OBAMA AND THE 1%: HONDURAS

On June 28th, 2009 at 3:00AM President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped at his home by 10 hooded Honduran soldiers at gunpoint and put on a plane that landed on the U.S. military base on Honduran soil called, Palmerola.  From there he was flown to Costa Rica where he spent 23 months in exile.  It was the first military coup in over 25 years in Latin America.  It appeared that President Obama was returning us to the years when the United States supported and installed dictators throughout the southern part of our hemisphere.  When Zelaya returned to Honduras he spoke with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!"  His first words were "This Coup d'Etat was made in the U.S. and was a conspiracy that needs to be investigated by the international community".  

All the weapons of the military are paid for by the United States and in the last year aid to the military has increased.  The generals who instigated the coup were trained in the United States at the School Of The Americas.  After the coup 85 members of Congress wrote to President Obama and Secretary Of State Clinton telling them to end military aid to Honduras based on the human rights violations which include reports of torture and assassinations of peasants, teachers, journalists and members of the LGBT community. Instead it was increased.

Zelaya stated that the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Charles Ford was preparing for the coup with the help of the Southern Command.  Ford had given President Zelaya the names of the people the U.S. wanted him to appoint as Ministers to his Cabinet.  The U.S. also demanded that Honduras grant exile to terrorist Posada Carriles who had admitted to planning the bombing of a civilian Cuban Airliner.  Of course he refused.  When Zelaya joined ALBA and developed friendly relations with Cuba and Venezuela the verbal attacks continued and according to Wikileaks documents the CIA claimed that Zelaya was bringing communism to Honduras and that he was threatening the security of the hemisphere.  When Charles Ford was transferred to the Southern Command he was replaced by Ambassador Hugo Lawrence.  According to Zelaya, Lawrence made an effort to stop the coup but he was withdrawn from Honduras by Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton.

Father Roy Bourgeois who keeps a watch on the School Of Americas which he calls the "Coup School", states that the two major Honduran Generals attended the school which is connected to training in torture and human rights violations. The priest calls on the President, "Obama has the power to close the nefarious School Of The Americas".

It is clear that Obama has no intention of closing the training center for military dictators and he has no intention of supporting democracy but is extending the U.S. military presence and influence throughout Central America.  Last month there was a coup in Paraguay with the same footprint as Honduras.

Currently the so-called "drug war" is used to justify the U.S. sending in 600 soldiers and opening three more military bases in Honduras.  On May 11th they killed two women, 2 men and seriously injured 4 more including children.  They were shot from U.S. helicopters. Clearly Obama and Clinton are using Honduras to assert U.S. power.  Let no one be fooled - To inject U.S. troops into Honduras is to intimidate the people.  Next year there will be an election in Honduras and Xiomara Zelaya is starting early to rally the people against those who destroyed their democracy.  No one is fooled by the phony drug war excuse.  And no one should be fooled by the role of the Obama administration.