EVA GOLINGER: BOGUS HONDURAN ELECTIONS TODAY: Hypocrites Washington, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Israel Only Nations to Recognize the Illegal Elections

BOGUS HONDURAN ELECTIONS TODAY: Hypocrites Washington, Costa Rica, Panama,
Perú, Colombia & Israel the only nations to recognize the illegal
elections

By Eva Golinger

"What are we going to do, sit for four years and just condemn the coup?" a
senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told
reporters in Washington. The true divides in Latin America - between
justice and injustice, democracy and dictatorship, human rights and
corporate rights, people's power and imperial domination - have never been
more visible than today. People's movements throughout the region to
revolutionize corrupt, unequal systems that have isolated and excluded the
vast majority in Latin American nations, are successfully taking power
democratically and building new models of economic and social justice.

Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador are the vanguard of these
movements, with other nations such as Uruguay and Argentina moving at a
slower pace towards change. The region has historically been plagued by
brutal US intervention, seeking at all costs to dominate the natural and
strategic resources contained in this vast, abundant territory. With the
exception of the defiant Cuban Revolution, Washington achieved control
over puppet regimes placed throughout Latin America by the end of the
twentieth century. When Hugo Chávez won the presidency in 1998 and the
Bolivarian Revolution began to root, the balance of power and imperial
control over the region started to weaken.

Eight years of Bush/Cheney brought coup d'etats back to the region, in
Venezuela in 2002 against President Chávez and Haiti in 2004 against
President Aristide. The former was defeated by a mass popular uprising,
the latter succeeded in ousting a president no longer convenient to
Washington's interests. Despite the Bush administration's efforts to
neutralize the spread of revolution in Latin America through coups,
economic sabotages, media warfare, psychological operations, electoral
interventions and an increasing military presence, nations right across
the border such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala elected
leftist-leaning presidents. Latin American integration solidified with
UNASUR (the union of South American nations) and ALBA (the Bolivarian
Alliance of the Americas), and Washington's grip on power began to slip
away. Henry Kissinger said in the seventies, "if we can't control Latin
America, how can we dominate the world?"

This imperial vision is more evident today than ever before. Obama's
presence in the White House was erroneously viewed by many in the region
as a sign of an end to US aggression in the world, and especially here, in
Latin America. At least, many believed, Obama would downscale the growing
tensions with its neighbors to the south. In fact, he himself, the new
president of the United States, made allusion to such changes. But now,
the Obama administration's "Smart Power" strategy has been unmasked. The
handshakes, smiles, gifts and promises of "no intervention" and "a new
era" made by President Obama himself to leaders of Latin American nations
last Spring at the Summit of the Americas meeting in Trinidad have
unraveled and turned into cynical gestures of hypocrisy.

When Obama came to power, Washington's reputation in the region was at an
all-time low. The meager attempts to "change" the North-South relationship
in the Americas have made things worse and reaffirmed that Kissinger's
vision of control over this region is a state policy, irrespective of
party affiliation or public discourse. Washington's role in the coup in
Honduras against President Zelaya has been evident from day one. The
continual funding of coup leaders, the US military presence at the Soto
Cano base in Honduras, the ongoing meetings between State Department
officials and the US Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, with coup
leaders, and the cynical attempts to force "mediation" and "negotiation"
between the coup leaders and the legitimate government of Honduras, have
provided clear evidence of Washington's intentions to consolidate this new
form of "smart coup".

The Obama administration's initial public insistence on Zelaya's
legitimacy as president of Honduras quickly faded after the first weeks of
the coup. Calls for "restitution of democratic and constitutional order"
became weak whispers repeated by the monotone voices of State Department
spokesmen. The imposition of Costan Rican president Oscar Arias - a
staunch ally of neoliberalism and imperialism -to "mediate" the
negotiation ordered by Washington between coup leaders and President
Zelaya was a circus. At the time, it was apparent that Washington was
engaging in a "buying time" strategy, pandering to the coup leaders while
publicly "working" to resolve the conflict in Honduras. Arias' insincerity
and complicity in the coup was evident from the very morning of Zelaya's
violent kidnapping and forced exile.

The Pentagon, State Department and CIA officials present on the Soto Cano
base, which is controlled by Washington, arranged for Zelaya's transport
to Costa Rica. Arias had subserviently agreed to refuge the illegally
ousted president and to not detain those who kidnapped him and piloted the
plane that - in violation of international law - landed in Costa Rican
territority. Today, Oscar Arias has called on all nations to "recognize"
the illegal and illegitimate elections occurring in Honduras. Why not? he
says, if there is no fraud or irregularity, "why not recognize the newly
elected president?" The State Department and even President Obama himself
have said the same thing, and are calling on all nations - pressuring - to
recognize a regime that will be elected under a dictatorship.

Seems that fraud and irregularity are already present, considering that
today, no democracy exists in Honduras that would permit proper conditions
for an electoral process. Not to mention that the State Department
admitted to funding the elections and campaigns in Honduras weeks ago. And
the "international observers" sent to witness and provide "credibility" to
the illegal process are all agencies and agents of empire. The
International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, both
agencies created to filter funding from USAID and the National Endowment
for Democracy (NED) to political parties abroad in order to promote US
agenda, not only funded those groups involved in the Honduran coup, but
now are "observing" the elections.

Terrorist groups such as UnoAmerica, led by Venezuelan coup leader
Alejando Peña Esclusa, have also sent "observers" to Honduras. Miami-Cuban
terrorist and criminal Adolfo Franco, former USAID director, is another
"heavyweight" on the list of electoral observers in Honduras today. But
the Organization of American States (OAS) and Carter Center, hardly
"leftist" entities, have condemned the electoral process as illegitimate
and refused to send observers. So have the United Nations and the European
Union, as well as UNASUR and ALBA. Washington stands alone, with its
right-wing puppet states in Colombia, Panamá, Perú, Costa Rica and Israel,
as the only nations to have publicly indicated recognition of the
electoral process in Honduras and the future regime.

A high-level State Department official cynically declared to the
Washington Post, "What are we going to do, sit for four years and just
condemn the coup?" Well, Washington has sat for 50 years and refused to
recognize the Cuban government. But that's because the Cuban government is
not convenient for Washington. The Honduran dictatorship is. The Honduran
resistance movement is boycotting the elections, calling on people to
abstain from participating in an illegal process. The streets of Honduras
have been taken over by thousands of military forces, under control of the
coup regime and the Pentagon. With advanced weapons technology from
Israel, the coup regime is prepared to massively repress and brutalize any
who attempt to resist the electoral process.

We must remain vigilant and stand with the people of Honduras in the face
of the immense danger surrounding them. Today's elections are a second
coup d'etat against the Honduran people, this time openly designed,
promoted, funded and supported by Washington. Whatever the result, no
justice will be brought to Honduras until Washington's intervention
ceases.