Xiomara Castro (left) next to the coffin of activist and supporter José Antonio Ardon, in Tegucigalpa.
Photograph: Gustavo Amador/EPA
Honduras Election Fraud- The Real News Network
"Banana Republic" Honduras Open for Business After Tainted Election , 03 December 2013 by lauren Carasik, Truthout
Few observers are surprised at widespread allegations of fraud, violence and intimidation in the November 24, 2013, election in Honduras, a country notorious for corruption; stark and longstanding social, political and economic inequality; and extremely fragile democratic institutions. After all, electoral mischief is what we have come to expect from the pejoratively termed "banana republics," countries in the global south characterized by iron-fisted oligarchic rule, the exploitation of resources and labor for international corporations and misery for the masses.
But although we may want to distance ourselves from the suffering in Honduras, grinding poverty, inequality and anti-democratic principles do not occur in a vacuum: What happens in contemporary Honduran politics is inseparable from its colonial legacy and present-day economic and geopolitical importance to its powerful neighbors to the north and the interests of transnational companies.
...Some critics allege a brilliantly orchestrated campaign to ensure and legitimize Hernandez's victory. Fraud, intimidation and violence before and during the election have a cumulative impact: dirty elections are stolen one vote at a time, through a variety of tactics that start well in advance of voting day. Hernandez's control over all the apparatus of government power, including the Congress, judiciary, military and electoral authority, facilitated the ease of influencing the outcome. The Honduran elite also control the media and its messaging to the electorate - and command a deep well of financial resources to inundate the airwaves and print media, with no public scrutiny of campaign financing.
...The poorly resourced LIBRE was vastly outspent by the National Party. Efforts to influence the outcome included vote buying, discount cards and jobs offered by the National Party, tampering with registered voter rolls to disqualify some voters and include others who could not legally cast a vote, credential buying that compromised multiparty oversight of voting tables, media manipulation, malfeasance in the calculation and transmission of the vote tabulation sheets, and intimidation and violence, including the criminalization of resistance leaders and targeted attacks and killings.
...Despite official results that bitterly disappointed many rooting for a more democratic and egalitarian civil society, Castro has not conceded defeat, and some hope can be salvaged from this contested process. The emergence of the LIBRE Party as a political contender helped break the longstanding stranglehold of the conservative National and Liberal parties. With the TSE giving Hernandez just less than 36 percent of the vote, he commands a weak mandate at best. Without a majority of seats in Congress, the National Party will have to cobble together a coalition to govern, presumably with the center-right Liberal Party. Voter participation of over 60 percent was a significant increase from 2009, an indication that the post-coup disillusionment with the electoral process is fading.
But Honduras is at grave risk of spiraling into even-more-brutal repression. Peaceful student protests on November 26 were met with a violent crackdown. Exacerbating fears of escalating repression against resistance protagonists is the news from human rights groups and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) that a hit list is circulating, containing the names of prominent human rights defenders, lawyers, union leaders, indigenous rights activists, teachers and opposition party members targeted for death, reminiscent of the 1980s, when death squads were lethally employed to silence dissent. Those reaping the economic and geopolitical benefits of Honduras' status quo will not cede ground easily. In the oft-cited words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing without a demand." And so courageous Hondurans fighting for a more just, equitable and democratic society march on, with the winds of history blowing at their backs.
also see: Hundreds of protesters confront cops after ‘stolen’ Honduran election by Agence France-Presse, Nov. 26, 2013 via the Raw Story
and:
Thousands march in Honduras after election controversy Xiomara Castro and her leftist Libre party demand election recount, saying she was robbed of presidency Dec. 2, 2013,Guardian .com
Thousands of people marched peacefully through the capital of Honduras on Sunday in support of the opposition presidential candidate Xiomara Castro and her claim that last weekend's election was fraudulent.
..Both Castro and her husband, the former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted by a coup in 2009, led the protest march from a pickup truck carrying the body of a militant of their Libre party, who was shot dead hours before the demonstration began. "We are here to denounce the culture of death promoted since the coup. This can only be a political crime," said Zelaya, whose removal from office has left Honduras polarised.
...Castro alleges that tally sheets were altered, dead or absent people were included in the voter registry and polling stations were left open to election fraud.
Castro, 54, called the election "a disgusting monstrosity that has robbed me of the presidency" and said she would not recognise the Hernández government.and for more background see:
Welcome to Honduras, the most dangerous country on the planet Drug wars have made Honduras, the original banana republic, the world’s most dangerous country Philip Sherwell Nov. 16, 2013, The telegraph
and further on President Obama's involvement in Honduras: In the beginning President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at least publicly condemned the military Coup in Honduras replacing democratically elected President Zelaya but was this just public posturing while in reality secretly supporting the coup .
Obama on Honduras
Uploaded on 30 Jun 2009 President Barrack Obama comments on the military coup in Honduras and states that Manuel Zelaya is the President recognized by the United States.
Hillary Clinton On Honduras Coup d'etat 2009Hillary appears to condemn the Coup but appears to suggest that President Zelaya may have been trying to pervert in some way the democratic process and Honduran law and institutions for his own benefit ie prolonging term of office and making radical changes to Honduras Constitution. Zelaya wanted to hold a referendum to pose the possibility of making changes to the Constitution which had in fact been written mainly by American advisors with American political, military and corporate interests in mind .
So she leaves the question open about Zelaya's intentions regarding the Honduran Constitution and its legal apparatus and institutions. So her beef maybe with the way in which the ousting of Zelaya took place .
Secretary Clinton Meets With Honduran Foreign Minister
Uploaded on 28 Apr 2010
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a bilateral meeting with Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati, at the Department of State April 28, 2010.
Human Rights are viewed by Neo-Liberals as equivalent somehow to Neo-Liberal Capitalism ie economic opportunity , full employment at low wages , rampant consumerism , rapacious unfettered capitalism and American Hegemony ???
Those in need in a Neo-Liberal society are taken care of by volunteer NGOs or government run organizations similar to those of Conservative Pro-Capitalism Christians ala the poor house, the tread mill laws of the 19th century.
President Obama has either changed his tune since the the Coup took place in 2009 to fit the present reality of 2013 in Honduras ie Real Politik or was always in favor of a less democratic more hardline government in power in Honduras as a more reliable partner for US imperialist interests in South America and its pro-neo-liberal anti-leftist obsession favoring "Fascism lite" .
Also checkout :
#OWS UPDATE: Obama Props Up Corrupt Anti-Democratic 1% Elite In Honduras Feb. 21, 2012 Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca
Honduras Coup Earns Global Condemnation But Supported By Fox News & The Wall Street Journal July 6, 2009,Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca
#OWS Update Wikileaks Cables : Proof 2009 Obama Backed Honduran Coup D'Etat & Another Big Fire In " Honduras, Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca, Feb. 22, 2012
1 comment:
Of course the US favors hardcore fascism in Latin America. It's not "fascism light", either. Prof. Chalmers Johnson says the two worst regimes installed by anyone during the cold war era were Pinochet and the fascist regime in Greece, both installed and backed by the US.
The US openly admits it will oppose and crush left wing coups and either support or do nothing to oppose right wing coups.
This is what the USA has been doing in overdrive in Latin America since 1945.
USA is running a global, right wing, counter-revolution.
William Blum goes over each and every US intervention in his book Rogue State. Every intervention is to crush any group, militant or peaceful, usually democratic, that seems like it might be in favor of helping poor people in any way, no matter how minor, and to replace that with hardcore fascist military dictatorship kept in place by terrorist killings, torture, and extreme repression.
That is what the USA stands for. If anyone thinks the plutocracy would back Obama if he strayed from this, you are sorely mistaken or unaware of the effectiveness of the vetting system the US has for political candidates.
Post a Comment