Marshall writes: "Her recently released emails show that she sought help
from a pro-coup lobbyist for Honduran business interests to establish
communications with the new military-backed president. She also approved the
continuation of U.S. aid to the illegitimate new regime, blocked demands by
the Organization of American States for Zelaya's return, and accepted
subsequent presidential elections."
Hillary Clinton. (photo: AP)
Clinton Emails Detail Involvement in 2009 Honduran Coup
By Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News
20 August 15
As Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary Clinton helped a right-wing coup in
Honduras remove an elected left-of-center president, setting back the cause
of democracy and enabling corrupt and drug-tainted forces to tighten their
grip on the poverty-stricken country, as Jonathan Marshall explains.
Emelda Marcos will forever be remembered for her hoard of 3,000 pairs of
shoes, an ostentatious symbol of the billions of dollars in spoils she
amassed as First Lady of the Philippines. Now shoes are again emerging as a
symbol of corruption, this time in Honduras, where prosecutors are
investigating allegations that a former first lady improperly purchased, or
never distributed, 42,100 pairs of shoes for the poor, at a cost to the
state of $348,000.
The allegations are just the latest to surface in a wide-ranging corruption
investigation that has reenergized grass-roots politics and triggered a
nationwide protest movement in Central Americas original banana republic.
Every Friday evening for the past three months, thousands of protesters have
marched through the streets of Tegucigalpa and smaller cities, carrying
torches and signs reading The corrupt have ripped apart my country and
Enough is enough.
The protesters, who call themselves the oposición indignada (the outraged
opposition), demand that President Juan Orlando Hernández be held
accountable for fraud and graft, which allegedly bled the national health
service of more than $200 million to enrich senior officials and finance the
2013 election.
This is a really historic time in Central America, said an analyst for the
International Crisis Group. The question is whether this will really turn
into a critical juncture in which society, civil organizations, the private
sector and political parties can . . . come together in making the best out
of this opportunity [to begin] cleaning up our state institutions.
Although President Hernández has promised to prosecute the guilty, he has so
far refused to follow Guatemalas example and appoint an independent
investigative body under United Nations supervision to attack government
corruption. Revelations in Guatemala of customs fraud, political bribery and
money laundering have prompted similar weekly protest marches in that
nations capital and the resignation of the vice president.
The Obama administration has expressed sympathy for anti-corruption
movements in Central America, but has yet to acknowledge its failure to
protect democracy in Honduras against a military coup in 2009, which set the
stage for that countrys current crisis.
Bowing to pressure from conservative Republicans in Congress, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton refused to condemn the ouster of leftist President
Manuel Zelaya in 2009. By her own admission, she began plotting within days
to prevent him from returning to office.
Her recently released emails show that she sought help from a pro-coup
lobbyist for Honduran business interests to establish communications with
the new military-backed president. She also approved the continuation of
U.S. aid to the illegitimate new regime, blocked demands by the Organization
of American States for Zelayas return, and accepted subsequent presidential
elections that were condemned by most international observers as unfair and
marred by violent intimidation.
In 2011, President Obama officially welcomed Hondurass dubious new
president to the White House and praised his strong commitment to
democracy. (His wife is the target of the shoe purchase investigation noted
above.)
A year later, two leading human rights organizations reported that more than
100 political killings had occurred since the coup, accompanied by death
threats against activists, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and
campesinos, as well as attempted killings, torture, sexual violence,
arbitrary arrests and detentions.
The coup represented a disastrous step backward for Honduran society as well
as its politics. University of California historian Dana Frank observed that
A vicious drug culture already existed before the coup, along with gangs
and corrupt officials. But the thoroughgoing criminality of the coup regime
opened the door for it to flourish on an unprecedented scale.
Drug trafficking is now embedded in the state itself . . . all the way up
to the very top of the government . . . A former congressman and police
commissioner in charge of drug investigations declared that one out of every
ten members of Congress is a drug trafficker and that he had evidence
proving major national and political figures were involved in drug
trafficking. He was assassinated on December 7 [2011].
Yet the Obama administration has continued giving tens of millions of
dollars in aid to Honduran police and military in the name of fighting
drugs.
Such crime and corruption have rendered millions of Hondurans destitute and
desperate. Two-thirds of its people now live below the national poverty
level and Hondurass soaring homicide rate leads the world at nearly one per
thousand people each year. These conditions, in turn, fueled a horrifying
surge in child migration to the United States.
Seeking to reform conditions in Honduras, Zelayas wife ran for president in
2013 on a social democratic platform, but the ruling National Party
allegedly stopped her campaign with the help of tens of millions of dollars
embezzled from the Honduran Social Security Institute, the national health
fund.
It is widely assumed that Hernández owes his electoral victory in part to
these stolen funds, said Frank. (President Hernández denied knowing the
source of the ill-gotten funds and said they amounted to a mere $1.5
million. The prosecutor assigned to the case had to flee the country in the
face of death threats.)
Hernández also came under fire for staging the removal of Supreme Court
justices to ram through a law creating autonomous investor zones,
independent of normal governance, and overseen by foreign libertarians such
as Grover Norquist and Ronald Reagans son Michael.
The good news is that the grassroots protests in Honduras are having some
effect on the Hernández government. It accepted an outside mediator,
appointed by the Organization of American States, to bring together rival
parties, along with members of the oposición indignada, to find common
ground on a national program of reform.
On Aug. 14, the mediator heard from 50 civil society organizations which
identified corruption and political impunity as the major challenges facing
the Honduran state and its democratic aspirations. The OAS mediator, who
praised the initial round of dialogue, plans to meet next with
representatives of the countrys political parties.
Talk is cheap, to be sure. But the official involvement of the OAS, along
with increasing interest in Congress in using U.S. aid to support justice in
Honduras, offer hope that the demands of the Honduran people will be heard.
It may be too soon to declare a Central American Spring, but that
traumatized region at least has reason for hope.
________________________________________
Jonathan Marshall is an independent researcher living in San Anselmo,
California. Some of his previous articles for Consortiumnews were Risky
Blowback from Russian Sanctions; Neocons Want Regime Change in Iran; The
Saudis Hurt Feelings; Saudi Arabias Nuclear Bluster; The US Hand in
the Syrian Mess; Hidden Origins of Syrias Civil War; and Escalating the
Anti-Iran Propaganda.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Hillary Clinton. (photo: AP)
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/08/19/the-honduran-coups-ugly-aftermath/http
s://consortiumnews.com/2015/08/19/the-honduran-coups-ugly-aftermath/
Clinton Emails Detail Involvement in 2009 Honduran Coup
By Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News
20 August 15
As Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary Clinton helped a right-wing coup in
Honduras remove an elected left-of-center president, setting back the cause
of democracy and enabling corrupt and drug-tainted forces to tighten their
grip on the poverty-stricken country, as Jonathan Marshall explains.
melda Marcos will forever be remembered for her hoard of 3,000 pairs of
shoes, an ostentatious symbol of the billions of dollars in spoils she
amassed as First Lady of the Philippines. Now shoes are again emerging as a
symbol of corruption, this time in Honduras, where prosecutors are
investigating allegations that a former first lady improperly purchased, or
never distributed, 42,100 pairs of shoes for the poor, at a cost to the
state of $348,000.
The allegations are just the latest to surface in a wide-ranging corruption
investigation that has reenergized grass-roots politics and triggered a
nationwide protest movement in Central Americas original banana republic.
Every Friday evening for the past three months, thousands of protesters have
marched through the streets of Tegucigalpa and smaller cities, carrying
torches and signs reading The corrupt have ripped apart my country and
Enough is enough.
The protesters, who call themselves the oposición indignada (the outraged
opposition), demand that President Juan Orlando Hernández be held
accountable for fraud and graft, which allegedly bled the national health
service of more than $200 million to enrich senior officials and finance the
2013 election.
This is a really historic time in Central America, said an analyst for the
International Crisis Group. The question is whether this will really turn
into a critical juncture in which society, civil organizations, the private
sector and political parties can . . . come together in making the best out
of this opportunity [to begin] cleaning up our state institutions.
Although President Hernández has promised to prosecute the guilty, he has so
far refused to follow Guatemalas example and appoint an independent
investigative body under United Nations supervision to attack government
corruption. Revelations in Guatemala of customs fraud, political bribery and
money laundering have prompted similar weekly protest marches in that
nations capital and the resignation of the vice president.
The Obama administration has expressed sympathy for anti-corruption
movements in Central America, but has yet to acknowledge its failure to
protect democracy in Honduras against a military coup in 2009, which set the
stage for that countrys current crisis.
Bowing to pressure from conservative Republicans in Congress, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton refused to condemn the ouster of leftist President
Manuel Zelaya in 2009. By her own admission, she began plotting within days
to prevent him from returning to office.
Her recently released emails show that she sought help from a pro-coup
lobbyist for Honduran business interests to establish communications with
the new military-backed president. She also approved the continuation of
U.S. aid to the illegitimate new regime, blocked demands by the Organization
of American States for Zelayas return, and accepted subsequent presidential
elections that were condemned by most international observers as unfair and
marred by violent intimidation.
In 2011, President Obama officially welcomed Hondurass dubious new
president to the White House and praised his strong commitment to
democracy. (His wife is the target of the shoe purchase investigation noted
above.)
A year later, two leading human rights organizations reported that more than
100 political killings had occurred since the coup, accompanied by death
threats against activists, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and
campesinos, as well as attempted killings, torture, sexual violence,
arbitrary arrests and detentions.
The coup represented a disastrous step backward for Honduran society as well
as its politics. University of California historian Dana Frank observed that
A vicious drug culture already existed before the coup, along with gangs
and corrupt officials. But the thoroughgoing criminality of the coup regime
opened the door for it to flourish on an unprecedented scale.
Drug trafficking is now embedded in the state itself . . . all the way up
to the very top of the government . . . A former congressman and police
commissioner in charge of drug investigations declared that one out of every
ten members of Congress is a drug trafficker and that he had evidence
proving major national and political figures were involved in drug
trafficking. He was assassinated on December 7 [2011].
Yet the Obama administration has continued giving tens of millions of
dollars in aid to Honduran police and military in the name of fighting
drugs.
Such crime and corruption have rendered millions of Hondurans destitute and
desperate. Two-thirds of its people now live below the national poverty
level and Hondurass soaring homicide rate leads the world at nearly one per
thousand people each year. These conditions, in turn, fueled a horrifying
surge in child migration to the United States.
Seeking to reform conditions in Honduras, Zelayas wife ran for president in
2013 on a social democratic platform, but the ruling National Party
allegedly stopped her campaign with the help of tens of millions of dollars
embezzled from the Honduran Social Security Institute, the national health
fund.
It is widely assumed that Hernández owes his electoral victory in part to
these stolen funds, said Frank. (President Hernández denied knowing the
source of the ill-gotten funds and said they amounted to a mere $1.5
million. The prosecutor assigned to the case had to flee the country in the
face of death threats.)
Hernández also came under fire for staging the removal of Supreme Court
justices to ram through a law creating autonomous investor zones,
independent of normal governance, and overseen by foreign libertarians such
as Grover Norquist and Ronald Reagans son Michael.
The good news is that the grassroots protests in Honduras are having some
effect on the Hernández government. It accepted an outside mediator,
appointed by the Organization of American States, to bring together rival
parties, along with members of the oposición indignada, to find common
ground on a national program of reform.
On Aug. 14, the mediator heard from 50 civil society organizations which
identified corruption and political impunity as the major challenges facing
the Honduran state and its democratic aspirations. The OAS mediator, who
praised the initial round of dialogue, plans to meet next with
representatives of the countrys political parties.
Talk is cheap, to be sure. But the official involvement of the OAS, along
with increasing interest in Congress in using U.S. aid to support justice in
Honduras, offer hope that the demands of the Honduran people will be heard.
It may be too soon to declare a Central American Spring, but that
traumatized region at least has reason for hope.
Jonathan Marshall is an independent researcher living in San Anselmo,
California. Some of his previous articles for Consortiumnews were Risky
Blowback from Russian Sanctions; Neocons Want Regime Change in Iran; The
Saudis Hurt Feelings; Saudi Arabias Nuclear Bluster; The US Hand in
the Syrian Mess; Hidden Origins of Syrias Civil War; and Escalating the
Anti-Iran Propaganda.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
