Resource Guide to the Crisis in Honduras

If, like me, you are looking for good resources to help you understand the events in Honduras, a very good site is the AS/COA Resource Guide to the Crisis in Honduras. There you will find collected news analysis as well as links to original documents such as the decrees of the Honduran Supreme Court and the Honduran constitution.

Comments

Gatofilo said…
We all know and it’s common knowledge that the chafarrote, Hugo Chavez, has as his mission in life to destabilize Latin American democracies and U.S. allies in the region, as if he or Venezuela were under attack.

His current victim country is tiny Honduras, but if it wasn’t Honduras it would be somewhere else. Chavez has been shown to be an insecure and frustrated egomaniac who has the petrol dollars to feed his compulsion, to feel important and to feel that he matters.

As the ALBA countries in Latin America come under the Chavez boot, they will soon discover that Socialism or anything resembling socialism is ultimately doomed to fail.

As in Cuba with the Castro’s fifty year old dynasty, we’ve witnessed that, “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” And the Cuban people only want to escape that once beautiful island paradise.

All these demagogic feel-good ideologies, filled with nonsensical rhetoric will ultimately and irrefutably fail simply because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes the reward away, no one will want to succeed.

After all, we must realize that we are dealing with the reality of human nature.

Cuba contines to be a fantastic example of this truth, where the national pastime apparently has become to look for a decent inner tube and splash your way to America.

Another great example of this phenomenon, resides in the families who no longer want to work because they prefer waiting for their monthly "remesas" from the U.S.

The Cuban government finally decided to levy a 10% tax on these remesas coming from abroad!

I dare only imagine the uproar and condemnations if ARENA had gone to that extreme.

But then, we live in a democratic country where we can peacefully voice our opinions. God bless.
Gatofilo said…
There is no controversy, Zelaya trampled the Constitution and has paid the price...

Article 239 states clearly that one who behaves as Zelaya did in attempting to change presidential succession ceases immediately to be president. If there were any doubt on that score, the Congress removed it by convening immediately after Zelaya's arrest, condemning his illegal conduct and overwhelmingly voting (122 to 6) to remove him from office. The Congress is led by Zelaya's own Liberal Party (although it is true that Zelaya and his party have grown apart as he has moved left). Because Zelaya's vice president had earlier quit to run in the November elections, the next person in the line of succession was Micheletti, the Liberal leader of Congress. He was named to complete the remaining months of Zelaya's term.

It cannot be right to call this a "coup." Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country's elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

True, Zelaya should not have been arbitrarily exiled from his homeland. That, however, does not mean he must be reinstalled as president of Honduras. It merely makes him an indicted private citizen with a meritorious immigration beef against his country.
El-Visitador said…
Curiously enough, the "Resource Guide" does not have the opinions on the recent Constitutional Honduran government transition from:

(1) Miguel Estrada, who is born and raised Honduran, has a JD from Harvard, and has litigated 18 cases before the US Supreme Court. His opinion was published by the Los Angeles Times.

(2) Octavio Sánchez, who is also a Harvard grad and Visiting Professor at the School of Law at the University of Arizona, and who is a former Chief of Staff and later Minister of Honduras. His opinion was published by the Christian Science Monitor.

Funny that these nobodies' opinions didn't make it to your Resource Guide, uh?

Bias, anyone?

Buehler?
Gatofilo said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gatofilo said…
El-Visitador mentions his excellent sources of information that irrefutably present the facts and a candid and professional analysis of unbiased opinion regrading the political and socio economic events regarding the Honduran crisis. Thank you, El-Visitador.

As the days drag on and the crisis in Honduras widens, it becomes more and more evident that the root cause of the turmoil and disruptions has been and remains the eight hundred pound gorilla, Hugo Chavez, with his uncanny and blatant meddling in the internal affairs of the Honduran nation.

As previously mentioned, the chafarrote Hugo Chavez seems to have as his life quest to personally destabilize democratic pro U.S. governments in Latina America, and forcibly shove down people's throats his Bolivarian alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

Recent history has shown us that if Hugo Chavez wasn't meddling and making trouble in Honduras, he'd only be doing it somewhere else. Anywhere else!

As long as Chavez was simply a Venezuelan phenomenon and Venezuelans were putting up with him, he was simply that; an internal Venezuelan problem.

But now things have progressed, and the eight hundred pound gorilla is morphing into a regional King Kong, that is overstepping his bounds like Hitler before him during the late 1930's.

It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself once again.
Unknown said…
East-West, North-South,....does Gatofilo and his tag-team partner have their geopolitics confused? Where are Ronald Reagan and Jeanne Kirkpatrick when you need them? Like Barack Obama did from Hugo Chavez, they should put on their reading lists Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America". That might give them an historical frame that gives more importance in current politics to the depredations of 500 years of conquest by European invaders than geopolitical models from Central Europe of 75 years ago.
Gatofilo said…
Our friend "John" seems to be irremediably stuck in a time warp because five hundered years is a long timme.

But being that today is Saturday, and I need a good laugh, I’ll make the time and honor our friend by responding to his routime outflow of nonsensical banter.

===============

Anti Americanism runs deep within the socially resentful few, who always seem to ommit the fact that El Salvador actually sent official emissaries to Washington to request their country's admission into the North American Union.

Although the request was not accepted, there are currently more that two million Salvadorans living and working in this marvelous country of ours, as or friend "John" can certainly ascertain to.

Because of the worldwide crisis situation, El Salvador needs and lives on the “remesas” sent by their compatriots from these United States of America, and have requested that we give special treatment and even amnisty to Salvadoran illigal immigrants.

People from around the world clamor to come and live in the happiness and freedom of our American Dream, a dream that is possible to all.

These United States, because of its unique greatness and enormous generosity to the less fortunate, has become the envy but also the beacon of hope to the world.

This is the classic duality of loved and hated, by the insecure, frustrated and socially resentful of the world.

One last thought, I hope that our friend “John” has more than simply that one book on his shelf. Or perhaps he borrowed his edition of "Open Veins of Latin America" from his idolized hero, the chafarrote, Hugo Chavez..
Unknown said…
Ism me this Gato: a living wage and justice for those who work in the Americas so they may feed their families, educate themselves, share good health, and realize their full potential as true human beings.

Not-so-veiled threats of reprisal for so-called anti-Americanism, for not toeing the ideolgical line, as in Guatemala, El Salvador, and many other places will engeder revolt against the oppresors. If they are Americans, with their useful fools, then so be it.

Why doesn't Gato explore the wonders of working as a migrant farmworker in the Good Ol' USA in the valleys of California. There Gato could experience exploitation of Latinos that other American non-Latino have not. It might give Gato a different perspective, that of say a Cesar Chavez, who like Martin Luther King, and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero struggled for justice for those economically exploited in the Americas.

Here's a website for you about the United Farmworkers Union www.ufw.org. Look for similarities between Cesar Chavez and Oscar Romero. You'll find plenty.

Luther King and Romero were shot down by ultranationalist, racist, chauvinists similar perhaps in mentality to our friend Gato. As for Hugo Chavez, he's your problem, not mine.

As for books on the shelf, here are a few authors for you who've written extensively about El Salvador's history. Do me a favor, and read a few of them before you come back to me with more baloney. Then we can chat;-)

Jeffrey Gould, Aldo Lauria-Santiago, Paul Almeida, Charles Brockett, Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Patricia Alvarenga.

Got that Gato!!
Gatofilo said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gatofilo said…
When one discussed or does research on the Vietnamese model of Marxist or Socialist insurgency, one will undoubtedly come to the tactics employed since the early 1980's in Latin America, with the preconceived objective of creating sympathy toward their ideological cause. At this time we must recognized and not be at all duped by one of their favorite, oldest and most successfully used techniques.

We must understand that we are dealing with a version of Marxist criminal terrorist who will not at all flinch at sacrificing a few of their own, the so-called useful or useless fools, to draw worldwide condemnation for the authorities, while creating the sympathy they so urgently need for their cause.

One of the most popular and widely used methods to create martyrs and thus be able to parade the unfortunate victims before the photo journalists of the foreign press, is to have one of their own, a professional agitator or sniper, fire a few rounds directly at the authorities from within the “peaceful” demonstration.

When the police or military that are guarding and maintaining order along the demonstration route, receive fire from the crowd they logically and in self defense, shoot back, and "WHALLA" instant martyrs!

Using this abhorent methodology, the terrorists gain the dead and crying civilians they want, preferrably men, women, children, no matter, to parade up and down the streets before the insatiable flashing cameras of the foreign press until the fetid stench of the dead becomes unbearable.

The revolutionary and macabre reasoning for not returning the bodies immediately over to their grieving families is that, “the dead now belong to the people, they were assassinated serving the people and the people need to immortalize their sacrifice.”

Honduras appears to be the next prime candidate for this type of outrage, because we all know that without martyrs, and lots of them, there is no revolution.

In order for a revolution to ignite, it needs a timely spark that cannot be either premeditated or created. But then, that is the terrorist’s problem.

The man on the street simply wants to live his life in democratic peace and prosperity.
Unknown said…
Since your central thesis is a historical fiction, i.e, that street demonstrators protesting legitimate grievances such as access to land, education, health care, adequate housing, create their own martyrs by killing their own demonstrators, bearing no known relation to the facts in Central America in the 1970s-1980s, your argument is baseless.

I suggest you read Paul Almeida and Charles Brockett on the development of social movements in El Salvador and Guatemala as a reaction to military and police repression--the murder of protesters with grievances about electoral fraud, socio-economic circumstances, a non-functioning judicial system, and ongoing military-police repression.

The self-defense forces--i.e, Marxist-guerrillas--developed as a consequence of that longstanding repression and socioeconomic grievances, not as you suggest, to produce it by inviting a government backlash, with consequent media coverage smearing the forces of so-called order defending "the man on the street" as human rights abusers. You've got cause and effect reversed. Do you think the UN Truth Commissions report on the Salvadoran Civil War finding 95% of non-combatant killings attributible to the Salvadoran military and security forces in error?

Give me at least one verifiable example of your assertion from say, El Salvador or Guatemala in the 1970s or 80s? Especially the street demos in El Salvador in the late 1970s, early 1980s. More than likely, you have none.

Honduras current predicament bears little resemblence to the history you purport to assess.

I suggest you stop refighting the Vietnam War...it was a long time ago:-)
Anonymous said…
Tim, as this story unveils itself, the more we are finding out how far has Zelaya gone with his illegal activity. The money that he embezzled and his son's involvement with drug dealing is of such concern. No wonder officials where keeping quite during their investigations.
Gatofilo said…
Before the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power, less than one-third of the population approved of his rule, and this discontent threatened to bubble over -- as it ultimately did -- as he tried to take a page from Chavez’s book to extend his own term of office. At the same time we witness that In Argentina, the Chavez-aligned Kirchner administration has also suffered a devastating defeat in the midterm elections on June 28th.

In Nicaragua, former guerrilla leader, current president and Chavez acolyte Daniel Ortega, also faces strong opposition, along with scandals over electoral fraud and the heinous sexual abuse charge by his his own daughter-in-law. In the Bolivarian mold, Ortega is also plotting the perpetuation of his rule, perhaps by changing Nicaragua from a presidential to parliamentary system so he can become prime minister.

Chavez and his leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas is being rejected by people like the Hondurans themselves, who have demonstrated that Chavez and his lackeys can be plucked clean, one feather at a time, and until our entire American continent will be free to live and prosper in the democratic freedom and happiness we all aspire and dream of.
Unknown said…
Happy your so happy Gato; must be nice up there in the Good Ol' USA. In fact, if each citizen cannot certify their happiness, they might just as well be stripped of their citizenship for being un-Americanly unhappy, doncha' think?
Gatofilo said…
Ousted Honduran leftist president, Manuel Zelaya, apparently wants to play both ends against the middle, and is calling for insurrection in Honduras at the same time as the mediation process with the interim Honduran government continues in Costa Rica.

It’s clear that the ALBA alliance has felt mortally threatened by the Honduran people having disposed of there comrade, Manuel Zelaya, and it’s obvious that these Hugo Chavez lackeys will do all in their power to destabilize and make life impossible for interim president, Roberto Michelleti and the Honduran nation.

Emboldened by the Honduran experience, there appears to be a snowball effect in the making, as the Nicaraguan Liberal Party stands-up and challenges Daniel Ortega’s Chavecista ploy to remain in power for life. And important electoral reversals have also recently affected the ALBA government of Argentina. In Guatemala, Colom is also standing on thin ice, accused on tape of the most savage of institutionalized crimes by the assassinated victim himself, fraud, theft, Etc.

As for the ongoing Honduras crisis, interim Honduran president, Roberto Michelleti, has stated that amnesty for Zelaya is possible, if Zelaya agrees to return to Honduras and face the judicial system and answer to the multiple accusations facing him.

Besides the long list of criminal charges facing disposed president Manel Zelaya, which include charges of treason and usurping public monies, his son has now been linked with the drug trafficking scourge affecting that entire Central American region.

No one expects the ALBA leftist alliance to go down without a fight, but that they’re going down; they’re definitely going down. The people themselves are now fighting back and are on the verge of retaking the democratic institutions and processes that these ALBA Chavecista acolytes had plotted to usurp from them.

As for the blustering Venezuelan 800 pound gorilla and classic militarist chafarrote, Hugo Chavez, he will most likely be remembered in history as “The Mouse that Roared.”