Honduras: Pajamas and a Coup

In following this story, I found the propagandist's at work were old out-dated school still using bogeymen "Communist", having not moved on to modern "Mayoist" propaganda.
It is evident the wealthy-elite embedded in the Supreme Court are hanging on to a very thin-thread, that the Constitution does not allow changing term limits, when even elementary educated would realize this article of the Constitution could also be amended.
It is apparent that the wealthy-elite keeping Honduras safely under Western Corp-privitation were aware that Zelaya had both government and Honduras citizens backing and could, following proper procedure, have amended the Constitution. In desperation they quite apparently usurped Constitutional power they do not have to depose a sitting and Democratically elected President.
How they did this speaks volumes, picking two Generals trained at (Pentagon "School of Assassins" in Ft Bennong Georgia) to depose the President, compounding their crime by flying the President out of the country. Today many leaders of many nations and Int'l-Org's like OAS are denouncing the 'military coup' giving it the dignity it deserves, a regime at work.

The problem in Honduras can be briefly described this way:
- Three and half years ago, the Ex President won by a tiny margin in the lowest vote ever in this country%u2019s history. I voted for him %uF04C
- During his first years he bought Harley Davidson bike, Thoroughbreds, took rides on the Air Force%u2019s F5s, turn the Marriott%u2019s Presidential Suite into a Honeymoon Suite with a different woman per week, but regularly with Patricia Rodas (his Chancellor). In other words, he began living his Mid-Life-Crisis publicly. This is well documented in the local newspapers.
- He continuously chose week strategies or actions; thus, polarizing the society in barren discussions that he never won, yet invested massive funds into them as campaigns. I%u2019m not sure why he kept doing this (strategy or error), but the fact is he polarized us to max. He meant to implement a %u201CNo driving day per week for cars%u201D that would only hurt the poor in practice. He tried to change the airport to a US military base (used for Drug traffic control mostly) (hoping to replace it), but then realized that it need an incredibly expensive road first. Things like these made us turn him into the office joke of the day, permanently. (He also gave us bad luck in soccer matches %uF04A. Soccer is the mainstream religion of Honduras.)
- He created his personal TV %u201Cnews%u201D channel, just like Hugo Chavez (where did he get the money?). He also created his own News Paper which we all got daily %u201Cfor free%u201D at our door step (no subscription required). He managed to miraculously turn his worst media critics into his best friends over night. What are we suppose to think about this? That they%u2019re stupid? Cause we aren%u2019t. Well, not that much.
- He adopted unharmonized measures like the drastic rising of minimum wage. This did not affect large business like he meant, because they were already paying more than that. It did kill a bunch of small and medium business raising the jobless claims. This hurt him more than anyone, since he had not pondered on how much that would be for government employees. Ironically he did manage to capitalize on this. His followers argue that %u201Che raised the minimum wage%u201D, but in reality, this was the first government that didn%u2019t raise minimum wage yearly, instead, he waited until his last year.
- Mel Zelaya did not present a budget to Congress for this year like our Constitution mandates (every October of the previous year). Not presenting a budget for approval by Congress, an yet spending funds is a crime according to our Constitution. He was not releasing funds to Congress for administrative spending, nor other entities, hoping to suffocate them until they agreed with his terms. This was like having a four year old in the Presidency!
- About two years ago, the DEA was following a few cars traveling with diplomatic plates coming from Panama. At their arrival to Honduras (quick stop before continuing to Guatemala) they stopped in front of Hondutel to check with Marcelo Chimirri (CEO of Hondutel and Ex Presidents best friend), but saw themselves surrounded by DEA and InterPol, so they opened fire and escaped in hail of bullets. They quickly headed To Marcelo Chimirri%u2019s home for refuge. The Police had to go back for a Court order to go in, but quickly the Ex President ordered them to back down. Chimirri%u2019s best defense was based on secretly taped Telephone conversations between corrupt politicians and media casters of which he posted sections on YouTube.com. So far Chimirri has not gone to a real trial over any of this, but it seems like the new Government will process him finally..
- Hondurans are certain that Chimirri and Mel Zelaya controlled drug trafficking in Honduras. Ever since Zelaya befriended Hugo Chavez, the DEA captures one or more airplanes per week from Venezuela with tons of Cocain. The Pilot is mysteriously not found or %u201Cescapes%u201D from jail in few days.
- During Chavez%u2019s visits to Honduras, he openly calls us %u201CPitiYanquis%u201D (his specially made up insult to us). In this country, the main income is from workers in the USA who send money home. So we all have family or close friends in the US. Is does not make us happy to see this JackAss (Hugo Chavez) stand at our Presidential House to insult the US and ourselves, laughing with his arm around our Ex President. In this country there is no way a Marxist Presidential candidate could ever win unless he does what Mel Zelaya did: Deceit !!! He tricked the whole Honduran society and mounted the most corrupt Government we%u2019ve ever had. BTW, according to the UN, Hugo Chavez has The most corrupt Government in the continent.
- In this country we%u2019ve never seen the massive amounts of campaign (propaganda) funds that these two have spent. And never had we seen a campaign fail so miserably. The more money Hugo spent on Zelaya, the more Hondurans hated him (except for those he paid directly or were offered positions once they achieved absolute power).
This I leave for last, because its most important:
- In this country of scarce resources (where donations are vital), never had we seen such display of economic power like Mel and Chavez. They will share no expense and use all means to achieve total control. So when Patricia Janiot from CNN interviews our Officials and asks them why they didn%u2019t put him on trial, they can%u2019t say this, but I can, with this question: ¿How do you put a man with unlimited cash on hand, corrupt as he is, in a poor country, on trial? Hondurans believe that if this %u201Cman%u201D got to spend one more day in the country there would have been a blood bath between us. Like Hugo Chavez, he is an expert in dividing people against each other. As the great majority, we simply had no choice. I question again; Would you send a Police car with two cops to have Osama Bin laden arrested? Do you think that would work? Or would you send your Armed Forces by any chance?

Finally: This Continent%u2019s Presidents befriend each other at the same parties. But they don%u2019t know the people that their colleagues supposedly represent. They only get to see the people through the eyes and mouths of themselves and the ambassadors that work for them. It%u2019s logical that they will defend their Executive Power buddies this way. It doesn%u2019t hurt them at all to dance a little with Hugo Chavez. In this sense, Congress and Supreme Court are much more representative of the People.

Hondurans believe that CNN and Mr. Obama are playing dirty to us. This is because they don%u2019t live here. With all due respect, I beg you to explain this to them.

Blessings and regards,

Hector Figueroa

Basically it looks like Zelaya, who is good buddies with Chavez, was trying to ensconce himself into a more permanent status of power. Clinton and Obama have aligned themselves with Castro and Chavez in calling for restoration of Zelaya, even though was removed from power by the Military, acting on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court. The Honduran Congress has already formally removed him from power and named his successor, all within the bounds of the constitutional process; the same constitution that Zelaya was trying to scrap in a referendum planned for Sunday. It is hard to fathom that Clinton, Obama, Castro and Chavez would all be in alignment on this, but it is certainly not surprising. The Wall Street Journal has been doing an excellent job of covering the story:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124619401378065339.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124628267418867961.html

It's amazing how every country lately has wanted the US to take a stance and some form of responsibility. I guess that's what we must expect as playing a "watchdog" role on the rest of the world. Maybe I would need to know more about Honduras-US relations to understand our role in this situation. Since they are our ally, does that mean we are obligated to fight their fights? It seems to me that since they decided their Pres. was unfit we shouldn't get involved, though if we are promoting democracy, they probably should've had a trial for him.

I'm not sure what Hugo Chavez meant, but I think it's something along the lines of the U.S. goes out of its way for freedom/democracy in other parts of the world, so Obama needs to get behind this if he means it. Just a guess. Chavez seems like he would take a harder stab at the U.S. because that's how he rolls.

I missed it. What does Obama have to do with the military coup? The US didn't send the troops in to overtake the country. Right? Did the people of Honduras want the president overthrown? There are a lot of good quotes here, but I don't understand the US involvement part.