Honduran Dictatorship, Day 45

AFPsays that General Douglas Fraser, who was the source for saying that Zelaya was flown out through Palmerola/Soto Cano, has now testifed that there is no link between Venezuela and the Colombian terrorist group FARC or the Basque terrorist group ETA:

“We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection,” General Douglas Fraser, head of the US Southern Command, told a Senate hearing.

“We have continued to watch very closely for any connections between illicit and terrorist organization activity within the region,” he said. “We are concerned about it. I’m skeptical. I continue to watch for it.”…

Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state responsible for Latin American affairs, told another congressional panel Wednesday there had been some evidence of some kind of Venezuelan assistance to the FARC.

Based on telling the truth about the kidnapping of Zelaya, Fraser seems to be an honorable man. Valenzuela, well… he was the guy who claimed that the US strengthened the collective defense of democracy in Honduras by supporting the coup. He’s not worth wasting a bad word on.

Resistance leader and Zelaya advisor Rasel Tomé is back. He says the charges by Micheletti against him have been dropped.

General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez gets his payoff from the coup, being made manager of the Honduran telephone company Hondutel. Clearly a job for which a career in studying the fine art of blowing things up and killing people prepared him. So, all the people who complained that Zelaya was engaged in cronyism when he appointed his nephew Marcelo Chimirri can be assured that things have really changed. Meanwhile, the Center for Justice and International Law protested the naming of a principal human rights violator to the post.

According to Tiempo, either 200 or 2000 families (depending on whether you believe the headline or the text) who occupied land near Santa Rosa and Loarque have been kicked off. The area they occupied was relatively small, 209 manzanas (the measurement representing the size of an apple orchard) or about 350 acres. Tractors demolished the homes that had been built.

El Lib says that 51-year old journalist David Meza has been murdered by unknown persons. He was a correspondent for pro-coup Radio América, as well as a reporter for El Patio Radio and Opening the Breach. At 5:20 PM he was driving his green Kia Sportage when he was shot. He was evidently important, because former presidential candidate Elvin Ernesto Santos called to express his condolences.

El Lib also says that Miguel Facussé Barjum, oligarch and owner of food emporia, Dinant Chemicals, and oil processing in Colon, sent thousands of employees to march on the presidential palace now occupied by Pretendisent Lobo Sosa, and (this may be a wee exaggeration) to attempt to conspire against Lobo. Police repressed the demonstrators… not at all; surprising, that. Facussé is the guy who behind the violent displacement of squatters [who may be the actual legal landowners] in Bajo Aguan. In that action, members of the Puerto Castilla naval base hunted down and even murdered members of the farmers’ co-op. Private mercenaries participated.

USA Today claims that 730,000 visitors will stop at Roatan this year, mostly from Atlanta, Houston, and Newark. Of course, tourism was down 80% last year, so that might be optimistic.

I’ll try to post again on Sunday, with news from the blogs. But at this moment, I am well and truly tired.