An Open Letter to President Obama on "Hypocrisy"

At the Summit of North American Leaders in Guadalajara, President Obama uncharacteristically lit into critics of his administration's actions (or lack thereof) to crack the coup in Honduras.

Obama said, "The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America."

"If these critics think that it's appropriate for us to suddenly act in ways that in every other context they consider inappropriate, then I think what that indicates is that maybe there's some hypocrisy involved in their -- their approach to U.S.-Latin American relations that certainly is not going to guide the policy of my administration."

That stung. Feeling myself directly alluded to, I sent a letter to the White House. Here is the letter, and below are a few more things I would have said if I hadn't had a two thousand character limit on the form.

Dear Mr. President,

It is hard to express my disappointment at your remarks about those of us who have been working to end the military coup in Honduras. Calling us hypocrites was uncalled for, to say the least, rude, and grossly inaccurate.

The United States government has already declared that what happened on June 28 was a coup d'etat and the law demands that sanctions be applied to an illegal regime. This is not intervention; it is U.S. law. We have never demanded that the U.S. "intervene". We have only demanded that it be consistent with its own policies and resolutions and with actions taken by countries throughout the world. I have been truly concerned as a citizen and as a policy analyst who works on promoting democracy in Latin America that the U.S. position has not been entirely consistent and that the relative weakness of this position has been a factor in the intransigence of the coup.

Mr. President, many of your initial statements about the coup were firm and principled. I welcomed those statements as a decided change from the ideological posturing of the past.

Now I find that I am publicly slighted and and sidelined for calling for stronger measures. It is one thing to have a difference of opinion on how to end this bloody coup, which we all would agree has gone on for way too long. It is quite another to call on citizens to get involved in your government and then misrepresent our positions and insult our character when we do.

When outlining a new approach to Latin America, you have quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt's principle of "mutual respect" in foreign relations. This principle must begin at home, between the president who ignited hopes for a new U.S. foreign policy and the citizens who are working to bring it to about.

I honestly believe an apology is in order, to me and to the thousands of people in faith-based organizations who have called for further sanctions in Honduras. I also urge you to review your administration's actions since June 28, the options still available, and the current stalemate, with the aim of developing a stronger pro-democracy position that is not "interventionist" but thoroughly in line with international and national law.

Sincerely and Respectfully,
Laura Carlsen

It is probably no coincidence that these remarks came out one day before the International Day of Action on Honduras. Scores of U.S. organizations, including national church organizations, unions, migrants groups and human rights networks have called for citizens to urge the Obama administration to withdraw the U.S. ambassador, apply economic sanctions and freeze assets of coup leaders. A letter written by Rep. Grijalva is circulating that calls for the above and that asks the government to speak out on human rights violations under the coup. The Delahunt-Serrano-McGovern Resolution in Congress calls for suspension of non-humanitarian assistance to the coup regime.

Obama's remark insults these widespread citizen actions, which are exactly the kind of grassroots mobilization and participation in policy and democracy that he encouraged as a candidate. There is a derogatory stereotype at the root of the remarks too. We are all lumped into some "Yankees out of (fill in the blank)" class that is not only explicitly accused of being hypocritical but also portrayed as having knee-jerk and uninformed opinions.

"These same people", may or may not be veterans of past campaigns against U.S. intervention in Latin America. In many cases, it is the organizing experience, knowledge and dedication of many who did indeed help to bring to light U.S. illegal involvement in the Central American dirty wars and contra activities that is structuring the grassroots movement in the U.S. against the Honduran coup. Many of them helped elect Obama. His snide criticism has called into question for them the administration's commitment to real change in the policies they fought so hard to banish and that have done so much damage to the U.S. image abroad. Many U.S. delegations have traveled to Honduras in the past month, have studied the Honduran Constitution and reviewed the chain of events since June 28. Their views are not uninformed and much less inconsistent

Today Hondurans from all over the country are converging on Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula in a show of strength to protest the coup. They have called on the U.S. government to cut off the lifeline it still holds out to the coup. They have not asked for intervention, just a chance to restore democracy in their country.

At the same time, the coup-controlled Honduran press is having a heyday with the Obama remarks. La Tribuna has a picture of Obama on the front page with the headline "Hypocrisy to Call for Intervention in Honduras"

The distinction between intervention and cutting off the coup is a no-brainer, and it's likely that Obama knows that. Given the international consensus that this is an illegal regime, sanctions follow by law. They are a withdrawal of support for a military-backed action condemned by the entire international community, not support for one legitimate faction over another in an internal democratic dispute.

The definition of hypocrisy is to have a pretense of a belief or commitment you do not actually hold or act on. Doubt about the true aims of the State Department in Honduras are on the rise as time goes by with funds flowing to the coup government, no further action on the part of the administration, and the coup still entrenched in power.

I would like to believe the administration's commitment to democracy in Honduras and the hemisphere is real. But the time has come to show some proof of that beyond resolutions and rhetoric. If the Obama administration fails to act on its stated commitment to restore President Zelaya to power, it opens itself up to the same accusation Obama rashly leveled at us in Guadalajara.

Follow Laura Carlsen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tortuga7

Comments

[Meno Argenti]

Great story Laura.. There are allot of us who are trying to get our message out.

http://www.hondurancampesino.org

[JoseCarias]

Congratulation Mrs Carlsen. Hopefully Mr. Obama understands that what the international community is requesting is leadership from the United States and not intervention. If the United States for instance says that it will not recognize elections held under a de facto government, most of the internal support for Micheletti will crumble. This action will not constitute intervention, UNASUR, MERCOSUR, and Spain have already stated this position.
But this week, the U.S. Ambassador here, Mr. Hugo Lorens, held a meeting with the electoral tribunal to see how they implement the vote in the United States for Honduran citizens.
There are so many things the U.S. can do to pressure Honduras, sadly the image the current administration is portraying in Latin America is that Obama is being held hostage by the extreme right or that he does not care. His speech in Trinidad and Tobago is fading fast.

[ElMugroso]

This military coup has the nasty stink since the beginning. It was long conceived since Bush's time. The US military knew well about it and allowed it to happen. Capture Zelaya and take him to Costa Rica where Oscar Arias the "US patronized Nobel Price winner" was already waiting to receive him. Then the golpistas ask for Interpol to issue arrest orders for Zelaya AFTER they ousted him from Honduras, and AFTER they themselves prevented Zelaya from landing back in Honduras. Isn't that a stupid request? Obama is now a hypocrite by saying he is not intervening due to sovereignty of nations. But what about Burma? What about Iran? What about Irak? And what about the military base in Honduras? Is that the wish of the Honduras people to have it there? Is that not intervention? He has called others "stupid" and now he is calling others "hypocrites" but the appellatives really belong to him. He is just twisting his tongue and brains to be comfortable and remain pretty to the conglomerates and power groups that are the real rulers of the USA, since he is already the main attraction of the US Circus. There's no "change" that any one can really believe in. It's sadly true, but hypocrisy, just as virtues, has no color.

[LilGlow]

Are you for real?!

[Laura Carlsen - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes. you can find the program I direct on U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere at www.americaspolicy.org , along with my bio.

[claritta]

Sometimes Obama’s skills speaking the same rhetoric language common to leftist dictators like Chavez and Raul are beneficial.

[spmcintyre]

It was my understanding that it was the legislature of Honduras that instructed the army to overthrow and remove the president of Honduras. I also understand that they did so according to their own laws and constitution. I may have been misled here, but if what I have been told is true, then there is nothing that we, or any other country has a right to say about what happened there. Just because a liberal government was overthrown for trying to usurp the laws of their land, does not mean its an illegal coup. SO, based on what I have said here, and what I currently understand as the situation in Honduras, I have to agree with Obama on this one. I generally do not agree with him, but his inaction, is the correct action here.

[Laura Carlsen - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, you have been misled, but that's not surprising since the Honduran coup has paid millions of dollars to public relations firms to put out this type of misinformation. We still do not know if they have used Honduran public monies for the campaign but that will eventually come out. The Armed Forces did not have a formal arrest order when they abducted the president, much less a legal ruling to forcibly expel him from the country. It would have been impossible for them to exile him under a legal ruling since there are no conditions under which such an action is legal. This is why the UN, the OAS and other bodies of international law were so rapidly able to unanimously determine that a coup d'etat had taken place in Honduras and condemn it. After President Zelaya was abducted, the Congress realized what it had done and compounded its shame by falsifying the president's signature on a fake letter of resignation. This is a crime that will also have to be investigated when rule of law is restored.