Colombian Free Trade: Exporting Death Squads to Honduras

A breaking story -- covered in the Colombian press for about two weeks but just now being picked up by English-language news sources, including CNN -- reports that 40 members of Colombian death squads, responsible for the execution of thousands, have been recruited by Honduran plantation owners to protect their interests. In addition to the Colombian mercenaries, 120 paramilitaries from other Latin American countries "have been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti," who organized the overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28.

Since then, Micheletti and his business backers have hired US lobbyists and public-relations firms, including lawyer and confidant of Hillary Clinton, Lanny Davis, to make the case to Washington that Zelaya's ouster was a democratic transfer of power.

Yet Honduras' rising body count, along with the reappearance of death squads - responsible in the 1980s for the murder and disappearances of tens of thousands of Central Americans - makes Davis's efforts increasingly difficult.

Micheletti himself may be directly involved in the importation of Colombian mercenaries. According to Bertha Oliva, the president of the respected and besieged Honduran human-rights organization, Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, the infamous "Billy" Joya - who in the 1980s was himself a member of the Honduran death squad, Battalion 316, and now is working as Micheletti's security adviser - traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, in early September to arrange the deal which brought the mercenaries to Honduras.

 

Comments

[Carmencita]

Now as a Honduran, I ask outsiders to respect my country's sovereignty and our constitution. Zelaya was removed from the presidency according to the Honduran constitutional and statutory law. Like most Hondurans, I understand that Zelaya shouldn’t have been taken out of the country, not only because we would have preferred for him to be judged for his crimes, but also because his removal was a violation of the Honduran Constitution. So, I ask, why punish the people for that mistake?

Finally, when was the last time you saw the checks and balances work in your country? I don't know about you, but I did see the system work in Honduras when the legislative and judicial branches stopped the executive power after it repeatedly violated our constitution. This issue is about checks and balances, period. Stop going on tangents and stick to the issue at hand.

Elections are on November 29 and Honduras has opened its doors for the "international community" to send its delegates to ensure a fair electoral process. Those who care about democracy will send their representatives and let the Honduran people decide our own future. Those who just care about making an example of our country so that others won't defy their supreme executive powers, will continue their fight against our checks and balances by going on different tangents since they know that if they stick to the issue, they won't be able to argue against the removal of Zelaya.

[sticksnstones]

" Stop going on tangents and stick to the issue at hand."

That's rich, Carmencita. The issue at hand is the apparent use and employment of foreign mercenaries and paramilitary forces by the Honduran plantation owners who overwhelmingly support the unelected coup regime of Micheletti and gang.

You're OK with that. That's your right. However, any upcoming presidential election result will not be recognized (and rightly so) by any sovereign nation on the face of this green earth, with the apparent exception of Panama. These governments do not support a return of fascism to Honduras. Micheletti has described the coup as a "constitutional substitution". The rest of the world correctly views the events subsequent to June 28 as an illegal, corporatocracy engineered and planned and executed Coup d'Etat.

Live well .... be happy .... and get going on building a very high and thick wall around your plantation.

[Carmencita]

Well, I had sent another part to my message where I address the issue about mercenaries. By the way, that comment about the plantations, just tells me how ignorant you really are about my country. Here is the first part of my response and I hope it makes it this time:

For now, this is mere speculation and it will continue to be until actual names are disclosed and factual evidence is provided. Even if these mercenaries were hired, they would be there to protect the families and businesses of people who have been under the attack of Zelaya and the likes of him. You obviously do not read the Honduran news sources because if you did, you would be aware that the Resistencia has been destroying public and private property, breaking into businesses and robbing or destroying what they can't take, and attacking peaceful citizens who are just trying to continue to work and contribute to society.

[Carmencita]

Second part I sent before:

Have you LIVED in Honduras? Obviously not. You probably didn't even know the country existed before this scandal. You think you know something about Honduras because you have been reading biased sources for a few weeks? Well, anyone who has lived in Honduras will tell you that during Zelaya's term Honduras became increasingly dangerous and that kidnapping has become a daily event. Whether you agree or not, the interim government is defending our constitution and our democracy, and they are literally putting their lives on the line in this process. To me they are heroes and if they have hired mercenaries to protect themselves, I don't blame them. Do you think this is one of your Rambo movies? No, these are real people whose only mistake was to make sure that in our country there actually are checks and balances. THAT is democracy!

By the way, primary elections took place last year when Zelaya was President. The electoral process was not tainted until Zelaya decided to go off track.

[sticksnstones]

The Micheletti regime is apparently busy importing hired foreign mercenaries to prop up its peculiar version of "democracy". The members of these death squads are highly trained in counterinsurgency tactics, which begs the question: how and where did these paid thugs receive the training and knowledge to carry out their mission successfully ? After all, one can't simply enroll in a local trade school for future terrorists.

If we use Billy Joya as a model, we can bet the farm that these 21st Century Hessians received their training right here in the USA ; specifically at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation ( until recently called School of the Americas ) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Some of the training courses in the time frame relevant to the discussion included instruction in the arts of motivation by fear, bounties for enemy dead, false imprisonment, torture, execution, and kidnapping of targets' family members.

We should all be proud in light of our contribution, paid for with our tax dollars, to the Western Hemisphere's obvious surplus of trained, for hire, for profit, for "democracy" terrorists.

[changeself]

is anyone surprised?

why do you think lenny davis, the fine lawyer who's been advising the most powerful and rich in the US

is now advising micheliti down there?

this sort of practice has been paying him and his high-flying clients handsomely so far.

why would they stop now?