|
COUNTRY UPDATES: Venezuela and Colombia break relations
“For the dignity of Venezuela”: Venezuela and Colombia break relations
By Eva Golinger
President Chavez ordered maximum alert on Venezuela’s border with Colombia after the Uribe administration made grave accusations against Venezuela claiming the Chavez government harbors terrorists and terrorist training camps
The outgoing government of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia gave a shameful presentation before member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Thursday, reminiscent of Colin Powell’s “weapons of mass destruction” power point evidence presented in 2003 before the United Nations Security Council to justify the war in Iraq.
Colombia alleged that Venezuela is harboring “terrorists” from the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) and hosting several “terrorist training camps” near the border region that divides the two nations.
During an extraordinary session convened at OAS headquarters in Washington on Thursday, upon request of the Uribe government, Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, presented television and video images allegedly taken from computers confiscated during the illegal invasion of Ecuatorian territory on March 1, 2008, which resulted in the death of FARC leader Raul Reyes and a dozen other Colombian, Ecuatorian and Mexican citizens. Hoyos also presented several computer-generated maps and photographs of alleged members of the FARC, which he said were taken inside Venezuela.
NO REAL PROOF
Yet none of the images were authenticated or verified as reliable by any source other than the Colombian government. Colombia also used satellite map images, some from Google Earth, to show alleged “coordinates” where FARC members are in Venezuela.
Furthermore, the photographs presented by Hoyos had no source identification, dates or times, and merely showed alleged members of the FARC and ELN in different jungle and coastal areas.
Venezuela and Colombia share a porous, jungle and mountainous border and both countries have Caribbean coasts. The countries have similar vegetations, climates and scenery.
Venezuela’s ambassador to the OAS, Roy Chaderton said the photographs looked to him as though they had been taken in Colombia. “That looks like the beach in Santa Marta to me”, responded Chaderton, after Hoyos claimed a photo of a FARC member drinking a beer on the beach was taken at Chichirivichi, a Venezuelan beach town.
“There is no evidence, not a single piece of proof, of where those photographs were taken”, said Chaderton, adding that the “evidence” presented by Colombia was “confusing, imprecise and non-convincing”.
The Venezuelan army verified and thoroughly inspected the locations and coordinates provided by the Uribe administration on Thursday and found none of the alleged “terrorist sites”, “camps” or “guerrilla presence” claimed by Colombia.
Upon arriving at the first coordinate indicated in Colombia’s report, identified as an alleged terrorist camp of alias Ruben Zamora, the Venezuelan army found a farm growing plantains, yucca and corn. The second coordinate, which was the alleged camp of FARC commander Ivan Marquez, was merely an extensive field with no structures or presence of anyone or anything.
INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION
During his two-hour long flamboyant presentation, Hoyos called for “international intervention” in Venezuela to verify the campsites and gave Venezuela a “30-day ultimatum”.
“Colombia requests a commission of international members, including all those of the OAS, go to Venezuela and verify each of the terrorist camp sites and coordinates to see the truth”, said Hoyos, adding, “we give the Venezuelan government 30 days”, although he didn’t specify what could happen afterward.
Hoyos also accused the Venezuelan government of facilitating drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal arms trade, attacks against Colombian armed forces and even went so far as to allege the Chavez government “squashes its opposition”, “represses freedom of expression”, “insults other governments” and “violates principles of democracy”.
At the same time, Hoyos said his government would be unwilling to listen to or respond to any accusations, insults or offenses made by the Venezuelan government.
Colombia’s position is an echo of Washington’s, which has accused Venezuela of harboring and providing refuge to members of the FARC during the past seven years. But, the US government has also failed to present any evidence to back such claims, and often makes contradictory statements, which appear to confirm the lack of solid proof.
In March 2010, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief General Douglas Fraser said that he had seen no evidence of any links between Venezuela and the FARC. “We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify where there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection”, declared Fraser during a hearing before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee.
However, the following day, General Fraser contradicted himself before the press, stating, “There is indeed clear and documented historical and ongoing evidence of the linkages between the Government of Venezuela and the FARC”.
Possibly, Fraser was referring to previous governments in Venezuela, such as those of Carlos Andres Perez (1989-1993) or Rafael Caldera (1994-1998), which actually housed an office of the FARC in the presidential palace. President Chavez shut down that office when he entered the presidency in early 1999.
Or maybe General Fraser was referring to the specific requests made by two Colombian presidents, Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe, for Chavez to mediate the release of hostages held by the FARC.
With full disclosure and complete authority from President Alvaro Uribe, and based on his own personal request, in September 2007, President Chavez accepted the role as mediator in order to secure the release of several hostages held by the FARC inside Colombian territory. For that reason only, Chavez met with FARC commander Ivan Marquez and assured the release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez in January 2008.
But otherwise, the Venezuelan government has consistently and repeatedly denied any links or support given to the FARC or any other armed, irregular group from Colombia or elsewhere.
RELATIONS BROKEN
After Colombia’s presentation before the OAS, President Chavez announced a complete rupture in relations.
“It is with tears in my heart that I announce that we will break all relations with Colombia. We have no other choice, for our dignity and our sovereignty”.
Chavez also ordered troops to secure all border areas. “I have ordered a maximum alert on our borders. Uribe is a mafioso and a liar, and is capable of anything”, he said, recalling how Uribe ordered the invasion of Ecuador’s territory in 2008 and then lied to President Rafael Correa about what had happened.
Venezuela accused Colombia of failing to resolve its own internal conflicts, including a 60-year old civil war that has negatively impacted its neighbors with violence and drug trafficking spilling over the borders. More than 4 million Colombians, fleeing the violence in their country, live in Venezuela today.
The Colombian “show” appears to be an effort to justify preemptive war against Venezuela. Last year Colombia opened its territory to seven US military bases in an agreement that the US Air Force claimed was necessary in order to conduct “full spectrum military operations” throughout South America to “combat the constant threat of anti-American governments in the region”.
T/ Eva Golinger
[0] comments (25 views) | link
HAITI: Debt relief setting the stage for more debt from new loan
Jubilee USA Network www.jubileeusa.org
July 22, 2010
IMF Takes Two Steps Forward and One Step Back on Haiti
Jubilee USA Encouraged by IMF's Debt Cancellation for Haiti, Concerned by New Loan
Contact: Melinda St. Louis, Deputy Director, 202-441-7579
Hayley Hathaway, Communications Coordinator, 202-543-0692
Jubilee USA Network welcomes the International Monetary Fund Executive Board's decision to cancel Haiti's $268 million debt to the institution in response to the January 12 earthquake. Yet the IMF's decision to provide $60 million in financing support as a new loan raises serious concerns.
When the IMF provided emergency assistance to Haiti as a $102 million loan after the earthquake, Jubilee USA and allies world-wide mobilized, calling for all of Haiti's debt to international financial institutions, including the post-quake IMF loan, to be canceled.
The Fund's launch of the Post-Catastrophe Debt Relief Trust Fund, through which Haiti's debt cancellation will be financed, represents an important step forward for the IMF as it initiates a concrete framework that provides debt cancellation and grant support to countries which face devastation beyond their control.
"It is indeed a victory that the International Monetary Fund responded to calls from civil society and governments around the world to cancel Haiti's debts. Now we must raise our voices again to make sure the Fund understands that a loan of any kind is completely inappropriate for a country in such desperate need," says Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network.
The $60 million loan approved yesterday is the most concessional loan available from the IMF, with zero percent interest until the end of 2011 and a five and a half year grace period. If it is held as international reserves as planned, the loan may not add to the country's long-term debt burden. Still, the decision to provide this assistance as a loan risks putting Haiti into debt yet again.
"The IMF is taking two steps forward and one step back. This is a precedent-setting moment as the IMF has agreed to use internal resources to cancel the debt of a country facing extraordinary need. But, unfortunately, this good news is undermined by the IMF's new loan. The role of the IMF in Haiti has been long criticized, and this new loan could set Haiti on the wrong path toward a new cycle of debt. The IMF must go further by using its new Post-Catastrophe Trust Fund to provide assistance on grant terms and ensure that this comes without harmful conditions," says LeCompte.
Six months after the tragic earthquake struck the impoverished country, it is clear that Haiti will need massive support for the foreseeable future. 1.6 million Haitians remain homeless, and at the current rate, it will take 10 to 15 years just to clear the streets of Port-au-Prince of wreckage.
More...
[0] comments (9 views) | link
COUNTRY UPDATES: Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba
Nicaragua News Bulletin
www.nicanet.org
July 20, 2010
This weekly news bulletin is the successor to the Nicaragua News Service and Nicaragua Network Hotline. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part. Please credit the Nicaragua Network.
1. Half a million people celebrate anniversary of the revolution in Managua
2. Los Angeles judge rules against banana workers in Nemagon case
3. New poll shows some gains for FSLN and Ortega
4. Social groups condemn US troop agreement with Costa Rica
5. Business leaders disillusioned with opposition politicians
6. President unveils new health care facilities
1. Half a million people celebrate anniversary of the revolution in Managua
More than half a million people came out to a Managua plaza on July 19th to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, according to the Sandinista media, a figure that the opposition did not challenge. Invited foreign guests included Cuban Vice-President Ramiro Valdes, President Sergei Bagapsh of Abkhazia, and President Eduard Kokoiti of South Ossetia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared their independence from the Republic of Georgia and were recognized only by Nicaragua and a few other nations. Bagapsh and Kokoiti are on a good will tour of Latin America.
In his speech, President Daniel Ortega reviewed the achievements of his government for the past three years, saying that levels of illiteracy in urban areas had been lowered to 4% and in rural areas to 8%. He noted that Nicaragua had the smallest decline in economic growth between 2008 and 2009 of any country in Central America and predicted the economy would grow in 2010. He said that 300,000 Nicaraguan farmers and ranchers were actively producing, noting that the production of corn had risen 22.6%, beans 18.5% and rice 17%. He stated that his government had built 400 miles of new highways, and maintained and repaired thousands of miles of roads and streets. In foreign affairs, Ortega lauded the formation of a resistance movement in Honduras. He said that relations with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, installed after elections held by the coup government that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya, had improved and should normalize. He noted that Lobo had talked with Zelaya about the latter's return to Honduras.
Meanwhile, the opposition media published criticism of the expenditures made by the city and the national government for the celebration. Leonel Teller, a Managua city council member and Constitutional Liberal Party leader, said, "Some of the special guests of the dictator Daniel Ortega and his party had their airline tickets and hotels paid for with tax money from the people of Managua."
Dissident Sandinistas held a celebration in Masaya on July 17. The event was organized by the Sandinista Rescue Movement, whose members include Monica Baltodano, Henry Ruiz and Onofre Guevara. It was attended by members of other parties and organizations also, including Victor Hugo Tinoco, Xanthis Suarez, and Saul Lewites of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), as well as representatives of the Nicaraguan Socialist Party and the Consumer Defense Network. The main speaker was veteran journalist Danilo Aguirre and music was provided by Carlos Mejia Godoy and Los de Palacagüina.
The Sandinista Rescue Movement was formed in 2000 after Daniel Ortega signed a political agreement with then President Arnoldo Aleman. The Sandinista Renovation Movement, which did not hold a celebration this year, was founded in 1994 by former Vice-President Sergio Ramirez, Dora Maria Tellez and others. In an interview with a Spanish new agency, Ramirez said that, "I don't see any light for Nicaragua. The opposition is disarticulated and under siege by a government that is trying to buy votes in the National Assembly for a reform that would permit continuous reelection of Ortega." (Radio La Primerisima, July 20; El Nuevo Diario, July 17, 19; La Prensa, July 17, 18)
2. Los Angeles judge rules against banana workers in Nemagon case
Victoria Cheney, a Federal Court judge in California, on July 15 threw out a US$2.4 million judgment against Dole Foods in the case Tellez vs. Dole that had been won by six Nicaraguans who said they were made sterile by the pesticide Nemagon while working on Dole banana plantations. The judge said generalized fraud by American and Nicaraguan attorneys had tainted the trial and spoke of a larger conspiracy that included even the Nicaraguan legal system. The ruling overturning the November 2007 decision puts in question not only other Nicaraguan cases but claims against Dole by former banana workers from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Honduras. Nemagon was banned in the United States in 1979 but was used after that around the world by banana companies.
In April 2009, Judge Cheney had thrown out similar cases (Mejia vs. Dole and Rivera vs. Dole) when secret witnesses for Dole said that the plaintiffs had never worked on the plantations and that laboratory exams had been falsified. Months later seven of those secret witnesses came forward to say that they had been bribed to testify for Dole against their fellow Nicaraguans.
Lawyers representing the Nicaraguans in the Tellez case last week presented videotapes and sworn affidavits that revealed bribes and false testimony by the secret witnesses recruited by Dole but the judge did not take the evidence into account. Attorney Steve Condie said, "We had a judge who had already decided that my clients and every American attorney opposing Dole in Nicaragua were part of a vast conspiracy." He said that he would appeal the decision. Nicaraguan lawyer Antonio Hernandez said a few days before the July 15 decision, "The judge hit us hard [in 2009]; she's an insensitive and racist woman who sees Latin Americans as a blight, but even so we are going to continue to fight this monster [Dole]."
Meanwhile, the government has begun clearing the land for 400 homes for those former banana workers who have been camped out in Managua demanding compensation for damage to their health from pesticide exposure. The houses, which will be built in a grove of eucalyptus trees in the old center of Managua, are part of the Houses for the People Program. Engineer Sergio Guzman said that no trees will be cut down and the houses will be built among the trees. Altagracia Solis, a leader in the camp, said that since 2007 the government has been providing health care and food packets to the workers camped out in Managua. Also in 2007, the Health Ministry set up a department in the Chinandega Hospital for dialysis and other attention to victims of pesticide poisoning. (Radio La Primerisima, July 16; El Nuevo Diario, July 4, 6, 8; La Prensa, July 8)
3. New poll shows some gains for FSLN and Ortega
According to a new poll by M&R Consultants, the Sandinista Party (FSLN) continues to be the largest political party enjoying the support of 32.6% of Nicaraguan voters. However, those who declare themselves independent outpoll the FSLN by nearly 10 percentage points at 42.3%. Far behind are former President Arnoldo Aleman's Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) with 14.8%, and former presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre's "Let's Go with Eduardo" movement at 7.8%. The Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) has the support of 1.7% and all other parties polled less than one percent. These figures represent a 5.4% growth in popularity for the FSLN and 3.7% increase for the PLC from M&R's last poll.
While a bare majority of voters view the government of President Daniel Ortega as "authoritarian," 67.1% believe education has improved and 62.3% say that health care has improved under the Ortega government. His government's overall approval rating is 31.9% compared to 43.7% disapproval.
Aleman continues to be viewed as the leader of the opposition with 29% naming him. He was followed closely by Montealegre who was named by 25.3%. MRS's Edmundo Jarquin was seen as the opposition leader by 2.5% and former Sandinista Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco by 1.7%. However 25.5% don't see any of them as the leader of the opposition, reflecting the continued disarray of the opposition. 81.1% view the work of the opposition as "negative" while only 13.6% see it as "positive." The poll showed no current pairing of opposition politicians beating Ortega if the vote were held today.
National Police Chief Aminta Granera, as she has in past polls, leads as the public figure with the highest positive regard by voters at 68.2%. This compares to 47.2% positive for Ortega and 28.3% positive for Aleman. Aleman had the highest negative public opinion with 64.3%. An interesting finding of the poll is that 56.1% of the respondents have "no problem" with an Ortega re-election bid if he permits a total replacement of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) with magistrates that "inspire confidence and credibility."
The poll was carried out between June 19-28, and has a margin of error of 2.5%. A total of 1,600 residents over the age of 16 were interviewed nationally. The Nuevo Siglo agency also released a poll last week. The poll reported that, in answer to the question of who the respondent would vote for if the election were held today, 45.5% said they would vote for Ortega (who was elected in 2006 with 38%). Coming in second was Montealegre with 8.2% and Aleman with 5%. Other candidates fared even worse. 32.3% were undecided. (La Prensa, July 13; Radio La Primerísima, July 13)
4. Social groups condemn US troop agreement with Costa Rica
Central American and Caribbean social groups, meeting in Managua, condemned Costa Rica's recent agreement to allow US military ships and troops entry into that country saying that it was done "behind the backs of the Costa Rican people and is a threat to the nation's sovereignty." The statement came during a meeting of 80 representatives of social movements, unions, and left organizations meeting in Managua on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. The final session of the meeting also condemned political interference, dictatorial actions and anti-union actions by the governments of Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The gathering also condemned repressive actions by the government of Panama against social and labor leaders and demanded the retraction of Law 30 which criminalizes popular protest.
The conference was called to strengthen communication and collaboration between social movements in the region. At the same time, youth and students from Central America, the Caribbean and countries of the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our Americas (ALBA) met to consider the project of higher education as a transformative process for the people. Aily Labañino, daughter of Cuban anti-terrorist hero, Ramón Labañino, who has been imprisoned in the United States for 12 years, attended the youth conference and met with President Daniel Ortega. Ortega called on the youth from 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries, when they return home, to intensify their campaigns to free the Cuban Five as Labañino and his four fellow US political prisoners are known.
During the social movement meeting, Edgar Morales Quesada, secretary general of the National Association of Costa Rican Public Employees said, "We are gathered in a difficult meeting as the United States and big national and international capital are trying to reestablish their hegemony in the region. On the one side is the militarization of our territory and on the other the repression of social protest and attacks on labor, trying to dismantle the movement's gains." He said that the process of militarization in Central America has risen to levels that are causing great concern with the presence of military bases in El Salvador, Honduras and Panama, the activation of the Fourth Fleet, and new military installations in Honduras and Panama.
According to speakers at the meeting, the intervention project of the United States coincides with the interests of the power groups of Central America and of transnational capital, with fighting drug traffickers serving as the modern Trojan Horse to penetrate the region. Onidia Gomes, president of the Central American Common Labor Platform, explained, "There is a well defined strategy to maximize insecurity and create fear in the population, using drug trafficking as the justification for militarization and repression. They create terror and in this manner obscure the true objective which is the demobilization and criminalization of social protest and the labor movement, favoring the interests of big capital." (Radio La Primerisima, July 18)
5. Business leaders disillusioned with opposition politicians
On July 16, Cesar Zamora, manager of AEI Energy in Nicaragua and vice-president of the American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) of Latin America, said in a television interview that the opposition to President Daniel Ortega's government "doesn't have a product to sell to society [and] doesn't have a program of what it would want to do for the country." He went on to ask, "What is the Liberal Party planning for the government that would generate enthusiasm among the people? What is Eduardo Montealegre proposing today for governing that would generate enthusiasm? What is the MRS [Sandinista Renovation Movement] as part of a coalition proposing that would generate enthusiasm among the population? There is nothing!" He said that, on the other hand, the Sandinista Party now in power, has captured what people need and want and has provided free education and health care "while previous governments, stupidly, had charged fees for these services." He noted that some of the services might be bad but "the poorest citizens in this country are thankful for them."
He said that business leaders have told the opposition if they don't offer plans for governing, they will have no other alternative than to tie their wagons to the Sandinista government. He indicated that given that the opposition is not working on the topics that are important for the citizenry, what the business community would do is to lay out the minimum requirements that they want in a government for the country to grow and prosper and present those to the political parties. (Radio La Primerisima, July 16)
6. President unveils new health facilities
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega will inaugurate 15 public health facilities this week that were remodeled or built to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. Perhaps most impressive among these medical facilities is the new Solidarity Hospital in Managua. It is considered one of the most modern medical facilities in Latin America with cutting edge technologies. Solidarity Hospital will have 240 beds and is expected to serve some 100,000 Managuans with its specialties in surgery, pediatrics, internal medicine, gynecology, urology, orthopedics and intensive care.
General hospitals will also be dedicated in El Sauce (in the Department of Leon), San Juan del Rio Coco (in Madriz), Muelle de los Bueyes (in the RAAS), in Tipitapa and in Managua. The ophthalmology center of Matagalpa will become part of Operation Miracle (a program run by Cuban doctors who perform eye surgery for needy patients), joining similar institutions in Ciudad Sandino, Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas.
These works are products of the effort of the Sandinista government over the last three years to improve the health of the population. The government has said that health care is a fundamental right of all Nicaraguans, and that it is the responsibility of the government to provide quality health services. (Radio La Primerisima, July 14)
More...
[0] comments (18 views) | link
HONDURAS: OAS to vote on July 30 whether to readmit Honduras to organization
Statement by the National Popular Resistance Front to the OAS
The OAS (Organization of American States) will meet for its General Assembly on Friday, the 30th of July, as mandated by the Resolution agreed upon during its last Assembly in Lima, Peru, to address the Honduran crisis and decide whether conditions in the country allow for it to be readmitted to the Organization, from which it was expelled the 4th of July, 2009 as a result of the 28th of June coup that same year.
Through the Lima Resolution the member states instruct the Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, to create a Special High- Level Commission in charge of visiting Honduras to diagnose if human rights, rule of law, and democratic-constitutional order have been fully reestablished by the Lobo Administration. The Commission will then inform the General Assembly about their findings and the General Assembly will make a decision whether to deny, postpone or allow readmission of the expelled member state. If the findings reveal that the conditions have improved, then the Assembly will probably decide to readmit Honduras, if they are not met, the readmission will be postponed until they are.
Conditions have clearly not improved in Honduras, where repression, persecution and systematic human rights abuses against Resistance leaders, popular movement leaders, journalists, judges, human rights activists, independent media, or anyone critical of the coup, have been documented by several independent and international human rights organizations and the OAS Inter American Human Rights Commission has made it clear through its many reports. During Lobo´s administration, more than 10 journalists have been assassinated, as have many more members of the Resistance.
But the OAS Secretary General has turned a blind eye to this reality and has been pushing, with the help of the U.S. and regional allies, for a rushed readmission of Honduras. Furthermore the Lima Resolution has been ignored and the Special High Level Commission has not visited Honduras, where its findings would obviously discourage any prompt readmission.
Furthermore, during the 20th of July, 2010 SICA Presidential Summit in San Salvador, the Presidents of Central America, with the exception of President Ortega of Nicaragua, readmitted Honduras to the sub-regional organization (against its own rules, which specify the decision must be unanimous) and cynically praised Mr. Lobo’s success in restoring democracy, the rule of law and safeguarding human rights, even if repression, violence and human rights abuses are still being documented.
Confronted by this imminent and false imposition, that would greatly damage our struggle by whitewashing the coup and strengthening the coup-monger´s regime and impunity, The National Popular Resistance Front demands:
1) That the Lima Resolution’s mandate be fully met by Secretary General Insulza, by organizing an exploratory visit of the Special High Level Commission to Honduras that should then report its findings to the General Assembly before any further decision on Honduras is made.
2) That the OAS takes the National Popular Resistance Front and its position into account before readmitting Honduras.
3) That the OAS acknowledges the ongoing human rights abuses and systematic repression and persecution that our people are subjected to in Honduras, as reports of IAHC, UN and several other human rights organizations have documented.
4) That the OAS helps to dismantle the coup-monger’s total control of Honduran institutions and acknowledges that Honduras is still controlled by the same people who organized and held the coup.
5) That the OAS acknowledge that the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Ombudsman and the majority of the judicial and executive branches of government are still controlled by the coup-mongers and should be fully reformed.
6) That the OAS ensures that Ex President Zelaya, who has been appointed as Coordinator of the FNRP and is still in exile may return safely and with full rights.
7) That the OAS ensures that persecution against the Resistance members, judges critical of the coup and the former members of Ex President Zelaya’s cabinet stops immediately.
8) That the OAS acknowledges that Mr. Lobo has himself declared that a coup took place on the 28th of June, 2009 and thus the only way to reestablish constitutional democracy in Honduras is through a National Constitutional Assembly.
9) That the OAS supports the return of democracy and safeguards human rights in Honduras, fighting the current state of impunity and absence of justice and holding the coup-mongers accountable for their crimes against our people.
The National Popular Resistance Front thus affirms:
A) That we do not recognize Mr. Lobo as our President, the campaign and election process through which he was elected are not valid or legitimate since they were organized by the de facto regime and under their repression and censorship, that they were thus not free or fair, there were no legitimate international observers (OAS, UN, EU) and a majority of the population abstained.
B) That we demand the creation of a National Constitutional Assembly to return our country to constitutional-democratic order.
C) That we do not recognize Mr. Lobo’s unilateral appointment of a Truth Commission and we only recognize the True Commission organized by the Human Rights Platform.
D) That there is no reconciliation or unity government and that the military is in full control of strategic posts as are the coup-mongers.
E) That Mr. Lobo’s representative to the OAS negotiations is the same person who represented the de Facto dictator Roberto Michelleti, Mr. Arturo Corrales.
F) We denounce and condemn the manipulation of information that has been pressuring for a prompt readmission of Honduras without conditions being met.
G) That we are being persecuted and repressed by the Lobo regime.
More...
[0] comments (17 views) | link
COSTA RICA: US TO SEND 7,000 TROUPS AND 46 WAR SHIPS
*Costa Rican Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Entry of US Military*
*By Jamie Way, Communications Coordinator*
*Alliance for Global Justice*
* *
*July 27, 2010*
* *
The Costa Rican Supreme Court last week agreed to take a case challenging
the constitutionality of a US-Costa Rican agreement that would allow for a
massive US military presence. The agreement cannot go into effect until the
Supreme Court rules, thus postponing the arrival of US forces.
On July 1, Costa Rica’s unicameral Legislative Assembly, with 31 votes out
of 57, approved the US Embassy’s request to open the country to 46 US
warships, 7,000 US soldiers, 200 helicopters and two aircraft carriers. This
permission was granted through at least Dec. 31 of this year, officially
justified by the necessity of fighting drug-traffickers, providing
humanitarian services and providing a place for US ships to dock and refuel.
While most reports have put a Dec. 31 expiration date on the agreement, the
Nicaraguan media last week reported that Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rene
Castro, in a meeting with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos, said
that the agreement is for five years.
Prior Joint Patrol bilateral agreements between the countries allowed only
US Coast Guard presence with Costa Rican law enforcement aboard. The US
Coast Guard was permitted to follow vessels into Costa Rican waters while in
pursuit and awaiting Costa Rican officials. Thus, the new agreement
represents a substantial increase in the allowance of US military presence
in Costa Rica, a country that abolished its army in 1948 and has a policy of
neutrality.
The legislature’s approval of the bilateral agreement has not gone
unchallenged. A substantial legislative opposition has formed, including
representatives from the Broad Front, Citizen Action Party and the United
Social Christian Parties. The opposition has challenged the
constitutionality of the agreement, citing Article 12 of the Costa Rican
constitution. Article 12 restricts the reasons that military forces may form
and states that they must always remain under Costa Rican civilian control.
Last week, the Costa Rican Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. This is
encouraging news for the opposition regardless of the outcome, because the
agreement cannot go into effect until the Court issues a ruling on the
constitutional question. There is no indication about when the Court may
issue a ruling.
Civil society as well is organizing to oppose the US military presence in
its waters and on its soil. Distrust of US motives is widespread in light of
the tacit US government support for the Honduran coup, the agreement with
Colombia to use seven bases there, and tensions between Colombia and
Venezuela in which Venezuelan forces are on high alert in preparation for a
possible attack from Colombia. Costa Ricans have reacted by holding forums
and protests. Student groups as young as high school have started to form in
opposition to the US military presence. Some have created Facebook pages and
posted YouTube messages representing civil society’s desire for a peaceful
and sovereign nation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSVP5bdf4ug
While Costa Rican officials and civil society have proven themselves to be a
formidable force in opposition to the spread of US militarism, it is vital
that we in the United States make our voices heard in support of our Costa
Rican sisters and brothers. The Alliance for Global Justice is urging all
people of goodwill to contact their member of Congress. Ask your member what
justifies such a huge military presence in a country that has been
demilitarized for over 60 years. Say that the size of the US military
presence seems all out of proportion with the claim that it is to help Costa
Rica interdict drug trafficking. Advise your member of Congress that at a
time of record deficit spending and unemployment, the government should not
be spending millions of taxpayer dollars further militarizing Latin America
and contributing to rising tensions in the region. The Congressional
Switchboard is 202-224-3121.
=================================
THE STATEMENT IS INCLUDED -- scroll down
Call to Action: United for Peace & Justice encourages UFPJ Member Groups and other organizations to individually endorse this declaration and communicate it to Hendrik Voss, School of the Americas Watch, hvoss@soaw.org To support endorsement, we encourage that issue information and calls to action be forwarded to member group constituencies.
==================
Call Congress Today!
Despite the fact that Costa Rica is widely regarded as a pacifist nation due to its decision not to have its own military forces, the country controversially granted the US permission to send 7,000 troops and 46 warships (along with their accompanying airplanes and helicopters) to Costa Rica through the end of the year. Officially, the act is considered part of the US led "Drug War" (which is increasingly war-like in nature). Costa Rica's neighbors, however, see the massive military presence as a potential base for regional strikes. Internally, many Costa Ricans are questioning the military presence and its impact on the nation's sovereignty. One party has even brought forth a claim questioning the constitutionality of such an act.
Due to the US's history of intervention in Latin America (perhaps most notably in neighboring Nicaragua), the region is clearly justified in its concern for the disproportionate and virtual invasion of troops into an area that provides such a logistical and geographic striking point. They deserve an explanation and we, as US taxpayers have the right to know why our money is being spent on further militarizing Latin America rather than on the jobs, schools, and healthcare urgently needed in our own country!
But the US has responded, as usual, by disregarding the concerns. According to a TicoTimes article
(http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103554307572&s=6716&e=001lQmcCZ8IzMrYYGaEIei5RAhK2lbtTnWPaHx3RUF_k9qaqbBNG0l8_eyRZ4beQ4hf4e51tOE4E7jRlET_TACrbq6p8cpTcsCe9BT7qoZG0398_n7-3afgY4XN0-wOBZEKqXpwGSiy80N0YiIsbIB3znU3UQKIgrgn)
----------------------------
Yanquis respond to calls to ‘go home'
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
What seemed like normal protocol – seeking the approval of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly for another group of Marines, with their support ships and planes, to monitor the country's coastline for signs of drug traffickers – erupted into protests and angry comments as some Costa Ricans complained that their country's sovereignty was being trampled upon.
The response caught the U.S. Embassy, which was amid its Independence Day celebration, by surprise.
“We are not sure why there is this uproar,” U.S. Ambassador Anne S. Andrew said, explaining that the request is the same one that has been submitted each year for the last 10 years under a bilateral agreement between the two countries. And the timing seemed rather odd, she added.
Costa Ricans will be the first to tell you that their once-peaceful country is suffering a problem of national security. A recently released study by polling company Unimer showed that Costa Ricans' greatest fears involve issues relating to security and crime. And few disagree the problem has arrived mostly from the outside, much of it on the backs of drug-smuggling cartels that have found room to maneuver along Costa Rica's lightly protected coastlines and borders.
“This (protest) seems to arise at a point where there is no question that there is a serious security challenge ahead for Costa Rica,” Andrew said. “In the last 10 years, the efforts of Costa Rica and the United States under the Joint Maritime Agreement have been responsible for the interception of 115,000 kilograms of cocaine and $24 million in laundered money off the coast of Costa Rica.”
For more on this story, see the July 9 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.
------------------------------------
"'We are not sure why there is this uproar,' U.S. Ambassador Anne S. Andrew said, explaining that the request is the same one that has been submitted each year for the last 10 years under a bilateral agreement between the two countries." Past agreements, however, appear to only grant US vessels permission to enter the area in pursuit and, to our knowledge, do not seem to have mentioned troop or warship presence.
--------------------
Please support Costa Ricans in defending their sovereignty and to maintain peace in the region by refusing US military presence! Contact your Member of Congress today,
(http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103554307572&s=6716&=001lQmcCZ8IzMol4K37uADI8vdS440CAvz6fcTPmzk6frOfyAtl7j3r_pJ_zmF60bebsuXT7wMrm-W48yH3kI0mS2uJ5QELXAZVPmjl2JUDGQbICaGKmbvXXUszHqKGiuqJ)and
demand the following:
I am very concerned about the increased US military presence in Costa Rica. I demand to know why my tax dollars are being spent on such a disproportionate show of force in response to drug trafficking, when that money could easily be redirected toward much needed treatment, job creation and social welfare programs at home. How much of our tax money is being sent on the deployment on 7,000 troops and 46 warships?
The region, that has suffered so greatly at the hand of US intervention, deserves a true explanation as to why we are sending such a huge military strike force. This military occupation must end immediately. Please report back to me the expected cost to the taxpayers of this misguided venture.
Sincerely,
Your Name
==========================================
More...
[0] comments (44 views) | link
One Year After Coup, Honduras Still in Crisis; Is the US Enabling?
One Year After Coup, Honduras Still in Crisis; Is the US Enabling?
A year after a military coup toppled the democratically-elected government, a "horrifying" human rights crisis continues amidst economic and environmental decay. Is the U.S. enabling this repression with taxpayer dollars?
One year ago last week, on June 28, 2009, the Honduran special forces - led by U.S.-trained officers, wearing U.S.-issue uniforms and armed with U.S.-made M16s - attacked the home of president Manuel Zelaya, kidnapped him in his pajamas, and after a quick stop at the local U.S. airbase, flew him off to Costa Rica in exile. Honduras hasn't been the same since.
"[It's] a totally different country since the coup," says Dr. Adrienne Pine, a Central American expert at American University in Washington, D.C. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Pine, who was in the capital of Tegucigalpa as an international observer last week, described conditions in the new Honduras as being "horrifying."
"We've now reached a point where it's like we've returned to the 1980's, when death squads killed several hundred people and effectively ended the Leftist movement in Honduras at the time," says Pine, who spent Monday marching with about 200,000 pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital. She believes a heavy presence of foreign observers and reporters was the only reason the police and soldiers, who shadowed the marchers at all times, did not attack as they have in the past. "What we're seeing now is that they're using the same repressive strategies [as in the '80's]," she says. "Even the same people are in charge."
Many experts, including Pine, also believe that the tens of millions of dollars Honduras receives in military and security funding from the U.S. each year is furthering the crisis.
The State Department has publicly denied these charges, but the criticism continues.
"The U.S. is complicit in a number of ways," says Pine. "Most definitely by its silence. And the fact that the [we've] refused . . . to acknowledge the human rights violations, and the targeted assassinations."
On August 31, 2009, members of the pro-democracy Popular Front of the National Resistance (FNRP) dismantle an election billboard for controversial Honduran president Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo.
Roots of the Crisis
International human rights organizations have documented that more than 50 members of the pacifist Popular Front of the National Resistance (FNRP) - a broad, grass roots coalition that arose in response to the coup - have been assassinated by police, soldiers, and paramilitary forces since the coup. Hundreds more have been beaten, and thousands detained illegally, as troops regularly attacked peaceful assemblies with tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live rounds.
Recently, FNRP organizers and their families have been increasingly targeted in mysterious, execution-style slayings. Twenty-four such killings have come in the five months since the inauguration of controversial President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, who also supported the coup, and came to power during a heavily-militarized election that saw more than half the Honduran electorate abstain due to concerns about corruption.
Nine journalists have also fallen prey to the death squads under Lobo's watch, prompting Reporters Without Borders to label Honduras as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. At least five FNRP members were assassinated in June alone; the victims including trade union leaders, farmers, and a teacher.
But despite the alarming reports coming out of Honduras, the Obama administration continues to back Lobo.
"The U.S. strongly supports the democratically-elected government of Pepe Lobo, and its urge to strengthen democratic institutions in Honduras, increase respect for human rights, and deal with major economic and social problems," says a State Department official, who would speak with me only under the condition of anonymity. "Like the [Lobo] government, we feel the emphasis should be focusing on the future . . . and less focusing on the past," the official says.
But for the majority of Hondurans, who refused to vote for Lobo, and for the many countries in the hemisphere that still don't recognize his regime - including Latin American powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina - the problems of "the past" haven't gone away.
"The government that's in place . . . was installed after an illegitimate election that wasn't recognized by the UN or OAS [the Organization of American States]," says Dr. Pine. "This regime is a nothing but a continuation of the coup."
Honduran police cordon off a march in the capital of Tegucigalpa on September 23, 2009.
U.S. Reps to the Rescue?
The situation in Honduras has become so severe that on June 25, 27 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter [http://hondurashumanrights.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/27-congress-members-sign-letter-on-human-rights-in-honduras/]to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, expressing their "concern regarding the grievous violations of human rights and the democratic order which commenced with the coup and continue to this day."
The letter urges the State Department to "rise to this occasion" and conduct its own investigation to "make a prompt assessment of what is occurring there with regards to human and political rights."
More than a week after receiving that letter from Congress, the same State Department official says they "are still in the process of deciding" how to address the request from Congress.
"But I'd like to emphasize that the U.S. has been very closely monitoring the human rights situation in Honduras," says the official. "And we have been working with the government of president Lobo to fulfill his commitments to improve the situation."
As proof of his good intentions, the State Department cites Lobo's establishing a "Truth Commission" to investigate last summer's coup, as well as a presidential committee on human rights. But many Hondurans, as well as international analysts, feel these steps are largely cosmetic, intended to mollify President Obama's demands for reform, more than being aimed at actually curbing the violence.
"We know the police and the army have been involved in illegal detentions, torture and murders and now it's at a point where there are very systematic death squad activities being carried out," says Tom Louden, director of the U.S. based Quixote Center, a human rights NGO that monitors events in Central America and Haiti. Louden traveled to Honduras last week as an observer in a separate delegation from Dr. Pine's.
Louden - who has made more than a dozen previous, fact-finding trips to Honduras since the coup, and been tear gassed by Honduran authorities on more than one occasion - says he believes the Lobo administration is "absolutely" behind the death squad killings. And it's allegations like these that spurred the 27 members of Congress to start worrying about their constituents' tax dollars flowing into the Lobo regime's coffers.
The State Department says Honduras is scheduled to receive 51 million dollars of U.S. aid in 2010, and they've requested nearly 68 million dollars from Congress for fiscal year 2011. But, if things don't change for the better in Honduras, that might not happen.
"Without an early and accurate [human rights] report," the Members wrote, "we would be reluctant to see U.S. support for Honduras continue without significant restrictions."
Pro-democracy demonstrators clash with police on September 23, 2009, in the capital of Tegucigalpa.
Economic Impact
"Economically, Honduras is now a disaster," says American University's Dr. Pine, who has been an expert witness for dozens of Honduran asylum hearings in the U.S. "The country's finances were gutted by the de facto government," she says, in order to maintain a militarized state. Lobo declared bankruptcy in February.
In addition to the millions spent to mobilize the armed forces against the populace, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, as international investment fell off during the violence that followed the coup. The crippling unemployment is leaving many families with no means of support, even as food and commodity prices rise due to instability. More than sixty percent of the country gets by on less than two dollars a day.
"Progress is dead. And the economy is still getting worse," says top FNRP organizer Juan Barahona, who also marched in the hot summer sun in Tegucigalpa on Monday. "It has become critical. There is no work for anyone. And of course the government of oligarchs does not help at all."
Zelaya had set up food and fuel subsidies for low-income families, financial aid for students, raised the minimum wage, and made steps toward reducing unemployment. But all of that has changed since the putsch.
"It was a classic neoliberal coup," says Pine, referring to the subsequent cuts in government aid and the push toward privatization, which have combined to drive up the costs of essentials like health care and education. "This has really been strangling the Honduran people," she says.
A forest fire in President Lobo's home state of Olancho, on February 25, 2009.
Environmental Fallout
According to some conservationists, the coup last summer has also had a serious, negative impact on the country's long-term environmental outlook. Ecologists report that logging in Honduras delicate, dry pine forests has increased dramatically since the far-right coup - causing dangerous deforestation and local climate change, as the trees are slowly replaced by scrub and savannah.
"The logging trucks run all the time now," says Jairo Gimenez, President of the Environmental Movement of Salama (MAS), which operates in the remote, heavily-forested Olancho region. "And there is always less government oversight - because that's what the logging barons want: to cut fast, for profit now, and forget about the future. Zelaya had passed laws to protect the forests, and even sent the Army to fight illegal logging - but all of that changed when they threw him out."
Zelaya had also passed strict legislation to regulate mining, because of reports that whole communities had been poisoned by tailings from internationally-owned gold and lead mines - but those laws have also come under attack in the post-coup era.
According to Grahame Russell, co-director of Rights Action, a U.S.-based NGO that watchdogs exploitive mining practices in Central America and elsewhere, certain Honduran elites want to see restrictive mining laws overturned because they control the in-country construction and transportation infrastructure, and know they'll profit from lucrative transnational contracts.
"Zelaya obviously was responding to increasing activism, in Honduras and the Americas, to reign in the abuses committed with impunity by mining companies," Russell says. "[Now] mining and investment sectors want the moratorium overturned so that they can make money."
"We know the water's not safe to drink or bathe in," says Carlos Amador, a teacher in the Siria Valley, home of Honduras' largest goldmine, owned by Canada's Goldcorp. On a visit to the Goldcorp mine, THP documented symptoms from mass poisoning in nearby villages that included lesions, hair loss, and mental retardation; the conditions being most pronounced in infants and children. "But this is their home. Where else can they go?" says Amador. "For many poor families, there's just no choice."
Although the Honduran government has run tests on local water tables in the Siria Valley, and denies any contamination from mine tailings - the Honduran State Department refused to release the results of those tests to THP. The Honduran Congress is expected to vote on a new mining law later this summer.
U.S. Sanctioning Human Rights Abuses?
"I would say that the U.S. is more to blame than anything else [for the Honduran crisis], because of how avidly it has supported the coup government," says Dr. Pine, who believes that the State Department was unhappy with former president Zelaya's friendly trading ties with Venezuela, as well as his push to convert the U.S.'s Palmerola Air Force base into a much-needed civilian hub. Although unpopular with Hondurans, the airbase is seen as vital to U.S. hegemony. And many foreign policy analysts believe that if Honduras, a long time ally of the U.S., had sided with Venezuela, it could've tipped the balance of power in the region.
"After the coup, the OAS said that Zelaya had to be re-instated without conditions," says Pine. "[But] what the U.S. said was that the de facto government of Micheletti was a legitimate bargaining partner. . . That incredibly weakened Zelaya. But more importantly it weakened the position of all Hondurans who believed in their democracy."
Some experts - pointing to evidence of close ties between the ruling business-military junta and the State Department, as well as the sophisticated, U.S.-style propaganda campaign employed by the coup-plotters, which sought to demonize Zelaya and legitimize the coup - even go so far as to call the U.S. the "intellectual author" of the putsch.
"Honduras is a country where nothing very significant happens in the government without some sort of approval by the U.S.," says Quixote-center director Louden. "We need to stop funding the police and the military [and stop] spinning what's happening to confuse people about Honduras."
But the State Department disagrees.
"I think those charges are completely preposterous," says the State Department official. "We do not have a situation where the government is sanctioning abuses of human rights. There may be human rights abuses committed by individuals who work for [Honduran] law enforcement institutions. I have no specific proof of any such abuses. But in any event we can count on the Honduran disciplinary legal action against those individuals."
But to many in the international community, that's not good enough. They contend that the investigative commissions Lobo assigned to investigate abuses are themselves corrupt. And that maybe U.S. influence is hurting more than it helps.
"Another important factor that has severely undermined the Lobo [Truth] Commission's credibility in Honduras has been the intense involvement of the U.S. administration in its creation and promotion," writes Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research analyst Alex Main, in an e-mail to THP. "It has to be remembered that the U.S. administration is not considered to be a neutral actor in the Honduran crisis, especially given its unilateral decision to endorse the national elections in November without calling for the prior restoration of democracy."
For Loudon, culpability runs deeper than failing to call for restoration of basic freedoms in Honduras.
"The people who are [committing these human rights abuses] are trained in the U.S.," he says, referring specifically to the Pentagon-sponsored education programs for the Honduran officers' corps. "[We] continue to provide the model and provide the oversight, for how to best eliminate a social movement."
But, according to the State Department official, instead of being responsible for the killings, the Lobo regime, despite U.S. support, is simply overwhelmed and helpless in the face of rampant violence and crime.
"Honduras's problems are longstanding," says the State Department official, "and a lot of the killings and other intimidation that occurs is not necessarily due to political acts, but it's just part of, unfortunately, the culture of impunity that has developed in Honduras."
Although rising poverty since the coup has led to a sharp spike in crime and murders, other experts observe that comparing the number of Resistance members' deaths, to the overall murder rate, makes it statistically improbable to attribute those killings to chance.
"It's just na�ve to think that nine journalists would be killed in the time that Lobo has been president, in specific targeted shootings, and that that would just be a coincidence," says Pine. "In particular when the majority of those journalists were critical of the coup."
Honduras Awakes
Given the severity of the political and economic crisis, many Hondurans say the best path toward reconciliation is to democratically construct a new national charter - something the coup may have been intended to prevent. Zelaya's ouster last year happened just hours before a scheduled, non-binding referendum on the issue of creating a Constitutional Assembly to re-write the outdated Honduras Constitution. The current charter is accused of keeping the nation's resources in the hands of few, elite families and the military - and many in Honduras see the coup as a desperate act to maintain the status quo.
"With the poll on the Constitutional Assembly [Zelaya] was responding to demands from grass roots organizations . . . Most Hondurans joined the Resistance because they felt that their democracy had been robbed from them, not because they felt that Zelaya had been robbed from them."
And that widespread perception could have serious repercussions for those behind the military takeover a year ago.
"In many ways the coup has totally backfired on those who perpetrated it, including the United States," says Loudon, who has lived in Central America for fifteen of the last twenty years. "The feeling was that they would do something that seemed quasi-legal, they didn't kill the president, and they thought that there would be a day or two of protests, and then back to business as usual . . . Instead it served as a kind of awakening, and day after day, week after week there have been protests, and they have been unable to erase the memory of what happened."
Dr. Pine concurs that Honduras is still a long way from business as usual. "What happened last year was a paradigm shift. . . Suddenly, the way Hondurans put it, the masks came off. They recognized that the authorities were violently repressing them all along. They recognized that the democracy they thought they had, was a farce."
A new, more participatory democracy is one of the core goals of the FNRP - a goal for which more than 50 of them have died.
"We have been struggling since June 28, 2009, to have a Constitutional Assembly," says Resistance leader Barahona, who was a trade union leader in Tegucigalpa before the coup. "To have an Assembly is indispensible because the responsibility for creating a new Constitution lies with the people, and only with the people."
Barahona says the FNRP - which is a broad coalition made up of unionists, teachers, students, human rights NGO's and indigenous groups - has in two months collected more than 600,000 petitions demanding a Constitutional referendum. Well on its way to collecting 1.2 million by Honduras Independence Day, on September 15th, when the FNRP plans a peaceful march on Congress to present the signatures.
"Because the government no longer serves the people, this is the only way we have to express ourselves," Barahona says.
"Blood on our Hands"
One year after the coup, the Honduran capital was still heavily militarized, with armed checkpoints stationed on the major highways. The massive columns of pro-democracy demonstrators and international observers marched peacefully, sang songs and danced around the soldiers and police.
"There are a huge number of people here from around the world," says Pine, "and they came because they were so inspired by the Honduran Resistance. They see this as one of the few places in the world where people are really coming together to demand radical change, a re-founding of the nation, and really re-thinking these basic concepts, like, 'What do we mean by democracy?' They're having these conversations on a societal level that are so profound, and then really fighting for them. And that's been such a source of inspiration."
And if the repression of that inspirational movement continues, it could have long-term consequences, both for the people of Honduras, and for Obama's legacy in Central America. Because Honduras is so dependent on U.S. aid, many believe the Obama administration could easily force an improvement in democracy and human rights.
"With sanctions, if we had wanted to, we could've turned the coup around in two days," says Pine, who wrote her dissertation on Honduras. "If the U.S. had really cut off aid . . . that could have forced a lot of things. But I don't the U.S. has a lot of interest in human rights in Honduras, and certainly not in democracy . . ."
But even though it's taking heavy flack on this issue, the State Department seems to be holding firm.
"I think we need to recognize that change in Honduras is going to come slowly. The country went through a very difficult and traumatic period last year and the divisions in Honduran society are very deep . . . For our part the U.S. will continue to support the government of president Lobo as it carries out its efforts to deal with Honduras's problems."
That "take-it-slow" attitude puzzles many experts, especially given the urgency of the economic situation, and the loss of human life.
"It's our money that is killing Hondurans," Pine says. "That blood is on our hands. And if we are not speaking up against that, then we are the ones responsible."
More...
[0] comments (31 views) | link
St. Louis City takes a stand against anti-immigrant legislation
St. Louis City takes a stand against anti-immigrant legislation and in favor of recognizing the unique value of our immigrant communities.
In anticipation of our national Independence Day, on Friday July 2, 2010, the St. Louis City Board of Aldermen spoke out clearly and forcefully against Arizona SB 1070 and the brand of anti-immigrant racial profiling and discrimination embodied therein.
Responding to the recent efforts by certain members of the Missouri House of Representatives to copy such legislation into Missouri law in the recently ended 2010 regular legislative session, the Board of Aldermen courageously said "NO."
This resolution comes on the heels of the similar resolution passed by the City of Kansas City, Missouri on May 27, 2010.
The resolution was sponsored by Alderman Craig Schmid (Twentieth Ward) and co-sponsored by Lewis Reed, the President of the Board of Aldermen, with the encouragement of immigration attorney Ken Schmitt of US Legal Solutions, LLC, Joan Suarez and Jennifer Rafanan of Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates (MIRA), and IFCLA.
Unfortunately, it also comes on the heels of the ill-considered opposite resolution of the St. Charles County Council on May 10, 2010 rubber stamping and signing onto Arizona SB 1070 and its endorsement of racial profiling and legalized discrimination.
A copy of Resolution No. 138 ("Opposition to State of Missouri Requiring St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to Check Immigration Status of Those Suspected of Being Illegal Aliens") passed by the Board of Alderman of the City of St. Louis is attached.
More...
[0] comments (61 views) | link
Rethinking Iran-Contra: A Much Darker Story?
Rethinking Iran-Contra: A Much Darker Story?
The Iran-Contra/ October Surprise was the missing link in a larger American political narrative
By Robert Parry
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19992
Global Research/Consortiumnews July 1, 2010
The conventional view of the Iran-Contra scandal is that it covered the period 1985-86, when President Ronald Reagan became concerned about the fate of American hostages in Lebanon and agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran�s Islamist government to gain its help in freeing the captives.
Supposedly, the scheme went awry when White House aide Oliver North and other participants got carried away, including North�s decision to divert profits from the arms sales to another one of Reagan�s priorities, the Nicaraguan contra rebels whose CIA assistance had been cut off by Congress.
The Iran-Contra scandal was exposed in fall of 1986 after the shooting down of a North supply plane over Nicaragua and revelations in Lebanon of Reagan�s arms sales to Iran. A White House staff shake-up, including North�s firing, and some wrist-slaps from Congress for Reagan�s alleged inattention to details resolved the scandal, at least that was how Official Washington saw it.
The few dissenters who wouldn�t accept that tidy conclusion � such as Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh � were mocked and marginalized by the news media, including the Washington Post (which ran an article concluding that Walsh�s consistency in pursuing the scandal was �so un-Washington� and that he would depart as �a perceived loser�).
But an accumulating body of evidence suggests that the traditional view of Iran-Contra was mistaken, that this conventional understanding of the scandal was like starting a novel in the middle and assuming you�re reading the opening chapter.
Indeed, it now appears clear that the Iran-Contra Affair began five years earlier in 1980, with what has often been treated as a separate controversy, called the October Surprise case, dealing with alleged contacts between Reagan�s presidential campaign and Iran.
In view of the latest evidence � and the crumbling of the long-running October Surprise cover-up
� there appears to have been a single Iran-Contra narrative spanning the entire 12 years of the Reagan and Bush I administration, and representing a much darker story.
And it was not simply a tale of Republican electoral skullduggery and treachery, but possibly even more troubling, a story of rogue CIA officers and Israel�s Likud hardliners sabotaging a sitting U.S. president, Jimmy Carter.
Plus, with Washington�s failure to get at the larger truth about the Iran-Contra Affair, crucial patterns were set: Republicans acted aggressively, Democrats behaved timidly, and the U.S. national news media was transformed from Watergate-era watchdogs, to lapdogs and finally to guard dogs protecting national security wrongdoing.
In that sense, the Iran-Contra/October Surprise scandal represented the missing link in a larger American political narrative covering the sweep of several decades, explaining how the United States shifted away from a nation grappling with epochal problems, from energy dependence and environmental degradation to bloated military budgets and an obsession with empire.
For all his shortcomings and half-measures, President Carter had begun promoting solar and other alternative energies; he pushed conservation programs and worked to reduce the federal deficit; and abroad, he advocated greater respect for human rights and pulled back from the imperial presidency.
More on point, he cashiered many of the freewheeling Cold Warriors of the CIA and demanded land-for-peace concessions from Israel.
Unacceptable Dangers
Carter�s potential second term presented unacceptable dangers to some powerful interests at home and overseas. The CIA Old Boys (whom legendary CIA officer Miles Copeland deemed �the CIA within the CIA�) thought they understood the true national interests even if the lazy-minded public and weak-kneed politicians didn�t.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his Likud Party believed in a �Greater Israel� and were determined not to trade any more land conquered in the Six-Day War of 1967 for promises of peace with Palestinians and other Arabs. In 1980, Begin was still fuming over Carter�s Camp David pressure on him to surrender the Sinai in exchange for a peace deal with Egypt.
In other words, the deep-seated concerns of many influential forces intersected in 1980, all with a common desire to sink Carter�s reelection campaign. And the best way to do that was to undermine his efforts to gain the freedom of 52 American hostages then held in Iran. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com�s �The CIA/Likud Sinking of Jimmy Carter.�]
The secret relationships, born of the 1980 hostage dealings, created the framework for the Reagan administration�s approval of Israel�s clandestine arms shipments to Iran beginning immediately after Reagan took office in 1981, just as the American hostages were finally released. Those initial Israeli arms sales gradually evolved into the Iran-Contra weapons transfers.
Thus, when the Iran-Contra scandal surfaced in fall 1986, the subsequent cover-up was not simply to protect Reagan from possible impeachment for violating the Arms Export Control Act and the congressional ban on military aid to the Nicaraguan contras, but from exposure of the even darker, earlier phase of the scandal, which would implicate Israel and the CIA.
In authorizing the first investigation of Iran-Contra, Reagan�s Attorney General Edwin Meese set the chronological parameters as 1985 and 1986. Congressional inquiries also focused on that narrow time frame, despite indications that the scandal began earlier, such as the mystery of an Israeli-chartered arms flight that was shot down in July 1981 after straying into Soviet air space.
Only late in the Iran-Contra criminal investigation did Walsh and his investigative team begin suspecting that the only explanation for the futile arms-for-hostage dealings regarding Lebanon in 1985-86 � when each freed hostage was replaced by a new captive � was that the tripartite relationship of Iran-Israel-and-Reagan predated the Lebanese crisis, going back to 1980.
That was one reason why Walsh�s investigators asked George H.W. Bush�s national security adviser (and former CIA officer) Donald Gregg about his possible role in delaying the release of the hostages in 1980. His denial was judged deceptive by an FBI polygrapher.
�People on High�
Nicholas Veliotes, Reagan�s assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, described his discovery of the earlier Iran connections after the Israeli plane went down in the Soviet Union in 1981.
�It was clear to me after my conversations with people on high that indeed we had agreed that the Israelis could transship to Iran some American-origin military equipment,� Veliotes said in an interview with PBS Frontline.
In checking out the Israeli flight, Veliotes came to believe that the Reagan camp�s dealings with Iran dated back to before the 1980 election.
�It seems to have started in earnest in the period probably prior to the election of 1980, as the Israelis had identified who would become the new players in the national security area in the Reagan administration,� Veliotes said. �And I understand some contacts were made at that time.�
Though some two dozen witnesses � including senior Iranian officials and a wide range of other international players � have expanded on Veliotes�s discovery, the pressure became overpowering in the final years of George H.W. Bush�s presidency not to accept the obvious conclusions. [For details of the evidence, see Robert Parry�s Secrecy & Privilege.]
It was easier for all involved � surely the Republicans but also the Democrats and much of the Washington press corps � to discredit the corroborated 1980 allegations. Taking the lead was the neoconservative New Republic.
In fall 1991, as Congress was deliberating whether to conduct a full investigation of the October Surprise issue, Steven Emerson, a journalist with close ties to Likud, produced a cover story for The New Republic claiming to prove the allegations were a �myth.�
Newsweek published a matching cover story also attacking the October Surprise allegations. The article, I was told, had been ordered up by executive editor Maynard Parker who was known inside Newsweek as a close ally of the CIA and an admirer of prominent neocon Elliott Abrams.
The two articles were influential in shaping Washington�s conventional wisdom, but they were both based on a misreading of attendance documents at a London historical conference which William Casey had gone to in July 1980.
The two publications put Casey at the conference on one key date � thus supposedly proving he could not have attended an alleged Madrid meeting with Iranian emissaries. However, after the two stories appeared, follow-up interviews with conference participants, including historian Robert Dallek, conclusively showed that Casey wasn�t at the conference until later.
Veteran journalist Craig Unger, who had worked on the Newsweek cover story, said the magazine knew the Casey alibi was bogus but still used it. �It was the most dishonest thing that I�ve been through in my life in journalism,� Unger later told me.
However, even though the Newsweek and New Republic stories had themselves been debunked, that didn�t stop other neoconservative-dominated publications, like the Wall Street Journal, from ladling out ridicule on anyone who dared take the October Surprise case seriously.
Peculiar Journalism
Emerson also was a close friend of Michael Zeldin, the deputy chief counsel for the House task force that investigated the October Surprise issue in 1992. Though the task force had to jettison Emerson�s bogus Casey alibi, House investigators told me Emerson frequently visited the task force�s offices and advised Zeldin and others how to read the October Surprise evidence.
Subsequent examinations of Emerson�s peculiar brand of journalism (which invariably toed the Likud line and often demonized Muslims) revealed that Emerson had financial ties to right-wing funders such as Richard Mellon Scaife and had hosted right-wing Israeli intelligence commander Yigal Carmon when Carmon came to Washington to lobby against Middle East peace talks.
In 1999, a study of Emerson�s history by John F. Sugg for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting�s magazine �Extra!� quoted an Associated Press reporter who had worked with Emerson on a project as saying of Emerson and Carmon: �I have no doubt these guys are working together.�
The Jerusalem Post reported that Emerson has "close ties to Israeli intelligence." And �Victor Ostrovsky, who defected from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and has written books disclosing its secrets, calls Emerson �the horn� -- because he trumpets Mossad claims,� Sugg reported.
Yet, the way Washington was working by the end of the 12-year Reagan-Bush-41 era, there was little interest in getting to the bottom of a difficult national security scandal. The House task force simply applied some fantastical logic, such as claiming that because someone wrote down Casey�s home phone number on another key date that proved he was at home, to conclude nothing had happened.
Between the House task force�s finding of �no credible evidence� and the subsequent ridicule heaped on the allegations by major U.S. news outlets, the October Surprise case was cast aside as a �conspiracy theory,� which is how it is still categorized by Washington�s insiders and by Wikipedia.
However, subsequent disclosures have revealed that a flood of new evidence incriminating the Republicans arrived at the House task force in its final weeks, in December 1992, so much so that chief counsel Lawrence Barcella says he recommended that task force chairman, Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, extend the investigation for several months. However, Barcella said Hamilton refused, citing procedural difficulties.
Instead, the incriminating evidence was simply kept from other task force members, and the investigation was shut down with a finding of Republican innocence. It even appears that a late-arriving report from the Russian government about its own intelligence on the case � corroborating allegations of a Republican-Iranian deal � was not even shown to Hamilton, the chairman.
When questioned this year, Hamilton told me he had no recollection of ever seeing the Russian report (though it was addressed to him) and Barcella added that he didn�t �recall whether I showed [Hamilton] the Russian report or not.� [See Consortiumnews.com�s �Key October Surprise Evidence Hidden.�]
According to other recent interviews, dissent within the task force over some of the irrational arguments being used to clear the Republicans was suppressed by Hamilton and Barcella. [See Consortiumnews.com�s �The Tricky October Surprise Report.�]
In other words, Official Washington preferred to sweep this unpleasant scandal under the rug rather than confront the facts and their troubling implications.
Yet, with Reagan remaining a conservative icon and his anti-government policies still in vogue among millions of Americans � slashing taxes for the rich, weakening corporate regulations, rejecting alternative energy, and expanding the military budget � the lost history of this broader Iran-Contra scandal has turned out to be a case that what the country didn�t know did turn out to hurt it.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.
His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.com .
[0] comments (48 views) | link
HONDURAS: Urgent Action Against Illegal Detention and Tortures
Urgent Action Against Illegal Detention and Tortures
SABADO 03 DE JULIO DE 2010 00:25 COFADEH
The Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh), expresses its total repudiation and preoccupation by the illegal detention followed by tortures that Edwin Spinal R�belo was subject to at the hands of agents of the Preventive National Police.
The 30th of June at 11:30 p.m. Edwin Spinal Rïobelo was in his neighbourhood, La Flor del Campo, Tegucigalpa, when five policemen from the police station of Flor del Campo, headed by the agent Vargas arrived asking Edwin for his driving license. Edwin responded by showing his identity card, which was the document he was required to carry because he was not driving and therefore did not need to demonstrate his driving license. Immediately they began to beat him and agent Vargas sprayed him in the eyes with pepper spray and applied an electric baton to different parts of the body, especially the legs and ears.
He was then forced to board a patrol vehicle in which they drove in erratic directions in different streets for 45 minutes, during the journey they threatened him by saying that he was a communist, a Zelayista and "to abandon that shit of the Resistencia", after threatening him and taking pictures, he was transferred to the Cuarta Police Station; before being lowered from the patrol vehicle he was pushed with the intention of causing him to lose his balance and fall, the police also repeatedly sprayed pepper spray and proceeded to put him in a cell. When they applied the pepper spray, a police officer said that the gas would kill all civilians - Edwin lost his young wife, Wendy Elizabeth Avila of pulmonary congestion after breathing pepper spray on 22 September 2009 during the repression and suspension of constitutional guarantees. At the police station he was informed that he was detained for being for drunk and disorderly. Edwin R�belo does not drink alcohol. He was released at 10:30 a.m. on July 1, 2010 through the intervention of the Coordinator of Cofadeh.
Request
COFADEH makes a call to national and international community to:
Demand that the Honduran authorities guarantee the safety of Edwin R�belo Espinal Young, to carry out a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the acts of intimidation, illegal arrests and torture that violate fundamental human rights of Edwin R�belo, to make public the results and bring those responsible for these acts to justice.
Ensure the safety of all people exercising their right to association and free expression.
Direct their communications to the following authorities:
Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilas
Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia
Tel (504) 269-3000 269-3069
Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn
Luis Alberto Rub�
Fiscal General de la Rep�blica.
Fax (504) 221-5667
Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099
Mail: lrubi@mp.hn
suazog@mp.hn
More...
[0] comments (26 views) | link
Quixote Centre Honduras Delegation update July 1st, 2010
This update and others are also at www.quixote.org/honduras , http://arsncanada.blogspot.com, and http://commonfrontiers.ca,
Witnessing Resistance in Honduras
Quixote Centre Honduras Delegation update July 1st, 2010
Caitlin Power Hancey, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN)
The Honduran resistance movement is real—it is also strong, diverse, and decidedly non-violent.
This is the last day of our international accompaniment and observation delegation to Honduras. For the past week our delegation has been busy accompanying a range of events leading up to the anniversary of the coup on June 28th, or “the anniversary active of popular resistance in Honduras.” We also continued meetings with representatives from various sectors active in the resistance movement—including women’s rights organizations, LGBTI coalitions, youth groups, academics, teacher’s unions, and peace-building organizations.
Over the weekend, we accompanied members of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) as they collected signatures—actually “sovereign declarations”—calling for a National Constituent Assembly in the Tegucigalpa neighbourhood of La Esperanza. Nationally over 800,000 signatures have been collected, and the Front expects to have 1.2 million by September 15th, which is Independence Day in Central America. These signatures will give them the moral authority and political sway, as a coalition of social movements, to convoke the National Assembly and begin the process of creating a constitution representative of the diversity of peoples, regions, sectors and experiences that make up Honduras. The current constitution, for example, does not recognize the existence of any indigenous peoples in Honduras, while it is generally considered that there are nine indigenous groups within its borders. The largest groups are the Lenca in the west and Garífuna along the northern coast.
Sunday, on the eve of the anniversary, we accompanied a peaceful candlelight march that began at Francisco Morazán Pedagogical University. It was intended to go north on Miraflores Boulevard, veer right and stop at the presidential palace, then make its way west to the Congress in the centre of the city, where there was a vigil for all of the individuals who have lost their lives to state violence since the coup. When the crowd reached the first road leading to the palace, it was barricaded with cement blocks and chain-link fencing and guarded by soldiers in riot gear with machine guns. By the time the crowd reached Suyapa Boulevard, they had passed another route blocked by military in riot gear (who’s shields read “POLICE,” in English), and the east side of the main intersection was blocked as well. The marchers stayed at the intersection for about 20 minutes, chanting at the soldiers, some marchers asking them what they were afraid of. After the crowd faced the soldiers and sang the national anthem, someone with a megaphone asked for a show of hands to determine where to go next. It was getting late, but most of the group continued on to the Congress. Before moving on, organizers sent pick-up trucks out to the edges of the crowd to try to ensure that those who weren’t continuing with the main crowd had a safe way home and that no one would be travelling alone.
About 11:15 that night in our guesthouse, I received a text message from a former colleague in Honduras that Berta Caceres, the leader of the Coordination of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPINH) had been detained by the police in the department of La Esperanza and the charges were not being made clear. Within a half-hour I received another message that she was released. I was told the next morning that the police department had received at least a dozen calls from human rights activists in Honduras and the United States and responded to the pressure. This was the night before the anniversary of the coup, when marches were being planned all over the country.
No major incidents were reported to us on Monday, the day of the anniversary. Though the marches in Tegucigalpa and other major centres were not accounted for in mainstream Honduran media, most alternative sources estimate a minimum of 10,000 participants at the Tegucigalpa march. Most people we talked with presumed that the state was aware of the international eyes on Honduras during the anniversary and wouldn’t take overtly repressive action. They believed the violations would continue in a strategic, targeted, and “silent” way, which has been the pattern observed since the Lobo government took power at the end of January. In a country with an average of 15 violent deaths a day, it’s not considered difficult for those who want to pass off political violence—including assassinations—as common delinquency, or to smear the victim by insinuating involvement in criminal activity.
Our group temporarily left the anniversary march to observe the inauguration of the True Commission (the alternative to the government-sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission), which others from the march soon joined. The energy was high in the auditorium, which was full, and international support from across the Americas was present. That afternoon and evening there was a concert on the grounds of the Pedagogical University showcasing Honduran musicians and original resistance music written since the coup.
After the anniversary our delegation had meetings with organizations representing the two groups hardest hit by political assassinations following the coup—the LGBTI community, who have lost 27, and teachers, who have lost 21(??). When our delegation members asked why each of those groups were so heavily targeted, representatives from ARCOIRIS, an organization that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, said its in large part because they are considered by those responsible to be some of the most dispensable and disreputable members of the population, and therefore of the resistance. In our meeting with the presidents of five different teachers unions we were told simply that to repress teachers is to repress the next generation of resisters—and the strategy was clear.
We also met with representatives from Feminists in Resistance, a collective of individuals and women’s organizations that formed after the coup, who outlined the particular, gendered ways that women have been targeted in the resistance—from rape and sexualized beatings perpetrated by soldiers and police during demonstrations and curfews, to references in the mainstream media to “loose” and “irresponsible” women who take to the streets instead of taking care of their families. They also expressed clear determination to regain the ground they lost after the coup in terms of women’s rights, and sincere hope that with the increased organization and rejuvenation of their movement they would get even further. According to these representatives, since Lobo has taken power, the morning-after pill—and any education or advertising referencing it—has been made illegal. A new, inclusive sexual education guide that they had approved under the Zelaya government has been gutted, and the hard-won Institute for Women is being shut down and reportedly replaced with an “Institute for the Family.”
This morning, a couple of hours before delegation members were scheduled to leave for the airport and return home, we received a call that a highly-visible member of the resistance, whose partner was killed as a result of tear gas poisoning during a demonstration last year, had been arrested for a traffic violation. He was reportedly badly burned by pepper spray from the police officers, had been tasered, and also couldn’t open one eye. Some members went to the local police station to inquire about his welfare and ask if they could see him on their way to the airport. Shortly afterwards, we found out that a warrant was now out for the arrest of another outspoken member of the resistance because two years ago workers had cut down trees on her rural property, allegedly violating environmental laws.
On this Canada Day there is no shortage of recent events that encourage me to reflect on our country’s role internationally in support of violent, repressive regimes—such as backing the post-coup regime in Honduras, continuing support for Israel’s war on Gaza and the Palestinian people, and the recent signing of the bi-lateral free trade agreement with Colombia. And with the recent detentions, violence, and violations of civil liberties during the G20 meetings in Toronto, we’ve got several more reasons to doubt our current government’s respect for human rights at home, including the right to dissent.
I want to reiterate that the resistance movement is large, vibrant, multi-faceted, and decidedly present in Honduras. We do not hear about it via mainstream in North America, if we hear about the situation in Honduras at all, and major media in Honduras clearly misrepresents and undermines its existence. All representatives we met with insisted that as international delegates we must counteract the lies and omissions and let people in our countries know that their movement is real. In our meeting with him yesterday, Dr. Juan Almendares Bonilla, the Executive Director of the Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Torture Victims and their Families (CPTRT) and an eminent human rights defender in Honduras, reminded us that international solidarity between peoples—despite the national boundaries and governments that divide us—is the most important and essential power we have, and we need to exercise it, mutually.
For more information about this delegation and additional updates or media releases:
The Quixote Centre: www.quixote.org
Common Frontiers Canada: http://commonfrontiers.ca
The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN): http://arsncanada.blogspot.com
For more information about the recent situation in Honduras and Canada’s role:
Honduras: Democracy Denied http://www.ccic.ca/_files/en/working_groups/apg_2010-04_honduras_democracy_denied_e.pdf
A Report from the Canadian Council for International Cooperation’s Americas Policy Group with Recommendations to the Government of Canada
[0] comments (35 views) | link
| NEXT page |