Text of my interview with Cyril Mychalejko

[Downwinder]

http://www.quotha.net/node/656

[Peace Patriot]

1. Worth quoting in its entirety...

Text of my interview with Cyril Mychalejko

Sat, 12/19/2009 - 18:05 — AP

The following is the text of a hastily-typed q&a format email interview I did with Cyril Mychalejko, independent journalist and member of the editorial collective at Upside Down World.

How do you interpret the contradictions among the Obama Administration's changing positions regarding the coup in Honduras? (First it condemns it, then chastizes Zelaya repeatedly, then he tries to broker a deal, then the deal is betrayed by the coup, then Obama acquiesces and legitimizes elections)

I actually think that in practice the Obama administration has been quite consistent. It has been consistent in terms of its unwavering material support for authors of the Honduran military coup since day one, and it has also been consistent with the U.S. government's historic duplicitous role of talking democracy in Latin America while backing the most anti-democratic of regimes. It has consistently failed to recognize any of the thousands of specific human rights violations documented by numerous international and national human rights organizations; it has consistently failed to acknowledge the fact that what happened on June 28th was a military coup, carried out by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas; it has, consequently, consistently refused to carry out any of the sanctions legally required of the U.S. in the case of a military coup; it has consistently ignored the community of nations and acted unilaterally in legitimating through the fraudulent elections it financed (with my tax dollars) what can only be called a fascist regime—a regime that the majority of Hondurans firmly reject. Any contradictions (e.g., between Obama initially acknowledging a coup, then backtracking at the behest of the State Department, or between Obama's pledge to act multilaterally in Latin America in Trinidad and Tobago) result from a combination of poor management and hubris. And the only reason the Obama administration's hypocrisy is so apparent right now is that it wildly underestimated the Honduran people.

What type of precedent does set for other countries in Latin America?

This sets a very bad precedent, and everyone on the right and left knows it. From now on, if a country's oligarchy does not like its president's socially liberal bent (however mild); all it has to do is militarily oust the president, hold elections, and voila! U.S.-certified Democracy.

Do you think this defines the Obama Administration´s Latin American Policy?

Obama has made clear—not only with his Latin American policy as seen through his actions in Honduras, but also with his war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq and with domestic policy—that he is no different from Bush. In fact, (Obama) is more dangerous than Bush, because while carrying out Bush-era policies, he makes a good speech. Similarly, Arturo Valenzuela, towering academic that he may be, is horribly dangerous. Valenzuela understands better than anyone the the impact his lies will have, and for whatever reason, finds himself unable to challenge the State Department on policies that threaten to plunge Latin America back into an era of brutal dictatorships, civil wars, disappearances, and widespread torture.**

Has Obama done anything else in Latin America that worries you?

I am deeply concerned with the U.S. military expansion into Colombia, as is, I believe, all of Latin America.****

How do you answer accusations that Zelaya was a puppet of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez?

Simply with the evidence. The economic treaty into which Honduras entered was approved by the senate (including Micheletti), as was Honduras's entry into ALBA. Zelaya's politics were always neoliberal; he signed CAFTA, the Merida accords, and under his administration the economy (in particular for the oligarchy) thrived. He never nationalized a single industry, nor did he threaten to. The processes underway in Honduras that threatened the elites were specifically Honduran, relating to grassroots Honduran demands to revisit Honduras's poorly-constructed constitution.****

What do you think Zelaya specifically did that spurred the country's business, political and military elite to plan and execute a coup?

Zelaya did something (the) Honduran elite has never done. He listened to the people.

http://www.quotha.net/node/656

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**I agree with all of the points in the interview, but want to emphasize my agreement with Mychalejko on the dangers posed by Obama and Valenzuela. We have seen what pretty speeches do to democracy, in Honduras. And Valenzuela, I believe, is actively involved in a plot to destabilize Argentina and topple its leftist government. His recent and completely unjustified remarks about "legal insecurity" for foreign corporations investing in Argentina is right out of the CIA playbook, Chile, 1973.

****The massive US military buildup in Colombia is looking hauntingly like South Vietnam, 1963. Like South Vietnam, the corrupt Colombian government has "invited" the US military into the country, on a completely unlimited basis. No limit on US troops and 'contractors.' No limit on what the US military can do there--access to SEVEN more military bases and all civilian airports and other facilities in Colombia. With some kind of "Gulf of Tonkin" incident with Venezuela, this could easily and instantly be escalated to a full scale war. The Pentagon is placing and securing war assets around Venezuela's main oil region, which is adjacent to Colombia and the Caribbean. And in this context I want to mention that President Zelaya proposed converting the US military base at Sota Cano, Honduras, into a civilian airport. I think that this was the event that brought the Pentagon and the State Department into full force in support of the coup. The US military base and port facilities in Honduras are strategic assets that the US needed to secure for the US move against Venezuela, when it comes. The US military base in Honduras was used to refuel the plane carrying Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint. And Honduras has a long history of being used by the US as the toilet that our death squads crapped in, on their way to killing teachers and mayors in neighboring countries. Honduras is now surrounded with leftist governments--in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala--and is needed, once again, as the "lily pad" country from which to attack and topple these governments, both to break up the leftist trade alliance, ALBA, and to stop them from aiding Venezuela in any way. The US is "circling the wagons" in the Central America/Caribbean/northern South America region, and it wants control of Venezuela's oil for its great, fuel-sucking war machine.