Politically-motivated murders have been the grisly aftermath of the 2009 constitutional crisis in Honduras. Journalists, both in favor and against former President Manuel Zelaya have been killed in the last few months. Enzo Micheletti, the nephew of former President Roberto Micheletti was murdered as well.

In December an unsuccessful attempt was made on Carol Cabrera, a journalist who spoke against Zelaya, and in favor of Michelleti. Her pregnant daughter, who was in the car with her, died instead. Doctors saved her unborn child.

At the time, President Micheletti attributed the murder attempt to “terrorism” by the “Resistencia”, Zelaya’s supporters. The chief of the General Directorate for Criminal Investigation said, however, that Cabrera and her daughter had been caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival bands of hooligans. The fact that Cabrera was being threatened constantly was ignored, and President Micheletti was forced to publicly apologize for his comment.

Once again Cabrera was attacked a few days ago. As a result fellow journalist Joseph Ochoa was killed. She was calling a radio station at the moment of the attack; her frantic pleas and the many gunshots were broadcast on the air. You may hear a recording of the attack here.

The mainstream media have mostly ignored the event. Leftist websites have reported attacks on journalists in favor of Zelaya, but neglect to mention that both sides are being attacked.

Today Secretary of State Clinton called Honduras a success story, making explicit what some socialist critics have been denouncing since the crisis began. Whatever his leanings at home, Obama’s international policy is not leftist at all.

“The Honduras crisis has been managed to a successful conclusion,” Clinton said.

“It was done without civil war, it was done without violence, and I think that our policy in the vast majority of countries in Latin America is either given high marks or great respect.”

I read some say that Obama misspoke when he called the ouster of Zelaya a “coup” and had to follow through on his words. If so, it would have been much simpler to apologize. But I doubt we’ll see him apologizing anytime soon. Instead, after swaying left and right unpredictably, he managed to offend all sides.

In contrast, the US’s attitude toward Niger almost applauds the real military coup that occurred in that country a few weeks ago. This is appalling, and hypocritical, as I wrote earlier, and La Gringa has blogged recently about as well. In Niger’s case, uranium mining interests are at play.

The razor-thin calculus of silence and speech that characterized the US response to Zelaya’s ouster reveals who Obama was appeasing in Honduras’s case: Chavez and Castro. I think Obama has given up on them, just as Chavez has given up on him. Business as usual returns.

Proceso Digital Image

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has removed General Romeo Vasquez Velazquez from his position as head of the armed forces of Honduras. He will retire and lead a civilian life. This is transparently the result of international pressure for his dismissal for his role in the 2009 constitutional crisis.

This is quite sad. It was not the military, although many refuse to believe this, that removed Manuel Zelaya from office. It was Congress and the Supreme Court. But with people like Guardian reporter Mark Weisbrot constantly and blatantly publishing the opposite, who will left-leaning secretaries of state believe?

Lobo’s Limbo dance continues. How low can he go?

The above footage is from a protest from the “camisetas blancas”, Hondurans in favor of the Constitution. It was held in “Plaza la Libertad” before the presidential palace, the day that OAS president José Miguel Insulza visited Honduras to demand the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president, and before Zelaya’s subreptitious return to Honduras. Insulza snubbed president Micheletti, and instead met only with Zelaya’s supporters.

This was one of several multitudinous protests, none of which got any video coverage from CNN, as far as I know. They got cursory mention in the news websites, if any. Instead, the “mainstream” media presented footage of “red-shirt” (pro-Zelaya) protesters throwing rocks at police and burning tires. But ironically, they ommitted coverage of when they destroyed businesses, homes and restaurants.

Clearly the “mainstream” media is not representing the mainstream of Honduran people, and after reading the latest gallup poll, neither the mainstream of US citizens either. The poll states that 63% of people polled sympathize with the Israelis rather than with the Palestinians, something that should discourage all those who have sought to indoctrinate the public with newscasts dripping with their ideological bias.

The AFP published an article today that troubles me. I’m jaded already with AFP and Reuters imprinting their ideology on the news about Honduras, but there are some facts they let slip that could show what this summit was all about.

Honduras was not invited to the summit. And, that the organizers of the summit should snub Honduras because Honduras is not a member of the OAS is telling. The summit was held to create an alternative to the OAS, a regional “alliance that would exclude the United States and Canada”, AFP reported Mexican President Felipe Calderón as saying. So if it is an alternative to the OAS, why wasn’t Honduras included? Why should it matter if Honduras isn’t a member of the OAS any more?

But even more telling is this: the next summit will be held in Caracas, Venezuela. Smell the sulfur already? The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas is another alliance created by Hugo Chavez to “liberate us from the yoke of the dollar”, and the “imperialist project that oppresses us and leads us to barbarism.” This new “alliance” seems to be going in the same direction.

The AFP reported Raul Castro as “one of the first to laud the new regional bloc as a historic move toward ‘the constitution of a purely Latin American and Caribbean regional organization.’ ” That AFP should only report host Felipe Calderon’s and Castro’s comments show their leanings a little too clearly.

Calderón’s quote seems very anti-US as well. What do you think? I would shudder to see Honduran president Porfirio Lobo go to the Caracas summit next year, almost as if he were going to Berlin during the Third Reich.

Photo by SkyTruth

Thursday, US State Department assistant secretary Philip J. Crowley made the following statement about Niger:

MR. CROWLEY: Right. Very fluid situation and the Embassy there is monitoring it closely. Indications are it could be an attempted coup. There was evidently an attempted assassination of President Tandja. My understanding is that our Embassy staff is safe. We do have Congressman Mark Grayson of Florida who happened to be in the country at the time and he is currently at the Embassy and is also safe.

This is a difficult situation. President Tandja has been trying to extend his mandate in office. Both the United States and ECOWAS have expressed our concerns about that, and obviously that may well have been an act on his behalf that precipitated this act today. Clearly, we do not in any way, shape, or form, defend violence of this nature. But clearly, we think this underscores that Niger needs to move ahead and – with the elections and the formation of a new government.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was removed from power 7 months before his term expired by an order from the Supreme Court and Congress of Honduras. Admittedly, the order was carried out by the military. But, no power of the state was dissolved, and the elections that were already planned for November were carried out as scheduled. Zelaya was against the elections and was trying to push through constitutional reform to “refound Honduras”, presumably as a socialist state in the image of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.

On the other hand in Niger, the military dissolved all the powers of the government. The president of Niger had been successful in reforming the constitution a few months before, and was removed after a 4-hour gun battle.

With Honduras, minutes after Zelaya landed in Costa Rica, President Obama said: “We believe the coup was not legal … I think it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seing military coups as a means of political transition.”

Where is the outrage of the United States! Where is the State Departments decency! Where is their commitment to truth! Or at very least, their consistency! All of these seem to be sold out to uranium mining interests. Niger is has the fifth largest Uranium reserves on Earth.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe today became the first president to visit Honduras since Porfirio Lobo took office. During his visit, Honduras and Colombia signed an accord for cooperation in national security, specifically in dealing with narcotics, drug traffic, and kidnapping. Colombia and Uribe’s success in this area is something we sorely need. This is also a slap in the face for narcoterrorists and the governments who harbor them.

I suspect Uribe wanted to challenge Hugo Chavez subtly, whose friendship with the Colombian guerrilla and willingness to use them as a proxy to weaken the US and its allies has resulted in many Venezuelan aircraft laden with cocaine crossing Honduran airspace.

Uribe praised the willingness of Hondurans to act with independence, in a nod to Micheletti’s government, although neither Lobo nor Uribe mentioned him explicitly.

Pro-Zelaya Activists, Image: Amnesty International

Much as I resent Amnesty International for defending the vandals who defaced and burnt down buildings and set buses and cars alight only to get media attention, I agree with them that President Lobo must begin investigating the police who were responsible for excessive force in repressing them.

I have seen video footage of police breaking down a riot after a football game in July 2009, and using their macanas (batons) ruthlessly in beating up hooligans. I have also seen the photos of wounded people from the clashes between Pro Zelaya protesters and police. My experience with the Honduran justice system before the crisis helps me find human rights violations very plausible.

I do appreciate the fact that they cite 20 human rights violations, not 50, not 100, not more. 20. Mel Zelaya seemed fond of citing hundreds of cases of murder, rape and beatings, and media sympathetic with him would gleefully repeat it without any qualms, nor investigation.

In November 2009 I complained to a reporter, whose article appeared in a prominent Mexican Newspaper. The article headlined Zelaya’s claim of 142 deaths as a result of the Honduran crisis. This was the nonchalant reply:

“Before anything else, I appreciate your email. On the other hand, the format of the piece you mention is that of an interview, which reflects the point of view of the subject of the interview exclusively.”

The politicization of Human Rights organizations is deplorable. I hope Amnesty International will realize that socialist and communist regimes are often the chief offenders against human rights in the world, aside from theocratic ones. Although I concede, capitalist regimes are not far behind.

President Porfirio Lobo Takes Office (Proceso Digital Image)

After a religious service, President Porfirio Lobo took the oath of office in the National stadium, under strict security, in a ceremony attended by the President of Taiwan and dignitaries from various countries, including the US. Deposed president Manuel Zelaya was transported to the airport, and his plane has apparently already landed in El Salvador, his connection to the Dominican Republic.

Much worse than when Obama was inaugurated last year, Lobo has taken the oath of office with enormous challenges. A political battle has dragged the nation to the brink of civil war. The economy is in ruins. Former allies have been alienated, new enemies awakened. The threat of imperialism has reared its hideous head, forcing him to leak political capital even before his term began.

We need to pray for wisdom for Lobo just as much as we did for Micheletti. His job will be almost as difficult. Precisely because he does not have the hatred of the left, and the disdain of the right, he will be tempted to be complacent and waste all the suffering that brought us here. He needs to be bold, honest, and passionate, but instead he comes across as meek, secretive, and cautious.

It would almost be a good thing that the “Resistencia” continue to snap at him, and bite his every move, and seek to discredit him. It would also be a good thing that the press be demanding of him. It would force him to action, and to address the extreme plight of impoverished Hondurans. It would satisfy those who really care for Honduras, not the global march of socialism, nor global corporate power.

The day has finally come, Porfirio Lobo’s inauguration day. Tension is at its peak. Manuel Zelaya has called for protests at the airport where he is expected to board a plane for the Dominican Republic, and then Mexico City. Two students are dead in Venezuela during protests against the shutdown of RCTV and four other cable channels for failing to broadcast a speech from Hugo Chavez.

The video above is from Micheletti’s farewell speech last week.

I’ll be keeping you posted as developments arise.