Thanks, Siun. Senator Demint thinks this overthrow was a really good idea – I thought we wanted to spread democracy around the world – according to Bush.

Shooting children in the head, I wonder if they teach that at the School of The Americas?

it’s a very bad situation.

an american woman i know has a son down there doing missionary work. he said he’ll come home when he feels his life is in danger. she’s quite worried.

meantime, we have the overthrow of a democratically elected government and our president the president of america is missing in action. school of the americas has trained the military figures who engineered this coup and there’s no word anywhere on whether we had more involvement than that.

Why is that Repower America ad taking up such a large space on the left of the page covering the post title?

It is difficult to know where to come down on this, Zelaya has a LOT of baggage, as do all the players in this contest. Something I just read suggested that his support is roughly 25 percent of the Honduran populace.

Having said that, when the people currently in charge allow the military to fire on protesters, they sacrifice any semblance of legitimacy.

It beats what they teach them to do to Nuns.

Isn’t the ArchBishop? being cute telling the President not to come back because of the potential for violence?
And the Church wonders why we leave? In 20 years many of the poor brown immigrants will be richer than the rich people they left behind who oppressed them in 2 generations a majority will be.
They might not be Catholic though. The Rock the builder rejects is going to be the base of my church form a new church or give up religion all together.
The Pope needs cash and the future is looking darker.

So it’s similar to Iran in that we are probably best served if Obama plays it cool.

Anyone know if Zelaya was planning on giving Honduras healthcare at the same cost Hugo gave his people?

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5688

Under Hugo life span’s in Venezuela are catching up to White Males and my Venezuela numbers are old.

I think so. The U.S. is (at least) indirectly responsible for a lot of the problems down there, many of which stem from it being a transit point between Columbia and the U.S. for cocaine trafficking. Like many parts of the world, it is difficult for the U.S. to be viewed as a neutral arbitrator.

Agreed America is not well liked by either side so how do we play this…I don’t know we got no Cred and just what strategic importance does Honduras have?

That’s what I’m thinkin.

Is there an echo on here?

The US was involved in several “Banana Wars” which were really so-called “police actions” where the US military was sent to places in turmoil to settle things down and “spread democracy and freedom”. This happened during the latter part of the 19th century and first part of the 20th century. They were called “Banana Wars” because they took part mainly in tropical places such as Central America and the Caribbean. The Marine Corps was sent most of the time because they are considered the best and toughest of the US armed forces. You have heard of the saying “Send the Marines”? The landing in Veracruz was a result of some US sailors getting arrested in the port of Tampico while on shore leave. When they were released, the US demanded a salute from the Mexicans as an appology but it was refused by the Mexicans. This was the excuse for the landing of the US Marines in Veracruz. This caused General Huerta, then president of Mexico which was going through a revolution at the time, to flee the country. This brought pro-US General Carranza to power which is the real reason the US landed in Veracruz. I hope this helps. Thanks for using AllExperts.com.

Maybe the only good thing about having our military overstretched and our economy tapped out is that we are less likely to intervene in places where we aren’t already committed.

Its been a long time since South America has had a multi nation war

Paraguay fought the War of the Triple Alliance against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and was defeated in 1870 after five years of the bloodiest war in South America. Paraguay’s prewar population of approximately 525,000 was reduced to about 221,000 in 1871, of which only about 28,000 were men

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay

Stupidity plus a sense of invulnerability led to the last one the new President of Honduras has quit the Organization of the American States and is rejecting help from his fellow Presidents in the region plus he said Nicaragua has troops on his border.
I think he wants a fight nothing like a war to unite a country and give you an excuse to squash dissent.

Ortez said this about Obama: “Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada”. Gently translated to avoid controversy: “that little black man who knows nothing” In reality, the use of the word “negrito”, i.e. the diminutive of “negro”, is derrogatory and racist; the kind of racism that would force the resignation of any public figure in the USA.

Honduras is right smack in the middle between El Salvador and Nicaragua, so it was impacted by Reagan’s lunatic proxy wars back in the ’80s.

Impacted I thought is was the CIA’s base of operations for attacks on El Salvador and Nicaragua granted they probably suffered the most but we still have not heard about it.

The ITO ending on ” negrito ” well my mom added it to all our names when we were kids I think he’s calling Obama a child or… boy

The US has little credibility in Honduras. El Salvador’s right-wing president was a US-backed puppet. Bushco Republicans tried to install a right winger in Nicaragua last election, but failed. (Much to the disappointment of the right, Nicaragua rehired Ortega.) Bushco was successful in electing the right-wing Calderon in Mexico in a highly disputed, stolen election.

Honduras was enmeshed in the Nicaragua Contra war. The US trained and financed, equipped Honduran “rebels” to fight Ortega’s Sandinistas in Nicaragua. My brother-in-law was stationed in Honduras then. The army built an airbase there.

According to CNN, Zelaya is now in El Salvador after briefly landing in Nicaragua. Several other OAS presidents were gathered in El Salvador to support him.

Yes, perhaps. A chiquita is a little girl. A cervecita is a little beer. Negrito is the diminutive of negro.

Calling Grown African American men boy is or was an insult here it might also be in Honduras certainly the new President might have picked it up from some CIA agent.
They are much more subtle with the insults down there.

The insult was intentional do not presume ignorance or innocence its a game we don’t play much here.

By insulting Obama indirectly well his own people assume Obama knows exactly what he said so he looks tough.
My guess is he hopes Obama never figures it out and of course if confronted by Obama in private he will lie.

In Costa Rica, it is not uncommon for Ticos to refer directly to Chinese people as chinos and blacks as negritos/negritas, but this cannot be construed as polite behavior. It is biggoted and racist.

OTOH, Tico or tica for a Costa Rican is not derrogatory.

Hitting with the White glove is how my mom put it say something openly in front of everyone that might be taken as not an insult but everyone assumes it is the new President is hoping Obama doesn’t get it but he knows his people understand the insult.
I agree its bigoted and racist think of Macaca I bet that word was chosen because it was hoped the press would not get it.
But the crowd sure did.

It depends on the package you purchase; shooting children in the head is included in all but the most basic, “sampler,” instruction suites.

If you or your client have a special need, please do not hesitate to ask; we are always delighted to tailor a program to meet your individual requirements.

I have this hunch that the White House was left totally out of this and is being kept out of it. I have a nephew in the Coast Guard and of all places I just heard he is on a ship in or near, you guessed it, Honduras.

I am looking at this as a mini coup against Obama by portions of military and various flavors of spooks. I hope I am just wrong and paranoid but keep this idea in the back of your mind for future reference.

Apparently, the report that Palin has been made the president of Honduras is erroneous.

http://www.haloscan.com/tb/att…..2367638354

Ask Noriega? The Bush knife is still apparently at work.

Indeed. We carry a lot of baggage.

I still haven’t heard anything about the legal basis for all this. Is there any? Or, is it just a modern coup?

In any event we should oppose the violence (to the extent we can with all these other things we’re tied up in) and push for legal Democratic processes.

This is an interesting take on the Honduras thing…

http://jammiewearingfool.blogs…..-drug.html

Of course, that doesn’t mean Ortez isn’t lying and it is former presidents and he who have done the drug running. I’m sure it’s all very complicated.

The legal basis for deposing Zelaya rests on defying the constitution, the supreme court, the legislature and ordering the military to conduct his referendum. The head of the military refused to do so and Zelaya fired him.

There was reason to get rid of Zelaya, but no good reason to do it in the way that was done.

from medea benjamin

Global Exchange is also asking you to get involved. We are asking you to make the call to the State Department and the Obama Administration to:

Cut off all military aid to Honduras until President Manuel Zelaya and Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas are safely returned to their rightful role as President and Chancellor
Support any international movements to bring the coup plotters to justice
Replace the US ambassador to Honduras.
State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339 White House: Comments: 202-456-1111, Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Thank you Laurenc – Global Exchange does consistently awesome work and this is very helpful information for us all.