The U.S. in Latin America

The US Game In Latin America
US interference in the politics of Haiti and
Honduras is only the latest example of its
long-term manipulations in Latin America
Mark Weisbrot
The Guardian
29 January 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/29/us-latin-america-haiti-honduras

When I write about US foreign policy in places such as
Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who
find it difficult to believe that the US government
would care enough about these countries to try and
control or topple their governments. These are small,
poor countries with little in the way of resources or
markets. Why should Washington policymakers care who
runs them?

Unfortunately they do care. A lot. They care enough
about Haiti to have overthrown the elected president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide not once, but twice. The first
time, in 1991, it was done covertly. We only found out
after the fact that the people who led the coup were
paid by the US Central Intelligence Agency. And then
Emmanuel Constant, the leader of the most notorious
death squad there - which killed thousands of Aristide's
supporters after the coup - told CBS News that he, too,
was funded by the CIA.

In 2004, the US involvement in the coup was much more
open. Washington led a cut-off of almost all
international aid for four years, making the
government's collapse inevitable. As the New York Times
reported, while the US state department was telling
Aristide that he had to reach an agreement with the
political opposition (funded with millions of US
taxpayers' dollars), the International Republican
Institute was telling the opposition not to settle.

In Honduras last summer and autumn, the US government
did everything it could to prevent the rest of the
hemisphere from mounting an effective political
opposition to the coup government in Honduras. For
example, they blocked the Organisation of American
States from taking the position that it would not
recognise elections that took place under the
dictatorship. At the same time, the Obama administration
publicly pretended that it was against the coup.

This was only partly successful, from a public relations
point of view. Most of the US public thinks that the
Obama administration was against the Honduran coup,
although by November of last year there were numerous
press reports and even editorial criticisms that Obama
had caved to Republican pressure and not done enough.
But this was a misreading of what actually happened: the
Republican pressure in support of the Honduran coup
changed the administration's public relations strategy,
but not its political strategy. Those who followed
events closely from the beginning could see that the
political strategy was to blunt and delay any efforts to
restore the elected president, while pretending that a
return to democracy was actually the goal.

Among those who understood this were the governments of
Latin America, including such heavyweights as Brazil.
This is important because it shows that the State
Department was willing to pay a significant political
cost in order to help the right in Honduras. It
convinced the vast majority of Latin American
governments that it was no different from the Bush
administration in its goals for the hemisphere, which is
not a pleasant outcome from a diplomatic point of view.

Why do they care so much about who runs these poor
countries? As any good chess player knows, pawns matter.
The loss of a couple of pawns at the beginning of the
game can often make a difference between a win or a
loss. They are looking at these countries mostly in
straight power terms. Governments that are in agreement
with maximising US power in the world, they like. Those
who have other goals - not necessarily antagonistic to
the United States - they don't like.

Not surprisingly, the Obama administration's closest
allies in the hemisphere are rightwing governments such
as those of Colombia or Panama, even though Obama
himself is not a rightwing politician. This highlights
the continuity of the politics of control. The victory
of the right in Chile, the first time that it has won an
election in half a century, was a significant victory
for the US government. If Lula de Silva's Workers' party
were to lose the presidential election in Brazil this
autumn, that would be another win for the state
department. While US officials under both Bush and Obama
have maintained a friendly posture toward Brazil, it is
obvious that they deeply resent the changes in Brazilian
foreign policy that have allied it with other social
democratic governments in the hemisphere, and its
independent foreign policy stances with regard to the
Middle East, Iran, and elsewhere.

The US actually intervened in Brazilian politics as
recently as 2005, organising a conference to promote a
legal change that would make it more difficult for
legislators to switch parties. This would have
strengthened the opposition to Lula's Workers' party
(PT) government, since the PT has party discipline but
many opposition politicians do not. This intervention by
the US government was only discovered last year through
a Freedom of Information Act request filed in
Washington. There are many other interventions taking
place throughout the hemisphere that we do not know
about. The United States has been heavily involved in
Chilean politics since the 1960s, long before they
organised the overthrow of Chilean democracy in 1973.

In October 1970, President Richard Nixon was cursing in
the Oval Office about the Social Democratic president of
Chile, Salvador Allende. "That son of a bitch!" said
Richard Nixon on 15 October. "That son of a bitch
Allende - we're going to smash him." A few weeks later
he explained why:

The main concern in Chile is that [Allende] can
consolidate himself, and the picture projected to the
world will be his success ... If we let the potential
leaders in South America think they can move like Chile
and have it both ways, we will be in trouble.

That is another reason that pawns matter, and Nixon's
nightmare did in fact come true a quarter-century later,
as one country after another elected independent left
governments that Washington did not want. The United
States ended up "losing" most of the region. But they
are trying to get it back, one country at a time. The
smaller, poorer countries that are closer to the United
States are the most at risk. Honduras and Haiti will
have democratic elections some day, but only when
Washington's influence over their politics is further
reduced.

_____________________________________________

Honduran coup:

Honduras Quagmire: An Interview with Zelaya
By Tim Padgett Saturday, Sep. 26, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1926383,00.html

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya believes he put his
adversaries' backs to the wall this week. He may,
however, have painted himself into a corner as well. By
sneaking back into Honduras on Sept. 21 and taking
refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the
exiled leader -- deposed in a June 28 military coup --
hoped to turn up pressure on the de facto government to
negotiate a settlement that would put him back in
office until his term ends in January. But in a
telephone interview with TIME on Friday, Zelaya
complained of noxious tear gas wafting into the
embassy, the scene this week of deadly clashes between
his supporters and Honduran security forces. And he
seemed to acknowledge that he's also turned up pressure
on himself to get Hondurans and the international
community fervently enough behind him to end the
standoff. "We want this to end soon," he says. "But I
may have to summon all my spiritual strength to get
through it."

Zelaya returns to Honduras; what will U.S. do

Zelaya's Return to Tegucigalpa Brings Coup Closer to its End
* Calls for face-to-face dialogue, without mediation
* Coup "betrayed and made a mockery of" the Arias process
* Zelaya building public international support and meeting with resistance leaders
* Calls for Hondurans from around the country to gather in Tegucigalpa

At midday today, 86 days since the military coup d'etat in Honduras, President Zelaya returned to join the resistance movement in the final stretch of the long fight to restore constitutional order. As a spy helicopter buzzed the demonstrators and police poured into the area, thousands of supporters gather outside the Brazilian embassy to receive the President. (Telesur has continuous coverage here in Spanish.)

In his first comments, Zelaya declared a "day of celebration." Zelaya called on everyone to gather at the Brazilian Embassy, and reasserted the commitment to non-violence. "I'm not afraid of the judicial process," he affirmed and added he would face any accusations but that so far all the coup had produced was calumnious statements.

Zelaya is lining up his support and his strategy in these moments. He announced that he was waiting for communication from President Lula, the OAS, the United Nations, the European Union and others in an interview with Telesur. He said his plan is to initiate internal dialogue and that the idea is to demonstrate the support of the international community without involving it in the dialogue. He added that he has not spoken with de facto government and was meeting with his cabinet and resistance groups.

The legitimate president of Honduras called on the Armed Forces to maintain the calm. "The Armed Forces are part of the people, they come from the villages and neighborhoods and should never point their guns at their own people," he stated. He urged a process to "recover peace and tranquility" in the country.

Although the police are deploying to control the growing crowd, resistance leaders are maintaining control. In a Telesur interview, Juan Barahona, a leader of the National Front Against the Coup, expressed his opinion that the "Army cannot launch an offensive here—there are too any people."

A visibly shaken Roberto Michelleti appeared before on CNN, denying that the Zelaya was in the country and claiming that the news was an invention of "media terrorism" to stir people up and provoke a huge mobilization. "It's not true. He (Zelaya) is relaxing in a suite in Managua," Micheletti told the press with a chuckle. He later added that if the news turned out to be true, Zelaya would be arrested.

By that time, Zelaya's return had already been confirmed. As the coup chief went into denial, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom confirmed the news, stating that he hoped this would mean the end of the coup. US State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly confirmed the presence of Zelaya in Honduras in a brief statement calling for all sides to avoid violence, and President Chavez of Venezuela praised Zelaya for what he called his "peaceful and courageous" return. Zelaya is reportedly meeting with resistance leaders at this moment.

By showing up without violent confrontations at the Brazilian Embassy before thousands of cheering supporters, Zelaya plays his strongest cards. As most eyes were on the Obama adminsitration—and with good reason given its power in affecting economic and political sanctions—Brazil has been a low-profile but high-impact actor in the drama. Its power as a regional leader carries clout not only with other nations throughout Latin American but also with the United States, which cannot risk strained relations with the South American giant.

Hondurans are expected to continue to arrive in Tegucigalpa from all over the country. This massive display of support also strengthens Zelaya's hand. His most important base and chance for restoration has been in the popular mobilizations that have not missed a day since June 28.

Zelaya's peaceful journey and bloodless return also underline the non-violent character of the resistance movement since the beginning. The president gained the capital without provoking confrontation, thus taking the wind out of the sails of the State Department's previous reasons for opposing his return. Now he is back in the capital, close to a return to power—a condition of the San Jose Accords. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no excuse for not supporting Zelaya's return and efforts at internal reconciliation.
Posted by Laura Carlsen at 11:13 AM
The Americas blog.
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Honduras Coup

War Times on the coup in Honduras and the Obama Administration
But the battle of ideas is not fought only "in general." It pivots around specific policies and issues. And these, besides shaping and reshaping opinion, have outcomes which are crucial in and of themselves.

Right now, three such pivotal battles stand out.

The first concerns the coup in Honduras. Much is at stake not just for that country, but for all Latin America. The entire region is moving leftward, it is the center of gravity of the most diverse and dynamic grassroots-driven radical efforts in the world today. Right wingers and oligarchs - and their backers in Washington - have been on the defensive and trying to figure out a way to reverse the tide. Economic levers for many do not seem to be enough; they want to return to the days of naked military force. The stakes in Honduras thus go even beyond the fate of the Honduran people. If the coup stands, the reactionaries will be emboldened and - as movements and governments throughout Latin America are saying - the question will be where military coup-makers strike next. If on the other hand the coup is reversed, popular movements will be strengthened and the progressive wave will gain even more momentum.

As of this writing the outcome is in doubt. A great deal depends on what pressures can be mounted here in the U.S. So far the Obama administration has played a mixed but principally negative role, and there are signs of division in the highest echelons of D.C. Evidence is overwhelming that the golpistas had the blessing of U.S. operatives carried over from the Bush years (for example, Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens, who was Bush's top Venezuela advisor at the time of the failed 2002 coup). Obama at first denounced the coup, but since then Washington has orchestrated talks in a way that treats the coup-makers as legitimate leaders and supports anti-democratic conditions on any prospective return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Washington has refused to cut off military aid to the generals or take other steps that would make it all but impossible for the coup to stand. The right (aided by power-brokers close to Hillary Clinton) have been engaged in an all-out media campaign to legitimize the coup. Counter-pressure from our side is an urgent priority with so much at stake for Honduras, for Latin America, and for the coming years' posture of the Obama administration.
War Tiems

Honduran coup continues

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya said he was denied permission to land at Tegucigalpa's airport Sunday evening amid a tense standoff between Zelaya's supporters and government troops.

Zelaya told the Venezuela-based news network Telesur that he was denied permission to land the jet in Tegucigalpa, where military vehicles were arrayed on the runway.

Soldiers lined barricades surrounding the airport in expectation of clashes between Zelaya's supporters and the provisional government that has vowed to keep him from coming back from a weeklong exile.

Before Zelaya's landing attempt, police fired warning shots and tear gas at several thousand protesters who ringed the airport and had vowed to protect the ousted president with a human cordon. Organizers said several people were wounded in the clashes.

The small jet was transporting Zelaya and United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto from Washington. The U.N. General Assembly condemned the June 28 military-led coup last week and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated.

Resistance in Honduras

Thousands of Hondurans are now in the streets to protest the coup d'etat in their country. They have been met with tear gas, anti-riot rubber bullets, tanks firing water mixed with chemicals, and clubs. Police have moved in to break down barricades and soldiers used violence to push back protesters at the presidential residence, leaving an unknown number wounded.

If the coup leaders were desperate when they decided to forcibly depose the elected president, they are even more desperate now. Stripped of its pretense of legality by universal repudiation and faced with a popular uprising, the coup has turned to more violent means.

The scoreboard in the battle for Honduras shows the coup losing badly. It has not gained a single point in the international diplomatic arena, it has no serious legal points, and the Honduran people are mobilizing against it. As the military and coup leaders resort to brute force, they rack up even more points against them in human rights and common decency.

Only one factor brought the coup to power and only one factor has enabled it to hold on for these few days—control of the armed forces. Now even that seems to be eroding.

Cracks in Army Loyalty to the Coup?

Reports are coming in that several battalions—specifically the Fourth and Tenth—have rebelled against coup leadership. Both Zelaya and his supporters have been very conscious that within the armed forces there are fractures. Instead of insulting the army, outside the heavily guarded presidential residence many protesters chant, "Soldiers, you are part of the people."

President Zelaya has been remarkably respectful in calling on the army to "correct its actions." It is likely the coup will continue to lose its grip on the army as intensifying mobilizations force it to confront its own people.

International Community Imposes Sanctions


The meeting of the Central American Integration System in Managua
became a forum for pronouncements from the major diplomatic groups
in the region. Photo: www.granma.cu.
In the diplomatic arena, it's not that the coup is losing its grip—it never even got a foothold. The meeting of the Central American Integration System in Managua Monday became a forum for pronouncements from one after another of the major diplomatic groups in the region. Latin America is a region where diplomatic recombinations have proliferated in recent years, so the alphabet soup of solidarity statements just keeps on growing.

The Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) issued a resolution, announcing the withdrawal of its ambassadors while continuing the member countries' international cooperation programs in Honduras. The group urged other nations to do the same—a growing list including Brazil and Mexico has already followed suit.

The ALBA group cited the Honduran Constitution, which states in Art. 3:

"No one owes obedience to a government that has usurped power or to those who assume functions or public posts by the force of arms or using means or procedures that rupture or deny what the Constitution and the laws establish. The verified acts by such authorities are null. The people have the right to recur to insurrection in defense of the constitutional order."

Putting teeth behind the words has already begun. The Central American countries agreed to close off their land borders to all commerce with Honduras for the next 48 hours. The Central American Bank for Economic Integration has cut off all lending until the president is restored to power.

It also called for sanctions in multilateral organizations: "We propose that exemplary sanctions be applied in all multilateral organizations and integration groups, to contribute to bringing about the immediate restitution of the constitutional order in Honduras, and to make good on the principle of action that Jose Marti taught us when he said: 'If each one does his duty, no one can overcome us.'"

The Rio Group of Latin American and Caribbean nations also met in Managua and issued a statement condemning the coup and supporting Zelaya. Organization of American States Sec. General Jose Insulza was there too. President Zelaya received a standing ovation following his closing speech.

The U.S. government has been unambiguous in its condemnation of the coup and support of President Zelaya. President Obama stated today:

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there." He added, "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backward into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections."

After years of the Bush administration, when the commitment to democracy abroad was decided more on the basis of ideological affinities than democratic practice, some sectors have trouble accepting that the U.S. government is condemning the overthrow of a president who espouses left-wing causes. Note the obstinacy of reporters at today's State Department press conference:

QUESTION: "So Ian, I'm sorry, just to confirm—so you're not calling it a coup, is that correct? Legally, you're not considering it a coup?"

MR. KELLY: "Well, I think you all saw the OAS statement last night, which called it a coup d'état, and you heard what the Secretary just said ..." (Clinton explicitly called it a coup).

This discussion and another drawn-out discussion in which reporters attempted to open up a window of doubt over support for reinstatement of Zelaya went on quite a while. Ian Kelly, the Dept. spokesperson, held fast as reporters tried to equate supposed violations of law by Zelaya with a military coup in a fantasy "everyone's-at-fault" scenario. Kelly reiterated that the coup is indeed an illegal coup and the only solution is the return of the elected president.

The "coup question" is more than semantics and has implications beyond conservative media's political agenda to justify the coup leaders. When a legal definition of coup is established, most U.S. aid to Honduras must be cut off.

Here's the relevant part of the foreign operations bill:

Sec. 7008. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to titles III through VI of this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.

So far, the Obama administration has focused on diplomatic efforts and is waiting to see how long the Honduran stand-off will last before looking to specific sanctions. The probability that the coup's days are numbered makes that a reasonable strategy for the time being.

Attack on Freedom of Expression

The military coup has also launched an all-out attack on freedom of expression in the country. Venezuela's Telesur reports that its team was detained and military personnel threatened to confiscate its video equipment if it continued to broadcast.

The ALBA declaration notes the use of censorship as a tool of the coup, "This silence was meant to impose the dictatorship by closing the government channel and cutting off electricity, seeking to hide and justify the coup before the people and the international community, and demonstrating an attitude that recalls the worst era of dictatorships that we've suffered in the 20th century in our continent."

Grassroots organizations that support President Zelaya have faced an uphill battle against the media, which alternates between scaring people about the risk to keep them out of the streets and denying the existence of those who do go out. A message from Via Campesina Honduras warns people that information is controlled by the coup to hide opposition, cut off communications on many channels, and only allow information that favors them. They have now organized to open up contact with reporters throughout the world.

An increasingly organized opposition and independent media on the scene and on the net are breaking through the information blockade. A third source is Twitter. A major player in the Iranian uprising, Twitter has become the pulse of, if not the body politic, at least some bodies of that politic.

All this means that the information black-out designed by the coup is riddled with points of light. It's still hard to get statistical information like crowd numbers or figures of killed and wounded, but Honduras is certainly not the isolated and insignificant "banana republic" it once was.

The Return of the President

Zelaya now leaves for New York City where he will speak before the General Assembly of the United Nations to further outpourings of support. In Managua, he announced that from there he will return, accompanied by Insulza, to Honduras.

In an interview with CNN a coup leader said that Zelaya "can return to Honduras—as long as he leaves his presidency behind."

The Honduran ambassador to the UN, Jorge Reina, said that although the coup leaders have asked to address the UN, "the UN does not recognize them ... They have made a serious mistake, those who think that countries can be led through coups."

"That history has passed."

Laura Carlsen (lcarlsen(a)ciponline.org) is the Director of the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org) for the Center for International Policy in Mexico City.

To reprint this article, please contact americas@ciponline.org. The opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of the CIP Americas Program or the Center for International Policy.

Military Coup in Honduras

Protesters Confront Soldiers After Coup in Honduras

By MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: June 29, 2009
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — One day after the country’s president, Manuel Zelaya, was abruptly awakened, ousted and deported by the army here, hundreds of protesters massed at the presidential offices in an increasingly tense face-off with hundreds of camouflage-clad soldiers carrying riot shields and automatic weapons.

Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters
Soldiers guard the presidential house in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Monday.
Related
Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup (June 29, 2009)

The protesters, many wearing masks and carrying wooden or metal sticks, yelled taunts at the soldiers across the fences ringing the compound and braced for the army to try to dispel them. “We’re defending our president,” said one protester, Umberto Guebara, who appeared to be in his 30s. “I’m not afraid. I’d give my life for my country.”

Leaders across the hemisphere joined in condemning the coup, the first in Central America since the end of the cold war. Mr. Zelaya, who touched down Sunday in Costa Rica, still in his pajamas, insisted, “I am the president of Honduras.”

The Honduran Congress late Sunday officially voted Mr. Zelaya out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti. As of Monday morning, however, Mr. Micheletti had not yet addressed the public

Though political tensions had been building within the government for weeks, the final move to oust the president came unexpectedly, and confusion reigned among many Hondurans about what exactly had happened overnight. People crowded around newspaper stands and spoke among themselves about whether the power shift was temporary, what it meant and how the underlying conflict would be resolved.

“I’m not sure who our president is anymore,” said an elderly man in the border town of El Amatillo.

Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But he is a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest. His term was to end in January.

The Honduran military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the country’s Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law against “those who had publicly spoken out and acted against the Constitution’s provisions.”

Mr. Zelaya ’s ouster capped a showdown with other branches of government over his efforts to lift presidential term limits in a referendum that was to have taken place Sunday. Critics said the vote was part of an illegal attempt by Mr. Zelaya to defy the Constitution’s limit of a single four-year term for the president.

Early this month, the Supreme Court declared the referendum unconstitutional, and Congress followed suit last week. In the last few weeks, supporters and opponents of the president have held competing demonstrations. The prosecutor’s office and the electoral tribunal issued orders for the referendum ballots to be confiscated, but on Thursday, Mr. Zelaya led a group of protesters to an air force base and seized the ballots.

When the army refused to help organize the vote, he fired the armed forces commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez. The Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal and reinstated General Vásquez.

As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday.

The two nations have long had a close military relationship, with an American military task force stationed at a Honduran air base about 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa. The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.

In Costa Rica, Mr. Zelaya told the Venezuelan channel Telesur that he had been awoken by gunshots. Masked soldiers took his cellphone, shoved him into a van and took him to an air force base, where he was put on a plane. He said he did not know that he was being taken to Costa Rica until he landed at the airport in San José.