US cables on Brazil and Honduras #cablegate

The latest Wikileaks releases show Brazil in fall 2009 begging the US for help with a situation in which they are being subjected to terrorism from the Honduran dictatorship. The US does not appear to provide any assistance beyond lip service. The State Department is advised that elections cannot be free or fair, so they proceed with them anyway.

In early September, Brazil complains that sanctions and pressure on the Honduran dictatorship are inadequate.

On the 23rd of September, the situation is serious:

Viana explained that water, electricity, and phone lines to the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa had been cut and the Embassy was running solely on a diesel generator that was running out of fuel. As of 05:00 this morning the Honduran police and military cleared the streets surrounding the Brazilian Embassy of protestors. Seventy pro-Zelaya Honduran protestors sought refuge in the Brazilian Embassy and remain there; Viana said that the protestors remain calm. Eight Brazilians from the Embassy were allowed to return home, leaving only the Charge and three other Brazilians at the Embassy. So far, the Honduran security forces have not intruded on the Brazilian Embassy, however Viana noted that the streets around the Embassy are full of security forces and it is clear that the Honduran strategy is to “asphyxiate the Embassy.”…

Viana lamented that the Brazilian Embassy did not have “the type of protection the U.S. Embassy has, the Marines,” because they are unable to defend the Embassy.

The US does not volunteer to supply any military assistance.

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Fortunately there’s Eli

Otherwise, how would we know about the world’s only Heavy Metal Parrot?

Honduras dictatorship, day 342

The following is President Zelaya’s response to the Ford cable. It’s a quick and sloppy translation, but it conveys the sense of it. The main point of interest is that the Ford cable does demonstrate how the US “manufactures its enemies,” as Zelaya says. Crossposted to DK.

The letters from the Empire’s diplomats

voselsoberano.com | Saturday 11 December 2010 23:34

Mel Zelaya

A new embarrassment to the foreign policy of the United States has been exposed, this time in relation to my persona as Constitutional President of Honduras. These [letters], which do not reflect my personality but are dedicated to criminal accusations and reckless [judgments] which amount to defamation and calumny, and an affront to the dignity of the Honduran people.

Over a year has passed; 18 long months since the coup d’état en which the groups of the Honduran far right, presumed friends and partners of the “USA”, seized power in the country. It’s odd that until now, they have been unable to demonstrate even a single connection to organized crime, nor of a connection of this with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela in the acts of corruption that I supposedly committed during my term of office.

The author of the hallucination is Charles Ford, alleged diplomat, who here is [revealed] as a fraud and an instigator, and brings to light the hidden nature of US diplomacy for the world’s countries, since he operated as US ambassador when I assumed the first magistracy of the country.

This is the same ambassador who demanded from me a visa of diplomatic asylum for the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the same one who said publicly in the media that [Venezuelan] President Chávez had dirty, corrupt negotiations with me, the same one who when I won the presidency sent me a list of the people I should name to my Cabinet and who, of course, was infuriated when I said no.

He’s the one who accompanied me to the White House to attend a meeting with President Bush, with part of my Cabinet, where Bush ranted against the President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez and attacked my friendship with him. He’s the one who through my whole management defended the frauds by US oil transnationals in Honduras, something which he strangely omits from this cable, and similarly abstains from mentioning the things over which we had arguments and problems.

In Ambassador Ford’s serious and baseless accusations, full of mockery against my persona as head of state, are rendered transparent the capricious means which diplomats use, the manipulation which they use in an ill-intentioned fashion to justify the crimes and attacks on power which they impel in the length and breadth of the world. The cable of Mr. Ford, made public by Wikileaks and commented on by all the world’s media, in addition to being offensive, demonstrates the manner in which the United States, in its imperial estate, manufactures its enemies.

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Honduras dictatorship, day 341

Radio Globo has a lot of interference, doubtless not accidental. Felix Molina complains about being sent a message of a kind that he’s not supposed to read on air (two journalists were recently censored by Globo’s management, which has been threatened into not talking about the lack of transparency of congressional accounts administered by Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado). There’s growing rage about the desalojos (evictions) in Bajo Aguan.

Just so that everyone is clear that the patronizing attitude toward Zelaya in the Ford cable is not entirely unique, Spain’s diplomats also had unkind words about Latin American leaders. While it’s unclear whether these were simply what the Americans wanted to hear or actually what Spain’s senior political figures generally think, this will impact Spanish influence in Latin America both for good and for ill. According to La Jornada, Zapatero’s chief of cabinet Bernardino León and foreign affairs minister Trinidad Jiménez were the sources for these comments. Ecuadoran president Correa is “prone to rudeness/stupidity”. Daniel Ortega is “erratic, unpredictable, a lost cause.” [or, here, a "mad man"] Bolivia’s Evo Morales is honest but “ignorant” and “inexpert”. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is “a clown”, a “beast”, “a nut”. They were proud that they had refused to meet with Cuba’s leadership, which I believe contradicts their public stance.

Would It Have Killed The Strib To Have Mentioned Where They Saw This Story?

This StarTribune story is set to become the talk of the town:

A handful of county officials are peeved at GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer’s campaign for failing to pay their costs of collecting and copying voluminous voting data during the recount.

“I’m annoyed about this,” said Blue Earth County election director Patty O’Connor, who said she is owed $800 for the recount work. “I couldn’t imagine I would get stiffed.”

Of course, if you read Bluestem Prairie you knew about it two weeks ago:

Today in St. Paul, Tom Emmer announced the withdrawal of some frivolous ballot challenges–while stressing the arguments that open the possibility for a court case over “reconciliation.” 

This charade of statesmanship is severely tested by an investigative news report coming out of a Southern Minnesota CBS/FOX affiliate. KEYC-TV has found that the Republican Party of Minnesota has consumed hours of public employees’ time, while not paying the cash-strapped counties for the costs of its data requests related to the election.

Although it hasn’t been able to pay the counties what it owes–or pick up the materials requested–the Republican Party of Minnesota did find it in its heart to threaten to take the counties to court if they didn’t comply with the data requests fast enough, the investigation revealed.

As the report noted, the threat came during a time when the counties also needed to work on the legally mandated recount.

I find it interesting that the Strib came out with their story two days after BSP’s latest update on it.