Honduras under Siege as Hemisphere Closes Ranks Against Coup

Much of the summary is fairly accurate; much of it not really the full deal; what follows below is a far less than literal summary of what you hear on radio and news and the street in Honduras (a lot of it on point to the summary posted, as versions of that are elsewhere too). Obviously, this is mostly all from people who want Zelaya gone, and this is a huge segment of society, across all income levels and political parties. Many ideas below are not arguments really, and some answers fail to acknowledge the “big picture” or longer term consequences, but it is what people repeatedly offer in the face of the growing criticism:

Who cares if these Ambassadors leave as most have never really done anything while here anyway? Why would anyone care if they go? The only one it hurts is 5-star hotels, L1000-a-plate restaurants, and high-cost Brazilian prostitutes. Since the stupid OAS decision is made independent of any knowledge of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court and Constitution it is a useless document. It isn’t based on the facts that really matter and doesn’t cite any of them. OAS is a joke. A loss of OAS membership might not be such a bad thing and should perhaps be rethought anyway. Might take a long time to figure out why Ortega and Chavez have always called the OAS a tool of the U.S., yet now hold up OAS condemnation authority while supporting the U.S fro drafting documents and blaming the U.S. for the coup in Honduras. They don’t know what they want or what they think and haven’t a decent reason for any of it.

Zelaya has already altered his return date twice, most likely as he sees clearly that the general population doesn’t support him any more than the Congress did. Honduras will gladly accept a dictatorship of the many (Congress) over a dictatorship of the few (he and Chavez and Ortega), even if that means international isolation, less monies, and a temporary loss of civil liberties which occurs only at night. Insulsa, Fernandez, and Correa are more than welcome to attend the next rally where they will see more Honduran unity than anyone has in the last 50 years. But if they come here what they bring with them isn’t just Zelaya but almost a guarantee of mass violence. Yes, select civil liberties were suspended but only at darkness and the suspension does not include “ransacking” but these outsiders are free to misrepresent that and probably need to be forgiven for many misinterpretations given that they still haven’t found copies of the Honduran Constitution or read a Honduran newspaper and all of them have website coverage updated every 60 minutes.

If countries want to cut off loans and eliminate aid then that is their choice. But, if they were originally doing this donation based on obligations they saw to assist the poorest in society then who do they think they are punishing when they kill the donation? It isn’t the new President or the military or are going to be worse off, but I guess they can’t se past their checkbook and figure out how the world actually works.

There has been great concern over the beatings of the diplomats. Embarrassing if true. But, why assume it is true? Nonsense and again an analysis that doesn’t use facts or the law. Diplomats cannot obstruct a judicial arrest of citizens from another country than theirs and who do not have diplomatic immunity. And, on top of that no diplomat have presented any evidence of injury nor story of events that is believable; no one was touched just because they are a diplomat; people were moved because they obstructed justice protecting someone who lacks immunity.

How stupid are they? The threat of non-recognition from ALBA is actually a desired goal not a punishment of any kind. The original removal plans for Zelaya were initiated just prior to his final ALBA work, which many still consider completely illegal anyway. Given that we do not want anything to do with ALBA or Chavez, this is a strong win for us. More to celebrate! We do not care if Chavez oil or credit arrives or not. Only someone who doesn’t know Honduras would think that some big loss. The artificially high sales price for gas and associated tax monies were being siphoned off by the Zelaya administration anyway, as was the credit monies. Since we pay world+ prices for gasoline at the pump, we will simply import at world prices and live with the consequences. Who knows maybe the cost of petrol will go down not up because of this.

Morales is confused as to what a dictator is. The current president has the full support of the Congress and people, whereas Zelaya had neither. The wanna-be dictator is gone via the will of the people and nothing is more democratic than that. If Morales had watched Honduran TV news or read newspapers he would know that the last two years has been a never-ending series or crises, embarrassments and waiting games – waiting for Zelaya to have a heart attack, maybe fall of his horse and hit his head on a rock, retirement in Cuba, almost anything. The national joke for 2+ years is Zelaya himself. No president in the history of the country has had lower approval marks and so much massive protest against him and his policies. He isn’t gone because he is a joke, he is gone because of what he did.

The strikers and protesters who suffered injuries were not holding vigils that is for sure. This is an outright lie. You can use cell phones, cameras, videocams, etc. all over the place and everyone does it. When you see injured people in places what you don’t see is what provoke confrontation in the first place. The police are asked to protect protesters from those supporting the new government and at the same time move and often fight with these same people as they vandalize properties and hurls objects at them, etc. Vigils have gone well here, and it is the street attacks that haven’t.

The teacher strike is in the 4th day? These people must all be using free drugs from Bolivia. Most schools have been closed for 2+weeks, school teachers here are demonstrating anti-Zelaya, so what kind of strike is that? If some of them want to strike when no one notices or cares, and foreigners want to report on imaginary strikes no problem with that but the story is even more boring and with less evidence than how Michael Jackson might have died.

The idea that the Congress just “chose” President Micheletti is stupid. Don’t they have any real journalists or researchers? He is Constitutionally required to become President when the President (who now cannot legally be Presidential) and Vice President (who resigned way back to run for President which is Constitutionally illegal and he is now barred too) are out of succession. How hard is that to understand.

Zelaya reduced poverty? They must be idiots. The minimum wage increase created massive unemployment. On top of that a big portion of Hondurans already had jobs that paid more than the minimum and a much bigger portion have jobs that never paid the old minimum and cannot ever pay the new one. Many of Zelaya supporters are poor illiterate people who think he can deliver them the new minimum but they are day labor people immune from the whole salary laws anyway. Zelaya had to do something as food prices went crazy. Former presidents would have done something if the food went like this on their watch. He didn’t need to implement over a night and at 40% which was too much for many places to handle to they vanished and so did the jobs.

The media was not shut down Sunday. This is total nonsense. CNN was on most if not all 24 hours that day, and would it really matter anyway if 15 minutes was lost given that they do not have correspondents here and get information from Honduran newspapers and U.S. Embassy people who are not monitoring anything (Embassy is closed) hiding the rich neighborhoods pretending they are the first front of diplomacy. No Honduran news website/newspaper has been shut down during this process. What you see on CNN about Honduras would not be good enough coverage to go in a school kids newspaper. Why do you think CNN has the big red help questions on the site? “Hey, are you in Honduras, if so why not send us some pictures [and audio cause we are too cheap to send anyone there and can’t speak Spanish anyway!]”.

Cut Millennium funds or not, it doesn’t matter. Hopefully the decision to consider it will coincide with an analysis of the transition from Zelaya, an analysis that actually takes into account the Honduran Supreme Court and the Constitution – something neither the U.S. President or State Department has bothered to do. Obama and his Ambassadors are not interested in Honduras. They are only interested in some “idea” of some version of democracy that miraculously matches that of Castro and Obama. Now seems like a good time to settle that blockade thing since they apparently all agree on everything. Who cares if Millennium funds are suspended as they will be reinstated in less than 200 days following the election, and even if they are not then we will make do as we did before there were any. Obama want to solve it peacefully, he says every day. But, solve means getting what he wants not what Hondurans want. If he wants solve and peace then why blackmail loans, money and aid to the poor? Must be because is you stop sending food that is peaceful, at least to everyone but the poor guy needing the food. Wouldn’t want anything violent like tossing a guy in an airplane while in his pajamas, nothing is more violent than that of course. Maybe more people get hurt from the punishment to Honduras than from the goodbye of Zelaya. But you know for a fact that when they count all the bad stuff and write the book it wont be what they did only what they allege was done by anyone not pro-Zelaya. Funny how the foreigners all want solidarity for foreign leaders when they visit Honduras. If they instead just wanted some solidarity for Honduras they don’t need to do anything and can just come watch.

Speaking of the election, and we have to since no other country seems to have mentioned it and assumes the government that exists for 20 hours one day last week will exist forever. I wonder what happens to all this bullshit the day after the next election? Do they send the money and Ambassadors and good will and memberships all back to us and pretend nothing happened or continue with some “hey you are not a democracy we don’t recognize you” stuff?