Zelaya rejects Mexico asylum offer

[demoleft]

Source: al jazeera

The ousted Honduran president has rejected an offer to leave his country for Mexico because it would require him to abandon his claims to the presidency.

Honduras' de facto government has said it would allow Manuel Zelaya safe passage out of the country only if he applied for political asylum in Mexico.
...
Zelaya told Al Jazeera on Thursday that he would not let go "his rights as a president".

"I've been trying to find a solution in Mexico or in the Dominican Republic but they are asking me to resign and that's not going to happen.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/12/20091210184317371789.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. What will he do when "his rights as a president" expire with his term? n/t

[Igel]

6. Dunno.

I've heard a couple of comments here and there on the Web that imply some supporters think his term wasn't simply to occur within a period of time that expires on 1/27/10 but that it was to last that specific length of time.

If true, they'd probably say that since he was ousted in, I guess, June, that he still has 6 months of presidency coming to him.

Strikes me that he and the country would have been better off with the agreement he had going back at the start of November. He's certain not risk-averse.

[EFerrari]

8. He can be proud of at no point aiding and abetting the whitewash, that's what.

[L. Coyote]

11. Won't he remain President until there is a democratic election?

Zelaya will the leader of Honduras recognized by the rest of the world until the coup is undone somehow.

[totodeinhere]

17. Your logic would probably make him president for life.

That's not gonna happen.

[EFerrari]

36. Sure. The much better solution is to recognize a filthy election

by a dictatorship that is at this moment targeting gays, women and blacks.

Got it!

[ChangoLoa]

15. Did Brazilians told him he couldn't stay in their embassy after that?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Subtle problem is developing..

I believe that Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan, Italy, Israel, Panama, and Peru have announced they will recognize the newly elected government. If that list grows as expected, Brazil and Zelaya may find themselves out in the cold. Brazil broke diplomatic relations with the interim government, technically they do not have an embassy. If they maintain that position after more countries normalize relations with the Sosa led government, the current embassy will have to be closed.

[L. Coyote]

22. Who is Sosa?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

27. Porfirio Lobo Sosa known as Pepé Lobo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_Lobo_Sosa

[EFerrari]

38. Wrong. Since no one recognizes the de facto government

Brazil sure does have an embassy there and that embassy was defended by Susan Rice at the UN.

[EFerrari]

37. No.

[EFerrari]

35. They don't expire. He will always have been an elected President of Honduras

just as Carter and Clinton are elected former presidents of the United States.

[UTUSN]

2. Awww. He probably could have taken his crown with him!1

Manuel Zelaya talks on his mobile phone within the Brazilian embassy while his white cowboy hat is held by a bodyguard, Boris Muños. Photograph: Esteban Felix/AP

[L. Coyote]

3. Previous LATEST compilation: U.S. Urges Support of Neighbors for New Leader

Judi Lynn = Fri Dec-04-09
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4172057

[L. Coyote]

4. MONTHLY REVIEW!: Elections in Honduras: Whitewashing the Coup

Elections in Honduras: Whitewashing the Coup
Lisa Sullivan, School of the Americas Watch/Quixote Center
30 November 2009 - http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sullivan301109.html


I came to Honduras to participate as a human rights observer of the electoral climate in a delegation organized by the Quixote Center. Several delegations converged, connecting some 30 U.S. citizens with dozens more from Canada, Europe, and Latin America. In the days prior to the elections we scattered to different cities, towns, and villages, meeting with fishermen, farmers, maquila workers, labor leaders, teachers, and lawyers, as well as those who were jailed for carrying spray paint, hospitalized for being shot in the head by the military, and detained for reporting on the repression. It was, most likely, a bit off the 5-star, air-conditioned path of most of the mainstream journalists who are filling your morning papers with the wonders of today's elections.

But by the evening of the day of the elections, what we had witnessed in previous days pushed those of us from the U.S. directly to the doors of our embassy in Tegucigalpa. We realized that this place, not the polling stations, was where this horrific destiny of Honduras, and perhaps all of Latin America, was being determined. And so the U.S. citizens among us took our statements and signs and determination there.

We were, indeed, greeted by many: dozens of guards with cameras, some 30 journalists, Honduran police with guns and also cameras, as well as a low-flying helicopter that at least made us feel important. While the journalists let us read our entire statement of why these elections should not be recognized by our government because of the egregious repression, the embassy guards wouldn't even let us leave our slip of paper. That, in spite of the fact that the embassy's human rights officer, Nate Macklin, told our delegation leader to make sure to let him know if there were any human rights abuses.

In each of the many corners of the country visited by the 70-plus international observers, we witnessed the fear, repression, intimidation, bribery, and outright brutality of the government security forces ...............

[Judi Lynn]

10. Excellent first hand account by an American. Thank you. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. There are other statements that are the antithesis of that, Israel Ortega's is one

Both this citation and the Ortega one I gave are both more hyperbole that fact. Neutral observations on the election seem impossible to find, not that anyone would find that surprising.

[L. Coyote]

5. Honduran Coup Regime Erects Superficial Reality Around Elections

Honduran Coup Regime Erects Superficial Reality Around Elections Print E-mail
Written by Belén Fernández - Thursday, 10 December 2009 - http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2253/1/


A few days prior to the November 29 elections in Honduras, Francisco Varela—the homeless man regularly stationed outside the drive-through of one of the ubiquitous Espresso Americano establishments in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa—acquired a campaign T-shirt for National Party presidential candidate and soon-to-be victor Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo. The shirt boasted a slogan associating Lobo with immediate change; prospects for such things in Honduras were however called into doubt by the fact that the recent attempt by Honduran President Manuel (Mel) Zelaya to hold a nonbinding public opinion survey in order to gauge popular desire to rewrite the Constitution had been met with a coup d’état.

Presumably in order to avoid having to discuss why popular consultations could not be reconciled with the interests of the Honduran elite, the golpista regime transformed the survey issue into a bid by Zelaya to install himself as eternal president of Honduras in violation of Constitutional articles prohibiting leaders from serving more than one 4-year term. These articles had appeared less important in 1985 when current coup president Roberto Micheletti, then a member of Congress, attempted to prolong the presidency of Roberto Suazo Córdova; other neglected articles included Article 102 prohibiting the expatriation of any Honduran—which did not prevent the armed forces from depositing the elected Honduran president in Costa Rica on the morning of June 28—and Article 2 establishing the Honduran people as the true rulers of Honduras, an honor which still did not enable public opinion surveys.

Additional holes in golpista rhetoric consisted of Zelaya’s ineligibility to run in the November 29 elections whether or not the public opinion survey had been carried out and my failure over the past 4 months to encounter a single member of the Honduran anti-coup Resistance who has been more concerned with the fate of Zelaya than with the fate of the constituyente (National Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution).

Outside the Espresso Americano drive-through, Varela insisted that Lobo would bring about change by eliminating gang culture in Honduras—either via the death penalty or by imprisoning gang members for a sufficient number of decades so that they were unable to reproduce .......

[L. Coyote]

33. New LATEST 2010.01.09

Arrest warrants issued for Honduran military high command
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4213665&mesg_id=4213665

[L. Coyote]

7. AFP: Zelaya rejects offer to leave Honduras

Zelaya rejects offer to leave Honduras
By Noe Leiva (AFP) – 7 hours ago - http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gn-hWLMDizA4BA90R7009o8FE13w


TEGUCIGALPA — Efforts to end the six-month political crisis in Honduras lay in tatters Thursday as deposed leader Manuel Zelaya rejected an offer of exile barbed with demands he relinquish his claim to the presidency. ..........

"Yesterday, the de facto government... experienced another failure in its plan to get me to renounce my post," Zelaya told Brazil's Globo radio ....

"I can stay here 10 years. Here I have my guitar," .... "They want me to resign," he said..........

According to a copy of the Mexican offer obtained by AFP, Zelaya and four people close to him would be allowed to reside in Mexico, providing they were given safe passage to the airport ........

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim condemned the Micheletti government's refusal to approve Zelaya's departure.

......

Security was increased following reports of a possible Zelaya departure .....

[L. Coyote]

9. Brazil: Zelaya can stay at embassy as long as he wants

Brazil: Zelaya can stay at embassy as long as he wants
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1518634.php/Brazil-Zelaya-can-stay-at-embassy-as-long-as-he-wants


Brasilia - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya can stay at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa for as long as he wishes, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Earlier in the day, Francisco Catunda, charge d'affaires at the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, told Brazilian television that Zelaya would have to leave by January 27, the day his presidential mandate formally ends.

...........

[L. Coyote]

12. Honduras president-elect to meet with ousted Zelaya

I haver not seen a confirmation of this breaking news. ??

=====================
Honduras president-elect to meet with ousted Zelaya
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/298948,honduras-president-elect-to-meet-with-ousted-zelaya.html


Santo Domingo - Porfirio Lobo, the president-elect of Honduras, plans to meet next week with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in Santo Domingo to begin a "political dialogue," the Dominican President Leonel Fernandez said Friday. .......
Copyright DPA

[VanW]

14. AP confirms

"SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The leader of the Dominican Republic says ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will meet with his elected successor Monday in this Caribbean nation.

President Leonel Fernandez told reporters Friday that Zelaya and Porfirio Lobo were expected to talk about ways to resolve the political crisis that has gripped Honduras since the June 28 coup that removed Zelaya. He said Zelaya would arrive Sunday night and Lobo would fly in Monday.

There was no immediate comment from Honduras' interim government on whether it would allow Zelaya to leave the Brazilian Embassy, where he has taken refuge for nearly three months, to go to the meeting.

Honduran officials and Zelaya have been at odds this week on terms of a deal that would let him leave Honduras without fear of arrest on the charges of treason and abuse of power that led to his ouster.Zelaya told The Associated Press he was grateful to Fernandez for seeking to arrange the meeting. "We are analyzing his proposal, and we are in communication with President Fernandez," he said.

Lobo, who won Honduras' Nov. 29 presidential election, has said he supports granting amnesty both to Zelaya and to all of those involved in the coup that deposed him."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/l...

[VanW]

16. More info from El Mundo:

The meeting has been announced by the Dominican president, Leonel Fernández, meeting with both separately. It is expected that Zelaya on Sunday will exchange views with Fernandez, while next Monday it will be with Lobo.


http://www.elmundo.es/america/2009/12/11/noticias/12605...

[L. Coyote]

18. Lobo is using Zelaya as an excuse to grant amnesty to killersmand torturers!

This is like placing murder and trumped up charges in the same category, except worse. The truumped up charge is the excuse to forgive the killers!

[EFerrari]

20. Yes, he is. When he's finished with his puppet term,

he can have a good career at Faux Newz.

[Judi Lynn]

34. The people will fight it, no doubt. "Hondurans reject amnesty"

Saturday, 9 January 2010

Hondurans reject amnesty
For crimes since the coup:

Honduras: Social organizations and human rights defenders rejected the plans of the Honduran coupist Government to approve an amnesty for those people responsible for crimes committed since the coup in June 28.

“The humanity crimes will have their punishment sooner or later, and their authors will pay before the justice,” said a communiqué issuedby the National Front against the Coup, which gathers a wide number of groups and politicians. Members of the National Congress announced they had the decree to absolve those involved in crimes derived from the June 28 coup.

Rolando Dubon, head of the Parliament Amnesty Commission, said a meeting was held with a group of lawyers to adjust every fragment of the document, which will be submitted to vote on Monday.

Berta Oliva, coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared and Arrested People (COFADEH) warned that if the indult is approved they would take the case to the International Penal Court.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/01/09/wld02.asp



Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya march during
a protest rally in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Jan. 7, 2010. Hundreds of
Zelaya followers protested Thursday in the streets of Tegucigalpa
against solving the political crisis by using political amnesty for
Zelaya and demanding strict punishment for military chiefs who
participated in the military coup. (Xinhua/Rafael Ochoa)

[Judi Lynn]

40. Mark Weisbrot: Proposed Amnesty Serves to Whitewash Honduran Coup

Mark Weisbrot: Proposed Amnesty Serves to Whitewash Honduran Coup
Saturday 09 January 2010

by: The Center for Economic and Policy Research

Vote expected next week to absolve Honduran Military of crimes, even as murders continue.

Washington, DC - The international community should offer no support for planned amnesty for the perpetrators of the Honduran coup, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said today. Noting that both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders previously agreed on a deal to resolve the crisis that did not include amnesty for crimes, Weisbrot cautioned that current efforts to grant amnesty to the coup leaders would be merely an attempt to "whitewash the coup."

"The international community should remember that this is a regime that not only dealt a deadly blow to Honduran democracy through a military coup, it has also attempted to turn back time to a dark period of bloody dictatorships, death squads, disappearances, tortures, and murders," Weisbrot said. "Only international pressure will stop these abuses."

The Honduran congress is expected to vote early next week to approve amnesty for the perpetrators of the June 28 coup d'etat that ousted President Manuel Zelaya - who is still recognized as the legitimate president by the international community - and then imposed a dictatorship. This week the Attorney General, Luis Rubi, stated that armed forces head General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez and other military chiefs had violated Honduras' constitution by forcibly deporting Zelaya, but stopped short of charging them for removing Zelaya from power or for other crimes including the killing of unarmed demonstrators and other serious human rights violations.

In reaction to the Attorney General's charges against the military leaders, President Zelaya issued a statement Wednesday saying that Rubi is supporting the "impunity of the military by accusing them of lesser crimes and abuse of authority, and not for serious crimes they have committed: treason, murder, human rights violations, torture," and that "it is clear what is being done are preparatory acts for the impunity of the military and to avoid punishment for the material and intellectual authors of the military coup."

More:
http://www.truthout.org/109101weisbrot

[David__77]

25. I have an odd suspicion that Lobo is more left than right.

I think it's definitely good that he was elected over the Liberal rightist. Lobo was once a communist.

[L. Coyote]

13. Honduras: Reject Amnesty for Abuses During Coup

Honduras: Reject Amnesty for Abuses During Coup
11 Dec 2009 19:12:42 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch - http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/90a7081f542ddec49bceb503e408ebe4.htm


(Washington, DC) - The proposal by Porfirio Lobo, winner of Honduras' disputed presidential election on November 29, 2009, for an "amnesty for all" of those involved in the June coup d'etat violates the country's international obligations and undermines the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today. ..........

"A blanket amnesty would flout Honduras' obligation to ensure that all victims of rights violations can obtain a remedy, and set a precedent for granting impunity to abusers," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director at Human Rights Watch.
Honduras is party to several international legal treaties that impose an obligation to protect fundamental rights and to remedy their abuses, including by investigating and prosecuting the violators as appropriate. These treaties also guarantee victims an effective legal remedy, including justice, truth, and adequate reparations.
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the de facto government to repeal repressive decrees, stop blocking human rights inquiries, and investigate abuses -
including allegations of killings, excessive use of force, and illegal and arbitrary detentions.

"The abuses committed during the coup and its aftermath need to be investigated, not swept under the carpet," Vivanco said. "Without a full and impartial inquiry, the legitimacy of any government will be called into question."

[L. Coyote]

23. Special Briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo A. Valenzuela

Guess what? The US State Department can't write in Spanish, or thinks if it is Spanish, it doesn't count!!

===============
Special Briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo A. Valenzuela

Arturo Valenzuela
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Washington, DC
December 11, 2009 - http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/rm/2009/133461.htm

MR. WOOD: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the briefing. This morning, as you know, the Department held the first in a series of public engagement conferences, and to follow up on that, we have with us Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs Arturo Valenzuela, who is going to talk to you about issues of interest, and to preview an upcoming trip he has to the region. So I’ll turn it over to the Assistant Secretary.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Thanks very much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today. I just wanted to let you know that I’m taking the rest of this month to do the travel that I expected to do back in July and August that I wasn’t able to complete. In fact, one of my original objectives was to try to get to the Southern Cone ........

......

QUESTION: Yeah, Pablo Sanchez with Univision News. (In Spanish.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)

QUESTION: (In Spanish.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)

Okay. Honduras. (In Spanish.)

QUESTION: A follow-up, Mr. Secretary --

QUESTION: Yeah. Just – go ahead. You were going to stop in Brasilia first. And the foreign minister yesterday said that the United States has been excessively tolerant with the Micheletti government. You have been saying today, many times, that you would want to engage presidents of Central America. Maybe should the understanding that, once outside of Central America, it would not be, in your opinion – should not be so involved. So my point to you is: Is Brazil a difficult – the most difficult part of your trip, and what do you want to accomplish in Brasilia?

QUESTION: And if I can jump on that? Yesterday, on Brazil – so, yesterday the former USTR Carla Hills talking to former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso said that Brazil and U.S. seems to be at odds in a number of issues, namely, Iran, Honduras – the bases in Colombia.

.................

QUESTION: You don’t agree with this notion that the countries are at odds?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: I don’t think that we are at odds. We may have a different appreciation of certain kinds of things as we move forward. And certainly on the matter of the statement regarding the Honduran situation, we continue to be engaged, but we welcome the – let’s remember that President Zelaya is in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, and – so we welcome further engagement from other countries in the region, not only in Central America, but also in other places to try to resolve the situation in Honduras.

...........

QUESTION: Oh, I’m sorry. You mentioned that – earlier when you spoke that your appointment process was delayed and you were sitting in the cold office there alone, what’s – in terms of the timing, you know, you were sworn in on the 5th, and I think that Senator Jim DeMint de-blocked your nomination on the 5th. That was just two days after Tom Shannon went on CNN and said that the United States would support the elections.

What is the connection with the timing between the Administration’s decision to support elections in Honduras and recognize elections in Honduras and your appointment finalization?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: There – let me make something very, very clear about this, there is no linkage whatsoever there. And if Senator DeMint had an interpretation of that, you need to ask Senator DeMint. But what our position was – and it was articulated by my predecessor, Assistant Secretary Shannon – was that the United States, after the signing of the October 30th accord, would, of course, work with Honduras to recognize both the election, but only as it were part of a broader engagement in Honduras through a negotiating strategy that, in fact, did lead to the signing of the October 30th accord. So he never said, and that was not the policy of the United States – the United States would simply accept an election, no conditions. In fact, he made it very, very clear that the only reason why the United States would consider supporting the election is if, in fact, it was done through this agreement on both sides of the accord.

And Secretary Shannon, at that point, pointed directly to an agreement that both parties had signed – both parties, the representative of President Zelaya as well as the representatives of the de facto government on October 30th in which they had set the groundwork – the ground rules for the kind of agreement that was necessary. It was under that situation that he made that statement.

And subsequently, as the process has moved forward in Honduras, we’ve made very, very clear what was the policy all along, that the elections would be considered only a necessary condition for the reestablishment of the constitutional and democratic order in Honduras, not a sufficient condition. And that remains our policy today, and this is why we’re still very much engaged in trying to get the full implementation of that accord.

MR. WOOD: We’ve got time for two last questions, unfortunately. One here and then Goyal.

QUESTION: In Latin America this morning there is a lot of rhetoric – I don’t know if you have seen the last Mercosur meeting in Montevideo. I want to ask you if you are going to work also with some countries of the ALBA soon, if you are going to travel to Venezuela, to Ecuador, to Bolivia, to these countries where we are seeing a lot of rhetoric in the Western Hemisphere. And also, what do you think about this ideologic problem that also you mentioned that’s happening in Washington?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Listen. From the very outset of this Administration, the President himself has made very, very clear that our policy is a policy that is aimed at engaging and at having dialogue and looking for avenues where we can pursue issues of mutual interest. This is what we want to do .........

[VanW]

24. You can't expect anyone to understand that crazy moon-language

For all we know, they are talking about tacos or siestas or whatever they think about in those far-off tropical lands.

;)

[L. Coyote]

26. Embarassing themselves to be sure, and moreso because they seem to not realize it.

[L. Coyote]

28. Zelaya backers said killed, arrested

Published: Dec. 12, 2009 at 2:50 PM - http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/12/12/Zelaya-backers-said-killed-arrested/UPI-89561260647415/


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Dozens of supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya have been killed and thousands more arrested, human rights groups allege.

Such organizations in Honduras and abroad say the country's de facto government has instituted a crackdown on Zelaya's backers in a country where death squads and extrajudicial killings already were already common, The Miami Herald reported Saturday.

The newspaper quoted activists as saying there have also been more than 3,000 people arrested, 450 beatings and 114 people jailed as political prisoners since the June coup.

But National Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato disputed those figures. ...........

[L. Coyote]

29. President Zelaya to get safe passage out of Honduras

Manuel Zelaya to get safe passage out of Honduras
December 13, 2009 - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6954865.ece


The interim government of Honduras is to grant Manuel Zelaya, the ousted President, safe passage to any country outside Central America that offers him asylum, in the latest phase of negotiations over the deposed premier's future.

The announcement, which a Foreign Ministry spokesman said came from the "very highest government level", appears to seek a compromise with Mr Zelaya, allowing him to emerge safely from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where he sought refuge after sneaking back into the country in September.

The interim Government had threatened to arrest him on the charges of treason and abuse of power that led to the June coup in which he was removed at gunpoint from office.

...............

"He is absolutely aware that when his mandate ends, he will need to go elsewhere," said the Brazilian embassy's charge d' affaires, Francisco Catunda.

On Sunday Mr Zelaya's representative would say only that he had no plans to leave Honduras this weekend.

[L. Coyote]

31. De facto government blocks solution to Honduras’ crisis, Dominican leader says

De facto government blocks solution to Honduras’ crisis, Dominican leader says
Local - 14 December 2009, 7:28 AM - http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2009/12/14/34179/De-facto-government-blocks-solution-to-Honduras-crisis-Dominican-leader


SANTO DOMINGO.- The meeting between ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and candidate elect Porfirio Lobo in Santo Domingo which had been announced for today, to find a solution to Honduras’ political crisis was postponed indefinitely, because Roberto Micheletti’s de facto government didn’t authorize the former’s exit. ....

The Dominican Presidency announced the failure of a Zelaya-Lobo dialogue in a statement yesterday, which notes the beginning of the talks was " delayed before the impossibility by the de facto government to facilitate the exit of president Manuel Zelaya from his country."........

It indicates that Micheletti’s government insists on conditioning Zelaya’s exit on his leaving the Brazilian embassy as a political exile ....

[WriteDown]

32. Maybe they should have arrested them before they killed them?

:shrug:

[L. Coyote]

30. Latin Leaders Denounce US Interference

Latin Leaders Denounce US Interference
http://www.hamsayeh.net/hamsayehnet_iran-international%20news649.htm


Dec. 14, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Latin American Leaders lambasted US government’s frequent interference in Latin American affairs during an important economic summit (ALBA) in Havana.

Cuban Leader Raul Castro accused the US of treating Latin America as its own backyard and condemned the US military’s access to Colombian military bases.

Also Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez labelled Washington’s criticism about Latin American relationship with Iran as an, ‘imperial offensive’ an ‘overt threat,’ .....

......... the Cuban Leader also accused The US government’s support for the military coup in Honduras that ousted Jose Manuel Zelaya the country’s legitimate President in June this year. Cuban leader said ‘"The people of that Latin American nation have had their constitutional rights denied and a usurper government has been imposed with the support of the North American administration, which they've attempted to legitimize with an electoral farce.’

Castro expressed his disbelief at the absence of the Honduran President Zelaya at the summit. .......

[Judi Lynn]

39. SLIDESHOW: Inside the World’s Newest Police State

January 9, 2010
SLIDESHOW: Inside the World’s Newest Police State

Photos of Honduras in crisis, all taken since President Mel Zelaya was ousted from power by a military coup last June.
By Jeremy Kryt

Photos of Honduras in crisis, all taken since President Mel Zelaya was ousted from power by a military coup last June.
By Jeremy Kryt

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—It’s the worst political and humanitarian crisis to hit Central America since the terrible wars of the 1980s, and it doesn’t seem likely to go away any time soon.

The coup that deposed President Mel Zelaya last June ignited a firestorm of nonviolent but determined resistance, but the business-military junta—under the leadership of de facto president Roberto Micheletti—reacted to the peaceful marches and demonstrations by cracking down hard on protesters. More than 3,000 people have been detained, and hundreds more have been beaten, with many requiring hospitalization for their wounds. At least 28 members of the resistance have been killed by soldiers, police, or political assassins during the last five months.

Zelaya’s term will officially end on January 27. His successor, Porfirio Lobo, is widely seen as having cooperated with the coup. The turnout for an election in late November was the lowest in the Honduras’ history, and the coup government was caught in the act of fixing the numbers. Meanwhile, Zelaya remains trapped in the Brazilian embassy, allowed to leave the country safely only if he first renounces the presidency.

In the weeks since the election, the human rights situation has deteriorated. Shooting and killings are becoming increasingly common in the streets, as the coup government’s harsh policies have led to a troubling rise in poverty and violent crime. And last month, the regime itself was accused of torturing and murdering two resistance activists.

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5385/slideshow_inside_the_worlds_newest_police_state/