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.

Radio Progreso reporter missing in demonstration in Choloma

By email, correspondents in Honduras report that in a violent police action against a takeover of the highway in Choloma, north of San Pedro Sula, a reporter for the Jesuit-sponsored Radio Progreso, one of the few free media in the country, was communicating from the demonstration when his cell phonewas cut off.

On the air Radio Progreso is broadcasting news from this demonstration, disrupted, like others, with tear gas and truncheons.

A lawyer for the defense of demonstrators reports being beaten when he approached police to identify himself as representing those captured.

The missing reporter is Gustavo Cardoza, whose last report by phone was that the police had drawn a gun and were pursuing him.

Update: Tiempo is now reporting that there has been a violent dislodging of the protesters in Choloma by 200 police using teargas and night sticks, and that one of their reporters is being held by the police. Tiempo reports that in addition to their photographer, Julio Umaña, a reporter from Tela, Edwin Castillo, and Gustavo Cardoza, from Radio Progreso are being held. All three were beaten and are being held, despite having identified themselves as reporters.

Tiempo reports that their reporter was released about 1:30 pm local time, but that all of the shots on his camera had been deliberately erased by the police.

Mel no longer has the intention of returning to the Presidency?

This morning, La Tribuna of Honduras published an article titled "Mel ya no tiene intención de regresar a la Presidencia".

This short notice, derived from a longer original published by EFE, quotes President Zelaya's Minister of Defense, Arístides Mejía, as saying in Costa Rica that

President Manuel Zelaya does not have any intention of returning to the Presidency, because he has already governed enough, but he will continue promoting actions that will re-establish democratic and constitutional order, which has been violated by the coup d'Etat, that was jeaded by the present de facto government.

The longer EFE article, quoting Mejía as well, puts it slightly differently, but the same conclusions can be drawn:

The deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has "no personal desire to return" to the country, except that he wishes to do so so that democratic order can be re-established.

"Zelaya, according to what I have seen, has no personal desire to return, since he already governed and there was already little lacking to finish" when the military detained and expelled him from the country

It is important to note that Mejía was speaking by phone on a program on Honduras' HRN radio station from Tegucigalpa, so these comments must be taken as addressed at Hondurans, not just the international community. He went on,

What [Zelaya] is doing is trying to re-establish democratic order in Honduras, like all the international community, which wishes that President Zelaya would return to finish his term so that it will legitimate" the electoral process.

"The problem is that if there is no democratic re-establishment, the elections (of next November) will not be recognized" declared Mejía.

Mejía responded in this way on being asked if [Zelaya] wished to return to Honduras despite the fact, as the government of Roberto Micheletti claims, that there is strong opposition to his return.

The minister of the deposed government affirmed that "the majority of the people continue being in favor of Manuel Zelaya".

The substance of these reports seems to be supported by statements in an Inter Press Service News Agency article as well, which clearly draws on the same article but adds this important addition:

Sources speaking off the record told IPS that one of the options being considered is the possibility that neither Zelaya nor Micheletti would govern the country until January, when the president's term is to end.

This alternative, one of the sources said, "has begun to be mentioned in the last two weeks, given the growing polarisation in the country, and because the two sides have begun to show a degree of flexibility."

"Now the question is to convince ex-president Zelaya," said the source, who requested anonymity. "Through its ambassador in Honduras, Washington has sent a clear message: that it wants to overturn the coup d'etat. That is what Ambassador (Hugo) Llorens has told the country's elites."

According to the source, Washington "would not be ill-disposed towards a negotiated third option for the transition, since the election campaign will not be able to turn the page on this, like the politicians think, and if this isn't resolved in time, the election process will be marked by a great deal of instability."

One way out of the confrontation that has never been mentioned up until now has always been this: broker a deal in which President Zelaya is acknowledged to have continued as constitutional president; find some way to designate a third party who has not been tainted by association with the de facto regime to be somehow placed in line to step into the Presidency; and have the formally restored President resign in favor of that unity candidate.

The problem for me-- and as readers know, I have a pretty good grasp of the political landscape in Honduras-- is that this polarization has been so intense that I find it hard to image that there is anyone who could take that third-party role. And unless that person were designated as President of Congress, there is no constitutional way for the President to resign in his or her favor.

It would be ironic if the outcome of this entire episode were the installation of someone who perhaps was never even elected to any office through some sort of hastily passed congressional amendment suspending some part of the law of succession, but that is the only way I can see that a true third party caretaker could take office legally.

Or, maybe the point here is to get the word out in Honduras about the potential illegitimacy of any election under the de facto regime-- and to begin to counter the demonization of President Zelaya, who has now been painted so inescapably as being intent on staying in office that simply saying "he really would rather not come back to try to pick up the pieces after Micheletti broke things" merits headlines.

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

RNS pointed me to an article published in today's issue of La Tribuna, attributed by them to ACAN-EFE, that "distinguishes the reality of the micheletti regime from the reality of the OAS and calls the Micheletti spokesperson's comments into subtle doubt." This is consistent with a pattern we have been noticing of dissonance even in the pro-coup press; at some point, keeping all the big lies in the air becomes too difficult and the stories fall apart. Read on for attempted white-washing of the OAS visit cancellation and rescheduling, and for the troubling claim of Micheletti regime access to the US State Department.

That this is at the very least an exaggeration, if not a truly big lie, is suggested by a current AP article, that clarifies that the delegation is meeting with the US representative to OAS, not, as implied, with other State Department officials:

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Sara Mangiaracina said Thursday that a group representing Micheletti was scheduled to meet with Lew Amselem, the U.S. representative to the OAS.

Mangiaracina did not know the names of the Honduran officials but said they were not part of the de facto government. She said OAS head Jose Miguel Insulza asked that Amselem meet with the delegation to further negotiations. She had no other details.

It would be interesting to know who counts as a member of the de facto government in the eyes of the US State Department, because the Honduran government thinks the delegation does represent them.

So, how did the same story play in the Honduran press? Repeat after me: "lies, lies, and more lies":

The government of Honduras affirmed today that the "suspension" last Tuesday of a visit by an OAS delegation to learn about the political crisis in the country "avoided putting at risk the security of the Chancellors" that would have made it up.

Comment: they would not have been in danger if the regime were not violently repressing the demonstrators; and oh yeah, what about the claims that there are no more than a few dozen demonstrators, or that everything is peaceful?

[Deputy Foreign Minister Marta Lorena] Alvarado said that the topic of the OAS delegation is "pending the conversations in that regard that... [a] Honduran mission that is visiting Washington will have". In addition, the suspension of the visit of the OAS envoys "impeded the registering of more acts of violence that, thanks to the prudence of the forces that maintain public order, did not lead to loss of Honduran lives, nor in major damages to property".

The protests by thousands of Zelaya followers Tuesday and Wednesday in Tegucigalpa ended in disturbances on coming face to face with the Police. The incidents left dozens wounded and detained, and the burning of a bus and a fast-food restaurant, among other material damages.

In other words-- lies, lies...

Alvarado also said today that the delegation of foreign ministers of the OAS that will come to Tegucigalpa to continue the dialogue over the political crisis that this Central American country is experiencing, had still not been selected.

The communique underlined that any information that had been issued up till now about the OAS delegation "by other sources, national or international", are not official.

This declaration contrasts with the announcement made by the OAS, to the effect that the mission of high level of this organization is composed of the foreign ministers or officials for Latin America of Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.

This is what we might call a big lie-- and it works in Honduras because they are cut off from international media and don't necessarily understand that the "other sources" being dismissed include the OAS itself.

Now we get to the contradiction of the very nice US State Department spokeswoman:

The representatives that traveled to Washington included three members of the commission of the Micheletti government that participated in the process of dialogue that was sponsored by the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, for a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Honduras [Vilma Morales, Arturo Corrales and Mauricio Villeda].

I guess we can give Sara Mangiaracina this: they aren't exactly "in" the government; just "of" it.

The envoys to Washington... according to Alvarado, will establish "contacts with diverse dignataries, representatives of the private sector [read: lobbyists], media, and US centers of strategic thinking. [read: right-wing think tanks?]

They will also have "contacts" with officials of [OAS] to come to an agreement about "the composition of the mission of foreign secretaries that will visit Honduras, as well as the minor officials of OAS that will accompany them".

In other words: we are going to OAS headquarters to tell them if we do not like the delegation they propose, we will refuse to accept it again.

In addition "they will establish the agenda of the mission of the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights that has the intention of visiting Honduras, by invitation" of the de facto regime.

Could it be the Micheletti regime is concerned that outsiders won't understand that violence is a human right?

Confirmed:

According to Tegucigalpa, "the bilateral relation of the OAS, subject to international law, in regard to Honduras is and should be that which corresponds to an organization of that kind in regard to a sovereign State, of non-interference and not inserting itself in its internal affairs, in conformity with the the principal of sovereign equality of the States that rules the Charter of the UN.

Final lie (or irony) of course: the UN also does not approve of the expulsion of the elected president, and does not see it as an "internal affair". Nor, we can devoutly hope, would that organization-- in which the regime has not yet renounced membership-- see human rights violations of the magnitude that are now everyday occurences in Honduras as "internal affairs" of a sovereign State.

We have been there too often. That is how we get to Rwanda, Bosnia, and a host of shameful failures of international will.

"Get to Know the 10 Families that Financed the Coup in Honduras!"

So reads the headline in El Libertador today; here is my rapid translation of the main text; you have got to go to the original, it lists point by point all the companies:

The major expert on military themes in Honduras, the investigator of the UNAH, Letiticia Salomón, uncovered the ins and outs of the coup d'Etat. And she explained as a detail without importance for a busy audience present at a roundtable: "It was planned by a business group lead by Carlos Flores Facussé, ex-president of Honduras (1998-2002) and owner of the newspaper La Tribuna, which together with La Prensa, El Heraldo, TV channels 2, 3, 5 and 9 were the fundamental pillar of the coup". The rest of the families that supported the coup against Zelaya and that control 90% of the wealth that the country produces are: José Rafael Ferrari; Juan Canahuati; the financier Camilo Atala, the lumberer José Lamas, the energy entrepreneur Fredy Nasser, Jacobo Kattán, the sugar industrialist Guillermo Lippman and the builder Rafael Flores.

A fundamental person in this conspiracy was the magnate Miguel Facussé, decorated by the Colombian Senate in 2004 with the Orden Mérito a la Democracia, and who today monopolizes the business of palm oil and in 1992 supported the purchase of land from campesinos at less than 10% of its actual value.

Telethon Funds Used for the Coup

Knowing the participation of these people in the coup d'Etat against Zelaya, among others, Jorge Canahuati Larach, José Rafael Ferrari and Carlos Flores Facussé, the reason that the Supreme Tribunal of Accounts has never carried out an audit of the public funds that are collected each year by the Telethon can be deduced; money that many people have given in good faith, but that Ferrari and Canahuati have used to destroy the weak State of Law that Honduras had.

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.