US Terrorizing Honduras to Keep Control Over Latin America
The tireless Dana Frank has a brand new piece up at Foreign Affairs about the Obama administration’s support of the 2009 military coup in Honduras, and how US military funding “has increased every year since” despite a dramatic increase in human rights abuses.
US-backed Honduran drug squad guards a cocaine (AFP)
“Since early 2010, there have been more than 10,000 complaints of human rights abuses by [US funded and trained] state security forces,” she writes, and “in many ways, Washington is responsible for this dismal turn.”
The situation brings back haunting memories of other U.S. involvements in Latin America. Washington has a dark track record of supporting military coups against democratic governments and then funneling money to repressive regimes. In 1964, the United States backed a military coup in Brazil; in 1973, it supported a military coup headed by Augusto Pinochet in Chile; and during the 1980s, it threw millions of dollars at the leaders in El Salvador. All of these U.S.–backed governments ruled with enormous brutality. In Honduras today, the United States’ hands are already dirty: A botched drug raid in the Moskitia region on May 11, carried out by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Honduran security forces, left four civilians dead, two of whom were pregnant women.
The increased support for the abusive and corrupt military regime in Honduras has occurred in tandem with an increase in US military presence in the country and penetration by commando-style militias from the Drug Enforcement Administration. There have been a number of cases in recent months of joint US-Honduran raids and gunfights with alleged drug traffickers, but it hasn’t cracked down so much as it has made the country more dangerous. In one such incident in May, DEA agents and Honduran forces shot and killed four civilians, including two pregnant women, with total impunity beyond having to say they were sorry.
The drug war is at best a side issue for the US in Honduras, especially considering the regime Washington supports is rife with politicians and government officials who themselves participate in the drug trade and organized crime. Dana Frank sheds some light on the true strategic calculus:
The State Department is pursuing such a misguided policy for larger strategic reasons in the region: to push back against the governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, and others, which have moved considerably to the left in the last 15 years. Above all, Washington’s Honduras policy is a deliberate message to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Endorsing the coup served as a not-so-subtle threat that the others could be next. Paraguay only proves the point further — in June, the State Department looked the other way when Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was overthrown.
So Washington is afraid of what it has always been afraid of in Latin America: losing control of it. Too many countries are unwilling to simply obey US demands, therefore, support for tyranny is justified.
Hide Behind
October 17th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
So what’s new, as I can remembrr riots and even hunfire at dam near every American embassy south of our Southern border since trick Fivks Cadillac being stoned on his VP visits.
Paraguay is where Bush and that group own hundreds of thousans of acers; Bush parcel has a couple villages withinit.
Scool of America did a name change but mostly just moved its traing to another country owned by US on one side Dominican Republix and on the otherside except where new msssive gold mining project just beginning is Haitti the slum of the Americas.
Hide Behind
October 17th, 2012 at 10:04 pm
PS the article left out that it is our Special Forces not directly under Military command but Dept of State that has what When Rumsfeld began it the Army of Virginia.
When he left he had only Two with another group almost ready
; total will be over 15 such strike forces in futureRegular military no more than mules for whatever operations these units are assigned to do by Hillary and Other Executive Branch including DEA AND CIA.
evepep
October 19th, 2012 at 4:42 am
There is a glaring misconception in this article. HONDURAS DID NOT HAVE A MILITARY COUP IN 2009. They didn't. The Honduran constitution forbids a sitting president (at that time Mel Zelaya) from trying to extend his term and so the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court removed the president and replaced him with the next in line from his party (Roberto Micheletti). Michelletti was then forbidden by the constitution to run for his own term and so an election was held, right on time in November and a new president was elected from a different party. There was a peaceful transfer of power that January. Honduras is a democracy and the military is not running the country. Sheesh – - go there and see for yourself!
Henry Fransen, Jr
October 20th, 2012 at 9:16 am
The above report is absolutely correct. The media plays a great role in twisting facts.
Jesspny
October 20th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Thank God there is always someone paying attention! Twisted facts…. It is responsible of our world going upside down.
Jesspny
October 20th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
My respects for standing out for the truth!
Tyterkkd
October 21st, 2012 at 12:05 am
A botched drug raid in the Moskitia region on May 11, carried out by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Honduran security forces, left four civilians dead, two of whom were pregnant women.
MvGuy
October 21st, 2012 at 6:34 am
****************************** "trying to extend his term" ……………………………………………
Does buying a constituent an order of fries constitute ………….."trying to extend his term "
O.K., O.K. You have told us what the constitution forbids "The Honduran constitution forbids a sitting president (at that time Mel Zelaya) from trying to extend his term.
You forgot to tell US what the president did to trigger his removal………………………
JUST A SMALL OVERSIGHT….. What Zelaya was specifically accused of DOING………………..
His "crime" was ……. "A vote is scheduled for Zelaya’s nonbinding referendum on convening a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution….."
And if everything was "Legal" ……. Why was the removal done without any due process BEFORE legally sitting President Zelaya’s ouster and DEPORTATION by the military…
The following is a timeline of major events following President Manuel Zelaya’s removal on June 28, 2009:
November 27, 2005:
* Manuel Zelaya is elected as President of Honduras. He later joins Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a regional bloc that promotes economic alternatives to neoliberalism and greater economic and political integration within the Americas, alongside other left-leaning Latin American leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales.
June 28, 2009
* A vote is scheduled for Zelaya’s nonbinding referendum on convening a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. The opposition and many member of Zelaya’s own Liberal Party accuse Zelaya of using the referendum to eliminate Honduras’ one-term limit and seek reelection.
* Soldiers arrest President Zelaya before dawn at his home and force him onto a plane bound for Costa Rica.
* The Supreme Court confirms that it ordered the armed forces to expel Zelaya.
* Congress appoints the President of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, as interim president of Honduras.
* The European Union publicly condemns the "coup d'etat" against Zelaya and demands his reinstatement.
* Hugo Chavez condemns the coup and pledges to respond with military force if Zelaya is harmed.
* The U.S. State Department condemns Zelaya's removal and supports his return as the rightful president of Honduras. Although a senior State Department official does refer to the situation as a "coup" during a special briefing, Secretary Clinton releases a statement regarding the "action taken against Honduran President Mel Zelaya."
* The Organization of American States (OAS) "strongly condemns" the coup against President Zelaya and calls on "the Honduran people, the nations in the Americas and the international community" to restore democracy.
I DON"T KNOW THE HONDURAN CONSTITUTION….. But I don't believe having a non-binding plebiscite on convening a constitutional convention would trigger the High court SECRETLY using the MILITARY to DEPORT a SITTING president WITHOUT A PUBLIC TRIAL or an OPEN JUDICIAL PROCEEDING… BECAUSE; The opposition and many member of Zelaya’s own Liberal Party (SUSPECT) Zelaya of (Attempting to use) the referendum to eliminate Honduras’ one-term limit.
As far as: "go there and see for yourself! …….. There is no way for me or our posters here to see BEHIND the curtain (of governance) in our own countries. Forget about it in a place like Honduras.. Sheesh….!!!
MvGuy
October 21st, 2012 at 7:06 am
So great to have one more place where U.S, forces can shoot the locals for fun & (no doubt) profit…..
MvGuy
October 21st, 2012 at 7:33 am
HERE IS BEHIND THE CURTAIN REPORTING See: http://www.madcowprod.com/2012/09/11/honduran-jet…
Sept. 11 2012
A jet fighter from Honduras shot down a plane carrying cocaine last month over Guanaja, part of the Bay Islands chain in the Caribbean, killing a DEA agent onboard.
According to El Herald newspaper in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, which broke the story, the shoot-down of the DEA-approved drug flight was behind the U.S. cut-off of radar intelligence to Honduras.
Citing military sources, El Herald reported that the previously-undisclosed incident was also responsible for the recently-announced U.S. decision to suspend Operation Anvil, the DEA’s commando-style mission in Honduras.
It also prompted an unscheduled visit from General Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command. Afterwards, Pepe Lobo, President of Honduras since the coup in 2009, sacked the head of the Honduran Air Force.
MvGuy
October 21st, 2012 at 7:43 am
Gee, you didn't read the story of the CIA plane of coke shot down in Honduras and a DEAD CIA AGENT…???….. Read the article and see the pictures… Its only an excerpt above….. Click the URL.
madcowprod.com is onto these drug stories and pulls no punches also, see: http://narconews.com
David Maharaj
October 23rd, 2012 at 6:59 am
Weocome to the War On (some) Drugs.
When will the tentacles of the Evil Empire stop growing and grabbing innocent people?
I am afraid bankruptcy may be the only solution for the regime in Washington.
David Maharaj
Toronto
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