Honduras' PR Coup

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras' PR Coup
Submitted by Brendan Fischer on December 20, 2010 - 8:03pm

Wikileaks has recently published documents suggesting that PR spin helped determine the final outcome of the June 2009 Honduran coup. At the same time that a July 2009 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras to top government officials confirmed that the Honduran president’s removal was illegal, professional lobbyists and political communicators were beginning a PR blitz, eventually managing to manipulate America into believing the coup was a constitutional act.

On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military deposed Manual Zelaya, their country’s elected president since 2006, taking him at gunpoint from his home and sending him to Costa Rica. The international community quickly condemned the act as a coup, and the Organization of American States (OAS) issued an immediate and unanimous call for Zelaya’s return to office. President Obama stated that “we believe the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the President of Honduras, but he and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stopped short of formally declaring the actions of the military to be a “military coup.”

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In the end, the power of spin helped coup supporters achieve victory. Zelaya was never fully returned to office, and despite protests by most of the international community, the November 2009 elections went forward and the U.S. recognized the right-wing candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa as president. Despite the elections’ questionable legitimacy-- Zelaya supporters boycotted the vote, and the vote took place in what was called a “political environment contaminated by repression, violence, and fear,” with groups such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights deploring human rights violations—American support for the electoral outcome was decisive.

American acquiescence to the coup regime lent implicit support to the de facto government’s violent suppression of political opponents and opposition media. The outcome of the November 2009 vote was greatly influenced by the conduct and statements of American officials in the months leading up to the election. And that conduct and those statements were largely determined by a small group of talented PR practitioners and lobbyists. As the next article in this series will show, Honduras 2009 is not the first time that PR spin helped topple a Latin American regime.

More:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/9806

[Judi Lynn]

1. Media Distortions Legitimize Honduras Regime

Media Distortions Legitimize Honduras Regime
Wednesday 24 November 2010
by: Michael Corcoran, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

Honduras held elections on November 29, 2009, that were deemed illegitimate by most of the international community and resulted in the presidency of Porfirio Lobo, a conservative politician and agricultural landowner. The election occurred just months after the illegal coup overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya and, as a result of a significant boycott, only included candidates who supported the coup.

At the time of the elections, the US mainstream media had an atrocious record of reporting on the coup itself, as well as on the elections that followed, helping to legitimize a startling attack on Honduran democracy. Despite the illegal nature of the coup and numerous accounts of human rights abuses against supporters of Manuel Zelaya - including violence against protesters, mass arrests and crackdowns on press freedom - the US media portrayed the events in a way that painted Zelaya as a villainous follower of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and legitimized those who ousted him, in part by ignoring their many crimes and abuses.

Unfortunately, in the year that has followed these two troubling events, little has changed: the Lobo regime has continued the human rights abuses that have plagued the country for more than a year, while the media has downplayed, distorted or ignored the crimes of his regime. The press also continues to amplify calls for the international acceptance of the new leadership, despite continuing reports of abuse. As a result, the US media remains an active participant in an attack on Honduran democracy that has continued for almost a year and a half.

Ignoring the Documentary Record

Since the June 2009 coup and throughout Lobo's tenure, widespread human rights abuses such as the targeted killings of journalists, the removal of opposition judges, mass arrests, beatings and torture have been thoroughly documented by human rights organizations. Amnesty International's finding indicated the extent and brutality of abuses against opposition forces in the country:

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/media-distortions-legitimize-honduras-regime65395