I usually don’t take requests. I’m not a lounge singer or a disc jockey or a dish washer (“More sauté pans, please!”). I’m in a more noble profession. I am a blogist—the artistically correct term for one who writes blogs. One who creates art is an artist. Therefore one who creates blogs is a blogist.
However, I also usually don’t get any emails either. So when my first email asked for my thoughts on the coup in Honduras, I was a bit frightened. Since Michael Jackson did not die in Honduras, I must admit I have not paid any attention to news reports about the Zelaya coup.
However, much of what I have read believes the coup was CIA orchestrated like the one attempted against Bolivian president Evo Morales last September. I do not doubt it one bit.
So the guy who used words like “hope” and “change” to get elected, is president of a coup and CIA-instigated destabilization throughout Latin America. Is this something he inherited like Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs or did he know before hand? Reportedly, the groundwork for this coup was laid by John Negroponte last year.
Also reportedly, soldiers going to Iraq are trained in Honduras for exterminating the populations of towns and villages. Hard to believe? George Washington, the father of our country, was called the “town destroyer” and “town burner” by the Iroquois because he burned Indian villages during the Revolution. Apparently America has a long history of this.
Some see this coup and the tensions between the militaries and civilian governments of other countries throughout Latin America as a return to the military dictatorships of the 70s. That should concern us all. Given the fact that the U.S. established military bases in Honduras during the Contra war and that drug trafficking is entrenched in Honduras says the United States never intended to let Honduras be truly free from our domination.
Clinton called Zelaya “reckless” when he stepped one foot inside Honduras from the Nicaraguan border to declare he will return to power. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I can only imagine what Jesse Helms would say and do in the face of this coup—he would rejoice and call Zelaya a communist. Far from the ferocity of Clinton’s comment.
What I find curious in all this is the reaction of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. He is against the coup, but he himself attempted a coup in 1992 against former Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez. Chavez and Bolivian president Evo Morales think it may have even been a CIA job like the attempt to overthrow him last September.
With the news that Dick Cheney wanted to send troops to Lackawanna, New York to arrest Yemeni-Americans rather than the FBI makes me wonder if there is a momentum of burgeoning right-wing militarism right here that may become more apparent especially in the next Republican president cheerleaded on by Cheney.
After all, Cheney and Helms (who was perhaps America’s biggest champion of right-wing South American military dictatorships) were good friends, both believed in doing what they wanted and in letting Congress or the courts deal with their illegalities which went uninvestigated and unpunished.
For me, the litmus test in any leadership question in the Western Hemisphere (including the U.S.) is how they treat their indigenous peoples. Apparently, Chavez’s socialism doesn’t extend to them.
However, Honduran indigenous leaders are calling for Zelaya’s return to the presidency, saying the referendum was meant to rewrite the Constitution and give them greater political power. That seems to me to be a gold embossed invitation for the Honduran military to overthrow Zelaya, I don’t know.
Further, a press release by the Indigenous Coordinating Body of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (CIMCA) says that the coup is a throwback to a darker time:
“The military during the ’80s lead abominable operations against the civil populations, as is being done now by coup President Micheletti who is calling on these same men to be his advisors. This means that there is a latent and serious danger to the lives of all indigenous leaders and those of others in the social movements.”
South and Central America will obviously never become stable until America truly changes. But how can America change when those of us who elected our current president for the purpose of change don’t really trust him now?
This is intriguing. More about Obama’s CIA adventures in the coming weeks. .
I have come to the conclusion that returning Zelaya to power is something for the Impossible Missions Force.
Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to weaken the Honduran military and return Zelaya to office.
For those who need to hear it, here it is: the Mission Impossible opening, an extended version.
Pay close attention at 00:18. It looks like someone is about to be water boarded. Someone is holding a nose and shoving a cloth into an open mouth.
