Honduras: the Venezuelan connection and Richard Nixon

Despite continued resistance (nearly all major highways are blocked), the coup has continued to hold on, and thanks to obvious Venezuelan interference (though not from the Venezuelan government), and U.S. support, the coup is “winning” simply by staying in power long enough to force acceptance of the status quo.

Roberto Carmona Borjas, a Venezuelan whose shady Arcadia Foundation (the group’s website: arcadiafoundation.org only has an introduction screen, and no information) has been pushing claims that deposed President Mel Zelaya was corrupt (which is an after the fact justification for the coup) describes himself as an academic (at both American University and George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C.).  The GW Hatchet (an independent student newspaper at George Washington University) wrote about Carmona’s graduate course in Political Management last October:

The class, which meets Tuesdays from 7:10 p.m. to 9:40 p.m., already boasts an impressive list of speakers, including Colombian President Alvaro Uribe; U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich; Leopoldo Lopez, a Venezuelan politician; Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutiérrez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has also been invited.

Reich is misidentified as the Ambassador to Venezuela .  He WAS Ambassador during the Reagan Administration, during which time he arranged for the release of wanted terrorist Orlando Bosch, who was involved in blowing up a civilian airliner, though, being a Cuban airliner, has never been pursued by the United States government, despite Bosch’s residence in the U.S.  More importantly, as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs during George W. Bush’s administration, Reich attempted to build support for the attempted 2002 coup in Venezuela among other nations in the Hemisphere.  That coup, like the 28 June coup in Honduras, started with the military removal of the elected President, followed by a statement (the Carmona Decrees) which claimed consitutionality for the action.  Carmona Borjes is said to have authored that document, which is confused by the fact that the President of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce (who was installed as president — supposedly under constitutional procedure) is another Carmona:  Pedro Carmona Estanga.

Leopoldo Lopez was the municipal president of Chacao (a borough of Caracas) and an anti-Chavez politico of note.  While there is some controversy over his removal from office, there is no question that his party received illegal funds from the Venezuelan oil company (where he was employed and where his mother was head of public affairs) before the coup, and was the legal reason for removal from office.

Carlos Gutiérrez and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen are both active in right-wing Cuban exile politics.  Alvaro Uribe is, of course, the President of Colombia (which has its own anti-Venezuelan biases) and Hillary Clinton is… oh, somebody of importance in the Obama Administration.

As in Venezuela, the modus operandi seems to be coup first, justification later.  Unlike in Venezuela, where opposition to the coup forced the leaders to retire within 36 hours, the Honduran coup is now in its third week.  The “de facto regime” today presented three scenarios for their own retirement, (link to Processo [Tegacigalpa]– in Spanish) all of which absolve them of responsiblity for the coup (basically, justifying the action and setting a precedent for  such actions elsewhere in the Hemisphere) and locking into place the status quo.

All the legalistic back and forth is, of course, important, but doesn’t address the most basic of human rights.  Hemano Juancito wrote today about a small Spanish-funded project that would held the poorest of Hondurans set up gardens.  In going over the applicants for grants, Juancito noted:

There were small and large families, Catholics and Protestants. But two things struck me. First, many of the houses had dirt floors. But, worse, many of the people’s diets were almost completely restricted to corn tortillas, beans, and eggs, with meat maybe once a week. Some ate almost no vegetables, though some occasionally included potatoes in their diets. No wonder there is so much malnutrition.

In 1958 United States Vice-President Richard M. Nixon tried to lecture Mexican President-elect Adolfo López Mateos on the dangers of Communism in Latin America. López Mateos, it’s said, gave Nixon an impromtu tour of the slums of Mexico City in his own car, just the two of them, then told Nixon, “The threat to stability and growth in Latin America is not from Communism, but from ‘Hungerism’.”

The “de facto regime” in Honduras — even if by some chance the justifications created by a Venezuelan exile are accepted — will never be legitimate, nor will it create stability or anything else — while it attempts to turn the clock back, and return to a system that forces  hungerism on its people.