Crooked Hillary and the Rape of Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

Crooked Hillary and the Rape of Honduras

The roots of the immigration crisis

by Justin Raimondo, May 18, 2016

Tens of thousands of Central Americans, many of them unaccompanied children and teenagers, have flooded into the US illegally in recent years: they are a growing part of a human tsunami that has hit the southern border and caused what many refer to as a humanitarian crisis, overwhelming the local and federal authorities – and becoming a major political issue.

On the one hand, we have immigration restrictionists like Donald Trump, who say that “we cannot be a country and have no borders,” and who vow to build a Wall – “and make Mexico pay for it.” On the other hand, we have Hillary Clinton, who says we should be “knocking down barriers, not building walls,” and claims that Trump and his supporters are motivated by “bigotry.”

Like most partisan political debates, this one gives off plenty of heat without shedding much light. Because the real question is: why are hundreds of thousands of people suddenly abandoning their homes, their families, and their countries to make the long and dangerous trek through Mexico and into the United States? And where are these people coming from?

Contrary to what the Trumpistas seem to believe, the influx of Mexican illegal immigrants has tapered off. Increasingly, the floodtide consists of Central Americans, who are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. And while the circumstances surrounding the Great Migration have particular causes in each of these countries, in general the causes are the same: a wave of criminality and chaos, which has its origins in decades of misgovernment and repression. Grinding poverty, the rule of a landed oligarchy, and the de facto dominance of brutal militaries – supported by the US – have stunted and deformed these resource-rich countries, forcing their citizens into what is surely one of the largest population transfers in recent history.

More:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/05/17/crooked-hillary-rape-honduras/

[trueblue2007]

1. are YOU Donald Rump??? GOP bully person.

[Fairgo]

5. are you allergic to the truth? DNC bully person

Goose - Gander.

See how that works? Next time try arguing your point with content. This is not discourse.

[tecelote]

11. Strange thing to say considering...

Hillary was the one acting with the skill and confidence of the Donald here.

She mis-managed this (putting it nicely) in big way and a lot of people have been killed and hurt because of it.

Neo-liberals are the new Republicans.

[840high]

13. Truth bothers you?

[liberal N proud]

2. Stop repeating Donald Trump's garbage on DU!

[840high]

14. Tell Hillary to stop

doing garbage.

[trueblue2007]

22. Stop repeating Donald Trump's garbage on DU!

[Judi Lynn]

18. People knew this long, LONG before Trump even considered insulting the country by running. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Hillary Is Being Misleading About Her Role in the Honduras Coup

Hillary Is Being Misleading About Her Role in the Honduras Coup

When Clinton was secretary of state the U.S. helped overthrow Honduras' elected government. Today the country is in chaos.

By Ben Norton / Salon
April 15, 2016

Hillary Clinton may have foreign policy experience, but it is experience comprised of disaster after disaster.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, journalist Juan González asked the presidential candidate about her role in the coup in Honduras. In 2009, the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of President Manuel Zelaya. The populist left-wing leader was woken up in the middle of the night, kidnapped and whisked away from his own country.

The international community immediately condemned the coup. The U.S. response was quite different. The Obama administration, and particularly the State Department under the leadership of Hillary Clinton, defended the coup.

Clinton, a committed hawk and firm believer in U.S. empire, played a uniquely hands-on role in the coup, just as she did in the equally disastrous war in Libya.

Emails released from Clinton’s time as the secretary of state show that some of her top aides urged her to dub the putsch a military coup and to cut off U.S. aid. She refused to do so.

. . .

“It’s not just like there are randomly violent people down there. This is a U.S.-supported regime.”

Today, Clinton is likely aware of how bad this all looks. She went so far as to excise evidence of it from the paperback version of her memoir.

The journalist who posed the questions to Cinton, Juan González, referred to her Honduras policy as “a Latin American crime story.” (This did not stop the Daily News from endorsing Clinton, however — after it grilled her competitor Bernie Sanders.)

More:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/hillary-being-misleading-about-her-role-honduras-coup

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Hard choices: Hillary Clinton admits role in Honduran coup aftermath


Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy


September 29, 2014 6:00AM ET
by Mark Weisbrot -

In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a review of Henry Kissinger’s latest book, “World Order,” to lay out her vision for “sustaining America’s leadership in the world.” In the midst of numerous global crises, she called for return to a foreign policy with purpose, strategy and pragmatism. She also highlighted some of these policy choices in her memoir “Hard Choices” and how they contributed to the challenges that Barack Obama’s administration now faces.

The chapter on Latin America, particularly the section on Honduras, a major source of the child migrants currently pouring into the United States, has gone largely unnoticed. In letters to Clinton and her successor, John Kerry, more than 100 members of Congress have repeatedly warned about the deteriorating security situation in Honduras, especially since the 2009 military coup that ousted the country’s democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. As Honduran scholar Dana Frank points out in Foreign Affairs, the U.S.-backed post-coup government “rewarded coup loyalists with top ministries,” opening the door for further “violence and anarchy.”

The homicide rate in Honduras, already the highest in the world, increased by 50 percent from 2008 to 2011; political repression, the murder of opposition political candidates, peasant organizers and LGBT activists increased and continue to this day. Femicides skyrocketed. The violence and insecurity were exacerbated by a generalized institutional collapse. Drug-related violence has worsened amid allegations of rampant corruption in Honduras’ police and government. While the gangs are responsible for much of the violence, Honduran security forces have engaged in a wave of killings and other human rights crimes with impunity.

Despite this, however, both under Clinton and Kerry, the State Department’s response to the violence and military and police impunity has largely been silence, along with continued U.S. aid to Honduran security forces. In “Hard Choices,” Clinton describes her role in the aftermath of the coup that brought about this dire situation. Her firsthand account is significant both for the confession of an important truth and for a crucial false testimony.

More:
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/hillary-clinton-honduraslatinamericaforeignpolicy.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. "She's Baldly Lying": Dana Frank Responds to Hillary Clinton's Defense of Her Role in Honduras Coup

"She's Baldly Lying": Dana Frank Responds to Hillary Clinton's Defense of Her Role in Honduras Coup

April 13, 2016

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: For more on Honduras, we are joined by—Hillary Clinton and the legacy of the 2009 coup—Dana Frank, is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras.

Professor Frank, it’s great to have you with us. Well, Hillary Clinton said a lot in this five-minute exchange with Juan González. Respond.

DANA FRANK: Well, I just want to say this is like breathtaking that she’d say these things. I think we’re all kind of reeling that she would both defend the coup and defend her own role in supporting its stabilization in the aftermath. I mean, first of all, the fact that she says that they did it legally, that the Honduras judiciary and Congress did this legally, is like, oh, my god, just mind-boggling. The fact that she then is going to say that it was not an unconstitutional coup is incredible, when she actually had a cable, that we have in the WikiLeaks, in which U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens says it was very clearly an illegal and unconstitutional coup. So she knows this from day one. She even admits in her own statement that it was the Honduran military, that she says, well, this was the only thing that was wrong there, that it was the military that took Zelaya out of the country, as opposed to somehow that it was an illegal thing we did—that the Honduran government did, deposing a president.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to that WikiLeaks cable on Honduras. The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, sent a cable to Washington on July 24, 2009, less than a month after the coup. The subject line was "Open and Shut: The Case of the Honduran Coup." The cable asserted, quote, "there is no doubt" that the events of June 28, 2009, "constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup," unquote. The Embassy listed arguments by supporters of the coup to claim its legality, and dismissed each of them, saying, quote, "none ... has any substantive validity under the Honduran constitution." The Embassy went on to say the Honduran military had no legal authority to remove President Zelaya from office or from Honduras. The Embassy also characterized the Honduran military’s actions as an "abduction" and kidnapping that was unconstitutional. Again, this was the U.S. Embassy memo that was sent from Honduras to Washington. Professor Frank?

DANA FRANK: Well, I want to make sure that the listeners understand how chilling it is that the leading presidential—a leading presidential candidate in the United States would say this was not a coup. The second thing is that she’s baldly lying when she says we never called it a coup; we didn’t, because that would mean we have to suspend the aid. Well, first of all, they repeatedly called it a coup. We can see State Department statements for months calling it a coup and confirming, yes, we call it a coup. What she refused to do was to use the phrase "military coup." So, she split hairs, because Section 7008 of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for that year very clearly says that if it’s a coup significantly involving the military, the U.S. has to immediately suspend all aid. So she—they decided to have this interpretation that it was a coup, but not a military coup. So, she, Hillary Clinton—and Obama, for that matter, I want to make clear—in violation of U.S. law, that very clearly said if there’s a coup, they have to cut the military aid and that—all other aid to the country, she violated the law, decided, well, it wasn’t a military coup, when of course it was. It was the military that put him on the plane, which she says in her statement.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the memo is very clear.

DANA FRANK: Well, the Hugo Llorens cable is very clear. But look, even what she said on Saturday, she says, well, the military put him on the plane; that was the only problem here. She’s admitting it was a military-led coup and that so, therefore, she’s in violation of the law—so is Obama—by not immediately suspending the aid. And here she’s saying, "Well, we never called it a coup." I mean, hello, we have so many public statements in which the State Department called it a coup.

More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/13/shes_baldly_lying_dana_frank_responds

[Judi Lynn]

6. Before Her Assassination, Berta Cáceres Singled Out Hillary Clinton for Backing Honduran Coup

Before Her Assassination, Berta Cáceres Singled Out Hillary Clinton for Backing Honduran Coup

March 11, 2016

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is facing a new round of questions about her handling of the 2009 coup in Honduras that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most violent places in the world. Last week, indigenous environmental activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home. In an interview two years ago, Cáceres singled out Clinton for her role supporting the coup. "We’re coming out of a coup that we can’t put behind us. We can’t reverse it," Cáceres said. "It just kept going. And after, there was the issue of the elections. The same Hillary Clinton, in her book, 'Hard Choices,' practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the meddling of North Americans in our country. The return of the president, Mel Zelaya, became a secondary issue. There were going to be elections in Honduras. And here she [Clinton] recognized that they didn’t permit Mel Zelaya’s return to the presidency." We play this rarely seen clip of Cáceres and speak to historian Greg Grandin.


TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about Honduras. I want to go to Hillary Clinton in the 2009 coup in Honduras that ousted the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. In her memoir, Hard Choices, Hillary Clinton wrote about the days following the coup. She wrote, quote, "In the subsequent days I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary [Patricia] Espinosa [in] Mexico. We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections [could] be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot," unquote.

Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most dangerous places in the world. In 2014, the Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres spoke about Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2009 coup. This is the woman who was assassinated last week in La Esperanza, Honduras. But she spoke about Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2009 coup with the Argentine TV program Resumen Latinoamericano.

BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] We’re coming out of a coup that we can’t put behind us. We can’t reverse it. It just kept going. And after, there was the issue of the elections. The same Hillary Clinton, in her book, Hard Choices, practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the meddling of North Americans in our country. The return of the president, Mel Zelaya, became a secondary issue. There were going to be elections in Honduras. And here, she, Clinton, recognized that they didn’t permit Mel Zelaya’s return to the presidency. There were going to be elections. And the international community—officials, the government, the grand majority—accepted this, even though we warned this was going to be very dangerous and that it would permit a barbarity, not only in Honduras but in the rest of the continent. And we’ve been witnesses to this.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres speaking in 2014. She was murdered last week in her home in La Esperanza in Honduras. Last year, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize. She’s a leading environmentalist in the world. Professor Grandin?

GREG GRANDIN: Yeah, and she criticizes Hillary Clinton’s book, Hard Choices, where Clinton was holding up her actions in Honduras as an example of a clear-eyed pragmatism. I mean, that book is effectively a confession. Every other country in the world or in Latin America was demanding the restitution of democracy and the return of Manuel Zelaya. It was Clinton who basically relegated that to a secondary concern and insisted on elections, which had the effect of legitimizing and routinizing the coup regime and creating the nightmare scenario that exists today.

I mean—and it’s also in her emails. The real scandal about the emails isn’t the question about process—you know, she wanted to create an off-the-books communication thing that couldn’t be FOIAed. The real scandal about those emails are the content of the emails. She talks—the process by which she works to delegitimate Zelaya and legitimate the elections, which Cáceres, in that interview, talks about were taking place under extreme militarized conditions, fraudulent, a fig leaf of democracy, are all in the emails.

More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/11/before_her_assassination_berta_caceres_singled

[Judi Lynn]

7. Hillary Clinton’s Response To Honduran Coup Was Scrubbed From Her Paperback Memoirs

Hillary Clinton’s Response To Honduran Coup Was Scrubbed From Her Paperback Memoirs

Critics argue the secretary of state’s efforts paved the way for the violence still plaguing Honduras.

 03/12/2016 08:33 am ET | Updated Mar 14, 2016

Those who want to know what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said about Honduras’ 2009 coup in her autobiography shouldn’t bother with the Clinton’s role in the aftermath of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster has come under greater scrutiny since the March 3 assassination of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres. Critics argue that the U.S. push for new elections in the months after the coup helped legitimize the actions of the Honduran military, destabilize the country and pave the way for the extreme violence that followed. Killings of activists like Cáceres and others have become devastatingly common.

But the account Clinton offered of her response to the coup in her memoir Hard Choices was omitted from last year’s paperback edition.

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In June 2009, Zelaya was overthrown by the Honduran military, ushered out of the presidential palace at gunpoint wearing only his pajamas. Months of protests against the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti followed. While virtually all Latin American governments condemned the coup and called for Zelaya’s restoration, Clinton and the U.S. pushed for elections to bring in a new government — a position she detailed in the hardcover edition of Hard Choices, published in 2014.

Days after the coup, she wrote, she teamed up with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa to come up with a response.

“We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot and give the Honduran people a chance to choose their own future,” Clinton wrote.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-honduras-coup-memoirs_us_56e34161e4b0b25c91820a08

[MisterP]

8. oh, it's not because she was trying to cover anything up

admitting to blocking restoration of Honduras's President was simply not important enough to make the cut compared to dicking Cuba around in the OAS or noticing that Rousseff and Bachelet were female

she still said the coup was okay http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/13/3768430/clinton-honduras-coup/

[Judi Lynn]

15. Great comment from Freeston in your post:

Freeston, who has worked for Al Jazeera and the BBC and has made two documentaries about Honduras, says the harm caused by the coup continues to this day. “A word that people use in the streets of Honduras is golpismo, which translates roughly to coup-ism,” he said. “Basically it means that the coup is not just something that happened on June 28th, 2009. It’s a long project, and it’s a way of thinking, that the ends justify the means. It’s the government saying, ‘We can do whatever we want to get what we want.'”

I was sickened when, after former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner lost her husband, Néstor Kirchner, Hillary started poking public comments at Cristina, questioning her mental soundness, acting as if she believed she was mentally incompetent and unable to honor the requirements of the job.

It seemed sadistic, attacking the women when she found herself alone, without her partner of many years, to start tormenting her with implications she was not up to the job for which she had been elected.

It seemed so mean-spirited, and dirty.

She's pure right-wing when it comes to foreign policy, it appears. Hates, hates, HATES leftists.

[MisterP]

21. proof-proof!

There was talk of how they might remove the president from office, how he could be arrested, on whose authority they could do that

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html

[Judi Lynn]

23. The article was surprising, coming from the NY Times, as it included more facts than you'd expect.

Never heard Hillary felt rancor because Mel asked her to meet his extended family. Why should that be such a burden to a Secretary of State? Very perplexing she was trying to make US affairs of state a personal realm for herself.

It was refreshing to see the two writers on this story allow more than customary truth into their product. That's not usually the case any more.

Surprised to see this:

The United States has a history of backing rival political factions and instigating coups in the region

Some regular editor must have been sick the day this story made it through to publication.

Thanks for sharing the chance to read this.

[polly7]

9. Great article, and excellent info in this thread. TY Judi Lynn nt.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Thanks, polly7. n/t

[felix_numinous]

10. K&R Yes speaking the truth makes us all the bullies.

from the link above:

She defends her actions to this day, but the reality is that Honduras descended into chaos and criminality. The drug cartels – who have strong links to the military and the coup leaders (the son of the ex-president and coup leader Porfirio Lobo recently pled guilty to drug trafficking) – instituted a reign of terror, motivating tens of thousands to flee the country. They wound up in the US, where they are welcomed by a woman who shares a large part of the blame for their predicament.

Create a problem – and then pose as the great humanitarian with a solution. That’s the Clinton method, in all its hypocritical sleaziness. Maybe we should send the tens of thousands of Hondurans victimized by her ruthlessly cynical policy straight to Chappaqua, where they can stand outside the gates of her palatial estate chanting “Crooked Hillary!”

[Judi Lynn]

17. Like bombing their homeland, then strafing those who try to escape. n/t

[felix_numinous]

19. We cannot reward a presidency

to someone with this background.

Thanks for all your posts Judi Lynn

[Judi Lynn]

20. She needs to stop working for fascists. They've done more than enough damage.

Thanks for looking through them when you have time, felix-numinous.

[EndElectoral]

12. Pretty tough for even the most ardent HRC supporter to defend her actions in Honduras.