Angry White Kid

Honduran coup faltering? And how could the U.S. not know?

More news from and about Honduras.

Two Military Battalions Turn Against Honduras Coup Regime
by Al Giordano

Community Radio “Es Lo de Menos” was the first to report that the Fourth Infantry Battalion has rebelled from the military coup regime in Honduras. The radio station adds that “it seems” (“al parecer,” in the original Spanish) that the Tenth Infantry Battalion has also broken from the coup.

Rafael Alegria, leader of Via Campesina, the country’s largest social organization, one that has successfully blockaded the nation’s highways before to force government concessions, tells Alba TV:

“The popular resistance is rising up throughout the country. All the highways in the country are blockaded…. The Fourth Infantry Battallion… is no longer following the orders of Roberto Micheletti.”

Angel Alvarado of Honduras’ Popular Union Bloc tells Radio Mundial:

"Two infantry battalions of the Honduran Army have risen up against the illegitimate government of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. They are the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the city of Tela and the Tenth Infantry Battalion in La Ceiba (the second largest city in Honduras), both located in the state of Atlántida."

Honduras: Is it Written?
By Jos Steinsleger

"Throughout the top and to the right," Zelaya began to distance himself from the beautiful people.  And he made the great mistake of asking himself why, if in the tourism brochures, Honduras is compared to Switzerland, the per capita income of a Honduran is $2,793 a year while for a Swiss it is $53,352.Zelaya reached the obvious conclusion: seven million Swiss, seven million Hondurans.  Honduras isn't Switzerland.  What if we were to make a socially integrated republic, in tune with the great Latin American integration projects underway?

A Few Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras
By Jeremy Scahill

While the US has issued heavily-qualified statements critical of the coup—in the aftermath of the events in Honduras—the US could have flexed its tremendous economic muscle before the coup and told the military coup plotters to stand down. The US ties to the Honduran military and political establishment run far too deep for all of this to have gone down without at least tacit support or the turning of a blind eye by some US political or military official(s).

And for those who read Spanish, a great source of information is HablaHonduras. They are reporting that one worker from the telecommunications company Hondutel was hit and killed by a military vehicle as the army forcefully took over the company.  Video of that incident is below.

Coup in Honduras

This morning the leftist president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was kidnapped at gunpoint and flown out of the country to Costa Rica by the Honduran army.  Electricity has been cut in the capital and media outlets have been shut down.  The operation was carried out by General Romeo Vasquez, a graduate from the School of the Americas.  Below are some photos and articles I've found useful regarding the situation.

Obama's first coup d'etat
by Eva Golinger

The text message that beeped on my cell phone this morning read “Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d’etat underway in Honduras, spread the word.” It’s a rude awakening for a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today’s scheduled referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.

Resistance and Repression in Honduras
by Kristin Bricker

However, it is clear that Hondurans are resisting. People are taking the streets in Honduras despite incredibly hostile conditions created by the military. Radio Es Lo De Menos reports that their colleagues on the ground have been fired at by snipers who are positioned in rooftops around the city.  They stress that the gunfire at this point has only been in the form of "warning shots" and no one has been reported injured from gunfire.

Declarations from Via Campesina and Honduran grassroots organization
Translated by Laura Carlsen

We tell everyone that the Honduran people are carrying out large demonstrations, actions in their communities, in the municipalities; there are occupations of bridges, and a protest in front of the presidential residence, among others.

From the lands of Lempira, Morazán and Visitación Padilla, we call on the Honduran people in general to demonstrate in defense of their rights and of real and direct democracy for the people, to the fascists we say that they will NOT silence us, that this cowardly act will turn back on them, with great force.

We state that we do not recognize any "substitute" and WE WILL STRUGGLE FOR OUR PEOPLE, FOR OUR RIGHT TO DREAM OF A COUNTRY WITH JUSTICE, EQUITY, LIBERTY AND LIFE.

Hampshire divests and Abe Foxman supports a fascist

Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, the first U.S. college to divest from South African apartheid, has become the first U.S. college to divest from Israeli apartheid. Congrats Hampshire and SJP!

The proposal put forth by SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel. Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire’s Board of Trustees confirm that “President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.”

The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex. Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.

While some sectors of the U.S. are ahead of the curve, others, such as Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League, are heading in the opposite direction. Foxman voiced support for Avigdor Lieberman's proposal to force Palestinian citizens of Israel to sign loyalty oaths to the state.  Lieberman's extreme-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu, came in third in Israel's elections this week, behind two other right-wing parties, Kadima and Likud.  Lieberman has previously suggested executing Palestinian members of Israel's parliament for meeting with Hamas members and for ethnically cleansing Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Jewish Voice for Peace has made it possible to email Foxman urging him to condemn Lieberman, not support him.  But given that Foxman and the ADL are not actually concerned with "defamation" but rather fiercely advocating right-wing Israeli policies, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for an about face.

Amauris Samartino threatens Bolivian journalists

The Cuban gusano[1] who called for "independence" for Santa Cruz goes on the attack again

Cuban dissident Amauris Samartino

Amauris Samartino threatens Bolivian journalists

Wilson Garcia Merida
October 29, 2008
Translated by Scott Campbell
[Spanish original]

(Datos & Analisis) - From his new refuge in the United States, the Cuban dissident who, in November 2006, together with a horde from the fascist Santa Cruz Youth Union, tried to assault Vice President Garcia Linera while demanding "independence" for Santa Cruz, is now devoting himself to harassing and bullying the Facts & Analysis News Service (Datos & Analisis).  The CIA agent's attacks and threats against autonomous journalism in Bolivia, which has taken a stand by denouncing the corrupt and separatist large landowner system, got worse after the recent popular victory when Congressional agreed to hold a referendum on the new Bolivian Constitution next January.

......

"Almost two years after what happened to me, tell me if I wasn't right about what is happening there. I was also taken out of Bolivia by the United Nations and I am also a political refugee. Unlike (Walter) Chavez, I never robbed or extorted anyone, unlike Garcia Lineras (sic) I am not a homosexual, nor a thief. Under this government there have been more deaths than under all previous governments; this is what I'm referring to, not because it was foretold, but because I know well how they behave, this useless group, idiots."

With such insults and abuse, the Cuban dissident Amauris Samartino emailed Datos & Analisis to complain, in a curiously untimely manner, about a report this service issued in the beginning of February 2007 in defense of our Peruvian colleague Walter Chavez, when the most reactionary sectors of the right, connected to the U.S. Embassy, were trying to force the extradition of Chavez, who founded and heads the historic weekly "The Furious Toy."

Members of the Santa Cruz Youth Union riding on their swastika-tagged jeep.

In the report produced by Datos & Analisis warned that the enemies of Chavez compared his case to that of Samartino, who in November 2006 was caught participating in a neo-fascist action in Santa Cruz, when hordes from the paramilitary group called the Santa Cruz Youth Union barged into a hotel in that city with the intention of attacking Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera during the opening of a meeting of the Organization of American States' Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.

Samartino was seen, photographed and filmed while violently shouting and making threats between chants demanding "independence" for Santa Cruz. One month after the incident, Samartino was deported from Bolivia for violating migration laws relating to threatening internal peace and national security.

The Morelia attack is atypical of the drug cartels. Is a rightwing neo-Nazi party being born?

A Mexican soldier stands guard as experts investigate the crime scene in Morelia, Michoacan, where two grenades were hurled into a crowd during Independence Day celebrations, killing eight and wounding hundreds.

The Morelia attack is atypical of the drug cartels. Is a rightwing neo-Nazi party being born?

September 17, 2008

By Pedro Echeverria V.
Translated by Scott Campbell
[Spanish original]

1. Members of drug-trafficking cartels have shown (up to today) that they don't kill people by throwing bombs at them, like what happened in Morelia on the night of September 15. These cartels, for all they've done, only kill those who go after them, deceive them, and speak out against them, be they members of the same cartel, police officers, soldiers and their commanders, journalists, and, certainly, they are always ready to put an end to the politicians who order them hunted down. Ostensibly, they kill people by producing and selling them drugs, but according to published accounts, the humble inhabitants begin to care for them because they are the only ones who help, giving them jobs and gifts (Escobar Gaviria, Caro Quintero, etc.). Though the drug-traffickers could have changed their strategy, we should consider this fact, avoiding accepted wisdom and propaganda.

2. On the other side, a leftist guerilla organization always fights for the exploited, poor and oppressed. That's what it's born to do. Genaro Vazquez, Lucio Cabanas, the EZLN, the EPR, etc., never acted against the people, but very much to the contrary, arose from the people to defend their rights. Some have attacked banks, have kidnapped business and land owners, to obtain money for their struggles, but they've never gone against their own ideology which is to fight for the indigenous, the peasants, the workers.  When they carry out propagandistic actions, placing bombs, they've always sought to ensure that no one dies. This has become more than clear through the experiences in Mexico and the world. No leftist organization would be able to keep their name if it didn't defend the interests of those from below.

3. On the contrary, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet, Videla, Somoza, representing the economic and political interests of businessmen, having the conception of inferior and superior races, considering that the poor should only produce because they are incapable of governing, always showed disdain for the people.  Do you happen to remember that all of these disastrous rightwing military dictators immediately massacred the people when they were protesting against their miserable living conditions? Who killed the student masses on October 2, 1968 and June 10, 1971? To throw a bomb into a poor and miserable crowd can only be an action of those who are against the crowd, of those they consider incapable of doing anything that isn't working, to produce wealth for the exploiters.

4. The question then should be: Is a rightwing Nazi party being born, like the various ones in Europe and the U.S., to persecute and kill the people and the forces associated with them? How many businessmen and powerful priests would support with great determination an extremely radicalized Yunque/PAN party?* People such as the "friends of Fox," Velasco Arza (adviser to Fox), Salinas Price and his son Salinas Pliego (owner of TV Azteca), Servidje (owner of Nestle), Azcarraga (owner of Televisa) and a thousand other businessmen most certainly would be very pleased at the appearance of armed, anti-communist commandos, such as those that have appeared in Germany, Italy, Spain, or the U.S. Their objective is to stop the struggles of the people and to assassinate those political activists who assist in the strikes, the taking of lands, and the takeovers of unoccupied homes.

Paramilitaries ambush farmers and Governor Fernandez lied about the massacre

My translation of an article about Thursday's ambush of campesinos in Bolivia by fascist separatists. [Spanish original]

Cobija (Pando), 12 Sep (ABI) - A bridge located seven kilometers from the city of Porvenir where one thousand farmers were marching from the city of Cobija in protest against the violence backed by the governor of Pando, Leopoldo Fernandez, was the scene of a massacre when paramilitaries, trained and financed by the head of Pando, were unleashed this Thursday against defenseless marchers.

Roberto Tito, one of the rural workers who was on this bridge when the shooting against the defenseless people began, testified that they were marching unarmed, and soon they heard shots and people began falling, mortally wounded.

Snipers located in the treetops fired at the group without caring who they hit: children, women, and old people were amongst the farmers, whose only weapons were sticks and machetes.

"We were unarmed, contrary to what they say. They stopped us seven kilometers from Porvenir and then they attacked us, when we advanced to the height of the bridge they ambushed us and started shooting with machine guns," said Tito, heartbroken over the death of at least ten of his comrades, as on Friday an unknown number of people were still reported as disappeared.

"The comrades had to flee in all directions. They didn't even spare the children or women. This was a massacre of farmers, this is something that we should not allow," said the rural worker.

Woodfin Suites Hotel organizes and provides free lodging for anti-immigrant activists

If we're rent-a-thugs, these kids must have been rented from their parents' country clubs. Perhaps that sign is self-referential.

In an earlier post I called Woodfin an "evil corporation."  But even according evil corporation standards, this is just downright appalling.  An email from the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy reports the following:

The right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-worker squads are at it again. This time, they're being sponsored, and paid for, by the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville.

This past Saturday, during our regular picket at the Woodfin, we were joined by twenty five counter-protestors identifying themselves as College Republicans from UC Davis and San Francisco State. They showed up carrying provocative placards - “No Green Card, No Work”, “Justice is at the Back of the Line”, “Union Thugs Go Home”, "Legals YES, Illegals NO," and “Marx Would Be Proud” - and tried to disrupt our protest.

The counter-protestors were openly taking direction from the Woodfin's management, going where the hotel’s General Manager told them to, standing on hotel property. They even bragged that Woodfin management had put them up in free hotel rooms the night before!

When we tried to separate ourselves, they physically shoved into our picket line- even pushing and berating the young children of Woodfin workers! Finally, the Emeryville police created a barrier between them and our peaceful picket, for the safety of all involved.

Join the pickets. Contact the Woodfin.

You win some, you lose some

Too bad, Warriors, too bad.  Well, at least they beat the Mavs.  And now I can stop watching the playoffs.

On the other hand, Jerry Falwell died.  So, in the end, things balanced out yesterday.

Warriors, warming and awesome kids

Though I was just giving a friend some flack about engaging the spectacle when he tried to convince me how great Obama is, I gotta say, the Golden State Warriors are unreal. Making Oakland proud.

Here's a gem from Arkansas my uncle sent me.  Honestly, I was unaware of this liberal conspiracy.

And these kindergarten kids have just conducted the best May Day/anti-Minutemen protest ever.

I'm off to Wyoming for the weekend, so any comments might not go up until Sunday night.

Minutemen: Not so tough without their guns

Minutemen attack protesters at Columbia.

Today a friend chided me for not blogging about the shutting down of the Minutemen at Columbia University last week.  I've been negligent.

For those who missed it, on October 4, Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, and two other anti-immigrant activists were invited by the College Republicans to give a talk at Columbia University.

The first speaker ranted for 45 minutes. Then, as Gilchrist started his speech, students - led by Chicanos and Latinos - took the stage with a banner reading "No one is illegal."  While Gilchrist  quickly fled in the face of opposition, other Minutemen goons attacked the anti-racist protesters, kicking one in the head, as can plainly be seen in this footage from Univision.

The right wing media went nuts, condemning the protesters and coddling the vigilantes. Ignoring the facts, the rest of the mainstream English-language media got in the act and the demonstrators have faced near-universal denouncement.

Even Jon Stewart attacked the anti-racist activists. (Have the White Nationalists he's been interviewing, like Lou Dobbs, Trent Lott, and Pat Buchanan, gotten to him? Is there a direct correlation between the increase in racists and the decrease in humor on that show?)  Yet the protesters remain unbowed:

We want to state clearly: We are proud to send the message to the country that racist and fascist groups are not welcome at Columbia or in New York City.

As Chicanos and Latinos, alongside African Americans and progressive people of other nationalities, we took it as our responsibility to give voice to the undocumented immigrant families who live in fear at terrorist vigilante groups like the Minutemen. Armed patrols by these groups force more and more people desperate for work to find even more hazardous ways into the United States. Over 3,000 people-including hundreds of children-have died in the desert. Their blood is on the hands of Gilchrist and his thugs.

They now face possible disciplinary actions by the university. We can help by signing a petition supporting them.  ANSWER has also set up a way to fax Lee Bollinger, Columbia's president, a statement supporting the demonstrators. As the students' statement says, "Fascist scapegoating is not up for academic discussion."

For more on this, I highly recommend today's Democracy Now! program, where yet again, in the face of reasoned opposition, this time from Karina Garcia, Political Chair of Columbia's Chicano Caucus, Jim Gilchrist stammers and flees like the racist coward he is.  May the Minutemen be greeted similarly wherever they show their heinous faces.

PS: For more anti-racist fun - St. Louis style - check this out.