Familiar US Tactics in Honduras Coup

By Ayinde
Posted: June 29, 2009
Updated: June 30, 2009

While the world was gripped with the news of Michael Jackson's passing, Hugo Chavez expressed concern about "CNN for giving more coverage to the death of pop star Michael Jackson than to the situation in Honduras, where he said, a coup d'etat is taking place." (1) Many were critical of Chavez for that statement but I knew that some people would seize that period of distraction to implement their wicked agendas.

Through the limited amount of information that was being given by the mainstream media together with reports from a few independent media websites, it was not hard to see how the US government was involved in another regime-change exercise. As was pointed out in the article "US Govt. Confirms it Knew Coup Was Coming" posted by Eva Golinger on the chavezcode.com website (2), the New York Times confirmed the US's involvement in the coup:

"As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday."

The US is involved in the political affairs of Honduras to a great extent. Why was it necessary for the US to be in talks with the government and the military other than to coerce the government into changing from its left-wing pursuits? We know the US government has influence over the Honduran military forces and the New York Times article reminds us of this: (3)

"The two nations have long had a close military relationship, with an American military task force stationed at a Honduran air base about 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa. The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America."

In an interview on Democracy Now!, Latin American History professor and journalist Greg Grandin said: (4)

"The Honduran military is effectively a subsidiary of the United States government. Honduras, as a whole, if any Latin American country is fully owned by the United States, it's Honduras. Its economy is wholly based on trade, foreign aid and remittances. So if the US is opposed to this coup going forward, it won't go forward. Zelaya will return, if the United States—if Obama and Hillary Clinton are sincere in their statements about returning Zelaya to power."

Hugo Chavez had broken off his military training exercises with the US when he recognised the influence the US was wielding over his armed forces. Here is another quote to that effect from the article "Moving out of the superpower orbit" (5) written by Tom Engelhardt:

"...Chavez suddenly broke off military-to-military relations, just about the only kind the Bush administration ever promotes, and threw out "a small group of US officers who were teaching and studying in Venezuela", accusing them of encouraging plots against his government. He also ended joint military exercises, suspended all military exchanges, and even threatened to try any American military officer found spying in Venezuelan courts."

The kidnapping of President Zelaya, his reported resignation and placing him in exile is similar to what was attempted in the short-lived coup against President Hugo Chávez. (6) A similar plot was successfully used against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti. (7)

In the article "Democracy Derailed in Honduras" (8) Greg Grandin explains:

"...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is working to 'preserve some leverage to try and get Zelaya to back down from his insistence on a referendum' and presumably from his other populist policies.

It seems like what the United States might be angling for in Honduras could be the 'Haiti Option.' In 1994 Bill Clinton worked to restore Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide after he was deposed in a coup, but only on the condition that Aristide would support IMF and World Bank policies. The result was a disaster, leading to deepening poverty, escalating polarization and, in 2004, a second coup against Aristide, this one fully backed by the Bush White House."

So it appears once again that the US is involved in another anti-democratic coup, this time under the watch of President Barrack Obama.

NOTES:

1. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez scolds CNN for coverage of Michael Jackson's death
   www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=81213 ↩
   
   
2. "Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup" by Elisabeth Malkin
   www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html ↩
   
   
3. "US Govt. Confirms it Knew Coup Was Coming" by Eva Golinger
   www.chavezcode.com/2009/06/update-100am-us-govt-confirms-it-new.html ↩
   
   
4. "Coup in Honduras: Military Ousts President Manuel Zelaya, Supporters Defy Curfew and Take to the Streets" - Democracy Now!
   www.democracynow.org/2009/6/29/coup_in_honduras_military_ousts_president ↩
   
   
5. "Moving out of the superpower orbit" by Tom Engelhardt
   www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE04Aa01.html ↩
   
   
6. "Three Days that Shook the Media" by Al Giordano
   www.narconews.com/threedays.html ↩
   
   
7. "The overthrow of Haiti's Aristide: a coup made in the USA"
   Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board
   www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/hait-m01.shtml ↩
   
   
8. "Democracy Derailed in Honduras" by Greg Grandin
   www.thenation.com/doc/20090713/grandin/single ↩
   

Comments

Kae: June 29, 2009

I doubt the immediate inner circle of the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, are kept that informed on the actions of the CIA and Pentagon. They can easily say appeasing sentiments after the fact especially when they get an inkling that those rogue agencies might be involved in corrupt and damaging foreign policies toward other countries. The CIA, Pentagon and other US sponsored covert agencies have been involved in ruthless actions worldwide including most of the coups that have taken place in the last several decades.

Until an administration is really willing to part with the status quo of US foreign policy and take the necessary steps to expose and reign in these corrupt agencies, we would be seeing much of the same. The claims of compassion and ignorance on the parts of the figureheads Obama and Clinton though are inexcusable. They took the job.

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