Is the US Firing Zelaya and Micheletti and Anointing Santos?

An article appeared in the El Nuevo Herald yesterday and all was revealed — well, almost all.  The article’s purpose is two-fold:  put plenty of daylight between the civilian golpistas and the military golpistas and introduce Elvin Santos (golpista, former Vice-President, and current presidential candidate) to the world as the next president of Honduras — whether before or after the election is the question.

The “daylight” issue is critical because the post-coup stage must be more civilian and quite a bit less military.  Several nagging issues associated with the military must be faded artfully: kidnapping, murder,  disappearances, shutting down of media operations, torture and that damn body block the Honduran cop gave the Rector of  La Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras a few days ago!  To accomplish this, the Nuevo Herald article quotes several high-powered sources disassociating themselves from the kidnapping of President Zelaya.

Adolfo Facusse, the head of the Industrial Association of Honduras, states flatly that he does not think the kidnapping of Zelaya was the right thing to do.  Facusse adds that he has asked the military why they did not just detain Zelaya. Ominously, in responding to a question, Facusse says that the armed forces are going to have to be judged concerning the actions they have taken.  I’m sure this is a huge charade where Facusse pretends to diss the military to help create the needed “daylight.”  The military will not be judged.  The military is in on the joke and I’m sure last night Facusse and the top brass had a good laugh about all this over a bottle of rum.

For an article designed to help distance the civilians from the military, there seem to be quite a few military officers quoted –albeit kinder and gentler than we have seen thus far.  Earlier in the week, the top military commanders went on TV to explain why they did what they did.  Commander of the army, General Miguel Angel Garcia and Vice-Admiral Juan Pablo Rodriguez were concerned that Zelaya was bringing in “socialism disguised as democracy.” Commander of the armed forces, General Romeo Vasquez stated that it was okay with him if Zelaya returns to Honduras as long as it is based on a plan worked out with President Arias.

But, the star of this article, Elvin Santos, whose gorilla body guards beat and shot at students at the University on Tuesday because they called Santos a “golpista,” seems to be the messiah we all have been waiting for.  Santos, a member of Zelaya’s party, states that it was a big mistake to expel Zelaya from the country and he admitted that there were cracks in the consensus concerning removal of Zelaya.  Santos states that he will go to every corner of Honduras to explain that he had nothing to do with the removal of Zelaya on June 28 — I believe this is known as campaigning for president.  Santos says that the monumental error was to take Zelaya out of the country because it left him in a defenseless state.

So what does all of this soft, gushy stuff mean?  It means that the US State Department has signalled that the post-coup stage must begin and that the following must be done: pretend Micheletti doesn’t exist until they can fire him; take Zelaya out of the ball game altogether by continuing to pretend he doesn’t exist; and make Elvin Santos look like Honduras’ savior (actually the US’ savior).

Other questions remain. Is the US  going to install Santos before the election?  Will the election be moved up?  How long will it take for the people of Honduras to drag Santos into the streets?  And, which country will Team Clinton-Davis-Reich-Negroponte-Llorens-Shannon-Noriega go to next and how long will they take to destroy it?

The Nuevo Herald article is available at:

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/210/story/511727.html?storylink=omni_popular