Obama Tried To Stop Honduras Coup

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

The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any moves to overthrow President Zelaya, said senior U.S. officials. Washington's ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, sought to facilitate a dialogue between the president's office, the Honduran parliament and the military.

The efforts accelerated over the weekend, as Washington grew increasingly alarmed. "The players decided, in the end, not to listen to our message," said one U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. On Sunday, the U.S. embassy here tried repeatedly to contact the Honduran military directly, but was rebuffed. Washington called the removal of President Zelaya a coup and said it wouldn't recognize any other leader.

Obama said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned," and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest by the military should be condemned.

"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama's statement read.

President Manuel Zelaya's replacement, congressionally designated successor Roberto Micheletti, mentioned the American president by name in response to a threat from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez: "Nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."

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Comments

[BabblingBrooks]

# Obama Breaks Silence on Gaza, Voices 'Deep Concern' Over Civilian Deaths"--headline, Ha'aretz, Jan. 7
# "Obama Voices Concern About Freed Guantanamo Inmates"--headline, Reuters, Feb. 2
# "Obama Voices Concern About Pakistan"-­-headline, New York Times, April 30
# "Obama Expresses Concern for Tissainaya­gam"--head­line, TamilNet.com, May 2
# "Obama: Long-Term Joblessness a Concern"--headline, CNN.com, May 20
# "Obama Says North Korea Nuclear Test a 'Grave Concern' "--headline, Reuters, May 25
# "Obama to 'Voice Concerns' in Egypt Speech"--headline, Hill, May 29
# "Obama Concerned at Sentence of Journalists in NKorea"--headline, Agence France-Presse, June 8
# "Obama Names Video Games as Health Concern in Speech to A.M.A."--h­eadline, GamePolitics.com, June 15
# "Obama Has 'Deep Concerns' About Iran's Election"-­-headline, Newsweek Web site, June 16
# "Obama Concern About Oil Speculation Unchanged-­W.House"--­headline, Reuters, June 18
# "Obama Expresses Deep Concern Over Honduras Coup"--headline, Deutsche Presse Agentur, June 28

[plaidsportcoat]

Great! Thanks. I was thinking the same thing - but it hadn't surfaced. This is going to be Obama's Achilles Heel - he has EXTREMELY limited emotional affect. I can see why Michelle pokes at him. She's trying to get a rise out of him to get him to be more in touch with his emotions, to bring them to the surface. He's so overly-intellectual that I start to wonder if he actually feels empathy - or just tries to choose women to be around him to mediate empathy and interpret it to him and for him!

[saintaug1]

Interesting. Obama can't take a firm stand with Iran because he doesn't want to "meddle", but sure doesn't seem to be a problem with getting involved in Hondurus. A bit hypocritical don't you think?

[taosjoel]

Hopefully, in the end, more will be revealed about the unspeakable crimes of Ronald Reagan.

[dcree77]

I don't see how the two are morally equivalent. The unrest in Iran is a grass roots movement by the people of Iran who claim that the recent election was tainted. The coup in Honduras was the removal of a democratically elected official by the military and perpetuated by the Honduran congress. Maybe I am missing something.

[zizizzi]

Thank you... I was about to say the same thing!

[pakaal]

That's assuming all Obama did was publicly condemn Iran, as opposed to working behind the scenes there too, which we won't know about until someone digs up the story like they did for Honduras..­..

[taosjoel]

Not our business?
QUIZ TIME: Who was the Ambassador to Honduras 81-85?
Negroponte.
What was the name of our illegal detention and torture center there?
El Aguacate.
How many corpses did they excavate in 2001?
185, including Americans.
Keep digging.

[plaidsportcoat]

Thank you - but you need to list your sources on this stuff. Nowadays a link is easy and more convincing.

[taosjoel]

You're absolutely right. It's a pity the facts about Reagan's Central American genocide aren't more generally known by everyone.

[ftaco2004]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8123134.stm

another source of information. This is not our business..­...

[Rubyslippers]

Oh Really?
The man who led the coup, Romeo Vasquez, was trained at Fort Benning, Georgia at School of the Americas (now known as WHINSEC) in 1976 and 1984.

"The School of the Americas has a long, tortured history in Honduras. According to School of the Americas Watch, "In 1975, SOA Graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. From 1980-1982 the dictatorial Honduran regime was headed by yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in all of Latin America (founded by Honduran SOA graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates)­."

So in fact, it is our business and has been for a very long time.

[ftaco2004]

You must not sleep well at night.

[huffino]

Good work on digging that up!

[BethinIllinois]

I find Obama's conflicting stands ... conflicting. He won't do anything about Iran, refusing for days even to condemn the atrocities going on i the street. Can't meddle, he says. But in the other case, the leader is attempting to circumvent the law, he wants to repeal term limits and Obama actively seeks US involvement.

Very curious. He needs to get his stories straight.

[SayWhatYouWill]

Because the Iran issue involves an election. This issues involves a military coup preventing an elected President.

I'm sorry, but your "analysis" is very poor.

[plaidsportcoat]

honduras is in our hemisphere, is an American neighbor. You need to study diplomacy, prioritization, etc.

[Hilodave]

Most of you posters need to wake up and smell the Honduran coffee. Was Zelaya following Chavez down the same path...Yes ! Was he circumventing Honduran law and the decision of the Supreme Court, legislators from his own party as well as the opposition­....Yes! Did he have the poorest and most disinfranchised Hondurans behind him ...yes! Was POTUS correct in condemning the overthrow of a democratically elected government­...Yes. Now should we leave well enough alone and let that country sort out their own mess....Ye­s!

[plaidsportcoat]

"Did he have the poorest and most disinfranchised Hondurans behind him ...yes!"

This is the key question - WHY does he have them behind him? The answer is key to whether I support him. He MAY be fighting those who practice WAR on the POOR, in which case, I probably support Zelaya, like I mostly support Chavez. The Honduran and Venezuelan rich classes deserve prison for their extreme transgressions.

[marshhen]

Yes... the typical statist view and tactic. throw money at the poor to win their votes, meanwhile, imprison disentents, hoard money for themselves, grab power, and when the time comes, exploit everyone.

[MarkOfBrooklyn]

The US cannot and should not accept the removal of a power by undemocratic means. Especially in Latin America, where military coups were the normal way to operate in the past, we cannot allow a backsliding, not even if perpetrated by "the good guys". No good will come of this event. It will be bad news for the region.

[plaidsportcoat]

Yeah. Especially in Iraq.

[Cogitoe]

We need a fuller explanation from Obama and Hillary. This decision just does not make sense.

[4for44]

Ok I get it is only meddling when it comes to Iran.

[anothervoice]

Diplomacy and meddling are two different things. Did you read the article?

[vinny]

let's see...

the Honduran congress, with full support of the attorney general and supreme court, arrested president Zelaya who was breaking the law (with Chavez's help no less) and voted to accept his resignatio­n...

Chavez threatens military action against the small country.

Obama does nothing to publicly check the threat, but instead calls the completely legal use of force a coup...

[SayWhatYouWill]

Man, that is one interesting rendition of events.

Let me guess. You heard that on Fox News.

[vinny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_referendum

[vinny]

i win

[PiscesPrincess]

President Obama did Not threaten them with military action. remove the tinfoil.

[ftaco2004]

And reading isn't your strong suit.

CHAVEZ threatened with military action....

[plaidsportcoat]

I see. You feel that Obama should be removed and this gives you JUST the formula! As I often say, liberalsar­mthyselves­! For the coming whitesupre­mactistarm­ageddon!

[TKI]

Where is Mccain in all of this. Maybe, he just likes the Iranians? Why is he not coming out and saying the President is not doing enough? This is not the only time to be tongue tied; the democratic process has been seriously breached..­.or hasn't it??

[SayWhatYouWill]

McCain is trying to locate Honduras on a map. Also, he thinks it might be the country where he was born, but isn't 100% sure.

[plaidsportcoat]

He has a house there, maybe.

[avvocato]

Today ee are all Hondurans.
John McCain

[StillweRise]

No oil in Honduras..­. No political point to be scored... thus.. no McCain-ism today...

[washlib]

who knows what to believe anymore? I sure don't..

[martinfrosa]

Some people on this board seem really uninformed. Zelaya was violating the "rule of law" in his own country, after the Supreme Court and the Congress ruled against him. In defiance of them, he got Chavez to send ballots so he could go ahead with this sham referendum anyway. A Chavez protege', he was clearly moving to suspend democratic rule in Honduras as Chavez has done in Venezuela.

Obama and Chavez - birds of a feather flock together!

[vinny]

obama calling the ousting of the Hond president a "coup" is revealing.­..

[TheBaffler]

Hmm, the military forcibly removes a democratically elected leader.... What is that if not a coup?

[RoloTomassi]

"Some people on this board seem really uninformed­."

Yes indeed, and you happen to be one of them.

[vinny]

says the guy making stuff up

[RoloTomassi]

As South American countries seek solidarity with Chavez and the general notion of democratic socialism, we will see more turmoil in that region. The hardline conservative factions that support the largely old european monied/corporate interests will do whatever they can to prevent the indigenous populations from taking their government as their own.

I suppose the european element dropped the ball in South America; if they wanted to lock-in a perpetual ruling class over the indigenous & poor populations of their former colonies, they should have taken a page from the US playbook and decimated the indigenous population while they had the chance. Once that was accomplished, they could have focused their efforts on keeping the few remaining in an essentially powerless position, and the poor generated from the european stock occupied with surviving in modern corporate servitude.

oh well, lost opportunit­ies....

[CigarGod]

Chavez and Obama on the same side.
Now, that is change we can believe in.
(no sarcasm)

[TheBaffler]

Too bad the agreement extends no further than this.

[StillweRise]

Incredibly over-simpl­ified.....

(no sarcasm)

[TheBaffler]

I think you misunderstand his point.