By Eva Golinger
June 29, 2009
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell
When President Manual Zelaya of Honduras was brutally kidnapped from the presidential residence in Tegucigalpa in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 28, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, was enjoying the peace and tranquility of the countryside at Camp David, the vacation residence for the U.S. head of state. While President Zelaya was beaten by Honduran soldiers and forced into an airplane without knowing its destination, President Obama ate breakfast amidst the relaxing calls of birds in the Maryland forest. And while the coup developed in Honduras yesterday, producing multiple human rights violations: the kidnapping and violence against the Foreign Minister of Honduras, Patricia Rodas; the brutality against and kidnapping of the Cuban and Venezuelan ambassadors in Honduras; and the illegal seizure of power by an illegitimate de facto government, President Obama was making a very, very difficult decision about the church that he and his family would attend over the coming years.
Today’s headline, “Obama chooses the same church at Camp David that George Bush went to,” is more prominent in the U.S. media than this headline that also minimizes and manipulates the truth, “Chávez and allies back the overthrown president of Honduras.” It’s obvious, the choosing of the church which the Obama family will spend all their Sundays during the next four years is much more important than a coup d’état in a Central American country. Now one can understand as well why yesterday the statements from the White House about the coup in Honduras, made only by spokespersons and not directly by the president, were so ambiguous and measured. Obama not only was retired in the countryside with his family, but was also making high priority decisions about their future Sunday locale. He didn’t have time to worry himself with matters far from his personal sphere. Coup? What coup? Obama was deciding about his own life and death, because according to a report in Time magazine, “in spite of Obama wanting to attend a congregation in Washington, later, after trying out various churches, he decided that it ‘was uncomfortable’ to be in a public place where ‘the people’ gathered around to see him.” So, because of this, he urgently had to go to Camp David to isolate himself from his people.
The point is that President Obama, in spite of being the actual Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces and the president of the empire, is not directly in control of the entire imperial machinery. Sources close to Washington have confirmed that the Pentagon, through the military mission (military group) of the United States in Honduras, has been working with the military coupists involved in the coup d’état against President Zelaya. The South Command carries out nearly 55 operations annually with the Honduran armed forces. The military mission in the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa finances the armed forces of Honduras with approximately two million dollars every year, and that does not include the millions of dollars that Washington provides through other cooperation programs with Honduras, and the large investment in the U.S. military base in Soto Cano, Honduras.
Yesterday, members of the coupist congress in Honduras announced that they were in meetings the previous week with the U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Hugo Llorens. As well, one Honduran congressman stated that the ambassador wanted them to let the poll scheduled for last Sunday about future referendum for the calling of a Constituent Assembly to happen, because “later on we will be able to resolve the problem of constitutional reform, don’t worry.” But, according to the congressman, they didn’t want to wait until November and allow Zelaya, together with the people, “to make decisions about the future of the country.”
It’s true that the U.S. government has joined the forceful declaration by the Organization of American States condemning the coup d’état and demanding the immediate return of President Zelaya to power. But up to now, the spokespersons in Washington who have been speaking about the situation in Honduras have said that they are still not considering suspending economic and military aid to Honduras if the coupists refuse to observe the Inter-American Democratic Charter and democratic principles. Will it be a coup like that of Haiti in 2004, when they kidnapped President Aristide and brought him to exile in Africa before the world was aware of the brutal violation of democracy that was occurring in the Caribbean country? It was a U.S. plane that carried off Aristide, escorted by U.S. soldiers. And then, the U.S. government, together with the OAS, condemned the break up of democratic order. But instead of working for the return of Aristide to his legitimate position as president of Haiti, it supported a “transition period” during the following year. As well, it sent U.N. troops to Haiti to “guarantee peace and order” in the country. They are still there today.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) finances so-called “civil society” groups in Honduras with more than $50 million a year. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the State Department also channel millions of dollars and strategic assistance to the principal political parties and political organizations in Honduras through the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and other agencies in Washington. Groups like Peace and Democracy, who yesterday openly backed the coup d’état in Honduras, receive part of this money originating from the self-labeled “promoters of democracy.” Just as was the case in Venezuela, during the coup in April 2002, the U.S government financed those groups involved in the coup, and they continued financing them in spite of knowing of their plans for a coup. Perhaps there will be no smoking gun or direct evidence which proves the hand of Washington in the coup, but it is enough to demonstrate its complicity.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden once stated that President Obama will be subjected to an international test during his first year in office. Washington’s condemnation of the coup d’état in Honduras has to be much stronger than a simple signature at the end of an OAS declaration. If it doesn’t signal that it will suspend financial support to the coupist government in Honduras if it remains in power, the “change” that President Obama guaranteed with reference to the relationship between his administration and Latin America will become more like blackmail.
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