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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue May 22, 2012, 02:44 PM May 2012

Honduras: Which Side Is the US On? {'drug war"}

http://www.thenation.com/article/167994/honduras-which-side-us


Soldiers in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Reuters/Edgard Garrido

In some ways, it was just one more bloody episode in a blood-soaked country. In the early hours of the morning on May 11, a group of indigenous people traveling by canoe on a river in the northeast Mosquitia region of Honduras came under helicopter fire. When the shooting was over, at least four persons lay dead, including, by some accounts, two pregnant women. In Honduras, such grisly violence is no longer out of the ordinary. But what this incident threw into stark relief was the powerful role the United States is playing in a Honduran war.


US officials maintain that the Drug Enforcement Administration commandos on board the helicopters did not fire their weapons that morning; Honduran policemen pulled the triggers. But no one disputes that US forces were heavily involved in the raid, and that the helicopters were owned by the US State Department.

The United States has, in fact, been quietly escalating its military presence in Honduras, pouring police and military funding into the regime of President Porfirio Lobo in the name of fighting drugs. The DEA is using counterinsurgency methods developed in Iraq against drug traffickers in Honduras, deploying squads of commandos with US military Special Forces backgrounds to work closely with the Honduran police and military. The US ambassador to Honduras, Lisa Kubiske, recently said, “We have an opportunity now, because the military is no longer at war in Iraq. Using the military funding that won’t be spent, we should be able to have resources to be able to work here.”

Missing from the official story—never mentioned by US officials, and left out of mainstream news coverage—is that the US government’s ally in this campaign, the Lobo regime, is the illegitimate progeny of the military coup that deposed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at first criticized the coup government, led initially by Roberto Micheletti, but then legitimated it. After almost all the opposition candidates (as well as international observers) boycotted the post-coup election that brought Lobo to power, heads of state throughout the region refused to recognize his presidency; but the United States hailed him for “restoring democracy” and promoting “national reconciliation.” The State Department and Clinton continue to repeat both fictions, as did President Obama when he welcomed Lobo to the White House in October.
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Honduras: Which Side Is the US On? {'drug war"} (Original Post) xchrom May 2012 OP
Are we solving problems or just keeping orpupilofnature57 May 2012 #1
Military, money laundering, counter-insurgency, EFerrari May 2012 #4
The immoral, wrong side and the insane so called "War on Drugs" is nothing but an excuse Uncle Joe May 2012 #2
COUP = RECONCILIATION. WAR = PEACE. kenny blankenship May 2012 #3

EFerrari

(163,986 posts)
4. Military, money laundering, counter-insurgency,
Tue May 22, 2012, 08:21 PM
May 2012

it's a bonanza for everyone except the population of our country or for Hondurans.

Uncle Joe

(58,107 posts)
2. The immoral, wrong side and the insane so called "War on Drugs" is nothing but an excuse
Tue May 22, 2012, 02:54 PM
May 2012

to promote U.S. domination probably at the behest of some plutocrats or mega corporations.

Undermining democracy while enriching and empowering organized crime, U.S. policy in this regard is disgraceful.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.

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