The World's Original "Banana Republic" Strong-Arms the World's "Last Remaining Superpower?"

The deal to reinstate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya unraveled this week, leaving the Obama administration as the only government in the western hemisphere willing to let the recent military coup there stand. What can you say when the "world's only remaining superpower" gets strong-armed by the world's original "banana republic"?

This is not "bold leadership." It isn't even status quo, for it has been years since Latin America has seen a military coup like those that plagued the region for much of the twentieth century. There were none, for example, during George W. Bush's time in the White House.

Honduras is one of the smallest, poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It has about the same population as New York City. It is the country where the term "banana republic" was coined. For one hundred years it has been dominated by agribusiness giants like United Fruit which grow bananas and compliantly corrupt governments there with equal success. In the political turmoil that engulfed Central America in the 1980s, with major civil wars in all of its neighboring countries, Honduras played the role of Washington's doormat in the region, with the U.S. training a proxy army along the Nicaraguan border, running secret air missions over El Salvador, and running enough spies and spooks to keep the internal politics of Honduras on complete lock-down.

This corrupt, compliant, inept doormat of an army is what hustled the country's elected president out of bed at gunpoint and on to a plane out of the country five months ago. And now the Obama administration is left as the only government in the western hemisphere that can't find the cajones to stand up to this doormat military?

Could the problem have something to do with the $400,000 the illegal Honduran government has paid to lobbyists with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton? Hey wait a minute, wasn't Obama the guy who was going to run the lobbyists out of Washington?

Two weeks ago, Clinton spent 30 minutes on the phone with the leader of the illegal government, and announced that she had secured a deal that would put the elected president back in office, a deal she called a "big step forward for the inter-American system and its commitment to democracy." But no sooner had the deal been announced than the Honduran regime reneged on it, with the apparent blessing of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon Jr., while the rest of Latin America sputtered about the "mixed messages" coming from Washington that were undermining Honduran democracy.

Wait a minute. The U.S. is the only country in the hemisphere backing a military coup? Who is in the White House again?

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has announced he is resigning in the face of "mixed messages" from Clinton about Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which could leave Israel and the U.S. to deal with Hamas as the sole organized voice of the Palestinian people. Nice work Hillary. Say, aren't you the one who wanted me to vote for you because you were "Ready to be Commander in Chief from Day One?"

With such high stakes in the Middle East, what's the big deal about Honduras? The coup there comes at a point in history when it seemed like Latin America was at long last done with military coups. Democracy has spread throughout the region in recent years as military dictatorships which came to power through coups fell and democratically elected governments took their place. Tens of thousands of people died as the direct result of these coups, in many cases while enduring the sorts of ferocious torture the US has recently been accused of at Guantánamo. In almost every case, the military governments were supported by the U.S.

Some of today's democratically-elected Latin American governments are hanging on by a thread in face of real threats of military coups. Just two days ago Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fired the commander of Paraguay's armed forces amidst loud rumors of an impending military coup. There is open talk of a coup against Bolivian President Evo Morales, the country's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish conquest. A coup in Bolivia would be a catastrophe for Latin America. Blood would flow. You can bet your last dollar that the generals and businessmen who are the subjects of coup rumors in Bolivia, Paraguay and elsewhere have been watching Washington's response to the coup in Honduras with intense interest.

When Barack Obama was elected President of the U.S., there was no place in the world where his rousing call to democracy fell on more receptive ears than in Latin America. The new American president was going to face tough going in many parts of the world, but not Latin America. The troubled relationship between the US and its southern neighbors appeared to be on the brink of a new era.

So when the military coup happened in Honduras, I was incredulous. I thought to myself, "These guys don't know what century they are in. What a bunch of fools!" I mean, had these guys been asleep? Didn't they notice the change that had just happened in the U.S.? They would be gone in a few days, no doubt about it. Yet there they are, five months later, in power and going nowhere. And it looks like the upcoming elections there will be recognized by no government in the western hemisphere except mine.

So I ask you: who is the fool now?

 

Comments

[MASTERINTERPRETER]

Democracies need pluralism, the way the new democracies are running in Latin America, want strong central governments, socialism, no discent, no free press. Just blaming the USA for Latin American problems is requesting the intervention of the USA. Honduras has to be intervened and its president should be placed back in power. Yes, so the USA should also intervene in ALL other internal policies of the Latin American countries. Obama said he would not be a hipocrete, and has acted accordingly, but the USA is trying to save face when they did not realize the mistake of supporting Pres. Zelaya who had acted, blatantly, and in full view against the Laws in Honduras.

Hondurans are no fools and are not cowards. We acted according to our own countries interests and laws and deposed a President. And he was sent out of the country to prevent bloodshed. The last few historical weeks has proven Honduras right. And this is History for deep study, if facts are not disregarded.

END PART FOUR FINAL

[MASTERINTERPRETER]

Trying to blame the possible coups in other countries in Latin America BECAUSE theUSA is trying to defuse an INTERNAL POLITICAL CRISIS in Honduras, is making future history (blaming Honduras for something that has not happened yet, and for using the BAD example that Honduras is giving). Why is a killer called a suspect, even if he is found committing the crime? The same should be said of Honduras. We have been only suspect. NOBODY, and please check the sources, has indicated why we deposed the President. Final Judgement of what happened during our political crisis has not been passed, even though, the Congressional Library of the USA, said that we did not have a military coup, and then the UN also said that Honduras' instituitions had acted according to its own laws. So I would not give a good grade to the Historians, who seem to write without accessing the right sources of information.
I think Historians are not trying to blame Honduras, they are blaming the USA for recent events. The reason the new DEMOCRACIES in Latin America are in trouble is BECAUSE the USA did not norture the principles of democratic governnance due to its attention to IRAK and AFGHANISTAN. Now we have a new wave of DEMOCRATIC DICTATORS: HUGO CHAVEZ, NO FREE PRESS, ETERNALLY PLANS TO STAY IN POWER, NO OPPOSITION IN CONGRESS, MANDATES THAT HE WILL MAKE DECISIONS WITHOUT GOING TO CONGRESS. DITTO: ECUADOR, NICARAGUA, BOLIVIA.

END PART THREE

[MASTERINTERPRETER]

Can you not conceive possible that removing the President out of Power was an act of defense of the Constitution? Wasn't the SUPREME COURT LEGALLY ELECTED during Pres. Zelaya's term who dictated to bring him to justice? Did you know that in the last previous six months, President Zelaya led an illegal campaign to do away with the CONSTITUTION?

What bothers me the most is the way that information is distorted and historians can interpret past history and do without careful study of present events that disinform the public: The smallest example that makes the whole article irrelevant is the claim that Ms.Clinton declared that Mr. Zelaya would be reinstated. This never happened and the accord did not include this agreement. The parts agreed that Pres. Zelaya would be reinstated IF Congress agreed that it was feasible.

END PART TWO

Another great mistake is to add up all the military coups of Latin America and make them seem that happened in Honduras. The last bloody MILITARYcoup in Honduras, was in 1963 when the police force and the military fought among themselves and produced a few hundred dead, and since then we have had one more BLOODLESS MILITARY COUP in 1972.

[MASTERINTERPRETER]

THIRTY YEARS AGO HONDURAS HAD ITS LAST MILITARY RUN GOVERNMENT. AND 55 YEARS AGO THE BANANA PLANTATION WORKERS WENT ON A STRIKE AND WAS ABLE TO GET ENOUGH CONCESSIONS FROM THE BANANA COMPANIES THAT STARTED A SLOW BUT STEADY CHANGE IN HONDURAS. IF PRESENT EVENTS WANT TO BE VALIDATED WITH THOSE HISTORIC EVENTS, IT IS THE WRONG PREMISE TO THIS BIASED APPRAISAL OF THE HONDURAS POLITICAL CRISIS. (It was good for the banana workers for a while, yet we ended like General Motors, without bananas for export, and other countries are now the largest producers. So that is why for justice sake Hondurans are looking for jobs in the USA).It is like judging Germany's history based on Hitler's era. The world has changed and Honduras too.We are backward because the rest of the world has run faster, but we have moved ahead. First of all, there was no military coup, otherwise the Generals of the Army would be in power. Second, if Zelaya negotiated that it would be CONGRESS to decide on his reinstatement, he tacitly accepted the constituted powers of Honduras.It is the same Congress elected by the PEOPLE, BY DIRECT BALLOT. Have you considered the posibility of the President of Honduras giving a coup to the same government to stay in power?. Can you think of the President of the USA calling for a CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION to change the USA CONSTITUTION?

END OF PART ONE.

[holeybuybull]

Both Dole and Chiquita Brands are US companies, and the Honduran military leaders are products of the "School of the Americas". Which side did you think corporate America would support? After all, Zelaya tried to raise wages for the poor by 60%, and that severely impacts the bottom line of the slave owners.

[CorazonCatrachoCanadian]

There was no military coup in Honduras. The Supreme and Court and elected Congress of Honduras removed Zelaya from office(almost unanimous vote). The military were ordered to carry out the arrest warrant. The US Law Library of Congress report on Zelaya's removal being legal within the confines of the Constitution of Honduras backs this up.
Zelaya was the latest Latin American ruler to fall under the charm and oil influence of Hugo Chavez who trying to be the 21st century's Fidel Castro in exporting leftist revolution and ultimately dictatorship throughout the Americas. Thankfully Honduras stopped him. Just look at Venezuela,­Nicaragua, and now Bolivia and Ecuador. Those folks bought the lie and are now paying for it.
The apparant dithering and waffling that Obama and Clinton have engaged in on this issue is a result of trying to backtrack on a wrong headed "shoot first without asking questions later" response that was originally taken by the US.

[EricEric]

There never was a deal to reinstate Mel Zelaya, there was and still is a deal that says Congress is to VOTE on whether or not to reinstate him, there was no demand for an immediate vote or special session of congress that required the vote to be held immediately. There was to be a Unity governemnt formed with people from BOTH sides yet Mr Zelaya REFUSED to send any of his people until he was reinstated which was never a condition in the agreement

[HeavyDuty]

Thank you for your blog. It proves there is still a small number of americans who care about the truth and can see beyond what the paid for media does not want everyone to see.
The US continues to pay a high price for its government's disregard for the interests and aspirations of peoples in Latin America. The price is going to get higher and very soon the disconnect is going to be so wide the rupture will be complete.
As long as US foreign policy towards Latin America is held hostage by right wing groups in Miami, New Jersey etc, the situation is going to get worse!

[stavros]

Conspiracy theorize much?

[sticksnstones]

Obfuscate much ?

[holeybuybull]

Reading material for you: "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and "The Shock Doctrine". It's way past time for you to learn the history of US involvement in Latin America.