The assertion by Republicans that the coup was not a "coup" was a blatant lie. Everyone worldwide except America's Republicans referred to it as a "coup." Furthermore, Ambassador Llorens in Tegucigalpa was constantly speaking with leaders (but only leaders) of business, religious, civic, and other organizations throughout Honduras, and everyone he spoke with stated his position in regards to the "coup." For example (from the Embassy cables), "Monsignor Juan Jose Pineda , the Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa ... stated that the Church had not taken sides in relation to the coup d'etat," but "vociferously condemned the poor treatment of the Church by what he believed to be elements of the anti-coup movement." And the leaders of two conservative political parties "argued that anti-coup protests have not been peaceful." Only America's Republicans lied that it hadn't been a "coup." Not even Republicans' friends in Honduras, the fascists there, did. It was a coup. Republicans simply lied, as usual. (This is why Fox "News" has been found in every study to have the most-misinformed audience of any major news medium -- they're being lied to constantly.)
On 5 October 2009, Jason Beaubien of NPR headlined "Rich vs. Poor at Root of Honduran Political Crisis," and he reported that, though Honduran conservatives were charging that Zelaya secretly intended to make Honduras into a communist dictatorship, the actual situation in Honduras was, as explained by an economics professor there, that "power in Honduras is in the hands of about 100 people from roughly 25 families. Others estimate that Honduran elite to be slightly larger, but still it is a tiny group." This professor "says the country's elite have always selected the nation's president. They initially helped Zelaya get into office, and then they orchestrated his removal" when President Zelaya pressed land- and other- reforms. If communists would ever come to power in Honduras, it will be because of fascists' intransigence there, not because of progressives' attempts to end the hammer-lock of the local feudal lords.
Adolf Hitler similarly used a popular fear of communism to persuade conservative fools to vote for himself and for other fascists; but fascists and communists are alike: enemies of democracy. This hasn't changed. Nor has The Big Lie technique that fascists still use.
Then, on 6 October 2009, The New York Times bannered "Honduran Security Forces Accused of Abuse." ("Abuse" had also been the term that the Times and other major media employed for torture when George W. Bush did it, but now they applied this euphemism to the outright murders perpetrated by Honduras's junta.) Such "abuse" was "news" to people inside the United States, but not to the people in other nations around the world, where the horrors in Honduras were widely publicized. Also on October 6th, narcosphere.narconews.com/
An American visitor to Honduras posted online photos of the country prior to Zelaya's Presidency, and he described them: "It took me awhile to get used to the sight of heavily armed guards and policemen everywhere. ... Every supermarket we visited had an armed guard, carrying a shotgun, patrolling the parking lot. Most restaurants or fast food establishments we visited, such as Pizza Hut, had an armed guard in the parking lot. ... Only 30% of the people have wealth. The other 70% are poor. Being rich in Honduras can be dangerous. That is why most rich people live in walled or fenced compounds. ... And they all have armed guards on the grounds." This is the type of society that Wayne LaPierre and other officials of the NRA describe as the ideal -- every man for himself, armed to the teeth. Republicans, like Honduras's aristocrats, want to keep such a Paradise the way it is; but the vast majority of Hondurans do not -- they want progress.
Naturally, therefore, the U.S.'s Republican Party was overwhelmingly opposed to Zelaya, and were thus opposed to the Honduran public, who didn't like their feudal Paradise. Obama remained remarkably silent on the matter. The Obama Administration brokered a supposed power-sharing deal between Zelaya and the coup government, but it fell apart when Zelaya learned that Obama actually stood with the fascists in letting the coup government oversee the imminent election of Honduras's next President -- which would give the "election" to the fascists' stooge. On 5 November 2009, the Los Angeles Times headlined an editorial "Obama Must Stand Firm on Honduran Crisis: A U.S.-brokered deal to return Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to office is unraveling, and the Obama administration seems to be wavering." They closed by saying: "If the Obama administration chooses to recognize the [winner of the upcoming] election without Zelaya first being reinstated [with powers to participate in overseeing the vote-counting], it will find itself at odds with the rest of Latin America. That would be a setback for democracy and for the United States." But it's exactly what Obama did. On 9 November 2009, McClatchy Newspapers bannered "Honduran Deal Collapses, and Zelaya's Backers Blame U.S." Tyler Bridges reported that Senator DeMint now dropped his objections to a key State Department appointment, when the appointee, Thomas Shannon (and also Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself), made clear that the Obama Administration agreed with DeMint. Thus, "Zelaya's supporters, who've been organizing street protests against the [coup-installed] Micheletti regime, are down to their final card: calling on Hondurans to boycott the elections."
On 12 November 2009, the Washington Post bannered "Honduras Accord Is on Verge of Collapse," and quoted a spokesperson for U.S. Senator John Kerry, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying: "The State Department's abrupt change in policy last week -- recognizing the elections scheduled for November 29th even if the coup regime does not meet its commitments under the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord -- caused the collapse of an accord it helped negotiate." (Let's hope that Kerry will turn out to be a better Secretary of State than his predecessor was.)
A week later, on November 19th, the Latin American Working Group bannered " Honduras: Things Fall Apart," and summarized the joint culpability of the Obama Administration, and of the Honduran fascists.
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