Our Man in Honduras
"If you want to understand who the real power behind the [Honduran] coup is" says Robert White, president of the Washington-based Center for International Policy, during a recent interview, "you need to find out who's paying Lanny Davis."
Davis, an ally of the Clinton family who is best known as the lawyer who defended Bill during the presidential impeachment proceedings, was recently on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress and testifying against exiled President Manuel Zelaya before the House Foreign Relations Committee. White, who previously served as the United States ambassador to El Salvador, thought that such information about Davis' clients would be "very difficult to find."
But the answer proved easy to find. Davis, a partner at the law firm Orrick, Herring, & Sutcliffe, openly named them -- and his clients are the same powerful Hondurans behind the military coup.
To read the rest of this article please go to the American Prospect, www.prospect.org
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Chronology of events
http://www
"Hey dictator Micheletti, guess what will happen when 3 million compesinos
in honduras countryside march to the elite congress with sharp machetes".
FACIST coup leaders who see the 3 million compesinos with sharp machetes
coming will run like the cowards they are. Just like the Venezuela coup
leaders in 2002. The elite congress and elite court will run for their
lives. All coup leaders have committed treason and must be killed or jailed
to protect the innocent people of Honduras. These pompous arrogant elite
robbers have stolen the life savings of 70% of (the hungry and poor) Honduran
people. These coup crooks and thieves have stolen $BILLIONS of dollars from
the poor Hondurans and stashed the stolen proceeds in offshore bank accounts.
When they see the compesinos coming with sharp machetes they will beg the
CIA and U.S. State Department to give them asylum from Honduran justice.
I hope that Obama gives these robbers asylum, then send the coup leaders
to Guantanamo for daily waterboarding until they confess.
Lanny Davis should be classified as a neo con and enemy combatant. This
Clinton fundraiser supports military coups and dictatorships. His thinking
has to be that the American people dumped the neo cons last election like
stinky garbage and the only way the neo cons can get power back is with
a military coup. Watch out President Obama, Lanny Davis may be standing
behind your back.
I don't think you understand the non-word 'facist' let alone the word 'fascist'. Is it now 'elite' to follow the rule of law and the constitution? Wow. I agree, kill all the coup leaders. But, wait, what coup? Got to have a coup first, rather than a legal, constitutional action. Well, we can always attack Lanny Davis. How dare he disagree with the uniformed! I mean, what would happen if this were to catch on and our Supreme Court replaced Obama with someone who understood economics, police procedures, constitutional law, foreign policy and could speak without a teleprompter? The horror, the horror....
Sorry, 'uninformed' not 'uniformed'.
If it can be shown that the CIA, under orders of President Obama, had anything to do with this coup then President Obama should be impeached.
Chaves and Castro will prevail in Honduras.
Lanny and the Clintons are no good.
Unlike some of the commenters, I was actually born in Honduras and grew up there.
The military in Honduras, in cahoots with the business elites, grabbed the elected president of the country, and sent him into exile in his pjs. A classic coup, 'un golpe", illegal, case closed. A nickname for Tegucigalpa is Tegucigolpe, and it fits. Whether one agrees with Mr. Zelaya's politics, it is beside the point. This argument regarding the illegality of the 'encuesta' to amend the Constitution to extend presidential limits to two terms is laughable. The Constitution there is not cemented in concrete like the US Constitution: it has been revised 15 times since independence from Spain in 1821.
Along with Davis, FL Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen is leading the charge to get the US to go easy on the coup perpretators. Ros Lehtinen is know for openly abdicating the assassination of Fidel Castro. Many of us that have ties to Honduras have been receiving e-mails coming from Miami tying Mr. Zelaya to South American drug cartels, etc. and urging the recipients to pass along this information to our Congressmen. The coup perpetrators meanwhile are decrying what they see as the limited success of their lobbyists here. I read comments to that effect in yesterday newspapers in Honduras, along with a column by a female politician in which she called President Obama, the US mulatto President. Racism is, unfortunately, universal.
Attempts to try and link President Zelaya to drug trade is unadulterated propaganda aimed at attacking his credibility! As usual those making these allegations can provide no evidence whatsoever
As well as theft...
http://www
There is nothing racist about the words Mulatto (White and Black) and Mestizo (White and Indian).
Obama is proud of his white - black background. He isn't black and he isn't white. He is a combination of the two and that's why he is a mulatto. Many Spanish speaking Caribbeans are mulatto. Most Hondurans are mestizos.
Don't look for racism to help your case for Zelaya.
"The military in Honduras, in cahoots with the business elites, grabbed the elected president of the country, and sent him into exile in his pjs."
- You left out that the military was also 'in cahoots' with the Honduran Supreme Court and the Honduran Congress.
"The Constitution there is not cemented in concrete like the US Constitution: it has been revised 15 times since independence from Spain in 1821."
The U.S. Constitution was amended 18 times, hardly cemented in concrete..
http://en.
My understanding is that the Honduran Constritution contains several articles where change is prohibited (unlike the U.S. Constituti
http://en.
Look up Art. 333 and 353 while you're at. Also, look of the 2006 Honduran Civil Participation Act.
The people have the right to vote for amending a document explicitly there to serve the elite and the military.
A perfect example of the living being made to bow to the wishes of the dead. Any constitution that disallows changes to itself is a constitution that should be burned.
I'm not sure where the comment which states an 80% approval rating for the new government came from. Please provide a link.
Here is a Gallup poll with the link below.
"The nationwide survey — which was done after Zelaya was sent into forced exile in a military coup — shows Zelaya with 46 percent favorable and 44 unfavorable, compared to 30 favorable and 49 unfavorable for Micheletti
http://www
-The Honduran Constitution says nothing about the army being the duly designated government entity authorized to remove a sitting president by force.
Doesn't something have to be in the Constitution to be considered constitutional?
What proof do you have of a planned coup?
The referendum to place a fourth ballot box to determine public opinion regarding the calling of a constitutional convention cited by some as proof Zelayas planned a coup. was completely legal.. It is a mechanism established in the Honduran Constituti8on.
If Zelayas was planning a coup shouldn't it have to be proven in a court of law? Or is it enough to merely accuse?
The excerpt below has been edited. The full text may be found here.
http://the
"Here is the text of the initiative, in Spanish, with the English translation below:
�Está de acuerdo que en las elecciones generales de 2009 se instale una cuarta urna en la cual el pueblo decida la convocatoria a una asamblea nacional constituyente? = SÃ��.�.
Do you agree with the installation of a fourth ballot box during the 2009 general elections so that the people can decide on the calling of a national constituent assembly? Yes or no.
In other words: do you want there to be a ballot and a ballot box for the purpose of a referendum in November to decide whether or not to call a constituent assembly to reform the constitution.
This is important for a variety of reasons.
1. This language was not about re-election.
2. Even if the plebiscite was allowed to go forward, the answer was "yes," and the results were allowed to stand, Zelaya would not have been in a position to be re-elected in November."
larry1234 and changehn, is it just pure coincidence that the two of you signed up at The Huffington Post in June. Is it also just pure coincidence that the two of you have not posted comments on any topic other than the Honduran Coup. Is it pure coincidence that you both posted comments on this article within a minute of each other? Yeah right, pull the other foot now will you. It's seems you are stooges of the coup leaders so go crawl back under the rocks you came from.
Comments of both of you repeat the same discredited propaganda. As somebody once said, "you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all of the time". Sad that you can't see that...bli
You damage the credibility this new Obama administration is so desperately trying to develop in it's interactions with South American nations and you sully the reputation and standing of every American traveling or living abroad. You clearly have no regard whatsoever for the people of Honduras and greater South America.
Billy Hell - The conclusion is obvious.
Actually I have no idea who changehn and although we may have appeared at the sametime it is merely coincidence.
I am not repeating discredited propoganda. Unlike you and many others on here I have actually lived and worked in Honduras and have a clear understanding of what is happening in Honduras. I can throw the propaganda issue at you as well. Do you have any idea how many people in Honduras support the removal of Zelaya? The reality is most Hondurans are afraid of where this man is taking their country and they are afraid for good reason.
Have taken the time to actually look into Zelaya and the controversy surrounding this idiot. He is a common criminal and has stolen more from the good people than he ever gave them...tha
I have no "mission". This is about dollars however like most you miss the fact that is about dollars for the poor in Honduras..
You like most on here would have a hard time finding Honduras on a map....now you want to tell the world how things should be done in Honduras..
As for Obama....h
Responding to billy hell's absurd remarks: I signed up in June because I wanted to respond to some of the erroneous information about the Honduran situation presented by Huff post and by many ignorant commentators such as billy hell.
I live in Honduras, i am a Honduran and I am living through this crisis.
You can't base your opinions on what your media presents to you. Just consider that what is happening in Honduras is given less coverage than Michael Jackson's death or an inappropriate comment made by Mr. Obama about the arrest of Mr. Gates.
When Obama was running I was the only person among my friends who thought he was the right choice for the USA. I have no problems with anything else but his stance on the Honduran situation. I know that he chose Hillary Clinton as secretary of state because she has more experience and connections with the rest of the world than he does.
So far we are still negotiating with Mrs. Clinton's pick of Oscar Arias.
Zelaya is wrong for Honduras and the Honduran people and he will not be allowed to return to power. If the world doesn't like it that's too bad.
Many Law firms in the United States are really suffering. Closing down. Going Bankrupt. Especially the big ones like. Others like Orrick, Herring, & Sutcliffe, etc., etc., etc. , Now have to go to developing nations for clients and making their money.
If you read the history of Honduras it seems that every time those banana pickers get a raise we have to send in the goons.
Google Samuel Zemurray or United Fruit Company or just Honduras.
Or see http://www
Zemurray basically used a private army to keep those pickers down back in 1910. It was not just a union movement. The Hondurans had the nerve to plant their own, competing plantations. After his death United Fruit influenced Dulles and Ike to remove an elected Honduran leader.
Of course, the colonialism has tried to present itself as respectable capitalism. Tulane U., in New Orleans, named a dorm for Zemurray, and his former mansion is the residence of the university president.
Why is there a Honduras anyway is it some fluke, or oversight by a map maker..?
I'm just sayin...
Anyone who continues to parrot the murderous right wing propaganda that this wasn't a coup is a traitor to democracy and the civilized world.
Art. 5 of the Honduran Civil Participation Act makes it perfectly legal to have non-binding polls. Art. 353 and 357 of the Honduran Const. makes it perfectly clear that Zelaya's due process rights were violated.
There is a calculated right wing blog strategy to ill represent what is occurring in Honduras. First, the majority of Hondurans are against the coup.
Secondly, the right wing hacks wrap themselves with the Democracy flag all while the conspirators are engaging in the most anti-democratic behavior Central America has seen since the late eighties.
Ironically through their actions the Honduran right wing economic elite is encouraging an insurrection or an all out civil war, and thus further risking their place of privilege.
Fact is, Latin Americans are tired of right wing business/junta governments, and we'll see a well organized strategy to strike at the elites business interests through road blockages and other clandestine means.
They're Art. 333 and 353 not 357.
Well said Tasies!
"murderous RIGHT wing propaganda "?
I thought Micheletti was a member of the LIBERAL Party of Honduras. Actually, the SAME party as Zelaya.
http://en.
It appears to me that this dispute is really one between those who support a Constitutional Republic ( http://en.
Whether you agree or disagree with the actions, the Honduran Governement institutions (Supreme Court, Congress) acted in accordance with their constitution as they interpreted it.
I agree that the military should not have exiled Zelaya (it appears THIS was illegal), but his removal was justified through the Honduran Supreme Court's interpretation of their constitution. Allowing Zelaya to return to the presidency would essentially compromise the legitimacy of the constitution - is that the true objective of the Zelaya supporters?
I am still waiting to find out what Zelaya supposedly did that was illegal and warranted his removal. Wanting to hold a non-binding poll does not meet the necessary conditions. I'm looking for the facts, not someone's unsubstantiated opinion or hearsay. Based on what I have been able to piece together, it appears that the Honduan supreme court and congress exceeded their power (and used the army to do so). But I am open to change, if someone can supply the information.
Guiganbresil - i appreciate that you have included links to sources of information. Given that Wikipedia is written and updated by its users, it's probably not the most reliable source to cite, however. A few days from now the information you point to could be completely changed.
No, Zelaya ran as a conservative and corrected his course during his term. He joined ALBA and (here's were Zelaya gets really evil) raised the minimum wage.
Zelaya comes from wealth, that what's truly extraordinary about him. He has turned his back on his social class. FDR was similar, and was cast as traitor to his social class.
the Lanny Davis connection to Honduras reveals the dark ugly side of the Clintons and their associations. It seems to fall into the same category as Bill's support of NAFTA, etc. where corporations and local wealthy business families prosper at the expense of the rest of the population, most notably the poor.
Now we have Hillary Clinton as Sec of State. It is no wonder why there has been a somewhat luke warm response of the Obama Admin (especially Clinton) to the coup. And support of compromise talks. But there are no comporomises for a coup.
Return Zalaya to his rightful place and support all Honduans, not the rich few.
If you want to support all Hondurans and return Zelaya to his rightful place it would be a one way trip to prison and for a very long time.
You are right about one thing...no compromises for a coup. This is so far from a coup, regardless of what Chavez calls it, it is ridiculous.
Our government's handling of this whole affair is shameful but heh...at least Hugi is happy!
It was indeed a text book coup backed by Hondura's pseudo democratic institutions.
why didn't they allowed the plane to land? the de facto government very clearly said that if he return to Honduras, he was going to be arrested. If arrested then he would have to be put on trial. A trial would had to be held not in secrecy. The results might not be well received by the de facto government The World dares Micheletti to allow Zelaya to return to his Country, Put him on trial. If he, Micheletti does not permit that then MICHELETTI IS A COWARD.
Chavez, the rest of SA, CA, NA,EUROPE.
politicscorner - I have to believe Obama is giving covert support for the coup, but the governments and people of Latin America have figured it out by now.
All that rhetoric about change has been trumped by an event that has exposed the new administration for what it is.
We will continue to oppose governments for the people.
Personally I can't see that the Obama administration was involved directly in this one. Seems to me it was US business interests and that the administration was not aware of what was going down until right towards the coups execution. Clinton on the other hand may well have been more directly involved as this article seems to suggest. There have also been indications that some pseudo church and religious groups were behind the organizing and funding...
I'm afraid we'll return Zalaya to his rightful place only by stepping over the likes of Hillary Clinton, and it seems President Obama who could have ended this with one phone call.
Here is a Spanish language link to the Honduran Constitution: http://pdb
Based on all that I've read, Manuel Zelaya, former president of Honduras, broke the laws in numerous ways - not the least of which was attempting to hold an unauthorized refrendum, specifically prohibited by the country's Constitution. Zelaya also defied the Legislature and Courts of his country to try to extend his time in power.
Zelaya did not call for a referendum (referendo in Spanish), he called for a poll (encuesta in Spanish).
And the poll was not legally binding ... that does not violate the Honduran Constitution.
The Honduran Supreme Court disagrees with you and Mr. Lavota.
I suspect they are a far better judge of Honduran law than either of you.
These are same recycled points made before. I have read/heard just the opposite as well.
Get specific. What laws were broken? What specific actions were undertaken by Zalaya that were illegal. You say it was illegal to hold an unauthorized referendum. Where does it say in the Constiturion or legal code of Honduras? I've also read that there was nothing wrong with holding a non-binding referedum. From what I have read, Zalaya took no actions designed to extend the number of terms a President could serve.
If 80% of the people were against Zalaya, as one comment indicates, why is there need for worry?
Why not vote him out of office when the election comes like demoncracies are supposed to do.
A coup is a coup is a coup. No matter how you try ot sugarcoat it.
Their Supreme court said it was illegal.
I suspect they are more knowledgeable about their laws than any American or other outside pundit.
Certainly more so than your average commenter on a website.
By attempting to stay in office beyond his one Constitutionally permitted term, he broke the law - the Honduran Constitution states that no one who was been Executive of the country can be President or Vice President. Also, by acting contrary to the legal requirements of the Honduran Legislature and Courts, Zelaya broke more laws.
Exactly!
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