Honduras Coup, Act III, Day 37

I decided to improve on a very nice white rabbit that Bill Conroy put up. Unfortunately, I can’t get Narconews to post my comment. At any rate, if you want to follow the money down the Honduran rabbit hole, follow Bill Conroy as he follows the white rabbit.

Hillary contemplates the burn rate on Honduran Forex reserves

Rebelion has a 49 page compendium of stories from around the world about Honduras, put out by the Argentine Press Workers Union (UTPDA). This is an important document to read to get a sense of what Latin America sentiment is. While it reflects the worldview of the urban left, which is a minority, that worldview is grounded in history. Some of their assertions:

The point organization in the coup is UnoAmerica, which UTPDA calls an arm of the CIA

The US goal is to destabilize Venezuela, because it sees that as the center of anti-Americanism

The coup in Honduras is of a new kind, which might be called a “soft coup,” similar to what was done to Venezuela’s Chavez and Bolivia’s Morales.

Press concentration in the hands of an oligarchy is a crime against humanity, depriving millions of people of the comprehension necessary to make an informed judgment of events

In 2006, Former US Ambassador Charles Ford asked Honduras to provide asylum to terrorist Luis Posada Carrilles

Slightly off-topic. The twelve presidents of Unasur are demanding that the US not take on seven military bases in Colombia; they made it clear that the US presence worsens the drug problem. The US has no one to blame for this but itself. Without the backdrop of Honduras, it’s hard to see this sort of unprecedented unanimity among the leaders of South America. The bases will go in and create a generation of ill-will against the US.

From Tiempo:

Micheletti sent three new proposals to the OAS

Micheletti denied radio reports that the military was preparing a countercoup

Micheletti complains that Zelaya wanted to put the image of a labor leader on the 1000 lempira bill

Demonstrations were peaceful, as protestors banged pots and blew whistles, but the Cobra units, um guarded the protestors in case they should take over of a location.

Thousands of students marched against required military service.

TeleSur:

Head of the General Assembly Miguel D’Escoto requested a special envoy to monitor humar rights

Zelaya will travel to Washington from Mon-Wednesday

Chancellor Patricia Rodas claimed that no fewer than 20,000 people mobilize themselves for the resistance every day in Honduras

Biggest Lie Yet

“The RNC doesn’t try to scare people.”

No, it just makes shit up, in this instance claiming that the Demonrats would use voter registration info to deny health care to Republicans, and leaves it to people to decide for themselves whether to be scared.

I don’t understand how those people continue to breathe. The very air must be ashamed to enter their lungs.

Honduras Coup Act III, Day 36/Update2

Update2: The State Department says:

A State Dept. official met with the coupista delegation, off-site

State has given the lead on responding to the coupista proposal to the OAS

There will probably not be a formal determination as to whether this is a military coup by Hillary until she returns from NY

However, State has already frozen all aid that would be frozen by a formal determination

OAS has nothing new on their site. However, AP is reporting that they said no deal to the coupista proposal. They also say that the determination of a coup would cut off $215 M of Millenium Challenge money. Bill Conroy has more detail on the money that is flowing.

RNS reports that, based on publicly-available figures, Honduras has burned 15% of its foreign exchange reserves since the coup. That means that theoretically they could keep going for another year. Practically speaking… probably not that long. The former director of the Banco Central Edwin Araque Bonilla said that by December, the Honduran economy will be in free fall. (See here for a source. The drop may not be as precipitate as RNS thinks, since the recession is undoubtedly chewing away at reserves)

(Image from La Tribuna)

Sandra Cuffe has a report. The police detained and threatened the student and writer Ludwing Varela. Nadia Mendoza y Tania Mendoza were beaten and threatened.

The coupistas are mounting another assault on the Zelayas claiming misappropriation of funds. Dona Xiomara is burning up a lot of time on Radio Globo explaining exactly how donated pharmaceutics, some of which were expired, were disposed of. I’m not sure if the two things are connected (probably not; the accusations against Zelaya is old). The sound on Dona Xiomara is awful, but the town they are talking about is Montana de la Flor.
_______________________________________________________
Update: Looks like Hillary is stalling through the weekend. FFFFFF

Via Adrienne (please note: Chiquita sells a number of fruits and other products, not just bananas)

(Image from the Boycott Chiquita website)
I’m concerned that gorillas are getting a bum rap by being associated with thugs.
_________________________________
As Magbana at Honduras Oye reminds us, today is demo day, with demonstrations scheduled for Tucson and Phoenix, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles and San Jose, Atlanta, and
Detroit. There’s also a Chiquita Boycott movement.

The Frente Contra el Golpe has issued a position paper rejecting elections (absent restoration of the constitutional order). There’s also a semi-humorous “When will you return, Mr. President?” After explaining the abuses of The Gang from an ant’s-eye view and calling the liberty of all of Central America as a “clown show,” it closes by saying, “And please be sure to bring us a souvenir.”

Honduras Labor says that the regime is planning to stuff the ballot boxes on a massive scale and says that the 2005 election was manipulated, with roughly 800,000 votes left uncounted.

From a translation of an e-mail by Alberto Edel Morales at Adrienne Pine’s blog:

Jonathan Osorio, member of the resistance against the coup d’etat, university student and member of the National Federation of students of Honduras (FENAEH), was assassinated last night in Colonia Los Zorzales in Tegucigalpa, shot numerous times by hitmen driving on a motorcycle.

RAJ has some media criticism worthy of a Robert McChesney, comparing the construction of the NYT vs. the Washington Post vs. AP articles on the Honduran regime’s offer to allow Zelaya to return (but not as president) and to obtain limited amnesty (but not against fabricated criminal charges) as concessions in negotiations. They’re also willing to have international observers for the elections.

DemocracyNow:

…the secretary general of the Organization of American States has rejected a proposal by the coup government that would allow Zelaya to return to Honduras. Under the plan, Honduras’s interim ruler, Roberto Micheletti, offered to resign and accept Zelaya back into the country—as long as the democratically elected Zelaya gives up his claim to the presidency.

According to Tiempo, the town of Danli has declared itself a politics free zone. In other words, they will not allow elections.

Pro-coup La Tribuna reports that Melvin Redondo, who negotiated the CAFTA treaty says that it can’t just be be suspended. While I suspect that he’s right, there’s nothing to prevent the US from invoking the obvious: there’s no Honduran government in Honduras, and hence the treaty has ceased to exist. Let the courts work it out. In the meantime, Honduran goods get treated the same as North Korean. The legitimate ambassador to the OAS (who La Tribuna calls the former ambassador), Carlos Sosa, has asked the OAS not to recognize elections

Radio Globo is, alas, talking about “the Arabs and the Jews” who are concerned with their business interests to the exclusion of the problems of the Honduran people, illustrating the ethnic fractures noted on MercRising previously. A sub contractor of a company of the Elvin Santos family is protesting not being paid and calls them thieves. It sounds as if the occupation of the old presidential palace by INAH IHAH (Anthropology and History) is still on. Micheletti is unable to go out, because he’s in physical danger. Elvin Santos offers hunger and misery. They are cutting up the birthday cake in the presidential palace, and offering pieces to journalists.

TeleSur says Uruguay ceased to recognize the Honduran ambassador.

A car bomb was deactivated in front of a government building (the Technical Secretariat of Cooperation).

I am not able to get Channel 36, but Radio Progreso is on. Mostly music. An editorial notes that the beatings, rapes, murders, and abuses have only strengthened the movement and promises that the leaders of the coup will end up in history’s trashcan. A professor Mejia says they are hoping that Hillary will respond this afternoon. Cultural celebration and memory of the history. A woman recalls the intervention of the 1980s and the role of John Negroponte in the death squads. Adolfo Ateno from Nicaragua: this fight places democracy across the continent at risk. A permanent sit-in in front of the US embassy in Nicaragua. In the center of Managua, a cultural celebration. A brief squib: Ramon Garcia is the 6th victim of the coup, died July 11. NotiNada #37 (news that we like. News for the rich). From the Dept. of Injustice, proudly coupistas. The best news: we will tax everyone on the tax rolls (taxer todo el censo). Coupistas! Coupistas! Proudly coupistas! Well, I have to move on.

Friday Cat Blogging