Archive for July, 2009

As a Latin American who grew up there and is constantly traveling between my new home country, the US, and my native one in Latin America, closely following events in the region, political and otherwise, I can talk about this subject with the authority of someone who has experienced the very situation that the Hondurans are trying to avoid by having deposed Zelaya.

I speak to you as a world citizen, born and raised in one of those countries in Latin America, currently ailing of the Chavez/Boliviarian dictatorship which rose under the thin guise of democracy. As a very young child I remember living through military coupes, martial law, elections and have seen first hand how politics in Latin America is a fight of life and death many times. Through my life here in the states I have come to appreciate the politics of this country I now call home, the gift that is the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, its Amendments and the freedoms the wise founding fathers of this country fought for over two hundred years ago.

Therefore, my analysis is that of a Latin American who grew up and studied there, fascinated by the regional history, having lived the politics, having done business in the region and having voted in elections there. During my time here in the States, –thanks to satellite– I continue to be in touch with all the Latin American news networks such as CNN en Español, Globovision, Galavision, Univision, Teleamazonas, RCN, etc… Not only do I read the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal but also El Diario La Prensa, El Comercio, El Mercurio, which keep me abreast of the daily events that have built to what’s happening in Honduras right now, thus bringing the attention of the world, as if a snapshot of a long ongoing movie.

To the average American, who knows that Mexico is to the South of the border –and there is a bunch of other Spanish speaking countries further south– Honduras is just another name of those Spanish speaking countries, and likely considered just another Banana Republic.

Sadly, it seems the Bush/Cheney administration saw Latin America the same way and during these past 8 years allowed anti-USA sentiment grow to the point where the poor and the ignorant, or both, were exploited by being told the rich, the Americans and Bush were to blame for their woes. On election day they’d be given a pound of rice, or of sugar, would get picked up from their homes, treated like VIPs, given T-shirts, hats, enough incentives to buy their vote and put these Castro-sympathizing, America-hating politicians into power. And once they were put “legitimately” into power, by “the vote of the people”, they proceeded to take steps to achieve a more “mild” form of the Castro example in Cuba, this time by “democratically” holding “referendum” after “referendum” to legalize and consolidate their absolute hold of power.

They start off by dissolving congress, firing every judge, getting rid of people in government and the military who may pose a threat to them. Since most of these countries have had some degree of corruption, many people may applaud getting rid of bad judges and corrupt politicians, yet seem clueless and naive to the larger plan. These newly elected presidents hold a referendum to change the constitution, a constitution that gives them unlimited terms and unlimited power. Regardless of how the vote goes, they declare a new constitution shortly after. They start taking land from “the rich” and giving it to “the poor” to consolidate popular support. It is true, some in this rich group are corrupt and deserved to have their land taken back, but many in the middle classes suffer as well. Next, they begin cracking down on freedom of expression, they start closing down news networks that have a more “independent view”.

They align themselves with anti-American governments such as Cuba’s Castro, Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah, Russia, China, etc. They kick out American presence from these countries and begin to refer to the United States as “The Empire”. Most Latin Americans, who have grown up watching The Brady Bunch, NCIS, MTV, CNN, who always have looked to the big countries in the north: Mexico, The United States and Canada as the older siblings –understanding there is CIA presence here and there looking out for American interests– are friendly to the North Americans for the most part, perceiving them as benign. Yes, I will admit there is a small part of the population, and I will say it is a small percentage, that admires Che Guevara, Castro and are anti-American. Those are usually children of leftist/communist sympathizers, who won’t hesitate to spew their contrary views. But thanks to American/French libertarian ideals of long ago, they are free to express without fear of retaliation. They take advantage of the very freedoms their ideology would take away if they were allowed into power.

This is the current new and growing wave of leftist governments growing south of the border, what I consider part of the failed Bush legacy. These governments truly DO NOT represent the majority of their citizens. By the time these leftist presidents have clearly become members of the Chavez/Castro club, and consolidated their power within their respective countries, it’s too late for the people to have a leg to stand on and take them off power. This has happened in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and it’s coming to other countries quite soon. Don’t be surprised if Argentina and Uruguay are next.

And that is what the wise Hondurans saw coming this past June. Their president Manuel Zelaya (AKA Mel) had at one time been elected under the premise of change, just like we elected Mr. Obama. Hondurans were tired of the corruption. And Mr. Zelaya came to power supported by his party, congress, and the people. But over time he started making “new friends” outside of Honduras. These new friends were Chavez and his gang. Over time Hondurans saw the overtures their president was making towards Venezuela and they got very nervous. They knew what was coming. After all, they saw it happen in Nicaragua, right south of their border. They read about what’s happened and happening in Venezuela. They don’t like Chavez. They don’t like Castro. They saw what’s happening in Ecuador, in Bolivia and they are not liking it one bit. They like their American friends. They want to stay neutral. They don’t want to be opressed the way they see their Bolivian, Ecuadorian, Venezuelan & Nicaraguan brothers and sisters are.

When Zelaya announced he wanted to hold a “referendum”, asking the people if it’d be ok to hold a vote, which would allow him to eventually form a new government under a new constitution –just like Chavez and his gang have done–they did not like it one bit. What’s more, holding a referendum of that type was unconstitutional as per Honduran law, which clearly stated that should a president hold such an event, he’d lose his power and be deposed.

Of course, like in other countries, there is a segment of the population that welcomes the Chavez mentality because they would benefit from it. They would “inherit” land from the “rich” without working for it. But sadly even these people have been fed a plate of lies. After all, they have been quite hungry, in every sense. They have been taught, like in the other countries, to hate “the rich” and middle classes, to blame their woes on them and on the Americans. So, these are the people who were willing to come out and vote on that fated Sunday June 28th. But they were the minority, for the majority knew their likely fate. Rumors ran that the poll was coming from Venezuela.

Zelaya’s VP quit in disagreement over his new “policies”, leaving him alone. The legislative and Judicial powers deemed the poll illegal, for the Honduran constitution did not allow for such poll. (Watch this short video, in English, with a quick explanation of the legality behind what happened).

But Zelaya didn’t care. As president he felt he was above the law. He sought funding for his illegal poll from funds that otherwise would have gone to other sorely needed national projects. Many people were nervous. Rumors ran rampant that he was ready to dissolve congress and the judiciary right after the results of the poll would be announced, likely in his favor. They sensed Venezuelan presence behind this. He asked the military forces to distribute the voting urns and monitor the polling. When his top military guy, General Vasquez, refused to follow him on this illegal pursuit, obeying orders from the courts, he fired him. He was ordered by the court and congress to return Vasquez to his post. He refused. It was also said all government employees were forced to participate or else they’d lose their jobs.

It was the kind of situation that makes you nauseaus because you know it’s going to get ugly. It was said that up until the day before that fated poll Sunday, they tried to negotiate with Zelaya, to make him understand he could not force a vote on the people. Forget that he had already broken many laws and he was flaunting himself as the highest executive and therefore above the law, Zelaya did not seem to care and was moving forward with his plans, trampling the laws and the will of the people.

As a Latin American living in NY, I was closely following that situation, feeling already bad for the Honduran people, who seemed to be next. They knew they were being forced into a fake exercise of democracy that would inevitably lead them down a well-known and feared path. I remember waking up that Sunday morning, tuning to CNN en Español for an update, and being delighted to learn that the Hondurans had gotten rid of Zelaya that early Sunday morning, and what’s more, had been smart enough to get him out of the country in a matter of hours.

Many do not understand why it was necessary to take Zelaya out of the country. But you gotta give it to the Honduran people. They had done their homework. They knew arresting Zelaya and leaving him inside Honduras would be a threat to their success. Only a few years ago, Venezuelans had finally managed to stage a coupe and arrest Chavez. They immediately named an interim president and placed Chavez in the hands of the military. A few days later, Chavez had managed to sweet-talk, threaten and manipulate the military to support him back into power. After all, he was a military guy who had tried to stage a coupe himself almost a decade before. Hondurans realized the mistake of the Venezuelans, which is why they had to surprise Zelaya, and take him out of the country incommunicado, no cell, and put him in neutral turf, the Switzerland of Latin America, Costa Rica.

To my dismay, CNN en Español and its reporters did not sound too happy about that, and it clearly showed in their words, their tone, their inferences, their analysis, their reporting. While in my house we were cheering, in awe of the Hondurans desperate but smart and cunning move, we were at the same time appalled to hear how immediately all the other Latin American “leaders” pronounced themselves against what was now deemed a “coupe”.

Soon after, CNN en Español gave deposed Zelaya, ample time in the air to depict his dramatic exit, in pajamas, at gun point, out of the country, without his adored cell phone, gaining international pity and pulling all other international leaders to pronounce themselves immediately for him. Yet, CNN en Español did not bother to speak to the other equal branches of power who had deposed Zelaya. It was understandable when Hugo Chavez was the first to condem the situation, blaming the United States and offering his army to invade Honduras to help Zelaya return to power. The nerve! His little click of followers (Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Argentina, etc,) predictably so, also pronounced themselves against the “coupe”.

To my further dismay, Mr. Obama joined the chorus of dissaproval, withdrawing support from Honduras and not recognizing the newly formed interim civil government. How dissappointing! Then Mexico, Colombia and all the others followed. I tried to be understanding of their situation as I realized they feared if they supported the new Honduran government they’d give anyone license to do the same to them in their respective countries. But still, didn’t Mr. Obama have intelligent advisors guiding him to a smarter more neutral pronunciation? I was truly dissappointed at our president, who proceeded to withdraw all assistance to the new Honduras government.

Thankfully a “Wise Latina” (LOL!! Sorry! I couldn’t help myself), US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, explained to our president, in a letter, why he should hold off any further criticisms until he understood the situation better. And gotta give it to Obama. He’s good at listening and being cautious. Hugo Chavez didn’t like it one bit. When Obama did not press further in his condemnation of the so called coupe, he started jeering at him, calling him names and inciting him by stating that his lack of support for Zelaya only meant he was behind the coupe. Thankfully, as we say in Spanish “Al loco se deja hablar y al burro rebuznar” (let the crazy man talk away and the ass bray away), Mr. Obama did not react to Hugo Chavez’ provocations.

In the meantime, Hondurans were relieved, relieved they had gotten rid of the Chavista (Chavez ideology sympathizer) president. They were happy to stay home that Sunday as their congress unanimously voted to accept Zelaya’s resignation by letter, and swear in a new president, in absence of his vice president, all that same Sunday in the afternoon. It is worthy to mention that the new president Mr. Micheletti, is from the same party as Mr. Zelaya. It’d be the equivalent of having removed Bush from power, and in the absence of Cheney, electing Bahner –had he been the majority leader of the house– as the new president. This was NOT a political fight. This was a fight for their political lives and for the freedoms the Honduran people knew were at risk.

To my sadness and dissappointment, as well as that of thousands and thousands of Hondurans, CNN en Español, which until then had been revered as the legitimate authority of the news in Latin America, had a reporter in Honduras by the name of KRUSPKAIA ALIS, which according to sources, born in Cali, is daughter of Sandinista parents and also married to a leader of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Her reporting was so slanted, so clearly pro-Chavez and pro-Zelaya, that it aroused the anger of many Hondurans, who poured it onto the CNN en Español page in Facebook. Interestingly enough, Krupskaia Alis’ slanted reporting echoed to the anchor desks of CNN en Español in Atlanta, and those formerly beloved CNN en Español anchors such as Patricia Janiot, Claudia Palacios, Glenda Umaña came crashing down in the eyes of many Hondurans who did not hesitate to express their sadness and dissappointment.

Unfortunately that was not the extent of CNN en Español’s major failure in impartial reporting. They brought in “analysts” who first of all were not even Honduran, to condemn the move as a coupe, as something evil, and present “poor president Zelaya” as the victim. Many Hondurans, here in the states and over there were horrified. To add insult to injury, a few days later I discovered that CNN en Español was sourcing the majority of their footage, additional reporting and video from TeleSur! TeleSur!! That would be the equivalent of having Iran State News Media as the source of information on the Iran election and demonstrations that followed soon after. What was CNN en Español management thinking??? Like many Hondurans and many other Latin Americans, I was livid at the unfairness and very short-sighted reporting.

TeleSur, to quote Wikipedia, (The New Television Station of the South) is a pan-Latin American terrestrial and satellite television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela. teleSUR is intended to be an instrument toward the “concretizing of the Bolivarian idea” through the integration of Latin America, and as a counterweight to what the governments that funds it consider a “distorted view of Latin American reality by privately run networks that broadcast to the region” [3] such as CNN and Univisión, and public ones such as the BBC, TVE and Deutsche Welle.

La Nueva Televisora del Sur, C.A. is, according to its website a public company which has Latin American governments as its sponsors. Its sponsors are the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The channel’s news coverage focuses mostly on the countries participating in its financing, giving particular emphasis to the countries’ presidents and the social and political progresses their governments carry out and when covering news about Latin American countries with pro-US governments like México, Colombia and Peru, they do so in a highly critical way.

What were the producers of CNN en Español thinking??? It is no surprise that shortly after such monumental reporting failures, CNN was renamed by many Hondurans as the Chavez News Network.

But it seemed too many people wrote in that they had to begin to tip the scale to the other side as well, and began bringing in more informed analysts such as one from the CATO institute who clearly explained the situation in a more balanced manner, another guy, Vargas-Llosa, as well as the Chief correspondent of the Economist in Latin America, who presented a more balanced outlook of the Honduras situation.

Claudia Palacios began to finally challenge Zelaya in an interview, presenting the complaints and issues of many Hondurans that were writing in dissent of the pro-Zelaya coverage. When he felt challenged, he immediately attacked CNN’s coverage, accusing them of supporting the coupe against him. At that point I felt bad for poor Claudia, for she was getting heated letters from the Honduran people and now was getting unfairly beat up by the deposed president, who obviously had been too busy talking and not listening to CNN en Español’s slanted coverage. Unfortunately that was not enough, for they kept reporting the rest of the week on the Honduran situation still linking to Telesur and kept the Sandinista influenced reporter, KRUSPKAIA ALIS, in Honduras, focusing on the pro-Zelayan “demonstrations” while ignoring the larger pro-new government crowds.

From L to R: Zelaya, Chavez & OAS Sec’y Insulza. Credit: AFP Photo – Jairo Cajina – Click on photo for source

This Honduras situation is certainly not over. Zelaya/Chavez’ gang, who now dominates over the OAS (Organization of American States), and who had recently requested the readmission of Cuba (surprise surprise!), was now ready to kick Honduras out and not recognize the new government. Towards the end of the week of July 4th, they had agreed to send in their Secretary, Miguel Insulza, who unfortunately was an old Zelaya friend, to supposedly speak to the new government headed by Mr. Micheletti, but instead and predictably so, did not listen one bit to the new Honduran government and instead went back to the OAS in Washington DC to push for a vote to kick Honduras out of the organization. Micheletti and his new government, foreseeing the move, snubbed the OAS by withdrawing Honduras’ membership first. The OAS –in a high school-level move– refused to recognize the withdrawal citing that they did not recognize the new government, only that of Mr. Zelaya. So, they stayed up until very late over the weekend and voted to kick Honduras out, which also meant Zelaya was out. Are you all still with me over this soap opera?

It is truly apalling, to see the lack of support the Hondurans have received so far from the international community, and it reminded me of the Iranians, left on their own, in isolation and injustice left to fight for their own freedom from tyranny. At least the Iranians seem to have more support from the major news networks such as CNN and BBC.

Pics from Honduran Site, in Spanish: \”The Truth about Honduras\”

Even though peaceful demonstrations had begun to take place in Honduras and in the US, where Honduran communities exist, with the majority wearing white, showing signs and the blue and white flag, angry mob-like groups began to fill the streets, armed with sticks, stones, wearing red, in support of Zelaya. The difference was clear. While supporters of the new government, every day men, women, children came out dressed peacefully in white, an angry, mob-like crowd wearing red, inciting violence, throwing rocks, burning businesses perceived as supportive of the new government, came out in support of deposed Mel Zelaya.

In one of the Facebook pages of CNN en Español, I found an entry by a Venezuelan radio Disc Jockey. He said he had been mistakenly sent a message to his cell phone, inviting him to a free tour for 2 to Honduras for the weekend of July 5th. He reported this mistaken message to the Hondurans in Facebook, alerting them that the Venezuelan government was likely behind these free “tours” to Honduras. He expressed his opinion stating he’d prefer Venezuelans stayed out of the Honduran situation, something which their government can’t do. Interestingly enough, the Honduran military has also claimed to have arrested citizens from Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela who have entered the country illegally in the past week.

Today, the famous Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Dr. Oscar Arias, president of the Switzerland of the Americas, Costa Rica, offered to mediate talks between both deposed Zelaya and the new Honduran president, Micheletti. While some had faith in success, given his prior accomplishments, there were many of us who doubted it, regardless of his talents. It is obvious that Zelaya, once he has consolidated his pity party from the international community, feels rightfully entitled to being put back in power. It is ironic how he and his band of dictator friends so freely and conveniently use the word “democracy” as they so fiercely are against it when no one is looking.

Zelaya has dug in. He will accept nothing short of being back in power. Micheletti, rightfully so, said he would accept nothing short of keeping Zelaya out of power, and even reminded him that if he were to return to his country, he’d be arrested for the many crimes for which he is being sought. Unfortunately, Zelaya went first in the talks with Arias. Micheletti went second. And after 3 hours with the Costa Rican president, Micheletti got back on a plane and headed home, clearly showing there was no chance of sitting down with Zelaya.

I have to give it to CNN USA’s Rick Sanchez, who covered the situation in a short segment this week, but in a more fair outlook than his peers at CNN en Español. He brought in an “analyst” who clearly was clueless about the overall political picture in Latin America, yet as this so called “analyst” presented his views supporting the “legitimacy” of Zelaya’s presidency, calling the Honduran situation an illegal coupe, Rick did a nice job presenting the view of the Hondurans, who according to their constitution, had no legal process to get rid of a law-breaking president like Zelaya. I felt Rick’s analysis was the most fair by a CNN anchor since he was able to present both sides of the story and allow people make up their own mind.

As a Latin American citizen, raised both in Latin America, as well as here in the United States, with my native country now under a pro-Chavista, anti-American administration which has already changed the constitution, dissolved congress and the judiciary, and now is proceededing to start suppressing freedom of the press, I acknowledge that I cannot present what an outsider would consider an “impartial” point of view. Though I observe the dictates of journalism, by always checking on my references and referencing my sources, this remains an opinion page, as the theme of this site says, it is “The World through the Eyes of an Opinionated New Yorker”. This situation is how I see it, how I’ve experienced it, and how many Hondurans see it and have experienced it as well, which enables me to sympathize with their plight and disdain any “experts” and so called “analysts”. After all, the majority of these “experts” are foreigners who have studied Latin America and analyze it from the comfort of their US based homes and offices. It is likely these experts have not lived there nor are they in daily close contact with the people, the culture and many don’t even speak the language and are clueless about the differences between TeleSur, GloboVision, TeleAmazonas, Galavision, etc. I don’t understand why CNN keeps putting those people –who are so out of touch with the reality of the lives of Latin Americans– in front of American audiences to spew legal garbage that clearly doesn’t cover the dangerous situation the Hondurans cunningly pulled themselves out of.

The American guy CNN sent in to Honduras recently, whose name I forget at this moment, in his attempt to be more fair than his Sandinista peer, Krupskaia, presented the situation as that of a class war between the rich and the poor. And his naivetee irritated me. Obviously this guy has not studied enough Latin American politics to see that the poor are being used as instruments to put these dictators in power. These guys are the least interested in the poor. Perfect case and example, Castro in Cuba, who lives like a millionaire while rationing his people. The same goes for Chavez and his lifestyle. Just this week in Honduras, they discovered records and video of Zelaya’s presidential minister just a few days before being ousted, making a withdrawal of about 10 million dollars from the Honduras Central Bank, the bank of the people. No one knows where the money went. Mel Zelaya, who claimed recently to be a humble farmer with a home in a middle class neighborhood in the capital of Honduras, which in reality is an upper class neighborhood, managed to splurge on his presidential credit card at the tune of 80,000 dollars during his first few days out of the country in Costa Rica, Washington DC and New York. $80,000 is quite a sum of money, something is known, takes many Hondurans to earn over their lifetime. And Zelaya, supposedly a humble farmer that favors the poor managed to spend $80K of the people’s money in 3 days before the new government shut down his credit card. Sure this is a class clash!!! Only the naive and untrained eye could fall for that. No one in educated Latin America would fall for that, rich or poor. The truth about Honduras is that this is a fight to remain free of Chavez’ increasing power in Latin America. The Hondurans clearly don’t want it.

And I would strongly advise the extreme right wingers or left wingers residing in the United States, who want to take sides pro or against Zelaya, depending on their leanings to support their domestic agendas here. Be careful of how you view the right and left in Latin America. For if you think of yourself, as a far left or even average leftist, and you feel you should support Zelaya, please be aware that the left in Latin America is true socialism, closer to Cuba’s comunism and they are very anti-American. The supposed left in the United States could easily be considered centrist in Latin America. So, I ask the average leftist here, please be aware of the differences.

Now, to the right wingers in the Republican party who want to take this issue against Obama, I’d say also be careful. Please know that Chavez blames the right wing for all the woes in Latin America and calls you all crazy. Supporting Zelaya would be supporting Chavez. Besides, there is information we don’t know just yet in regards to the real participation behind the scenes, of the United States in this situation. After all, you all know well the US has a military base in Honduras. So, please abstain from using this international conflict, which really has nothing to do with the right wing of Republican leanings of the American public, as propaganda to feed fires against the Obama government.

This is not a fight over the legality of a coupe. This is a struggle to remain truly democratic and independent. It is not about Republican versus Democratic ideals the way they are perceived here in the States.

So I sit here tonight, in awe and respect of the brave Hondurans and Iranians, who fight hard to take back the government by the people and for the people, who fight hard to regain those precious freedoms we so much take for granted here, and I pray, hoping the wave of understanding and support will eventually go their way, for unfairly so very unfairly, international support is sorely lacking.

For the next update on Honduras, as of July 27/2009, click here or go to:

http://marianyc.com/2009/07/26/update-on-the-situation-in-honduras-072609/

Correction:  A picture of Zelaya with Micheletti, was wrongly captioned as Zelaya with Insulza. Diana, a Honduran reader pointed out the error and it has been corrected. I thank you all dear readers for your contributions, comentary and feedback.

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