Washington and the Coup in Honduras:
Here is the Evidence
by Eva Golinger
www.chavezcode.com/, July 15,
2009
* The Department of State had prior knowledge
of the coup.
* The Department of State and the US Congress
funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that
participated in the coup.
* The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded,
funded and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the
coup and that continue to repress the people of Honduras by force.
* The US military presence in Honduras,
that occupies the Soto Cano (Palmerola) military base, authorized
the coup d'etat through its tacit complicity and refusal to withdraw
its support of the Honduran military involved in the coup.
* The US Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Hugo
Llorens, coordinated the removal from power of President Manuel
Zelaya, together with Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon
y John Negroponte, who presently works as an advisor to Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton.
* From the first day the coup occurred,
Washington has referred to "both parties" involved and
the necessity for "dialogue" to restore constitutional
order, legitimizing the coup leaders by regarding them as equal
players instead of criminal violators of human rights and democratic
principles.
* The Department of State has refused
to legally classify the events in Honduras as a "coup d'etat",
nor has it suspended or frozen its economic aid or commerce to
Honduras, and has taken no measures to effectively pressure the
de facto regime.
* Washington manipulated the Organization
of American States (OAS) in order to buy time, therefore allowing
the coup regime to consolidate and weaken the possibility of President
Zelaya's immediate return to power, as part of a strategy still
in place that simply seeks to legitimate the de facto regime and
wear down the Honduran people that still resist the coup.
* Secretary of State Clinton and her spokesmen
stopped speaking of President Zelaya's return to power after they
designated Costa Rican president Oscar Arias as the "mediator"
between the coup regime and the constitutional government; and
now the State Department refers to the dictator that illegally
took power during the coup, Roberto Micheletti, as the "interim
caretaker president".
* The strategy of "negotiating"
with the coup regime was imposed by the Obama administration as
a way of discrediting President Zelaya - blaming him for provoking
the coup - and legitimizing the coup leaders.
* Members of the US Congress - democrats
and republicans - organized a visit of representatives from the
coup regime in Honduras to Washington, receiving them with honors
in different arenas in the US capital.
* Despite the fact that originally it
was Republican Senator John McCain who coordinated the visit of
the coup regime representatives to Washington through a lobby
firm connected to his office, The Cormac Group, now, the illegal
regime is being representated by top notch lobbyist and Clinton
attorney Lanny Davis, who is using his pull and influence in Washington
to achieve overall acceptance - cross party lines - of the coup
regime in Honduras.
* Otto Reich and a Venezuelan named Robert
Carmona-Borjas, known for his role as attorney for the dictator
Pedro Carmona during the April 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela,
aided in preparing the groundwork for the coup against President
Zelaya in Honduras.
* The team designated from Washigton to
design and help prepare the coup in Honduras also included a group
of US ambassadors recently named in Central America, experts in
destabilizing efforts against the Cuban revolution, and Adolfo
Franco, ex administrator for USAID's Cuba "transition to
democracy" program.
No one doubts that the fingerprints of
Washington are all over the coup d'etat against President Manuel
Zelaya that began last June 28th. Many analysts, writers, activists
and even presidents, have denounced this role. Nevertheless, the
majority coincide in excusing the Obama Administration from any
responsibility in the Honduran coup, blaming instead the lingering
remains of the Bush-Cheney era and the war hawks that still pace
the halls of the White House. The evidence demonstrates that while
it is certain that the usual suspects who perpetrate coups and
destabilization activities in Latin America are involved, ample
proof exists confirming the direct role of the new administration
in Washington in the Honduran coup.
The Department of State
The new form of diplomacy of the United
States, known as "smart power", has played a principal
role before, during and after the coup in Honduras. During a press
briefing on July 1, spokesmen for the Department of State admitted
to having prior knowledge of the coup in Honduras, clarifying
that US diplomats had been meeting with the groups and actors
planning the coup to encourage a different "solution"
to their discontent with President Zelaya. The State Department
also confirmed that two high level representatives from the Department,
which included Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Thomas Shannon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Craig Kelley, were in Honduras the week prior to the coup and
maintained meetings with the civilian and military groups that
later participated in the illegal overthrow of a democratically
elected president. They state their mission was to "urge
against" the coup, but evidently such verbal pressure was
insufficient to discourage the actors involved in the coup, particularly
considering the actions manifested by Washington contradicted
those harsh words.
On the day of the coup, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton published a statement regarding the situation
in Honduras. Despite the fact that governments around the world
were quickly condemning the actions as a coup d'etat, Clinton's
statement did not recognize the events in Honduras as a "coup
d'etat" and also did not call for the return of President
Zelaya to power. Curiously, Clinton's statements from day one
have referred to "all parties" of situation, legitimizing
the coup leaders and somehow placing blame - publicly - on President
Mel Zelaya for provoking his own overthrow: "The action taken
against Honduran President Mel Zelaya violates the precepts of
the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned
by all. We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional
order and the rule of law, to reaffirm their democratic vocation,
and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully
and through dialogue. Honduras must embrace the very principles
of democracy we reaffirmed at the OAS meeting it hosted less than
one month ago."
And ever since, despite different references
to a "coup" having occurred in Honduras, the Department
of State has refused to legally classify what took place as a
coup d'etat. By doing so, the US government would be obligated
to suspend economic, diplomatic and military aid to Honduras,
which apparently they are unwilling to do, since such a measure
would substantially affect US interests in the Central American
nation and the region. On July 1, the spokesmen for the State
Department explained their wavering on the coup question: "In
regard to the coup itself, I think it would just - it would be
best to say that this was a coordinated effort between the military
and some civilian political actors. Obviously, the military was
the entity that conducted the forcible removal of the president
and has acted as the securer of public order during this process.
But for the coup to become more than an insurrection or a rebellion,
you have to have an effort to transfer power. And in that regard,
the congress - the congress's decision to swear in its president,
Micheletti, as the president of Honduras indicates that the congress
and key members of that congress played an important role in this
coup."
This position of ambiguity, that condemns
the events in Honduras as a violation of constitutional order
but doesn't go as far as classifying the situation as a coup d'etat
and also doesn't call for the reinstatement of President Zelaya
to the presidency, was ratified again after the meeting held between
Secretary of State Clinton and President Zelaya on July 7. Clinton
made the following statement, "I just finished a productive
meeting with President Zelaya. We discussed the events of the
past nine days and the road ahead. I reiterated to him that the
United States supports the restoration of the democratic constitutional
order in Honduras. We continue to support regional efforts through
the OAS to bring about a peaceful resolution that is consistent
with the terms of the Inter-American Democratic CharterWe call
upon all parties to refrain from acts of violence and to seek
a peaceful, constitutional, and lasting solution to the serious
divisions in Honduras through dialogue. To that end, we have been
working with a number of our partners in the hemisphere to create
a negotiation, a dialogue that could lead to a peaceful resolution
of this situation."
Now it was clear, after this meeting,
that Washington would no longer consider Zelaya's return to the
presidency as a necessary solution but rather would lobby for
a "negotiation" with the coup regime, that in the end,
favors US interests. Sources that were present at the Organization
of American States (OAS) meetings that took place after the coup
affirm that the presence of a high-level US delegation intensified
the pressure against other States to urge for a "negotiated"
solution that didn't necessarily imply the return to power of
President Zelaya.
This method of circumventing the main
issue, manipulating the outcome and attempting to appear as though
one position has been assumed when in reality, actions demonstrate
the contrary, forms part of the new Obama doctrine of "smart
power", which purports to achieve imperialist objectives
without demonizing the government. "Smart Power" es
"the capacity to combine 'hard power' with 'soft power' to
achieve a victorious strategy. 'Smart Power' strategically uses
diplomacy, persuasion, capacity building, military power and economic
and political influence, in an effective way with a political
and social legitimacy." Essentially, it's a mix of military
force with all forms of diplomacy, with an emphasis in the use
of "democracy promotion" as a principal tactic to strongy
influence the destiny of societies, instead of a military invasion.
[Note: Beware that "smart power" places an emphasis
on the use of agencies like USAID and National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) to do the 'dirty work' of silently penetrating and infiltrating
civil society organizations in order to promote a US agenda. This
explains Obama's call for an additional $320 million in "democracy
promotion" funds for the 2010 budget just for use in Latin
America. This is substantially a higher sum than the quantity
requested and used in Latin America for "democracy promotion"
by the Bush administration in its 8 years of government combined.]
The Ambassador
Journalist Jean-Guy Allard has revealed
the origens of the current US Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens
. Per Allard, Hugo Llorens, a Cuban national from birth who arrived
in the United States as part of Operation Peter Pan, is "a
specialist in terrorismIn 2002, George W. Bush's White House strategically
placed the astute Llorens as Director of Andean Affairs at the
National Security Council in Washington, D.C., which converted
him into the principle advisor to the President on Venezuela.
The coup d'etat in 2002 against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
occured during Llorens' tenure, who was working together with
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto
Reich, and the very controversial Elliot Abrams. In July 2008,
Llorens was named Ambassador to Honduras."
On June 4, 2009, just weeks before the
coup d'etat against President Zelaya, Ambassador Llorens declared
to the Honduran press that "...One can't violate the Constitution
in order to create another Constitution, because if one doesn't
respect the Constitution, then we all live under the law of the
jungle." Those declarations were made in reference to the
national opinion survey on the possibility of convening a constitutional
convention during 2010, that would have taken place on June 28th
if the coup d'etat against President Zelaya hadn't occured. The
commentaries made by Llorens evidence not only his position against
the survey, but also his interference in the internal affairs
of Honduras.
But Llorens wasn't alone in the region.
After his nomination as US Ambassador in Honduras - position that
he was assigned to due to the urgent necessity to neutralize the
growing presence of leftist governments in the region and impede
the regional potency of ALBA - several other US ambassadors were
also named in neighboring nations, all experts in destabilizing
the Cuban revolution and executing psychological warfare.
The diplomat Robert Blau arrived first
to the US Embassy in El Salvador, on July 2, 2008, named as second
in command. In January 2009, Blau became the Charge d'Affairs
at the Embassy. Before arriving to El Salvador, Blau was Subdirector
of Cuban Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, after
working for two years at the US Interests Section in Havana, Cuba,
as a Political Counselor. His work with Cuban dissidents was so
successful that Blau was honored with the Department of State
James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence. Llorens and Blau were
old friends, after working together as part of Otto Reich's team
in the State Department.
Soon after, Stephen McFarland was named
as US Ambassador in Guatemala, on August 5, 2008. McFarland, a
graduate of the National War College in the US, similar to Hugo
Llorens and Robert Blau, and also a former member of Combat Team
Number 2 of the US Marines in Iraq, was the second in command
at the US Embassy in Venezuela during William Brownfield's tenure.
Brownfield is known for achieving a substantial increase in State
Department funding and strategic support for the Venezuelan opposition.
After Venezuela, McFarland was sent to the US Embassy in Paraguay
to oversee the construction of the large US military base in that
country that borders Bolivia. McFarland was also Director of Cuban
Affairs at the State Department and his resumé claims he
is an expert in "democratic transitions, human rights and
security matters."
Ambassador Robert Callahan arrived to
Managua, Nicaragua, also at the beginning of August. Callahan
has worked at the US embassies in La Paz, Bolivia, and San José,
Costa Rica, and was a distinguished professor at the National
War College. In 2004, he was sent to Iraq as press attaché
at the US Embassy in Baghdad. Upon his return, he established
the press and propaganda office at the newly created Directorate
of National Intelligence (DNI) in Washington, which today is the
most powerful entity in the US intelligence community.
Together, these ambassadors - experts
in coup d'etats, destabilization and propaganda - prepared the
terrain for the coup against President Zelaya in Honduras.
Funding the coup leaders
Just one month before the coup against
President Zelaya occured, a coalition of different organizations,
business associations, political parties, high level members of
the Catholic Church and private media outlets, was formed in opposition
to Zelaya's policies. The coalition was called the "Democratic
Civil Union of Honduras". It's only objective was to oust
President Zelaya from power in order to impede the future possibility
of a constitutional convention to reform the constitution, which
would allow the people a voice and a role in their political process.
The "Democratic Civil Union of Honduras"
is composed of organizations including the National Anticorruption
Council, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduran Council of Private
Enterprise (COHEP), Council of University Deans, Worker's Federation
of Honduras (CTH), National Convergence Forum, National Federation
of Commerce and Industry of Honduras (FEDECAMARA), Association
of Communication Media (AMC), the Group Peace & Democracy
and the student group Generation for Change.
The majority of these organizations have
been the beneficiaries of the more than $50 million annually disbursed
by USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for "democracy
promotion" in Honduras. In fact, a USAID report regarding
its funding and work with COHEP, described how the "low profile
maintained by USAID in this project helped ensure the credibility
of COHEP as a Honduran organization and not an arm of USAID."
Which basically means that COHEP is, actually, an arm of USAID.
The spokespeople for the Democratic Civil
Union of Honduras representing, according to them, "civil
society", declared to the Honduran press on June 23rd - five
days before the coup took place against President Zelaya - that
they "trust the armed forces will comply with their responsibility
to defend the Constitution, the Law, peace and democracy."
When the coup took place on June 28th, they were the first to
immediately claim that a coup had not occured, but rather "democracy
had been saved" from the hands of President Zelaya, whose
crime was to attempt to give voice and visibility to the people.
Representing the biased middle and upperclasses, the Democratic
Civil Union has qualified Zelaya's supporters as "hoards".
The International Republican Institute
(IRI), entity that receives funding from the National Endowment
for Democracy (NED), received more than $1.2 million in 2009 to
work with political groups in Honduras. IRI's work has been dedicated
to supporting "think tanks" and "pressure groups"
to influence political parties and "support initiatives to
implement political positions during the campaigns in 2009."
This is a clear example of intervention in the internal politics
of Honduras and evidence of NED and IRI funding to those groups
involved in the coup.
The Washington Lobby
Republican Senator John McCain, ex US
presidential, helped coordinate the visit of a coup regime delegation
to Washington last week. McCain is well known for his opposition
to governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries in the
region considered "anti-imperialist". McCain also maintains
very close ties to the Cuban exile community in Miami. McCain
is also Chairman of the Board of the International Republican
Institute (IRI) that has funded the coup participants in Honduras.
McCain offered the services of a lobby firm in Washington, closely
tied to him, the Cormac Group, that organized a press conference
for the coup regime delegation at the National Press Club on June
7th. McCain also helped set up several meetings in Congress with
the traditional Cuban-American representatives and those general
"Chávez-haters", such as Connie Mack, Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and Mel Martinez.
But beyond the Republican connection to
the Honduran coup regime, there is a even more damning link to
the current Democrat administration in Washington. Lawyer Lanny
Davis was hired by the Business Council of Latin America (CEAL)
to lobby in favor of the coup regime and convince the powers in
Washington to accept and recognize the de facto government in
Honduras. Lanny Davis was special counsel to ex President Bill
Clinton from 1996-1998 and he is a close friend and advisor to
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Davis is organizing a diplomatic
offensive and public relations blitz in favor of the coup regime,
including the strategic placement of advertisements in important
US media that seek to legitimize the de facto Honduran government,
and he is organizing meetings and hearings with members of Congress,
the State Department and the White House. CEAL represents the
conservative business community in Latin America, including those
that have promoted and participated in previous attempts to oust
democratic governments via coup d'etats and/or other forms of
sabotage. For example, the Venezuelan representative of CEAL is
Marcel Granier, president of RCTV, the television station that
heavily participated in the 2002 coup against President Chávez
and that consistently has violated Venezuelan law in order to
promote its political agenda.
As part of this offensive, Lanny Davis
arranged a special hearing before the House Foreign Relations
Committee, attended by high level members of Congress and overseen
by Democrat Elliot Engel (congressman from New York). Testimonies
were given at the hearing by representatives of the coup regime
from Honduras and others who have supported the coup - directly
and indirectly - such as Michael Shifter from the InterAmerican
Dialogue, Guillermo Pérez-Cadalso, ex Honduran Foreign
Minister and Supreme Court Judge, and the infamous Otto Reich,
a Cuban-American well-known for his role in the majority of destabilization
activities against leftist and progressive governments in Latin
America throughout the eighties. Reich, who was named Special
Advisor on Latin America to President George W. Bush, also played
a key role in the 2002 coup against President Chávez. As
a result of this hearing, the US Congress is currently trying
to pass a resolution that recognizes the coup regime in Honduras
as a legitimate government.
Another consequence of Lanny Davis' lobbying
efforts was the meeting arranged in the Council of the Americas
Washington office on June 9th. This event included the participation
of Jim Swigert, Director of Programs in Latin America and the
Caribbean for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), entity
that receives its funding from NED & USAID, Cris Arcos, former
US Ambassador to Honduras, and Adolfo Franco, ex USAID Administrator
for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the director of the "transition
to democracy" program for Cuba. These three characters are
working as advisors to the Obama administration on the Honduran
crisis. Franco, who was previously advisor on foreign policy to
John McCain during his presidential campaign in 2008, has been
accused of corruption for his mismanagement of USAID funds destined
for the Cuba "democracy" program. Franco diverted a
large quantity of these funds, totaling over $40 million, to groups
such as the Committee for a Free Cuba and the Institute for Cuban
Studies in Miami, without adhering to a transparent process of
funds disbursement.
Negroponte and Reich, again
Many analysts and specialists on Latin
American have speculated on the role of former Ambassador to Honduras
John Negroponte, who directed the paramilitary forces and death
squads known as the "Contra" against leftist movements
in Central America during the 1980s. Negroponte held various high
level positions during the Bush administration, including US Ambassador
to Iraq, US Ambassador to the United Nations, National Director
of Intelligence and lastly, Subsecretary of State, second only
to Condoleezza Rice. After leaving the Department of State in
January 2009, Negroponte entered the private sector, as is custom
amongst former top government officials. He was offered a job
as Vicepresident at the most influential and powerful consulting
firm in Washington, McLarty Associates. Negroponte accepted the
job. McLarty Associates was founded by Thomas "Mack"
McLarty, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and
also Clinton's Special Envoy to Latin America. Since the end of
the Clinton administration, McLarty has managed the most powerful
strategic consulting firm in Washington, which until just last
year, was called Kissinger-McLarty Associates due to the merging
of Thomas McLarty and Henry Kissinger. This partnership clearly
evidenced the bi-partisan unions that truly craft the most important
policies in Washington.
In his new role, John Negroponte presently
works as Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Remember,
the current US Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, has worked
closely under Negroponte's domain during the majority of his career.
So it would not be a far jump to consider that John Negroponte,
expert in crushing leftist movements in Central America, has played
a role in the current coup against President Zelaya in Honduras.
Otto Reich has also been investing his
energy during the last couple of years in a campaign against President
Zelaya. The Honduran president actually threatened to sue Reich
for defamation in April 2009, after Reich accused President Zelaya
of stealing $100 million from the state-owned telecommunications
company, Hondutel. These accustations were never backed by evidence,
and the truth was revealed soon after that explained Reich's interest
in Hondutel. Through his consulting and lobbying firm, Otto Reich
Associates, the Cuban-American was representing a multinational
corporation that was pushing for the privatization of Hondutel,
a move that Zelaya opposed. With President Zelaya out of the picture
now, Reich is able to pursue the multi-million dollar deal.
Reich also co-founded an organization
in Washington named Arcadia Foundation together with a Venezuelan,
Robert Carmona-Borjas, a lawyer specialized in military law who
is linked to the April 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela, per his
own resumé. Robert Carmona-Borjas was in the Miraflores
presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, together with the dictator
Pedro Carmona, on the days of the coup, from April 11-12, 2002,
and escaped, together with Carmona, when the palace was retaken
by the presidential guard and constitutional order was restored.
He later fled to the United States after he was brought up on
charges for his role in the coup d'etat in Venezuela, and became
a university professor at George Washington University in Washington,
D.C. (nice to see the warm welcome coup leaders and violators
of democracy receive in the United States). Since last year, Reich
and Carmona-Borjas have been conducting a campaign against President
Zelaya, accusing him of corruption and limiting private property
rights. Through the Arcadia Foundation, they created a series
of video clips that have been shown in different media, attempted
to portray Zelaya as a corrupt president who violates the basic
rights of the Honduran people.
Carmona-Borjas has traveled frequently
to Honduras during the last few months, and even held public meetings
where the coup against Zelaya was discussed openly. At one encounter
where Carmona-Borjas was present, the Honduran Public Defender,
Ramón Custodia, who was involved in the coup d'etat, declared
to the press that "Coups are a possibility and can occur
in any political environment." After the coup took place,
Robert Carmona-Borjas appeared at a rally in support of the de
facto regime, on July 3rd, and received the honors and applause
from the coup leaders who declared him "an important actor"
that "helped make possible" the removal from power of
President Zelaya and the installment of the dictator Roberto Micheletti
as de facto president.
Military Power
The United States maintains a large military
presence in Honduras in the Soto Cano (Palmerola) base, located
about 50 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa, that has been actively
operating since 1981, when it was heavily occupied by the Reagan
Administration and used for its operations in Central America.
During the eighties, Soto Cano was used
by Colonel Oliver North as a base of operations of the "Contra",
the paramilitary forces trained, armed and funded by the CIA,
and charged with executing warfare against all leftist movements
in Central America, with particular focus on the neighboring Sandinista
government in Nicaragua. From Soto Cano, the "Contra"
launched terrorist attacks, psychological warfare (overseen by
Otto Reich's Office for Public Diplomacy), death squads and special
covert missions that resulted in the assassination of tens of
thousands of farmers and civilians, thousands of disappeared,
tortured, wounded and terrorized all throughout the region.
John Negroponte, US Ambassador at the
time in Honduras, together with Oliver North and Otto Reich, directed
and oversaw these dirty operations. They later became involved
in the Iran-Contra scandal once the US Congress cut the funding
for the paramilitary groups and death squads used by the Reagan
Administration to neutralize the leftist movements in the region,
and the Negroponte-North-Reich team sold arms to Iran to continue
funding their covert operations.
The Soto Cano base houses the US Joint
Task Force-Bravo military group, composed of members from the
Army, Air Force, joint security forces and the First Batallion
Regiment 228 of the US Air Force. The current total presence of
US forces on the base numbers approximately 600, and includes
18 combat planes, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and CH-47 Chinook
helicopters, used for special warfare operations. The Honduran
Aviation Academy is also located on the Soto Cano Base. More than
650 Honduran and US citizens also live inside the base installations.
The Honduran Constitution does not permit
legally the presence of foreign military in the country. A "handshake"
agreement was made between Washington and Honduras authorizing
the "semi-permanent" important and strategic presence
of hundreds - at times thousands - of US military personnel on
the base. The agreement was made in 1954, in exchange for the
multi-million dollar aid the US provides to the Honduran armed
forces, which ranges from training programs, arms and military
equipment and joint exercises and operations that take place on
the ground in Honduras. The base was first employed by the US
military and CIA to launch the coup d'etat against Jacobo Arbenz
in Guatemala in 1954.
Each year, Washington authorizes hundreds
of millions of dollars in military and economic aid to Honduras,
which is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,
after Haiti and Nicaragua. This "exchange" securing
the US military presence in the Central American nation can be
terminated at any time by the Honduran government, without much
notice.
On May 31, 2008, President Manuel Zelaya
announced that Soto Cano (Palmerola) would be converted into an
international civilian airport. The construction of the airport
terminal would be financed with a fund from the Bolivarian Alliance
of the Americas (ALBA - of which Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominique,
Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vicents, Antigua & Barbados and Venezuela
are members). This obviously was a huge threat to the future US
military presence in Honduras.
The two generals that have participated
in key roles in the coup against President Zelaya are both graduates
of the US School of the Americas, famous for training dictators,
torturers and repressors in Latin America, and they maintain very
close ties with the US military forces based in Honduras. The
Commander of the Honduran Air Force, General Luis Javier Prince
Suazo, studied in the famous School of the Americas in 1996. The
Head of the Honduran High Military Command, General Romeo Vásquez,
who was fired by President Zelaya on June 24, 2009, for disobeying
the president's orders, and later appeared as the principal actor
in the military coup just days later, is also a graduate of the
School of the Americas. These two high level military officers
also maintain close contact with the Pentagon and the Southern
Command.
The US Ambassador in Honduras through
September 2008, when Hugo Llorens was appointed to the position,
Charles Ford, was transferred from Honduras to the Southern Command
in Florida and charged with providing "strategic advising"
to the Pentagon about Latin America, a position he holds today.
The Honduran military are funded, trained,
schooled and commanded by the US military. They have been indoctrinated
with the anti-leftist, anti-socialist, pro-empire mentality since
the beginning of the Cold War. The Generals and high level officers
involved in the coup in Honduras have publicly stated that they
were "obligated" to remove President Zelaya from power
because of the "threat" he posed with his "leftist"
ideology and alignment to socialist nations in the region such
as Venezuela and Cuba. Per one Honduran colonel, "'We fought
the subversive movements here and we were the only country that
did not have a fratricidal war like the othersIt would be difficult
for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist
government. That's impossible. I personally would have retired,
because my thinking, my principles, would not have allowed me
to participate in that.''.
All of the above evidence - and certainly
more to come in the future - proves the undeniable role of Washington
in the coup d'etat against President Zelaya in Honduras.
Central
America page
Coup d'etat page
Home Page