Update2: Via Al Giordano, we learn that the US may have given an ultimatum to the coupistas, and that the coupistas have responded by threatening to expel US diplomats. A Honduran court has also issued new arrest orders for Zelaya, based on:
The order was given to the head of the Preventive Police, Salomón Escoto, and signed by judges José Humberto Palacios Guifarro and Janeth Morazán.
Radio America says the curfew remains in place in Paraiso and parts of Choluteca, but was lifted in the rest of the nation. For some reason, they headlined this, “Curfew Lifted in Honduras.”
On Tuesday, President Zelaya flies to Mexico to meet with Calderon, says Tiempo.
Laura Carlsen has an important post. Just a couple of excerpts:
coup has gone into its second month. Either the diplomatic sanctions were not strict enough or the coup leaders have hidden sources of support that have led them to believe they can buck the rest of the world.
Both of these explanations are demonstrably true, and we can add to that a high dose of delusional thinking on the part of de facto regime that does not seem to understand its own dilemma. As documented here before, international rightwing forces have backed the fall of Zelaya since before the coup and continue to provide expertise and likely considerable financial resources. U.S. so-called “democracy promotion” programs including the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and the International Republican Institute have also funneled large amounts of cash to Zelaya opponents. The Honduran oligarchy controls a huge percentage of national wealth and now has exclusive control over the national budget. Given the high degree of corruption in the country as a whole, it probably has some more shady sources as well but that remains on the docket for further investigation…
Honduran social organizations have rejected the failed mediation and we have entered the third stage of the drama, where growing popular resistance faces off with increasing repression. The potential for more violence grows each day, as shown in the terrible attack on demonstrators in El Durazno, Tegucigalpa yesterday
Update: If you’re in NYC, you can meet Adrienne Pine at the Bluestockings Bookstore Sunday, August 2nd, 7-9pm
She’ll also be in other cities:
Saturday to Tuesday, Aug. 1 – 4: New York City, NY
Wednesday and Thursday, August 5 – 6: Boston, MA
Friday and Saturday, August 7 – 8 : Chicago, IL
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(Image from a report by Wendy Cruz at Honduras Resists)
Another couple of days of light blogging.
Adrienne Pine has a translation from Oscar:
They say that when beasts are cornered they become more ferocious, and that is what is happening in Honduras. The gringo visas of high officials in Micheletti’s administration that were canceled a couple days ago, the permanent curfew in a quarter of the country as a response to the presence of Zelaya at the border, the gringo ambassador Llorens’s visit to president Mel in Managua are making the regime desperate, and they are releasing all the monsters they have been caging for so long.
Machetera has a very long post, the first of two parts, dealing with Otto Reich’s role in the coup:
Reich’s history in U.S./Latin American relations is a repellent one. He has worked tirelessly in support of the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, helped the anti-Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch find shelter in the United States, and produced domestic anti-Sandinista propaganda for the Reagan White House, through the State Department Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America. In that post, he worked with a right-wing front group called Citizens for America to spread that propaganda throughout the U.S. press….[As a Bush appointee to State who could not survive hearings] Reich busied himself supporting the unsuccessful 2002 coup against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and the successful 2004 coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.
I’m sure Reich would be annoyed that Machetera didn’t include many more of his misdeeds. At any rate, this article explains one of the main lines of attack on Zelaya, the allegation that there was corruption at Hondutel.
Micheletti has complained that the meeting between US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is “meddling” (lit. an “intromission”). Credit Llorens, though: verbally, at least, he’s being very strict in his diplospeak in dismissing the coup. Plus he traveled to Nicaragua, a mark of respect for Zelaya.
Listening to Radio Globo is depressing. People are reporting their injuries. Now Mrs. Zelaya is speaking. Hard to understand over the noise, but she sounds like she’s on point.
Michael Fox has an article nicely illustrating the hypocrisy of the Clinton State Department. Diana Barahona posts a squib from Eva Golinger pointing out that revocation of diplomatic visas is a slap on the wrist: the people can travel on tourist visas. However, I think that since the Honduran ambassador is a Zelayist, they might find their touring to be a bit more limited than she thinks. Barahona also posts an interview by James Petras that claims that Zelaya is sowing “defeatism” by dealing with the US. Petras should be pretty well informed, but this strikes me as the opposite. This is theater on a very large stage. Zelaya knows that the US has betrayed him. But he’s trying to maintain pressure on the regime and he knows that if he disses the US, his support from Europe will fall off. He is using the US’s hypocrisy to restrain it. Via parsley44 at DK, a couple of articles (one, and two) on why US actions have been a betrayal.
Mercury Rising 鳯女 