Honduran Military Assassinates Leftist Presidential Candidate

[bananas]

Source: Narco News

Cesar Ham, presidential candidate and the head of Honduras' only registered leftist political party, the Democratic Unification of Honduras, is dead. He was killed by a squad of soldiers who arrived at his home this morning to arrest him.

The military has rounded up many of Zelaya's allies within the government. Chancellor Patricia Rodas remains kidnapped.

<snip>

Ham, at the time of his assassination, was a member of Congress. He wholeheartedly supported President Zelaya's initiative to form a constitutional convention to write a new Constitution, and he was one of the main organizers of today's thwarted opinion poll that would have gauged public opinion on forming a constitutional convention.

<snip>

This past March the Democratic Unification party chose him as its presidential candidate by a vote of 104-4. The coup plotters had previously announced that the November 2009 elections would go on as planned. Ham's assassination means that the only leftist candidate in the upcoming elections is now dead.

Read more: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/honduran-military-assassinates-leftist-presidential-candidate

[varelse]

1. Not looking too good for democracy in Honduras

:(

[Judi Lynn]

2. Well, we know some of the a-holes didn't do it. They were out trying to build a case against Zelaya

on message boards in the States.

[sharesunited]

3. Do they think Reagan is president or something?

Assassination means the forces of wealth, religion and skull cracking viewed his politics as having popular support and represented a real threat to them.

[Simplyaverage]

4. omg

That's terrible...whatever is going on needs to stop now.

[Ian David]

5. Not a credible source.

Doesn't mean it's WRONG.

But I haven't even seen this on Twitter yet.

[bananas]

11. Narco News is very credible.

and the article contains a link to a Spanish-language news source confirming the story.

[H2O Man]

31. Yes, but

if it's not reported on the Mourning Joe Show, can we be sure? How do we know there really is a country called Honduras? Maybe it's a left-wing trick.

[bananas]

12. Some info on Narco News

They are a credible and important news site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco_News

Narco News
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Narco News is an online newspaper dedicated to covering the United States' “war on drugs” and movements opposing that country's operations in Latin America. Its articles are available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with translations into Italian, French and German as well. Narco News is funded by the Fund for Authentic Journalism.

The founder and editor of Narco News is the American journalist Al Giordano. The web magazine currently has correspondents in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, and other Latin American countries.

In 2000, Giordano and Narco News were the subject of a libel suit filed by Banamex, Mexico's second-largest bank (now owned by Citigroup), for a series he wrote in asserting that the bank's president, Roberto Hernández, was involved with drug trafficking and money laundering.<1> The New York Supreme Court dismissed the suit December 5, 2001 in Banamex v. Narco News. The judge determined the Internet news sites were entitled to all the First Amendment protections accorded a newspaper, magazine or journalist, thereby extending the protections of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) to all internet journalists.

Narco News was the first publication to investigate the "House of Death" murders in 2005 indicating that U.S. officials had forehand knowledge of planned murders but failed to intervene. Subsequently the investigative journalist Bill Conroy received intimidating visits at his office, his home, and a visit to his employer from officers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an event that prompted a letter by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney reprimanding United States Attorney Johnny Sutton for "an attempt ... to intimidate a journalist who has reported facts that are embarrassing to him".<2>

In January 2006, Narco News began revealing government documents it had obtained that suggested agents with the DEA office in Bogotá, Colombia, were collaborating with or protecting high-level narco-traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries. The documents also suggested that officials at high levels of DEA and the Justice Department were aware of these accusations and actively involved in covering the case up.

Since December 2005, Narco News has embarked on an ambitious project called "The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign." A group of journalists began covering the Other Campaign (a new program launched by the rebel indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation to create a unified Left "from below" that could challenge the Mexican state outside the electoral system, which they perceive as hopelessly corrupt) in its initial phases, a tour through every Mexican state. This project has included coverage of the grassroots movement against fraud in the 2006 Mexican general election and the teacher-led popular uprising in the state of Oaxaca.

On April 29, 2009, editor Giordano was the first journalist to refer the the emerging 2009 swine flu outbreak as "NAFTA Flu". The article points to lax environmental laws emerging out of NAFTA which allowed pork processor Smithfield Foods to open a facility in Veracruz, Mexico. That facility, owned by Smithfield subsidiary, Carroll Ranches, was described by the local daily newspaper, Marcha, as the cause of the epidemic. <3>

References

1. ^ "The Drug War on Trial: Narco-Bankers Sue the Free Press". http://www.narconews.com/docs/ontrial.html.
2. ^ Letter of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
3. ^ How “The NAFTA Flu” Exploded: Smithfield Farms Fled US Environmental Laws to Open a Gigantic Pig Farm in Mexico, and All We Got Was this Lousy Swine Flu.

External links

* Narco News website
* "Speaking Truth to Citi’s Power: Interviews with Citi’s Critics", Multinatinal Monitor, April 2002
* "Drug War on Trial", The Nation, Mark Shapiro, 17 September 2001

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco_News"
Categories: News websites

[bananas]

13. Google News considers Narco News a valid news source

Go to Google News and search for "Cesar Ham",
this Narco News article shows up as the very first hit.
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22Cesar+Ham%22

[anigbrowl]

20. Google News doesn't discriminate

you can find all kinds of whackadoodle and right wing 'news' pages on there too, so I wouldn't offer that up as a criterion for reliability if I were you; those decisions are made by computers and based solely on what kind of content is featured on a website, not the quality thereof.

[struggle4progress]

15. Honduran military ousts president ahead of vote

... Some of Zelaya's Cabinet members had been detained by soldiers or police following his ouster, according to former government official Armando Sarmiento. And the rights group Freedom of Expression said leftist legislator Cesar Ham died in a shootout with soldiers trying to detain him.

A Security Department spokesman said he had no information on Ham ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8581905

[madrchsod]

6. american taxpayer money in action....

[anonymous171]

8. Oddly enough the US is denouncing the current coup in Honduras.

[bertman]

14. Of course they're denouncing it. To do otherwise would be "bad form". But you can bet

that the banksters and corporatists are very happy that those uppity Honduran peasants didn't get a chance at a government they believed in.

This is the pattern that's been happening all over the world and especially in Central and South America since our corporate giants started investing heavily there in the 1800's.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Narcosphere has been an outstanding source for years. Thank you for this important news.

Clearly it's going to be interesting to see how the corporate media try to spin this.

Luckily most of us had their number long ago.

[bananas]

10. I don't know why the mods moved it out of LBN

The article has a link to a Spanish-language news source which confirms the story.
And Narco News is a very credible news site.

[jasi2006]

9. True to right-wing form...leave no opposition standing.

If our RW could get away with it, they would do the same thing.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. K&R

[bananas]

17. This story was finally reported by AP, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle

It should not have been moved out of LBN.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3945472

[anigbrowl]

21. Have you reported the correction? The initial reports were inaccurate

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/correction-honduran-presidential-candidate-still-alive

Posted by Kristin Bricker - June 28, 2009 at 5:09 pm

Congressman Cesar Ham is a Zelaya Ally and Organizer of the Opinion Poll on a New Constitution
Correction: News reports translated by Narco News on Monday that Honduran political leader Cesar Ham had been assassinated appear not to be accurate. This report says otherwise, that Ham is alive and well. We apologize for any confusion caused by our first report, and share in the world's relief that the reports we initially translated were inaccurate.
They insist that leftist leader and honduran Cesar Ham is alive and safe
by Chevige Gonzalez Marco, Aporrea

Luther Castillo, coordinator of Honduran social movements, in an interview with the Cuban television program Mesa Redonda, denied that the leader of the Democratic Unification Party, Cesar Ham, has been assassinated.

Castillo also denied that Ham has been detained and said that he remains in a secure location, faced with the possibility of repression by the coup leaders.

(more at link)

[bananas]

24. How do you know those rumors are true?

I just checked google news, as of right now,
the only news sources which DU moderators consider "credible" still report that he was killed.
So, at this time, according to DU rules,
it is only a baseless rumor that he survived the attack and is in hiding,
a rumor which is so incredible, that no "credible" news source is reporting it.
Do you have a "credible news source" reporting that he's alive?
Let me know if you find a source which meets the rules for LBN.
The DU moderators do not accept Narco News as a "credible" news source.
They also don't accept Spanish-language news sources.

I did mention the rumors that he survived here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3945472&mesg_id=3945475
I could not mention those rumors in an LBN post because that would have caused the moderators to move the post out of LBN,
so I posted it in a reply to myself.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Ham has since turned up in El Salvador

Automatic translation:

Presidential candidate thanked Honduran support of the FMLN

A candidate for the presidency of Honduras, Cesar Ham, made a stop in El Salvador due to leave tonight to Nicaragua.

The chairman of the Democratic Unification Party (UD) and presidential candidate, César Ham and secretary of the Standing Committee contingency (COPECO) of Honduras, Marcos Burgos, arrived this day Comalapa airport in El Salvador to make a connection take them to Nicaragua.

Both leaders had fled their country after being persecuted by the military coup. The latter turned a warrant for Ham Burgos and then to support the referendum promoted by the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya.

http://www.laprensagrafica.com/lo-del-dia-edi/43128-candidato-presidencial-hondureno-agradecio-apoyo-del-fmln.html

The AP report that you posted in LBN just said

And the rights group Freedom of Expression said leftist legislator Cesar Ham had died in a shootout with soldiers trying to detain him.

A Honduran Security Department spokesman said he had no information on Ham.

I've been unable to find any statement from "Freedom of Expression" (or from a group with that phrase in Spanish) on this.

Another report from El Salvador: http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20090630/nacionales/68571/

[bananas]

26. Not a valid LBN source.

Spanish-language news sites are not considered "credible" by the DU moderators.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. So, your stance is "since everyone knows the guy is alive ..

... but the brief mention of the rumour in an AP story hasn't been updated in an English language source, let's pretend the guy is dead?"

:shrug:

[bananas]

28. No.

Somebody misread the story and started attacking the credibility of Narco News,
so I've been defending the credibility of Narco News,
the story was being reported by a number of Spanish-language news sites,
Narco News was the first English-language news site to report it,
and the first English-language news site to correct it.
It was only revealed yesterday that the person obsessing over it had misread it,
he thought it was about the President of Honduras instead of a Presidential candidate,
see this subthread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3946905&mesg_id=3946911

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. How was your post #24 "defending the credibility of Narco News"?

When given the report from Narco News that Ham is alive, in reply #21, you dismissed it as "only a baseless rumor". Someone else mentioned the newer Narco News story in the LBN thread you linked to from #24, not you - and you didn't comment on it.

The updated Narco News story was reported on DU over 15 hours before your post #17 , and 8 hours before your LBN thread. It seems to have been you who was determined to keep alive the rumour that Ham had been killed, despite the source you first quoted having retracted their report. When I gave you some quotes from Ham himself, you still go on about "not a valid LBN source", despite the fact that we're in GD, and it's a reply.

I will take #28 as your eventual admission that Ham is alive, though.

[bananas]

30. Post #24 was sarcastic.

I wasn't trying to "keep alive the rumour that Ham had been killed", I was trying to point out a problem with LBN rules, because so-called "credible" news sources were still incorrectly reporting Ham was dead long after Narco News and Spanish media were correctly reporting him alive. I was feeling frustrated with LBN rules and resorted to sarcasm and snark. There was a media blackout on the coup, and LBN rules were helping enforce it.

Here is post #24 with sarcasm smileys to indicate sarcasm,
and boldface to emphasize that this was about LBN rules:

How do you know those rumors:sarcasm: are true?
I just checked google news, as of right now,
the only news sources which DU moderators consider "credible":sarcasm: still report that he was killed.
So, at this time, according to DU rules,
it is only a baseless rumor:sarcasm: that he survived the attack and is in hiding,
a rumor:sarcasm: which is so incredible:sarcasm:, that no "credible":sarcasm: news source is reporting it.
Do you have a "credible news source":sarcasm: reporting that he's alive?
Let me know if you find a source which meets the rules for LBN.
The DU moderators do not accept Narco News as a "credible":sarcasm: news source.
They also don't accept Spanish-language news sources.

I did mention the rumors:sarcasm: that he survived here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
I could not mention those rumors:sarcasm: in an LBN post because that would have caused the moderators to move the post out of LBN,
so I posted it in a reply to myself.

I originally didn't use sarcasm smileys because I thought the quotation marks around the word "credible" were sufficient to indicate my intent:

Quotation mark

<snip>

Irony
Main article: Scare quotes

Another common use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic or apologetic words:

He shared his “wisdom” with me.
The lunch lady plopped a glob of “food” onto my tray.

<snip>

[Ian David]

18. Ousted Honduran Leader Threatened With Arrest (Sounds very much non-dead)

Ousted Honduran Leader Threatened With Arrest
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3946905&mesg_id=3946905

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. The OP refers to a leftist candidate (who happens to be very much alive) not the current

president

[Taverner]

22. NOW let me hear some sonofabitch tell me this wasn't a COUP!

I'm waiting, freeper freeper freeper

[anigbrowl]

23. See #21. Original English-language source says own report was incorrect.