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Judi Lynn (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Mon Aug-03-09 01:01 AM Original message |
Here are some important points you may want to check from the Honduran constitution |
Edited on Mon Aug-03-09 01:02 AM by Judi Lynn
following an article by Saul Landau and Nelson Valdez:
Honduras: Term limits apply when governments benefit people Wednesday, 22 July 2009 11:09 Share | .By Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdes ~snip~ In 2006, Manuel Zelaya won the presidency. He made the UNDP Report a central part of his agenda for change. His social program, not an ambiguous Constitutional interpretation, became the root of his "issue" with the governing oligarchy -- a dozen families who control economics and social, cultural and political institutions. They also dominate the media. A 2008 State Department Human Rights Report acknowledged: "A small number of powerful business magnates with intersecting commercial, political, and family ties owned most of the country's news media. Powerful magnates strongly influenced the news agenda and thereby elections and political decisions." (U.S. Department of State, 2008 Human Rights Report: Honduras. February 25, 2009. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119164.htm ) Until Zelaya tried to bring real democracy into the governing equation, Honduras' elite, with U.S. banking and corporate backing, had found a seemingly perfect recipe: people vote but don’t change anything. Congress and Courts belong to the educated (rich and powerful) who also control the military in cooperation with the U.S. government. Washington provided aid; the School of the Americas trains Honduran officers in proper conduct -- torturing enemies and making coups. "Since the 1980s, the Honduran army breathes through the noses of its U.S. advisers." (ALAI AMLATINA, July 10, 2009) For Zelaya, the UNDP Report coincided with a brutal fact. Switzerland and Honduras each have 7 million people. Swiss yearly average income is $53,000; Hondurans $2,000. This upper class President saw an obligation to meet peoples' needs. Uttering such a subversive thought provoked panic among the rich in Tegucigalpa and the powerful of Washington. They reverted to a historical pattern. In the 1980s, the CIA and U.S. military used Honduras to attack Nicaragua's leftist government. The CIA had Honduran officers selling drugs -- to support the surrogate Contras, which Congress forbade. In 1988, Rev. Joe Eldridge, the husband of Maria Otero, Obama's Undersecretary of State for Democracy, wrote about this drug link; then the Honduran military issued death threats against the family. The Honduran army also repressed internal opposition. The local elite supplied officers with perks and status, but Central American armies have spent little time defending their country and much time attacking their citizens. The Honduran invented a “reason” to oust Zelaya: his unconstitutional intent to consult the people in a non-binding vote. Yet, the Constitution allows for referenda and plebiscites. Washington representatives now claim they advised against a coup. But, reasoned the oligarchs and officers, encouraged by some well-known anti-Castro Cuban Americans, how could Washington abandon its friends and clients? So, they kidnapped Zelaya, and flew him to Costa Rica under a justification thinner than the most undernourished model. One hundred and ninety two countries rejected this equivalent of a political “Brooklyn Bridge for sale.” The coup’s defenders, Canada's conservative government, the U.S. mass media, the Honduran Catholic and Protestant hierarchy and right wing anti-Castroites of Miami, approved of previous Latin American coups, in the name of democracy, anti-communism, or whatever. This time the coup makers were “rescuing Honduras from the claws of Chavism." The drama descended toward farce, however, when Zelaya's abductors ditched him in Costa Rica. President Oscar Arias received him -- and the snatchers. No high official or mainstream reporter has suggested Arias aided and abetted a kidnapping and coup. Shouldn’t he have arrested the kidnappers, impounded their plane and demanded the illegitimate thugs in Tegucigalpa surrender? Instead, collaborator Arias became mediator Arias. Twenty years ago, Arias refused to allow U.S. bases in Costa Rica for its illicit war against Nicaragua. Today, he stars in the good cop bad cop show. His one act of "disobedience" won him a Nobel Prize. Since then, he has shown loyalty to Washington's economic consensus, meaning free trade and corporate well being. After Arias served as President (1986-1990), he changed the constitution in order to run for a second term (2006-2010). In June, another U.S. ally, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe changed his Constitution to allow for his third re-election. Neither Washington nor the mass media objected. Anti-Castro Miami moguls hailed this "democratic" move. Double standard? No. Arias and Uribe followed U.S. dictates: don't befriend Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro or any serious "change" talker. Zelaya’s disobedience -- to his own class and to Washington -- got him kidnapped. In Washington, the response was “new elections.” U.S. presidents hail democratic elections -- when they benefit the United States. When elected governments help the poor and reduce U.S. interests, however, Washington officials plot coups, insist on term limits and enforcement of Constitutions they have not read. http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1095:honduras-term-limits-apply-when-governments-benefit-people&catid=40:lastest-news&Itemid=59 Excerpts from the Honduran Constitution:http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1097:excerpts-from-the-honduran-constitution&catid=40:lastest-news&Itemid=59 |
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