Please No More Shock About Honduras, The Imperial Tea Leaves Were There to Be Read

I guess many people got Obamaized after the election. One organization after another, one blogger after another, one reporter (mainstream and independent) after another are going through a period of disbelief at what has taken place in Honduras over the last two weeks.  In my November 11 Honduran National Resistance update, I take on this collective disbelief by explaining the early warning signals that should have tipped everyone off that this has been a US-driven coup all along in which the US never intended to restore President Zelaya  and did intend to push for the November 29 election to be held.

I won’t repeat what I wrote in yesterday’s update, but a few more things are worth mentioning.  The biggest reason to believe that the US was behind the coup is that there is no way that the Honduran military, with the millions it receives from the US annually, is going to embark on a coup involving massive deployment of troops and the kidnapping of a head of state without explicit approval of the US.  Pure and simple, if the US did not want President Zelaya out, he would be at the presidential palace today and not a guest of the Brazilian embassy. 

I guess there is an assumption that there is a difference between Democratic and Republican administrations and there may be in areas such as  social and economic programs.  But, when it comes to foreign affairs and Defense Department spending there is someone else in the driver’s seat and the car is definitely not parked at  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Through my work on Cuba issues, I watched as many allowed their hopes to be raised that an Obama presidency would bring substantial change in the US-Cuba relationship.  But in one disappointing decision after another regarding Cuba, Obama might as well have had Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sitting on one shoulder and the Diaz-Balarts on the other.

But, even if I was unfamiliar with the situation in Honduras, I would know immediately that it was a US-backed coup  because of one thing:  the coup in Haiti. 

Six weeks after the February 29, 2004 coup d’etat  in which the democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was kidnapped, I was in Port-au-Prince as part of a delegation to determine the US’ role in the coup and kidnapping of Aristide.  It is in Haiti that the US perfected the template for the  coup in Honduras with certain variations here and there.  I remember talking with people here in the States after I returned from Haiti  and it was only when I told them certain things did they begin to comprehend that the US was the force behind it all.  They were shocked at first because they could not believe that the US would be capable of such things.

Here are some of the things I told them: 

-Eighteen months before the coup, the US armed and financed 200 Haitian “rebels,” who they housed in the Dominican Republic courtesy of its military, to commit cross border attacks to de-stabilize Haiti as a prelude to the coup.  Many supporters of Aristide were murdered in the process.

-It was the  US’ Deputy Ambassador in Haiti, Luis Moreno, who kidnapped President Aristide.  He arrived at Aristide’s home in the wee hours of the morning on February 29 with the muscle of approximately 30 Special Forces personnel.  Moreno told Aristide that he was going to take him to give a press conference to settle the population down.  Aristide’s suspicions were confirmed when the entourage  took a turn toward the airport.  The Aristides were put on the plane accompanied by the Special Forces personnel who promptly changed into civilian clothes.  Moreno would not tell the Aristides where they were being taken and they did not find out until their feet hit the tarmac in the Central African Republic.  Shortly after the plane (painted totally white with NO national insignia) carrying the Aristides took off , Moreno was on his way to tell the press that the president had fled the country and signed a resignation letter before doing so.  Of course this was not true — sound familiar?

-General Colin Powell contacted former congressman Ron Dellums a day before Aristide was kidnapped and asked if he would call Aristide and tell him the following:  “Guy Philippe (leader of the “rebels”) is right outside of Port-au-Prince, he is coming to kill you, and the US will not be able to protect you.”  The reality was that Philippe was not near the capital, but the US was trying to use this false threat to scare Aristide into leaving.

-During our delegation’s visit, we were able to get an interview with the leader of the “rebels,” Guy Philippe, a long-time CIA asset  trained in Ecuador.  Generally, Philippe was guarded during the interview but there was one amazing thing he let slip out.  In the wee hours of the morning of February 29, US Deputy Ambassador, Luis Moreno, called Guy Philippe and told him not to advance any further toward Port-au-Prince, because “we (the US) have got it covered from here.”  So the US’ Deputy Ambassador had not only Philippe’s personal cell phone number, but you could make a case that Moreno was in “command “of the “rebels’  —  for a few minutes at least.

Thereafter, Haiti’s murderous coup regime was immediately recognized and legitimized by 4,000 UN “Peacekeepers” whose mandate was to support the  “Government of Haiti.”  The people of Haiti started marching four days after the coup and haven’t stopped since in their effort to secure the return of President Aristide.  And in the past five years, the UN Peacekeepers and Haitian National Police have committed numerous massacres in the poorest neighborhoods where Aristide enjoys his greatest support.

This is all to say that if you think up the lousiest, underhanded, illegal, heinous acts imaginable, you can bet that the US government has done all of them and will do them again.  Both Republicans and Democrats are equally capable of unleashing  the monster —  imperialism.

If interested in more information on Haiti, please click here.