Machetera: the Toppling of a President (Part Two)

[Downwinder]

http://machetera.wordpress.com/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks for posting Part II. This is just horrendous. I need to re-read it, to absorb it.

Someone should send that paramilitary group, the Cobras after Otto Reich, instead of sending them to shoot up houses of decent people and kidnap them.

By the way, the very fact they employed a PARAMILITARY group to do this armed kidnapping of the Honduran President itself makes them seem far sleazier than they would have seemed in simply sending their regular military.

It almost doesn't seem possible a coup government would stoop that low, even, in using paras to do something this explosive, an act you'd think they'd want to handle as delicately as possible.

They are openly known as a DEATH SQUAD in Honduras. Same guys the coup sent in to abduct Zelaya.

Here's something I found on the new advisor Micheletti just brought back to active duty:

Honduras: Micheletti appoints death squad veteran
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 19:18. Fears that the de facto regime in Honduras is availing itself of expertise in repression from the bloody years of the 1980s were vindicated by reports that coup-installed President Roberto Micheletti has appointed as special advisor one Billy Joya Améndola—named as one of the principal leaders of the 316 Battalion death squad.

Joya Améndola, who apparently operated in the '80s as "Dr. Arranzola," is also named as a founder of the semi-official "Lince" and "Cobra" death squads. Human rights groups in Honduras charge he is responsible for at least 11 extrajudicial executions, as well as the April 1982 kidnapping and torture of six students. He apparently received training in Argentina from Gen. Guillermo Suárez Mason AKA "Pajarito"—who would later be convicted and imprisoned on charges related to 30 murders and 200 kidnappings. (See obituary, The Independent, June 23, 2005.) Joya Améndola also obtained a scholarship from the Honduran army to study in Augusto Pinochet's Chile.

http://ww4report.com/node/7622

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Interesting to learn the coup also involves people in Miami, as well as Washington.

Damned dirty business. These guys need to be stopped NOW, not allowed to keep on terrorizing, and seizing more and more freedom, more hope away the people who need it so desperately.

[machetera]

2. Honduran cobra force

I hope this message will come through - I have tried to post to DU in the past but have not been successful.

In my first reference to the Cobra force in the article (in the part about their raid on the Hondutel offices and Chimirri's home) I was careful to point out that they are a state-sponsored paramilitary force - not quite the same thing as the privately sponsored paramilitaries in Colombia. They appear to be some kind of hybrid between the Honduran national police and the army - the story about how they evolved and who trained them is no doubt an interesting one but one that I have not yet had a chance to research.

[Bacchus39]

3. Cobra are special forces of the Honduran police

"They belong to the Cobra swarm anti-kidnapping, of the special forces of the Honduran Police."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_world/july2009/honduras-snipers070409.html


under this description, FBI special units, police SWAT teams would be "paramilitaries". numerous countries have these types of special forces.


yeah, context and use is important as some simply immediately think Colombian "paramilitaries".

[Judi Lynn]

4. Amazing seeing your post! Looking forward to any future comments.

We could most clearly use any and all real information we can get.

I'll need to find out more about what you're saying concerning the "Cobras," and the differing degrees of all-out monstrosity one may expect from paramilitaries and/or death squads.

It IS hard to grasp the differences, especially when the subject of these groups has NEVER been discussed in our corporate media which always promotes the fascist organizations behind them.

Your publication is irreplaceable.

[Bacchus39]

5. wow, you still don't get it

paramilitary is a designation for civilian forces who use military type tactics. this would be for things like anti-terrorism, SWAT teams, hostage rescue teams and the like in addition to militia type forces of Colombian paras or Skinhead groups whatever.

the forces in Honduras are clearly from the national police and a specialized unit.


special forces who use paramilitary tactics receive special military like training. In the case of Cobra, that is certainly the case.

In the case of Colombia, members may or may not be current or former members of the military. Guatemala used civilians auto defense forces made up of members of mostly indigenous communities. and they were given "authoritay!!". poor training and alcohol often resulted in tragedy for residents of these communities.