WIKILEAKS: US role in establishing Honduran dictatorship

[kpete]

US role in establishing Honduran dictatorship
by CharlesII
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/28/923830/-US-role-in-establishing-Honduran-dictatorship
Sun Nov 28, 2010 at 05:48:07 PM PST

One of the documents released by Wikileaks has established that as of July 24th, 2009, approximately one month after the coup, Ambassador Hugo Llorens had established that there was no basis for the removal of President Manuel Zelaya and that it was an illegal military coup. This is significant because:

1. As a Cuban exile, Ambassador Llorens was in no way sympathetic to left-leaning governments.

2. The cable was addressed to Legal Advisor Harold Koh, among others. Koh has been regarded as one of the "good guys" at State. This places his reputation in danger. In addition, Legal Advisor Joan Donoghue, an addressee, was elevated to the International Court of Justice and should be obliged to step down.

3. The Millennium Foundation, for which Hillary Clinton was Chairman of the Board, continued to deliver aid, contrary to US law.

4. This analysis went to the White House, meaning that the Administration thereafter participated in what it knew to be an illegal dictatorship.

.....

On July 24, 2009, US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens, cabled Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon, NSC Advisor Dan Restrepo, Legal Adviser Harold Koh, and Legal Advisor Joan Donoghue to advise them of his analysis of the coup that had taken place a little less than one month earlier.

Llorens was blunt, headlining the memo: OPEN AND SHUT: THE CASE OF THE HONDURAN COUP.He stated plainly that:

The Embassy perspective is that there is no doubt that the military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired on June 28 in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup against the Executive Branch... There is equally no doubt from our perspective that Roberto Micheletti's assumption of power was illegitimate.

more:
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09TEGUCIGALPA645.html
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Cable/embajada/Tegucigalpa/elpepuint/20101128elpepuint_15/Tes
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/11/28/2176996/all-parties-broke-law-in-honduras.html


Zelaya had the audacity to raise the minimum wage. That was his "crime." The oligarchs revere those like Reagan who presided over zero minimum wage increases in eight years and GWB who tried to match that record. (GHWB and Clinton were only sightly better.)
sad, kpete

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

UPDATED to add:

Section 7008 -

Prohibits appropriations under titles III-VI of this Act from being provided to any country whose elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree (assistance may be resumed if a democratic government is elected to office).
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN01434:@@@D&summ2=m&

[Arctic Dave]

1. Well well well.

Once again we turn a blind eye to illegal activities as long as it benefits us. But if someone else does they are considered tyrants.

And this gets us the the heart of these leaks. Our governments doesn't deserve our respect and they are more willing to help destroy anyone who wants to help people achieve a decent living.

[originalpckelly]

3. Yeppers, this is not a new thing...

Just watch this, if you haven't caught it making the rounds, 'round here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430#

[joshcryer]

31. Yep. We love our left wing coups.

;)

[reggie the dog]

89. you mean right wing coup

[originalpckelly]

2. Not even Miss Cleo saw this one coming. NOT!

The US and a foreign dictatorship, being aided illegally? No shit, that never happens.

Miss Cleo has something to say my fellow DUers:

You're dumber than my former clients.

[malaise]

5. LOL

As I wrote ages ago US foreign policy is all hawks no doves.

[originalpckelly]

7. Good saying, and sadly it is so true.

[EFerrari]

56. But the sh!t we do in this hemisphere is the worst and treated like

spousal abuse. No one talks about it but the woman is surely to blame. :crazy:

[laughingliberal]

72. This was one of the things I was hoping to see in today's release.

Although most were already aware of the complicity, this does take away the ability of our government to lie about it anymore

[EFerrari]

78. Yes. Me, too. We now have the ocular proof.

There is a very strong impulse to deny what we know that's a little easier to fend off when we have the paper.

[laughingliberal]

80. Dare we hope there's more on Latin America in there?

I keep seeing there's dispatches from Colombia in this leak but have not been able to locate any, as yet.

[EFerrari]

81. There is one cable from Paris that says Chavez is turning Venezuela

into Zimbabwe, a racist and predictable reference to the democratizing of Venezuela out of the hands of the white oligarchy.

Maybe more tomorrow.

[laughingliberal]

Thanks. nt

[SnakeEyes]

132. or a reference to...

the economic/currency manipulation that wrecked havoc for zimbabwe

[malaise]

91. I have lived it sis

I know. The shock doctrine continues to shock.

[Initech]

4. To use a Bill Hicks quote: "How does it feel to know that *WE* are the evil empire?"

[originalpckelly]

6. I put it a slightly different way:

We were the lesser of two evil empires. The time for this evil empire to end is now. It will happen, and we must make this government leak like a sieve for it to end. I think we should call it the truth revolution. Not truth about our political leaders personal idiosyncrasies, but the advice they're given and secret operations around the world, like this one. End it now, while we can, or it will end itself someday, and it will end with nuclear war.

[Initech]

17. If we invade Iran, it's over.

[frazzled]

8. And? Obama publicly stated it was an illegal coup, and tried to stop it

In case you forgot:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8125292.stm

Obama says Honduras coup illegal

President Obama: ''Honduras coup was not legal''

US President Barack Obama has described the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as illegal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/29/obama-tried-to-stop-hondu_n_222140.html

Obama Tried To Stop Honduras Coup

Buried in a Wall Street Journal article is the news that President Obama tried to stop Sunday's coup in Honduras:

The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any moves to overthrow President Zelaya, said senior U.S. officials. Washington's ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, sought to facilitate a dialogue between the president's office, the Honduran parliament and the military.
The efforts accelerated over the weekend, as Washington grew increasingly alarmed. "The players decided, in the end, not to listen to our message," said one U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. On Sunday, the U.S. embassy here tried repeatedly to contact the Honduran military directly, but was rebuffed. Washington called the removal of President Zelaya a coup and said it wouldn't recognize any other leader.

This is not news. We were on the right side of this one. The information in the leak was generally known (although the Ambassador's words themselves were probably confidential.)

[EFerrari]

12. No. We never stopped all the funding and we never stopped

training the military. Obama's statement was late and tentative. Clinton's DoS did everything it could do to facilitate the coup. From Negroponte on the ground in the run up, to the big fat contract DoD gave to Harris after, we were on the wrong side from soup to nuts.

Maybe that's news to you.

[ProSense]

14. Exactly,

this information is going to be twisted out of shape to fit any conclusion by anyone on the Internet. The distortions are going to be epic.

[Odin2005]

85. You keep telling yourself that.

[de novo]

96. As will the spin!

:toast:

[Puregonzo1188]

19. Then why are we continuing to send military aid to Honduras?

You know why send military to aid to military government that is the product of an ILLEGAL coup?

[laughingliberal]

73. +1 nt

[pokercat999]

131. I recently read an article about GHW Bush buying 96,000

acres of land just outside a new US Military base in Honduras, which also was going to be the home of the largest airport in the country. Is that correct?

[Xicano]

20. Talk is cheap.

n/t

[originalpckelly]

25. After reading this, it sounds like a US airfield was used to fly the President out.

We cooperated with them in something that our own guy said was illegal. That's why this is bad. If I understand it correctly.

[EFerrari]

26. It was. n/t

[sabrina 1]

58. Public statements that were not backed up by the actions of the U.S.

in that illegal Coup. Face it, it doesn't matter which party is in power, the policies stay the same and no one will reach the WH unless they have signaled a willingness to go along with those criminal policies.

[sabrina 1]

60. "Zelaya had the audacity to raise the minimum wage."

The same reason why Aristedes was the victim of a coup. He raised the minimum wage for his people and tried to provide better education for them. That, apparently, made him an enemy of the U.S. And Chavez. Anyone who tries to help their own people in those countries where the U.S. has been backing brutal dictators for so long, cannot survive. Chavez has foiled them so far, but as he said to Robert Fisk, he knows he is a constant target of the west and they may get him one day, but the longer he can help his people rise up out of the poverty the Global Capitalists have kept them in for so long, the better chance there is it won't be so easy for them anymore.

How sad to learn that there is little hope of changing anything. At least before Democrats won, I thought there was.

[laughingliberal]

74. +1000 nt

[formercia]

99. Keep the peons poor, stupid and desperate for work.

They don't want people who can think and have the time and resources to do something about their situation.

[Odin2005]

84. that was the diplo-speak to give us plausible deniability.

NO RW coup happens in Latin America unless it is backed by the US.

[frazzled]

94. Well, no point arguing with conspiracists

You can't win. Enjoy your smug religiosity.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

111. No, wait, let me guess, he was a fierce advocate against the coup. -nt

[EFerrari]

9. Whoooooooop, there it is.

And I forgive all the people that told me I was anti-American and hated the president.

This is the American way in Latin America and Obama has very little to do with it.

[Overseas]

10. sad K&R. //nt

[ProSense]

11. This is the danger

Flawed interpretations and wrong conclusions.

This comment is exactly how I remember the incident.

From The Hill:

<...>

DeMint has long objected to the Obama administration's response to the crisis, saying they should shun Zelaya, not promote his return to power.

The United States does not recognize the de facto government led by President Roberto Micheletti. Honduras’ acting government has hoped that the November elections would put an end to the political crisis there.

Zelaya’s ouster has divided members of Congress. Many Republicans accused Zelaya, who is a left-leaning figure, of acting unconstitutionally to extend his term as president. Many Democrats stood behind Zelaya and alleged the coup was an undemocratic power grab.

Kerry has frequently criticized the acting regime for shunning diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis. In early September, he praised a vote to slash $30 million in aid to the country in reaction to the ouster.

The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee also demanded that Zelaya be returned to power under the conditions of a negotiated agreement with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

“I strongly support Costa Rican President Arias’s efforts to restore democracy with the conditioned return of President Zelaya,” Kerry said after the aid reduction. “The coup regime has engaged in undemocratic practices that cast a dark shadow over elections scheduled for November.”

Kerry echoed the stance of the U.S. government, which also backs supports restoring Zelaya to power. Under the terms of the agreement, Zelaya would return to office with limited power then leave office when his term expires in December.

link

[EFerrari]

15. Oh, baloney on rye. Clinton still denies any blood was shed

and there is right now, ongoing, kidnapping and murder being done by the coup government.

[ProSense]

18. Baloney? The facts reported October 2009 are there.

I made no mention of Clinton and I guess you have information on her position.

[Puregonzo1188]

22. Clinton's position on Honduras is well known.

She denied there was a coup, even when Obama said there was one, she's been very supportive of the coup government, and she's encouraged other governments to recognize them as legitimate:



http://www.progressive.org/wx030510.html

[EFerrari]

24. You of course know that former Clinton PR flack and douchebag

Lonny Davis was the coup's spokesman in Washington, right?

You know that Clinton was opposed to Zelaya returning to Honduras, right?

You know that Susan Rice did not allow any discussion whatsoever of the coup's human rights violations in the Security Council, right?

I followed this story very carefully. To say that the Obama White House facilitated the take over is pretty accurate but, it's more accurate to say that US LatAm policy rolls on.

There's plenty of information on the net, ProSense. In our own LatAm forum, if you are so concerned about Honduras.

[ProSense]

27. "Lonny Davis " Lanny Davis?

Yeah, I know. Melanie Sloan, who used to be with CREW, just when to work for him.

The point is that the report showed that the administration, and definitely Kerry, acknowledged the coup.

[EFerrari]

32. You're right. This Lanny Davis:

The Obama administration took their time calling the coup a coup and even when they did, they did not cut off all aid as required by law. Then, Clinton strung out the whole process as long as possible, did the False Equivalency Tango about hearing "both sides" while protesters and journalists were being abducted and tortured and killed in Honduras and finally, supported a filthy election.

But, Harris got their contract.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4165022

[ProSense]

33. They called it a coup, it's

not like Lanny Davis is in with Obama. I'm sure he is with Clinton.

[Luminous Animal]

44. It was never officially declared a military coup. If it had, the U.S. would have been

compelled to take several actions in response. Which, of course, it did not.

[EFerrari]

46. When the SOA was contacted to see if their Honduran "students'

were still in class, the word came back, they're in class right now.

That's in our LatAm archives. The Obama administration did the least possible to CYA. And they've lost Latin America over it.

[ProSense]

47. "If it had, the U.S. would have been compelled to take several actions in response. "

Such as?

[Luminous Animal]

50. Official condemnation of the military coup, cessation of aid,

call for the immediate return of the President, refuse to support the illegal elections, condemn human rights violations...

You know, the type of things most of the rest of the civilized world did.

[ProSense]

57. There were no

sanctions: U.S. Hardens Stance Against Honduras

Kerry has frequently criticized the acting regime for shunning diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis. In early September, he praised a vote to slash $30 million in aid to the country in reaction to the ouster.

link

[EFerrari]

59. They suspended *some* military aid so people

could point to that. They didn't immediately suspend ALL aid and, for the kicker, Clinton's foundation just kept right on rolling.

Again, you help to clarify how the administration said one thing and did another.

[karynnj]

120. Clinton's foundation funded the coupsters??

I followed the DU threads that you and a few others id a fantastic job in writing, but never heard this. Can he use his foundation for anything he wants?

I really had a problem with the Obama administration's actions. In Congress, Kerry and Berman called it for what is was - and Kerry really was attacked for it on any article with his position. There was almost no media coverage. It really was not clear what Kerry or Berman and a minority of other Senators or Congressmen could have done.

[Luminous Animal]

61. Do you even read your linked articles? The cut-off aid should have been immediate.

"Clinton declined to declare Zelaya's ouster a "military coup," a determination that would trigger an automatic cutoff in aid under U.S. law. In effect, not doing so retains the ability to restart aid within the State Department as opposed to receiving approval from Congress. Clinton's legal advisor had recommended last week that the coup be branded a "military coup.""

[ProSense]

62. "The cut-off aid should have been immediate."

Did it happen? The point is that it happened, and any claim after the fact that it didn't is inaccurate.

Kerry and Berman challenged the Administration and pushed for the appropriate actions.

[EFerrari]

64. That's simply wrong. And the training was never stopped at all.

I'd let this one go.

[Luminous Animal]

65. Deleted. Maybe more later.

[CRH]

106. Your post impeaches your premise, ...

When you cast off Obama's responsibility in favor of rogue actions of the State Department and by extension, Clinton. The Secretary of State serves at the pleasure of the President. If Clinton's actions or the actions of her staff countermand the President's position, he has the power to correct those actions or statements immediately. The buck stops with the President. So if no corrective action or direction was taken, it is tantamount to speaking one thing and doing another. In the essence of this instance, supporting a coup.

Isn't that why all these WikiLeaks are a big problem for the present and past administrations? The fabrication of a foreign policy borne of illusion and always, threatened by the truth.

[originalpckelly]

29. And how do we know their interpretations and conclusions aren't flawed?

Argument is not bad, it only serves to sharpen the blade of the decisions we make as a people.

[ProSense]

30. Whose

interpretation? This, from October 2009:

<...>

DeMint has long objected to the Obama administration's response to the crisis, saying they should shun Zelaya, not promote his return to power.

The United States does not recognize the de facto government led by President Roberto Micheletti. Honduras’ acting government has hoped that the November elections would put an end to the political crisis there.

Zelaya’s ouster has divided members of Congress. Many Republicans accused Zelaya, who is a left-leaning figure, of acting unconstitutionally to extend his term as president. Many Democrats stood behind Zelaya and alleged the coup was an undemocratic power grab.

Kerry has frequently criticized the acting regime for shunning diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis. In early September, he praised a vote to slash $30 million in aid to the country in reaction to the ouster.

The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee also demanded that Zelaya be returned to power under the conditions of a negotiated agreement with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

“I strongly support Costa Rican President Arias’s efforts to restore democracy with the conditioned return of President Zelaya,” Kerry said after the aid reduction. “The coup regime has engaged in undemocratic practices that cast a dark shadow over elections scheduled for November.”

Kerry echoed the stance of the U.S. government, which also backs supports restoring Zelaya to power. Under the terms of the agreement, Zelaya would return to office with limited power then leave office when his term expires in December.

link

You think that's open to interpretation?

[EFerrari]

34. Pretty lies. The US government did everything possible to keep Zelaya

out of Honduras. And Senator Kerry did nada to support Zelaya's return to power. Nada, nadita, zero. The government of tiny El Salvador was more active than the powerful Senator from MA on behalf of the Honduran people.

[ProSense]

40. Get the facts

straight about who was doing what.

Kerry, Berman want controversial Honduras report to be retracted

By Kevin Bogardus

Senior congressional Democrats want a report on the ouster of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to be retracted.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) made the demand in a letter dated Tuesday to James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. They asked the Law Library of Congress to withdraw and correct the August 2009 report titled “Honduras: Constitutional Law Issues.”

“The report, which has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks Honduras, contains factual errors and is based on a flawed legal analysis that has been refuted by experts from the United States, the Organization of American States, and Honduras,” Kerry and Berman wrote in the letter.

<...>

The report, which went public last month, has been cited by Republicans as evidence that the de facto Honduran government was right to take power when the military forced Zelaya into exile in late June.

The report said the de facto government acted legally in ousting Zelaya. That government has said Zelaya was planning to remove presidential term limits to remain in power past the November elections, and that it acted to protect the country under its constitution. Zelaya has denied that charge.

more

[EFerrari]

43. Right back at you. You get the facts.

The American government greased the wheels for this ouster and rewarded the oligarchy with the Harris contract.

[ProSense]

45. More facts

Kerry Applauds Resolution To Return President Zelaya To Power in Honduras

WASHINGTON, D.C. -Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement today in response to Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti reaching an agreement to return President Zelaya to power:

"I welcome the agreement ending the crisis in Honduras. The restoration of democracy is an historic accomplishment for the Honduran people . The accord provides a roadmap for elections on November 29, but success will depend on rigorous international monitoring of the accord's implementation.

"I also want to congratulate Costa Rican President Arias, OAS Secretary General Insulza, and Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon and his team. With this crisis resolved, I look forward to the speedy Senate confirmation of Mr. Shannon as our Ambassador to Brazil and Dr. Arturo Valenzuela as Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs."

[EFerrari]

49. More faxes. In fact, when El Salvador and others helped Zelaya

return to Honduras, Clinton berated him. She called him "foolish and irresponsible" for returning to his own country -- or, for doing what you claim the Obama administration said they wanted.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/5/ousted_honduran_president_manuel_zelaya_speaks

Thank you. You've shown more clearly than I could how the Obama administration said one thing and did another for the entire event.

[politicasista]

113. Facts never get in the way of Kerry/Obama bashing n/t

[EFerrari]

114. Sorry, Senator Kerry was not active when we began to know

that journalists were being kidnapped and tortured by the coup. I have a lot of respect for Kerry but he did next to nothing in this instance.

[politicasista]

115. Ok

Maybe come back until me knows more on this issue. :shrug:

[EFerrari]

116. No harm, foul.

Latin America is 'way under reported up here.

We had at least one DUer blogging on the ground who saw and reported in real time events that took the NYTs a week to put on p. 14.

[karynnj]

117. What exactly could he have done - he did write on op-ed against the

actions of the coup - and called it what it was. This is is more than any other elected official did. He clearly was pushing behind the scenes and may have felt he could do more within the group of people Obama at least talks to than speaking out. It really is a tough call.

[EFerrari]

118. Don't feel bad. I also contacted Boxer's office.

Nada.

[karynnj]

124. I wish that Kerry, and others like Boxer, would have been louder in their

objections. However, the greatest power that Kerry could have had was access to Obama and Biden. It seems clear that initially Obama was moving somewhat in the direction he was. Obama is the one with the power to set policy - and he was persuaded by Clinton and those around her. Kerry could have tried to pass a resolution calling it a military coup and calling for the end of aid, but with Obama against it, he might have gotten fewer votes than he did on Kerry/Feingold.

He was out there enough, that I know that if he were the President, it would have been called a military coup - and in doing that our foreign policy would have made an important turn - one Kerry urged in 1971.

[EFerrari]

126. What I take from this is, if our most consistently democratic Senators

don't challenge the president on a clearly illegal policy, we have a problem.

[karynnj]

122. The GOVERNMENT of any country has more power than even the

most powerful Senator if his party and President are not in agreement.

[originalpckelly]

35. IF, and I mean IF it is true that we let them use our airbase to fly the guy out...

how can we not have supported that coup in some way? I want to know if that's true, because if it is, then our government supported the coup, while saying we didn't

[EFerrari]

36. Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4016862

[originalpckelly]

39. Gee, I don't know, if you had some weird plane land at your base asking for fuel...

would you just give it to them without asking questions? If so, this nation has lemmings down there. Without the fuel, this operation could not have continued.

Thanks for posting this and following it. I am not surprised that our government would do such a thing. We have routinely interfered in the politics of our South American neighbors.

[EFerrari]

42. They didn't know that Zelaya was on that plane like they didn't know

Aristide was kidnapped from Haiti.

Unfortunately, this is what our government does.

[hack89]

52. delete - dupe nt

[hack89]

53. It was not "our airbase"

it is a Honduran airbase that hosts a small US military detachment. The base is run by the Honduran air force.

[EFerrari]

55. 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer. n/t

[hack89]

54. delete - dupe. nt

[Odin2005]

83. Oh Poppycock.

It was quit clear to anyone knowledgeable about America's horrible history in Latin America that the administration was giving tacit approval of the coup or it would never have happened. Our "protests" were simply for plausible deniability.

[Nicolas]

92. Kerry/Obama/Clinton/DeMint.

It's true that Kerry took an honourable stance for a while. The waters muddied for me when he apparently then gave in to one of DeMint's demands, (use of state funds to finance a trip to visit the golpistas if I remember right).

There is a question as to what degree there was disagreement within the US government, at least as concerns how to deal with the coup aftermath.

It is clear that DeMint and other Reps such as Ros-Lehtinen applied public, vocal pressure (such as vetoing the appointment of Arturo Valenzuela or Tom Shannon -the latter to the US embassy in Brazil) in exchange for recognition of the golpistas and the 'elected' government they spawned.

(These people now have a firmer hold on congress, and have signalled their will to further worsen US policy towards Latin America -mentioned here by Eva Gollinger: http://www.chavezcode.com/2010/11/venezuela-firm-rejection-of-us.html).

Concerning the illegitimate Lobo regime, Clinton also ran a fervently pro-golpista campaign, as EFerrari has mentioned. Her tour of Latin America in an attempt to pressure governments was anything but secret (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqnqrJlx9HE).

As to participation in the coup itself, if there is anything to be taken at face value in US government statements, it appears the US was advising the golpistas before the coup, and according to US declarations in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html) had discussed "legal maneuvers to remove the president, not a coup.". If so, then the golpistas were too cack-handed to make their coup look like anything but, and Obama's admin was 'forced' to distance itself in words from the event, while providing all the necessary support to ensure the golpistas' plans to keep President Zelaya away from government came to fruition.

(To name one thing the US could have done: Honduras' state funds are kept in US banks. In recognizing the Micheletti regime as illegitimate, an order could have been given to deny said regime access to Honduran state funds (the way a bank won't let you access someone else's account perhaps), preventing them from ruling.)

The contrast between Obama's original condemnatory statement and the way the US facilitated the golpistas' aims shows full continuity with the last 200 years or so of US policy on Latin America coupled with a preoccupation with an image of legality and/or democracy (also a recurring feature of US foreign policy).

One interesting thing would be to read the US actual view of the November 2009 "elections", considering the official US stance was to accept the fraudulent 62% participation figure invented by and temporarily sustained by the Honduran Electoral Tribunal (I recommend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_0uJqoVtI) as a basis for pushing for international recognition of the coup's fait accompli.

An admission that the US was aware at the time that the elections were not only illegitimate (not rocket science) but also fraudulent would have been useful for anyone misinformed enough to retain a shred of belief in the credibility of such a position.

[karynnj]

108. Kerry rejected DeMint's demands and he was funded via a different committee

Kerry blocked it, but DeMint got approval after McConnell got him approval from the Department of defense. http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/10/demint-trip-to-honduras-back-on-travel-authorized-after-senate-leadership-intervenes.html





Kerry wrote a tough op-ed that was run by the Miami Herald -which has deleted it. Here is the 4 paragraphs, i excerpted on DU.

"Early on Sunday, June 28, soldiers burst into Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's residence and dragged him into exile in his pajamas. An old-fashioned Latin American coup thrust upon our leaders a familiar dilemma: How to respond to the overthrow of a democratically elected leader often at odds with America and critical of our policies?

Although Zelaya has been no friend to America and engaged in petty anti-American sloganeering, our president stood on principle and demanded his reinstatement ``not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders.''

That was the right thing to do, as was enlisting the assistance of the OAS and Costa Rican statesman Oscar Arias to help resolve the crisis. We should now use our immense influence to help the mediation achieve a negotiated deal that strikes a blow for democracy in Honduras and across Latin America. "

Here is a Reuters article that quoted parts of it:

"If those who overthrew Zelaya remain intransigent, we must look at additional cuts, without harming the poor more than Honduran politicians already have," Kerry wrote in the Miami Herald newspaper.

"In addition, we should consider pursuing punitive measures -- including suspending travel visas -- for anyone involved in suppressing the Honduran people," he added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE56G60U20090717?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

To the end, Kerry and Berman fought against this. One thing they did was to try to get a biased legal opinion that someone from the right got into the Library of Congress that was false - this is from a DU post of the Miami Herald:

Library of Congress stands by report on Honduras coup

WASHINGTON -- Congress's law library is rebuffing calls from the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that the lawmakers charge is flawed.

The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove deposed President Manuel Zelaya from office.

A spokeswoman for the Law Library of Congress - one of six Library of Congress agencies - said Thursday that the research agency stands by the report and that Librarian of Congress James Billington is preparing a response to the lawmakers.

Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for several weeks, and high-ranking U.S. officials were working Thursday to try to broker a resolution.

The ONLY thing you could fault Kerry for is not overtly condemning President Obama and SoS Clinton. However, he was more outspoken against the coup - and the comments on most of those articles were atrocious - calling him every nasty thing in the book.

[Nicolas]

127. Kerry and the Tegucigolpe

Ok, that's fair enough. Evidently I'd lost track of Kerry at that point.I'm glad to see there are those with principles even in positions of political power.

(I certainly wouldn't say the same for Thomas Shannon or Hillary Clinton in this affair).

[karynnj]

128. Thanks for your response - which made me google "Tegucigolpe"

because I didn't know what it was.

By the way, welcome to DU.

[Nicolas]

135. Hi thanks, and excellent commondreams article on subject

"Tegucigolpe" occurred to me one morning, then I googled it and saw others had thought of it already. I'd take it as a model of "post-coup" coup (the "smart coup" Eva Gollinger calls it).

This article to me beautifully sums up the lesson of the Llorens Cable, simply juxtaposing it with the US State Department at the time.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/29-9

[Puregonzo1188]

13. What a surprise.

[Capitalocracy]

16. Funny, the MSM articles on the latest leak

just talk about the stuff that Middle Eastern nations are doing, not our role in military dictatorships. Funny how that works.

I should really somehow try to find the time to read through some of this myself... I'm interested in finding out just how much pressure they were putting on other Latin American countries to recognize Micheletti's dictatorship behind the scenes.

[Marr]

23. I noticed that! It's like the Bush Administration wrote them.

The big media outlets' articles that I've read so far are pushing all the old, tired fearmongering and plays our side up like Dudley Do-Right and James Bond combined. I suspect our own government essentially wrote that article and kept in the can, just waiting for the next big leak. The corporate media outlets certainly seem anxious to focus solely on the same few talking-point issues.

[EFerrari]

37. It was considerable but surprisingly unsuccessful, iirc.

They only wound up with uribito on their side in public with whatshisname in Costa Rica pretending to be even handed.

Remember, LULA gave Zelaya asylum at the Brazilian embajada. LULA.

[AngryAmish]

21. What does this mean about the current administration?

Were they complicit? have they abetted a coup?

[EFerrari]

28. It means they are an American administration continuing our proud policy

in Latin America.

[kgnu_fan]

38. You know, these are known to people outside US for long time

We just don't hear about them here. We live in a closed and insulated bubble, we spend time consuming and dreaming... while people in other parts of the world suffer from our policy...

[originalpckelly]

41. It's like an air conditioner. We're exporting our problems to the rest of the world...

so we can keep things nice and cool here.

[harun]

109. Good analogy.

[Radical Activist]

48. I was hoping we would learn something about this.

I'd like to know more about how the decision to back the Honduran coup was made. Obama can argue that he inherited the war in Afghanistan, but this was a horrible mistake entirely his own.

[EFerrari]

51. The truth is that the State Department is corrupt as hell.

And that we never cleaned out Iran/Contra. Obama's bit of this is really not much because there's a whole machine with dug in felons that got promoted instead of going to jail. Stir in Bill Clinton who has gotten speaker's fees from promoting FTAs in Latin America.

This wasn't a mistake in any way. This is what powerful American politicians do in this hemisphere.

[ProSense]

66. "And that we never cleaned out Iran/Contra."

Whose fault was this?

[EFerrari]

67. They burrowed under Poppy, our new laureate

and Clinton didn't touch them either.

But, as Ann Sullivan said of Helen Keller, where there's life, there's hope.

Negroponte is still advising Hillary today.

[sabrina 1]

68. Why don't you provide with your opinion? I think the answer is

pretty well known, personally.

[seafan]

69. We are seeing the approaching meltdown of US foreign policy because of a corrupted State Department.

WIKILEAKS: US role in establishing Honduran dictatorship, November 28, 2010



EFerrari, you are so spot on, I've got to quote you. Thank you for not letting them get away with it.

And that we never cleaned out Iran/Contra. Obama's bit of this is really not much because there's a whole machine with dug in felons that got promoted instead of going to jail. Stir in Bill Clinton who has gotten speaker's fees from promoting FTAs in Latin America.

This wasn't a mistake in any way. This is what powerful American politicians do in this hemisphere.

---DUer EFerrari

When Bill Clinton let Poppy Bush off the hook for Iran Contra, Iraq-Gate, the October Surprise, among other scandals, there was no going back.

.....

Yet even after George H.W. Bush’s Christmas Eve 1992 pardons of Weinberger, Elliott Abrams and four other Iran-Contra culprits, the historical record still could have been set right if the new President, Bill Clinton, had lent his support to serious fact-finding and meaningful accountability.

.....LINK

It didn't happen. Swept under the rug. Wouldn't have been prudent.



Democrats, the Truth Still Matters!



That one unfathomable act by a Democratic president paved the way to yet another one.

[EFerrari]

70. Memory is also resistance, maybe the most important kind.

:hi:

[glinda]

86. I really hope that this does not lead to a tea-bagger for a President.

[EFerrari]

87. People are being tortured and killed in Honduras

but let's hope knowing that doesn't get us a teabagger.

Is that a fair paraphrase?

[glinda]

97. yup

[EFerrari]

98. Well, I hope we don't either but it would be our Karmic reward

for imposing leaders who might as well be teabaggers on other countries in our hemisphere for most of our history. The PTB really are now doing to America stuff they used to do mostly over there and it's ugly, isn't it?

[laughingliberal]

101. Lovely, isn't it? It's OK if our government continues to terrorize LA as long as WE don't have...

a teabagger for President. Would be a nice time for Democrats to start demanding we have better policies in LA and quit supporting the oligarchs.

[Catherina]

63. Confirmation of what we knew. Thank you Julian Assange! Great post. Rec'd n/t

[ooglymoogly]

71. I made this comment on the wiki leaks affair, this afternoon

at 3:51pm, this Sunday afternoon Nov. 29th 2010; on an OP by Poll-Blind; Having seen no documents, my thoughts and predictions were based on nothing but my interpretations of history.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9638930&mesg_id=9643901

It is sad that the duplicity of "our" government is so predictable and so obvious to even the least and most insignificant of us.

[EFerrari]

77. You were right. It is sad but in another way

if it's predictable that means we're catching on.

[ooglymoogly]

75. Julian Assange is one of the greatest hero's of our time

He should be nominated for the Nobel....I know; that ain't gonna happen...maybe in 5 years or so.

[ooglymoogly]

76. KR nt

[laughingliberal]

79. K & R nt

[Odin2005]

82. I am SOOOO surprised, NOT!

[reggie the dog]

88. i told this to people based on what the usa has done in just about every

other latin and south american country.... but hardly anyone believed me....

[EFerrari]

93. There seem to be two stages to these events.

First people argue it was not a coup, then they are sure we had nothing to do with it. The same with the attempted coup in Ecuador some weeks ago. As one analyst said to me, if we weren't involved it would be the first time in 60 years that we weren't.

[Catherina]

103. What people? n/t

[EFerrari]

105. All the way down the food chain, from our government

to the presstitutes to posters here at DU. It's remarkable, really, how that sequence of denial is disseminated.

[Solly Mack]

90. K&R

[Major Hogwash]

95. Very good analysis. Well said.

We're still playing the game of Risk on a real world scale.

[robinlynne]

100. ok, so how do we get Americans to actually READ the truth now that it is out there?

[JackRiddler]

102. K&R

[BetsysGhost]

104. Here's something interesting - Paraguay

(INFR-4) - Details of telecommunications and information systems, networks, and technologies supporting Paraguayan national leadership, military, foreign intelligence and security services (FISS), and civil sector communications. - Define Paraguayan wireless infrastructure, cellular provider information, and makes/models of cellular phones and their operating systems. - Define Paraguayan satellite communications infrastructure, to include VSAT networks and use of point to point systems. - Information on communications practices of Paraguayan government and military leaders, key foreign officials in country (e.g., Cuban, Venezuelan, Bolivian, Iranian, or Chinese diplomats), and criminal entities or their surrogates, to include telephone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses, call activity (date, time, caller numbers, recipient numbers), phone books, cell phone numbers, telephone and fax user listings, internet protocol (IP) addresses, user accounts, and passwords. - Identify national and supranational telecommunications regulatory, administrative, and maintenance organizations. - Identify scope of Paraguayan telecommunications encryption efforts, details on the use of and efforts to acquire modern telecom technologies, regional and national telecommunications policies, programs and regulations. - Details on information repositories associated with RFID enabled systems increasingly used for passports, government badges, and transportation system. RICE

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/147040

[EFerrari]

107. DUer rabs says a golpista paper in Honduras is reporting Zelaya

is taking his case back to the UN.

[ieoeja]

110. I read the entire article and saw not one thing pointing to US involvement?

The author's logic seems to be:

1. The US determined after the fact that this was an illegal rightist, military coup.
2. The US did not invade and conquer Honduras in response.
3. Therefore, the US was behind the coup in the first place.

The author does not produce a single piece of evidence suggesting the United States had any idea this was going to take place. But concludes we were behind it any way.

On the plus side, nobody can accuse the author of inventing evidence if he never actually presents any evidence!

[EFerrari]

112. On the other hand

John Negroponte was in meetings in Honduras with the golpistas before the coup. John Negroponte is an adviser to Hillary Clinton.

The plane that flew Zelaya out of the country fueled up at our base, much like the plane that kidnapped Aristide.

The Obama administration delayed designating the coup as a "military coup" because doing so would mean they'd have to suspend all material aid, which they never did.

The Clinton's PR flak, Lanny Davis, was hired to represent the coupsters in DC.

Hillary Clinton set up an impossible process via Costa Rica that ran out the clock to the next election.

Susan Rice prevented any discussion of the human rights abuses (kidnapping, torture and murder) in the UN Security Council where she had the gavel.

Hillary Clinton and other members of the State Department repeatedly attacked Zelaya in the press, particularly when he returned to Honduras although they had been also saying, comically, that his return was their wish.

Hillary Clinton's foundation never stopped funding the golpistas.

Hillary Clinton and our government repeatedly airbrushed the murderousness of the coup and hailed the next election as proof that the democratic process had been restored although the election was a sham.

Harris, based in Honduras, was given a billion dollar contract by DoD in the aftermath of the coup.


And that's just what I can pull from memory.


Otherwise, we had nothing to do with it. :)

[Uncle Joe]

119. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[northernlights]

121. how dare Wikileaks embarrass our government!

:sarcasm:

[leftstreet]

123. K&R

[G_j]

125. no surprise there

I'd like to see what is there concerning Columbian policy.

[me b zola]

129. K&R

[MNBrewer]

130. no one cares

Hillary Clinton Barack Obama President McCain....

[maryf]

133. K&R nt

[Swamp Rat]

134. k&r