Call 202-647-4000 for Honduras and democracy
Posted by Thomas Nephew on September 23rd, 2009
That’s the number for the State Department. The photo below and the video to the right show why: the Micheletti coup regime in Honduras is lashing out at demonstrators welcoming ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who returned secretly to Honduras yesterday and is now at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.
Nell Lancaster (”A Lovely Promise”) on what to say:
Demand that the U.S. government publicly recognize and condemn the coup regime’s abuses against peaceful political expression, media, and diplomatic integrity, and that stronger actions be taken to sanction the coup participants.
Honduran police on the attack.
Originally uploaded by HablaHonduras; click through
for more up-to-date photos from Honduras.
I’ll add that the Obama administration should have taken those measures months ago. The costs of that inaction are mounting: there are reports of scores of injuries, and even of police surrounding hospitals in efforts to arrest the injured seeking treatment there. Nell’s post is a node for finding some of the best reporting and analysis on Honduras, such as…
Laura Carlsen (”Americas MexicoBlog”):
By showing up without violent confrontations at the Brazilian Embassy before thousands of cheering supporters, Zelaya plays his strongest cards. As most eyes were on the Obama administration—and with good reason given its power in affecting economic and political sanctions—Brazil has been a low-profile but high-impact actor in the drama. Its power as a regional leader carries clout not only with other nations throughout Latin American but also with the United States, which cannot risk strained relations with the South American giant.
Al Giordano (”The Field”), reporting from Honduras:
The military curfew has no practical reason. It will not bring the expulsion, anew, of Zelaya from national territory. It will not hasten his capture by the regime. And it does not make the regime any more legitimate. To the contrary, it demonstrates, again, its repressive, anti-democratic and usurper character. It is a desperate act meant to punish the entire Honduran people for, after 86 days, not “getting with the program” and backing the coup. It is a tantrum by the man-child Micheletti to lash out and insist, “I’m in charge, here,” but it only serves to underscore, again, that he is not in control of the country or its people.
The Honduran civil resistance to the Micheletti coup has been an inspiration and a model for us all. We need to do our part to help them out, even if our government won’t.
For some unbearably mealy-mouthed commentary by State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, click here. But that’s not his fault — it’s his president’s. For more impressive footage, watch this very interesting analysis of the the situation in Honduras (before Zelaya’s return) — with a lead-in that says it all about “democracy” in Honduras: a city councilman dragged off the city’s Independence Day stage by police, for condemning Micheletti.
The piece argues that the coup regime has probably hastened what it was trying to forestall with Zelaya’s exile: fundamental constitutional reform ending the supremacy of a “neoliberal” business oligarchy in the country. In an interview, Honduran filmmaker and coup opponent Oscar Estrada points out how one of the first moves of the coup regime was privatizing water.
“Shock Doctrine” indeed — but maybe this time it’s met its match in Tegucigalpa. The report quotes the National Coalition against the Coup:
“We declare that our struggle begins with the return to power of President Zelaya, followed by the convocation of an inclusive and democratic constitutional assembly to construct a new constitution that will serve as a base for our true independence, both economic and social.”
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UPDATE, 9/23: Adrienne Pine says Tegucigalpa neighborhoods (23 so far) are defying the curfew. Giordano goes farther — they’re throwing the police forces out and barricading:
People have come en masse out of their homes, chased the police out of many of those neighborhoods, and erected barricades to keep them out. They are now organizing to maintain those barricades. The coup regime thus, overnight, has lost any semblance of control of considerable tracts of urban Honduras.
Category: Post. Tags: honduras.
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September 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
What’s liable to happen if you make the phone call is that you’ll be asked to record a message. At least, that’s what happened when I called — the second I said “Honduras”, I was whisked back into the telephone message system.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Thanks very much for this, Thomas. Today the government used the national emergency broadcast system to announce decrees that will permit them to arrest anyone on suspicion of whatever for indefinite periods. I haven’t used the world ‘dictatorship’ much, because most Americans misunderstand that as meaning rule by one authoritarian person — and Micheletti is just the frontman for a whole group of funders, who really pull the strings. But this is now a dictatorship, self-declared by its own actions. The rule of law is dead.
Wrt to calling the State Dept.: Yes, the point is to leave a recorded message — that’s all we can do unless anyone happens to know the direct number of the Honduras desk person.
For those who’d like to write a message, use this contact page. Click on the tab that says ‘Email a question/comment’.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Dang, left out the url. Here’s the State Dept contact page.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the update, Nell. I’d exclaim about the terrible and biased coverage of this story in the mainstream press — NYTimes included — if that didn’t make me sound like an idiot. Zelaya is “erratic” in one story, police are suppressing riots in the next, etc. Facebooked an Al Jazeera item about the latest, which got a little bit of positive commentary there.