas Quarterly:

A senior member of the agency tasked with protecting Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom was shot and killed yesterday in a coordinated attack involving multiple assailants in Guatemala City. The victim, Rubén Sagastume Pozuelos, was the agent in charge of protecting President Colom’s children.

The attack is the latest in a series of incidents involving the Secretariat for Administration and Security (SAAS). In September, the director of SAAS was detained on espionage charges following the discovery of covert audio and video recording equipment in the president’s offices and residence. It also follows a series of death threats against the president received by the agency, which were issued by the Mexico-based Golfo drug cartel.

Some good news on Paul Minor and others

Scott Horton writes:

Federal prosecutors who brought a controversial corruption prosecution against trial lawyer Paul Minor and two Mississippi judges, Wes Teel and John Whitfield, suffered a one-two punch in federal courts this week. The result is that Minor, Teel, and Whitfield are now all likely to be freed.

An opinion handed down in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans struck down convictions for bribery, finding that the charges, even if true, did not actually constitute a crime….The charges took the novel view that campaign contributions and campaign finance assistance can be viewed as bribes paid to judges. But this rationale was applied to only one side of the political ledger.

This is how despicable the Republican-controlled justice system became. Democrats were judged to have accepted bribes simply for accepting campaign contributions, even though they could not be said to have done anything in return. Republicans were never similarly charged, as of course they should not be.

The Southern courts are heavily stacked with Republicans, so the Appeals Court that is rectifying this case, as well as the Supreme Court which is likely to throw out other charges as unconstitutional, are Republican. Nor are the hands of the Obama Justice Department clean, though whether that is due to Monica Goodling hires or to Eric Holder is unclear.

But the wrongful charges were brought by Republicans, tried by Republicans and wrongfully judged by Republicans. Paul Minor spent time in jail. His wife died while he was there, and he was prevented from being with her, even briefly, near the end by Republicans. There is a deep evil in what was done to him.

By Republicans.

Honduras, Act VI, Day 15

Update: The dictatorship has been busy pinning medals to one another. RNS has the latest list.

Micheletti continues to not resign.
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Radio Globo. Food prices, government budget, and the economy. 2% GDP contraction. A rooster crows in the background. Pretendisent Lobo says that he will not hang around in his office. He promises a humanistic Christian presidency.

Channel 36: At the hospital, Hospital Escuela, there is “not so much as an aspirin.” [Later] People are complaining that the government is not paying them. They are talking about Walter Trochez [see below]. He was tortured terribly, then shot in the chest. Bertha Caceres says she blames Gen. Vasquez Velasquez. The Director of Hospital Escuela speaks, describing a long list of problems. We have been seeing a lot of trauma victims, he says.

A gay rights activist, Walter Trochez, was murdered by people men dressed as police. Who we might guess were… police. 16 people from the gay community have been murdered during the coup.

The Grand National Dialogue, led by the Wolf (Lobo) himself begins with one of the parties at the table. Most attendees were from the Civic Democratic Union, which supported the coup. Five high-tension power lines were toppled in Yoro. These were wood, and were chopped down with an axe.

Via Adrienne, an article by Laura Carlsen in The Nation:

Honduras now faces a deeper political crisis than it did before the elections. The resistance movement has vowed not to recognize the Lobo government and has announced that it is moving on to create a broad national front to demand a return to the rule of law, the punishment of human rights violators and constitutional reforms.

Grassroots organization of farmers, feminists, union members and students has dramatically increased in the months of military occupation. Building on this will be a challenge, but the movement understands that it’s in for the long haul.

The next coup?

Latin America is jumpy. The latest bad thing to happen is a threat issued against Cristina Kirchner. She was traveling from her residence to the city center by helicopter when a voice broke in to the communications band saying, “Kill the old bag. Kill her” and five seconds of a march associated with the former dictatorship was played. There is a currently a trial of the captain of the frigate Alfredo Astiz and 18 Marines over crimes against humanity committed in the Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada during that dictatorship. The message arrived at the moment the trial began.

In TeleSur, Fidel Castro, the ultimate survivor, says that the US is planning a new coup against Venezuela. I don’t think he’s right. I suspect the US is simply planning to influence the elections that are coming up in many countries. The US would be blamed for any coup, and at some point, the stench will get to be too much even for our allies. But meddling in elections is easy and almost invisible.

Honduras, Act VI, Day 14

From TSE:
Votos Blanco: 59,391
Votos Nulo: 91,811
Total: 2,280,218
Total Actas: 99.23%

That would make the number of valid ballots cast 2,129,016. Since the number of voters was 4.6 million, that makes the real turnout 46%. And even that probably required some ballot box stuffing.

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Radio Globo: I caught a few minutes. Access has been dicey. Channel 36: The government is interfering with the signal. However, Ch. 36 had a picture of Silvio Berlusconi who was assaulted by someone with psychological problems and were showing it as an example of what politicians most fear: public humiliation. I have to give them props: they had arranged to give the photo a greenish tinge, so it looked much, much worse than the original, sort of like something off a horror film. Apologies, Mr. Berlusconi–I will say 10 Hail Marys and an Our Father in penance– but it gave me a laugh. At any rate, the point is that the US and Brazil have agreed that Micheletti has to go, which Micheletti (who I think is a sociopath) probably doesn’t appreciate. And back to buses and gas prices. Now a woman says four thousand “actas” (voting documents) from San Pedro Sula have appeared that shouldn’t be there.
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Update: Part 4 of Whom the gods would destroy is up at DK.

Channel 36: Gas prices.

Buses in Tegucigalpa are on strike because the dictatorship isn’t paying a bonus promised by the Zelaya government prior to the coup. The Adjunct Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela is in Brazil to discuss the differences the two governments have.

Surprise: Hondurans think that there’s a lot of corruption.

Honduras Coup, Act VI, Day 14

No pasa nada. Except a resistance member, Santos Corrales García, was decapitated in Talanga, presumably by the police. (via Hibueras). Funny how this is a heinous war crime when practiced by the Taliban or the Iraqi resistance, but just par for the course when it’s a dictatorship we love.

In addition to Corrales Garcia, Vilma Martínez, Sandra Yamilet Ordóñez, Luis Carballo and Isidro Baca were tied up and transported north and south of Tegucigalpa and told not to return to their homes.

In the ongoing attempt to legitimize the coup, former president Richard Maduro Joest says the Congress should amnesty everyone, otherwise, someone could try to re-open the can of worms. Since he’s saying something sensible, it’s inevitable that he will be ignored.

In an apparent parody of of a senior church leader, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez calls for solidarity, love, and justice for Christmas.

Check those listings

The People Speak is on HNN tonight at 8 Eastern. This is based on Howard Zinn.

Honduras Coup, Act VI, Day 13

According to the BBC, Zelaya will meet with Pretendisent Lobo on Monday.

(Who thinks that democracy in their country is better than in the rest of Latin America. Notice where Venezuela and Honduras land. From Latino Barometro, via BoRev)

Gabriela Núñez, pretend Minister of Finance, says that the country’s finances are reeling from a fall of over 10% in remittances, a decline in exports, and a drop off in tourism. I guess the Grand Theft Auto Vacation package the government was pushing didn’t work out.

La Prensa says that Micheletti was given a medal for having served as a member of the Presidential Honor Guard for Ramon Villeda Morales. He returned the favor by raining in rank Luis Alonso Reyes Baide, Lizandro Valle Pérez, Salomón Montes Maldonado, Fredy Yanic Guillén, Jaime Orlando Espinoza, and Osman Ramiro Ramírez. A total of 248 officials were recently promoted, according to Tiempo. Any bets on their involvement in the coup and its aftermath?

The following is completely unconfirmed. La Tribuna claims that the “Popular Party” of Europe (EPP), Christian Democrats, have agreed to support Honduras in the European Parliament. The claim is that they have enough votes to do this.

Belated Movie Review: Star Trek

In keeping with my being a day late and a dollar short on most everything, this is my review of a film that came out seven months ago.

Here was the problem that director JJ Abrams was confronting:

The franchise was dying — almost dead. No further movies could have been made that would have been any good had they kept sending the Roddenberry-originated Trek films out to do imperfect battle with the other parts of the Trek multiverse.

The solution Abrams and company found allows them to keep the parts of the old that they can use, and to do so with verve and flair. Every single person on screen was filled with energy — even (spoiler white-fonted) the seventy-eight-year-old Nimoy — energy that they used to make excellent performances.

Oh, and while Roddenberry was a competent director, Abrams is a visionary on the order of John Ford. That’s shown right in the opening minutes, where gentle, almost elegiac music plays during a scene where most directors would have tried to blow us away with bombast. Roddenberry approached both the TV and movie productions like he was building a bridge: Brick by brick construction. Abrams in contrast seems to be a whirling dervish who also happens to be a Cordon Bleu chef, collecting the ingredients for something that you can’t quite divine — until he’s finally done, and you see he’s created a marvelous mushroom soufflé. (This is probably why he identifies with the buccaneer swagger of James T. Kirk — the strongest constant between the old Treks and the new — because he brings out the buccaneer in Chris Pine, the actor playing Kirk.)

Snuffing out the press candle

Normally I don’t pay much attention to Project Censored on the grounds that it should be called News We Think is Important But Was Only Covered by the Left Media. But this is important news:

Award Winning Flashpoints Radio Show Under Threat by KPFA Management

By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff

12/11/09

The Flashpoints radio program is being directly threatened with closure by station management. Budget cuts implemented by KPFA management; reduce staff time for Flashpoints by some 75 hours per week. Flashpoints, an award winning national radio program, originates at KPFA in Berkeley, California, and reaches some thirty cities in the US and serves an on-line audience worldwide.

Nora Barrows-Friedman wrote on December 9, “KPFA has effectively destroyed Flashpoints this week, beginning with the layoff of our technical producer position. Just hours ago, they called me into a meeting and casually informed me that my hours will be reduced by 50%. I cannot afford to keep this job if I’m on 20 hours a week.”

Ms. Barrows-Friedman is a long time investigative reporter specializing in Israel-Palestine issues and is one of the few reporters in the country who covers this sensitive issue in a straightforward manner. She taught herself Arabic and often reports from the ground in the Middle East. Along with Flashpoints producers Dennis Bernstein and Miguel Molina, Ms. Barrows-Friedman was the recent recipient of a lifetime achievement Media Freedom Award from Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored.

“Nora Barrows Friedman has seniority over at least a dozen more recent and less experienced staff people. She has done an outstanding job at Flashpoints, showing a special dedication and talent. She has top professional qualifications and standards, tested by time and performance,” stated long standing political commentator and author Dr. Michael Parenti.

Flashpoints is, as far as I know, the only electronic media to consistently cover developments in the Americas, notably Haiti and Mexico, as well as Palestine and other under-covered places. They have some tremendous, very brave journalists, like Kevin Pina and Nora Barrows Friedman. If Flashpoints goes down, it will be substantially harder to get news about the hemisphere.