Chairperson of US Congress committee on Foreign Affairs demands : "Honduras - call it a Coup!"

international | crime and justice | other press Thursday September 03, 2009 15:27 by über pleb - (iosaf)

"This one looks, walks and quacks like a duck. It's time to stop hedging and call this bird what it is."

So writes Howard L. Berman, chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee in this morning's LA Times in an opinion article which demands that the US State deparment under Hillary Clinton formally declare the Honduran crises as coup & thus cut all funding. His call is significant for several reasons.

(1)
Yesterday the usurpist regime of Honduras who are farcically now engaged in a presidential and parlimentary election campaign revealed that they had received 150.1 million US dollars on August 28th from the IMF. They will receive a further payment of 13.8 million US dollars next week.

They immediately crowed that they had were being respected and taken seriously. The total 163,000,000$ were allocated by the IMF through G20 development funding.
http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/56921-...uras/

(2)

This is the second time this summer that a chairperson of a US House committee has taken to publishing their criticism of Hillary Clinton's State Department treatment of Latin America. In an appendix comment to part 1 of my current series on Latin America and US bases, I explained how the Senate Foreign relations committee has also been writing letters protesting the lack of constitutional consultation on the Colombian bases.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93553?&condense_comment...58109

The less powerful but not much less weighty House Foreign Affairs Committee it seems now joins fellow Democrats in wondering aloud at what exactly the game of Hillary Clinton's State Department is.


"The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a "coup d'etat" as "a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially: the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group."

So far, the United States has taken a measured approach to this matter, allowing negotiations between Latin American leaders and the de facto Honduran government to run their course. But our patience is not without end, and President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, the U.N. General Assembly and the Organization of American States have already put the label to good use."

.......

"This one looks, walks and quacks like a duck. It's time to stop hedging and call this bird what it is. And if, for whatever reason, the State Department lawyers do not conclude that this was a coup, Congress should examine other ways by which it can directly affect the flow of aid."

"Cutting off assistance is a blunt instrument, one that should not be wielded lightly. It can affect livelihoods and families and industries, in addition to targeting those at the top. But Honduras will hold presidential and parliamentary elections Nov. 29, and every passing day gives Micheletti and his associates the chance to tighten their illegitimate hold on the reins of power."

this of course is the position taken by LASC's analyst known as "attrition". ( c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93002 ) .

US Congressman Berman also writes :-

"And if, for whatever reason, the State Department lawyers do not conclude that this was a coup, Congress should examine other ways by which it can directly affect the flow of aid.

He then qualifies his position with the usual political skill :-

"The de facto government claims that Zelaya was trying to subvert the Honduran Constitution and convert the country into a satellite of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. That may be. But having soldiers take Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint is an insult to decades of Latin America's hard-won, historic struggle with democracy.

No matter what we think of Zelaya (and I don't think highly of him) and his actions to change the Honduran Constitution, it is a fact that his mandate to govern was gained in a fully transparent election.


You can read his piece in its entirety here :
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-berman3-2009s...story

last link to IMC Ireland's pages on the Honduran crises and obviously other articles on the current geopolitical insecurity in Latin America.