Judge Nullifies University Arrests

El Heraldo is reporting in its "Minuto a Minuto" column at 12:02 pm Tegucigalpa time, that Judge Iván Castelar, of Tegucigalpa has invalidated the raid the Policia Nacional conducted on the Teaching University in Tegucigalpa. He ruled that the police "violated the university". The police had reported finding "at least 13 molotov coctails and 7 sticks of dynamite" in the gymnasium where the protesters have been sleeping and arrested more than 120 protesters in this case. The protesters say that the evidence was planted, that it was a police officer that brought the "evidence" into the Unversity in a backpack.

The war of words between the rector of the Autonomous University in Tegucigalpa and the Police continues. The police continue to allege that the lab of the Chemistry and Farmacy departments was used in the manufacture of the molotov cocktails, despite the rector's assurances that the lab burned last year in a serious fire that closed the entire building, which is guarded by a security company not associated with the University, and no student or faculty member has had access since it burned.

I'm dubious that the "devices" in the photographs in El Heraldo and the other newspapers are molotov cocktails. The bottles in the photos are painted black, and in at least one photo there is a can of spray paint. There are no sticks of dynamite, nor detonators, in the photos. There is no reason to spray paint the bottles, and one doesn't need a laboratory or equipment to make a molotov cocktail.

Update: El Heraldo has now posted an article with more information about the decision. To reiterate, the Judge, Iván Castelar, has nullified the detention warrants filed by the prosecutor. He ruled that the police and military "violated the autonomy of the university" and the case failed because they failed to follow proper procedures and include a prosecutor in their investigation. Reading between the lines, it appears that they didn't establish the legal grounds needed to enter university property before going in.

In this case, the prosecutor had accused the 24 protesters of sedition, destruction of property, illegal protests against the security of the state, and robbery following the protests where a bus and fast food restaurant burned. Of those arrested, 13 were released, though the charges have not been dropped. The remaining 11 are still imprisoned in the national penitentiary according to a spokesman.

Education is dangerous: Police militarize Tegucigalpa's universities

The excerpts from a chilling first-hand account of the repression of anti-coup rallies really needs little explanation, other than to say it comes from a member of a delegation from the US, from the Quixote Center/Quest for Peace, that went to Honduras to see first-hand what the situation is.

As the author notes, the police are now claiming that the National Pedagogical University stored, and the UNAH produced, bombs, producing rows of devices lined up for photo opportunities as "evidence". The highly-respected sociologist, Julieta Castellanos, rector of UNAH, denies this in an article published in La Tribuna. Ironically, her main argument that the charges of bomb-making were inaccurate comes from the fact that the laboratories are unusable, never having been repaired after an explosion during the course of use. As anyone who has visited UNAH knows, it suffers from an entirely unmaintained set of facilities. Now they also have to contend with police rumor-mongering which, in the present atmosphere, could set up conditions for militarization as has already taken place in the Pedagogica, which trains the teachers who work in Honduras' under-funded, challenged schools.

Wednesday in Tegucigalpa

We had breathed a collective sigh of relief that the mass mobilizations of Tuesday had passed without major incident. In the morning on Wednesday, part of our delegation went to join that day’s march which, after an extended assembly at the University headed off towards downtown Tegucigalpa. Three of us who have been coordinating spent the morning writing a framework for an ongoing presence of delegations.

Our group had agreed to meet up in the mid afternoon at the human rights office, COFADEH. We were planning to participate in a press conference which COFADEH was convening, but had been continually delayed because the report they are issuing includes so many cases of human rights violations, they have not been able to get it finished

.....

Suddenly a part of the crowd started moving backwards instead of forward. We ran to a different door, around the corner, closer to where the crowds were turning around, to see why it was happening. Down the side street, we could see a line of police and military advancing. They advanced on the crowd without the slightest provocation. Suddenly tear gas was flying everywhere and we could see that troops were attacking the crowd from other directions as well. Some people in the march responded by throwing rocks to chase the military and police back. What happened was obviously a previously planned assault. Soon the police and military were chasing people from every direction, and the march disintegrated, as people ran to escape being accosted by the repressive actions. What we would later discover is that assaults were happening somewhat simultaneously all over the city. Our view inside the mall afforded us scant perspective as to what was happening all over the city, and in San Pedro Sula as well. Members of our delegation would later recount of being sandwiched between soldiers from many directions, but fortunately they were able to escape without personal injury.

....


The army conducted an assault on the National University, and has turned it into a virtual military base. They arrested an undetermined number of people inside, some whose whereabouts are still unknown. Ambulances which left full of people who had been beaten, many reportedly with their faces battered apparently never arrived at the hospital that was their supposed destination. The headquarters of the STYBIS union was also surrounded, and remained under control of the army as of last night. There was also a similar kind of assault on the other city where protesters had converged on Tuesday, San Pedro Sula. We got a report that more than 300 people were detained there. [emphasis added]

We went out in a couple of vehicles to accompany COFADEH staff to rescue several young union activists who were in hiding and feared detention and worse. We brought them back to the COFADEH office, where it is presumed that they will be safer. On the way home we stopped by the University, which looked just like a military base. Outside was a group of lawyers who had been working for hours to secure the release of those who had been illegally detained there yesterday. We also passed in front of the STYBIS headquarters, which was still surrounded by the army. [emphasis added]

This morning our delegation, severely impacted emotionally by the events unfolding around them yesterday, will regroup and again head out to cover the mobilization which has been called for today and prepare reports detailing the breadth of abuses which were committed yesterday. Here in Honduras the coup government’s propaganda machine is fully cranked up this morning. The head of the police and a high military official were in full smile on a morning talk show. They are attempting to justify their criminalization of the protest, alleging that they uncovered bomb making activities by the resistance front, which they use as an excuse to justify their wanton attacks on all of the protesters.

US Congressional Actions you don't see covered in the Wall Street Journal

It is important to remember that the US government is not a singular entity. Much of the criticism of the actions of the Obama administration revolves around muddled messages or actions that tend to legitimate the de facto regime, and lack of actions that would clearly communicate to the coup participants and broader Honduran civil society that the US really, really does not approve, not even covertly.

Meanwhile, if you read mainstream US news, you may hear that Congress is concerned that the US State Department is overly supportive of President Zelaya. You may see coverage of visits by Republican congress members to Honduras, where they report that everything is normal.

They can say this even on a day when protesters in both Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula were brutally attacked, and yet another university-- the Universidad Pedagogica campus-- was invaded by the police.

But these Republican politicians who support the coup are not the only US congress members taking stands on the situation in Honduras. Dozens of representatives have signed on to House Resolution 630, condemning the coup, sponsored by Representatives William Delahunt and José Serrano, among others. Representative Raúl Grijalva and 16 colleagues have sent a letter to the president requesting additional sanctions directly against coup participants.

And now, courtesy of La Tribuna, one of the most curious reported stories of engagement by US congress members, this time in the Senate, implies for a Honduran domestic audience that Senator John Kerry is open to being persuaded not to support further sanctions.

Titled Efforts by CEAL in Washington to avoid sanctions, and datelined Washington, August 12, the article quotes Senator Kerry as congratulating the CEAL (Business Counsel of Latin America- Honduras section) for its "fundamenta role in the process of negotiation" of the Honduran political crisis.

It says he "welcomed" the efforts of the CEAL, which "together with other business organizations, went to Washington to keep the political crisis that the country suffers from contaminating economic and commercial relations with the United States".

The report goes on to say that after the events of June 28, CEAL mobilized on Washington to keep the country from suffering sanctions, along with the Honduran Maquiladora Association. Together, it notes, "they hired a law firm (lobbyists) with strong connections with the Democratic and Republican benches [in congress] so that the interests of Honduras would be preserved".

This, of course, is the lobbying firm of Lanny Davis, whose ties to the Clinton family convince the Honduran scholars with whom I am in contact that the US State Department is covertly supporting the de facto regime. And this article certainly implies a kind of smug self-congratulation by the business community in Honduras, plus the propaganda value of assuring its Honduran audience that they are getting a hearing at the highest levels in Washington.

So what were they seeking to avoid? "They concentrated especially on their interest that remittances, which provide 20% of the Gross Domestic Product with 2.8 million dollars in remittances sent in 2008, would not suffer any sanction, since more than a million homes depend on them as sources of support." The official number is actually 2.7 million, and the business interests need to be understood in terms of the way remittances, spent domestically, provide capital and profits.

The second major interest, defined as specific to the maquilas, was keeping the benefits of CAFTA intact. Again, this is couched in terms of keeping 200,000 jobs intact. But it also means the profits from these export-oriented businesses might remain intact as the economy overall begins to show the effects of the coup, and is now expected to contract 2% this year (rather than grow 2%) as a direct consequence of the coup.

As the article notes, "remittances and maquilas, together with other benefits of CAFTA, are the backbone of the economy, since they represent more than 80% of the foreign commerce of Honduras."

So far, what we might expect from a lobbying group for business. What happens next is a surreal turn if we keep in mind that these companies include many of the supporters of the coup:

At the same time, the businessmen have wagered on a peaceful solution to the political crisis.

The Democratic Senator and ex-presidential candidate Kerry supports the initiative of President Oscar Arias that places emphasis on the San Jose Accord, which is the mechanism for a concerted outcome from the political crisis.



At the same time, the accord referenced "represents the best solution to the crisis in Honduras", according to the communique of Kerry, since he considers it "effective" and it permits "verification".



He also favors the naming of a special mission of high dignataries so that the crisis can have a peaceful and negotiated outcome.

Remember that this is a story published in a pro-coup paper, for a Honduran audience. What is it trying to say?

Surely not that the businessmen support the non-negotiable requirement in the San Jose Accord of a return of the elected government.

The bizarre quotes pulled out of Kerry's statement actually help determine that this story-- published as if it were news of a recent discussion-- actually refers to events that took place before July 30, the date of the statement. Kerry's statement was a response to one of Micheletti's many false feints implying support for the Arias negotiation. In it, the restoration of President Zelaya was explicitly mentioned, although in the propaganda piece that appeared today in Honduras, this part was left out by the strategic use of out-of-context quotes.

The business community is desperate. Why?

A chilling analysis of the economic impact of the coup is available in Laura Jung's translation of the analysis by Honduran economist Jéronimo Pastor de Maria Campos published by Adrienne Pine.

Pastor de Maria Campos notes that 12% of foreign reserves have disappeared since the coup; tourism income is down 36% (my contacts in Honduras noted in July that visitation to Classic Maya Copan had dropped to ca. 15 people per day); direct foreign investment fell from 12.19% under Zelaya during the first six months of the year to -15.6% year-to-year after the coup; and as a result, he projects that any government coming into office in January 2010 will have only $500 million in reserves, potentially sparking massive devaluation of the lempira.

This oddly converges with the US Republican delegation's report that the de facto regime assured them they have enough resources to hold on for eight months. While the Republican delegation offered this as something of a positive point, indicating that economic pressure would not force the regime to give in, what this actually means is that the regime is committed to burning through over 60% of the country's remaining resources by the time the next president is inaugurated. Glass half empty, glass half full.