Hondouras

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Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 04, 2017 2:34 pm

US-Backed Regime in Honduras Imposes Martial Law, Slaughtering Civilians


December 2, 2017 at 1:04 pm
Written by Anti-Media Team

(ANTIMEDIA) — In 2009, a U.S.-backed coup ousted the democratically elected government of Honduras and replaced it with the regime currently in power. Last Sunday, Hondurans went to the polls to elect a new leader. The contest was primarily between the current President Juan Orlando Hernández and Opposition Alliance candidate Salvador Nasralla.

As BBC summarized:


“Monday 27 November, 02:00 local time with 57.2% of votes counted:

Salvador Nasralla leads by 5 percentage points (93,975 votes).
Tuesday 28 November, 18:15 local time with 65.7% of votes counted:

Salvador Nasralla leads by 3.3 percentage points (72,697 votes).
Wednesday 29 November, 16:58 local time with 82.9% of votes counted:


Juan Orlando Hernández leads by 0.1 percentage points (2,911 votes).
Thursday 30 November, 05:00 local time with 88.8% of votes counted:

Juan Orlando Hernández leads by 0.8 percentage points (22,677 votes).”
Thursday’s updated vote tally inspired Salvador Nasralla to accuse the electoral court of manipulating the results. “They take us for idiots and want to steal our victory,” he claimed before calling on Hondurans to take to the streets in protest. Nasralla said he will not accept the poll count.

U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky issued the following statement in response to the presidential election that took place in Honduras on Sunday:

“Confusion and chaos reign in Honduras following Sunday’s presidential election. I am deeply troubled by the delays and lack of transparency that we have seen from the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). I have serious concerns that they are engaging in election tampering and falsifying the results of the election. I am joining the European Union’s electoral observer mission and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Tegucigalpa in calling for the TSE to be fully transparent and immediately offer clear, detailed updates on the results of the election. I hope that our State Department can for once put aside their blind support for President Juan Orlando Hernandez and evaluate this election fairly and objectively. We owe it to the Honduran people to put our support behind free and fair elections – not our candidate of choice. The eyes of the world are on Honduras. Democracy must prevail.” [emphasis added]

Following the release of the disputed results and their candidate’s call for protest, Nasralla’s supporters filled the streets. They claim to have evidence of vote tampering and are refusing to end their protests until the electoral court hears their grievances.

Clashes quickly resulted in the use of tear gas against protesters on Thursday before descending into chaos Friday night after senior government official Ebal Diaz announced on television that the Honduran government had suspended constitutional rights, giving the army and police more power to crush the protests.

“The suspension of constitutional guarantees was approved so that the armed forces and the national police can contain this wave of violence that has engulfed the country,” Diaz said.

Government minister Jorge Ramon Hernandez announced in a statement simultaneously broadcast to TV and radio that beginning immediately, a nationwide curfew would run from 6 pm to 6 am and would continue for 10 days. Under the decree, all local authorities must obey the orders of the army and national police.

On Saturday, Anti-Media readers in Honduras contacted the outlet in an attempt to share their perspective of the grim situation with the world. Hondurans have claimed that state-funded media is neglecting to inform both Hondurans and the world of the violence the army and national police are using against protesters during the suspension of constitutional rights.

The violence includes the use of tear gas, batons, and lethal fire that has resulted in the deaths of multiple Hondurans, which can be seen in the raw video shared with Anti Media below.



(other videos at link)

http://theantimedia.org/honduras-protests-martial-law/
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 04, 2017 3:40 pm

Honduras Issues 1st Official Election Result, Incumbent in Lead
Published 4 December 2017 (3 hours 11 minutes ago)

According to the first official results, the National Party won 42.98 percent of the votes while the Opposition Alliance won 41.39 percent.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Honduras David Matamoros Batson has issued the first official results from the elections that took place on Nov. 26.

According to the results issued by the electoral body, the National Party obtained 42.98 percent of the votes, while the Opposition Alliance received 41.39 percent, with 14 voting tables still to be counted. The TSE said there was a 53 percent participation, representing more than 3,800,000 voters.

Only hours after the government imposed a 10-day curfew and suspension of constitutional rights on Friday, demonstrations dubbed “Caceralazo” took place throughout Honduras to defend presidential election preliminary results which showed opposition candidate, Salvador Nasrallah with a comfortable lead over the right-wing incumbent president Juan Orlando Hernandez.

A day after denouncing vote count irregularities by the TSE after repeated election result postponements, Nasrallah posted on Twitter for people to assemble "To defend the victory of the people!” They were met by police repression.

Three people – including a teenaged girl – have so far been killed in violent clashes following the disputed elections, as the armed forces opened fire on unarmed opposition supporters.

Image

Matamoros said that election officials are "pleased with what we have seen today, a very intense participation of citizens," also noting that "we are respecting the decision they made," reporting that "the TSE has not modified a single ballot."

He also emphasized that the government agency met with representatives of former Honduran president and coordinator of the left-wing Opposition Alliance, Manuel Zelaya, in order to "clear some of his doubts" concerning the election results.

But Wilfredo Mendez of the National Board of Honduras for Human Rights said Sunday, “Beyond a state of siege we are experiencing a state of terror with the suspension of constitutional guarantees."

Nasrallah posted on his Facebook page that the “illegal and unjust curfew is nothing more than a coup against the votes of the people who do not want the current president.”

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0008.html

***********************************

Honduran Opposition Protests To Continue Amid Curfew, Police Repression
Published 3 December 2017

by Rune Agerhus

The protests mark the third day of mass mobilizations despite the government enforcing a 10-day curfew as of Saturday.
Former Honduran president and coordinator of the Opposition Alliance, Manuel Zelaya, called on all Hondurans to take to the streets to defend presidential election preliminary results which showed opposition candidate, Salvador Nasrallah with a comfortable lead over the right-wing incumbent, as the electoral board continues to withhold final results.

One day after denouncing vote count irregularities by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Nasrallah posted on Twitter for people to assemble "To defend the victory of the people!”

The protests mark the second day of mass mobilizations despite the government enforcing a 10-day curfew, suspending constitutional rights and declaring a state of emergency. The TSE had ensured that election results would be announced Saturday but again were promptly postponed. Peaceful demonstrations dubbed “Caceralazo” took place only hours after the curfew was declared and were met by police repression.

Three people – including a teenaged girl – have so far been killed in violent clashes following the disputed elections, as the armed forces opened fire on unarmed opposition supporters.


President Juan Orlando Hernandez has reportedly fled the country to avoid violent street protests in the wake of the disputed presidential election, Diario La Prensa reported.

Bolivian President Evo Morales reprimanded the United States and Organization of the American States for their alleged complicity, "Nearly a week since the Honduran elections. Why are the U.S. and OAS silently complicit regarding the elections and death of citizens in Honduras? Democracy is in danger in a neighboring country?"

“Beyond a state of siege we are experiencing a state of terror with the suspension of constitutional guarantees,” said Wilfredo Mendez of the National Board of Honduras for Human Rights.

Nasrallah posted on his Facebook page that the “illegal and unjust curfew is nothing more than a coup against the votes of the people who do not want the current president.”

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... tml#comsup
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 04, 2017 3:51 pm

Honduras ballot recount ends, with president's lead confirmed

A recount of votes from more than a thousand disputed ballot boxes after last week's presidential election in Honduras has ended, showing President Hernandez still in the lead. But allegations of election fraud persist.

Image
A soldier guards Honduras ballot boxes Foto: Moises Castillo/AP/dpa

Honduras' electoral tribunal has finished a partial recount of nearly 6 percent of ballots from last weekend's presidential election, as the country's main opposition leader continued to demand a wider recalculation of the votes.

Tribunal president David Matamoros said on Monday that 100 percent of the ballots had been counted, but that no winner was yet being declared.

Authorities on Sunday ordered the reopening of some 1,031 ballot boxes in which inaccuracies were detected, ignoring calls by Salvador Nasralla — the candidate for the leftist Alliance of Opposition Against Dictatorship and a well-known TV personality — that thousands more polling stations be included.

After the partial recount, incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez — who ignored a constitutional ban and ran for re-election — still held a lead of more than 52,000 votes over Nasralla.

Opposition misses recount

Representatives for Nasralla were asked to oversee the partial recount, but did not show up on Sunday.

"The Honduran people deserve a result, and the result cannot be held up by any presidential candidate or any party," said electoral tribunal president David Matamoros.

Image
Honduras opposition leader Salvador Nasralla (picture-alliance/dpa/AP/R. Abd)

Opposition leader Nasralla led a rally on Sunday, calling the electoral tribunal 'neither credible nor trustworthy'
Accusations of election fraud were boosted in the days after the vote when Nasralla's 5-percent lead in early vote counts was later reversed in favor of Hernandez. A lengthy delay in the count only fed opposition complaints of irregularities.

Thousands of Nasralla's supporters took to the streets of the capital, Tegucigalpa, on Sunday once again accusing Hernandez and his government of trying to steal the election.

Nasralla told a rally that members of the electoral tribunal "are employees of President Hernandez."

"The tribunal is not an independent organization and as such is neither credible nor trustworthy for the people," he said.

New vote demanded

Nasralla has called for the creation of an international election tribunal to oversee a new presidential vote.

Since late last week, three people, including a 19-year-old woman, have been killed in demonstrations that have seen hundreds arrested. The military is enforcing a 10-day curfew of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., in an attempt to quell demonstrations.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Central America, with a 27 percent unemployment rate. It also struggles with one of the world's highest murder rates, in part due to violent drug gangs.

Hernandez implemented a military-led crackdown on gang violence after he took office in January 2014 that was backed by the US.

The 64-year-old Nasralla is one of Honduras' best-known faces. He is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a coup in 2009.

http://m.dw.com/en/honduras-ballot-reco ... a-41636810
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:35 pm

Coup Against Nasralla in Honduras
By: Ilka Oliva Corado

Image
Supporters of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, sing the national anthem during a curfew while the country is still mired in chaos over a contested presidential election in Tegucigalpa, Honduras December 3, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 4 December 2017 (20 hours 17 minutes ago)

The Honduran people must defend their vote and not allow another coup like that against Zelaya.

On June 28, 2009, when Honduras was just beginning its own path away from neoliberalism and became associated with the Latin American progressive current emerging in South America, President Manuel Zelaya suffered a coup d'état. The coup d'état was ordered from the United States and executed by the oligarchy, as happened in Paraguay and Brazil; it was carried out by the Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice.

The vultures linked to the power of capital, dictatorships that are imposed with new operational models, which use the Congress, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Electoral Tribunal and which are manipulated by the corporate media who are the basis for keeping the current system in force by deceiving the population.

Honduras, located in the Northern Triangle of Central America along with Guatemala and El Salvador, is one of the three most exploited countries in Latin America in recent decades. The business of multinationals has carried out ecocides that have destroyed entire towns. Communities are forced to emigrate irregularly to the United States because the situation in their country obliges them to. In Honduras, the assassination of Human Rights and Environmental activists are equal to those of Colombia. The numbers of femicides are overwhelming.

The country is a key in the drug trafficking from Colombia to the United States, and the tell us the completely differnt story when say that the United States signed an agreement to eradicate trafficking in the Northern Triangle with the Partnership for Prosperity Plan : no, this plan only looks to militarize the area and leave it under the control of the criminal cliques of the government to give way to the trafficking of drugs and people and to mining. As in Colombia with Plan Colombia and in Mexico with Plan Mérida and Plan Frontera Sur, disappearing and killing as many people as possible opposed to this project.
Here enters the media to accused the maras, or gangs for these deaths, when it is institutional violence. They manipulate the population who, in anguish and without understanding the full picture, asks for the death penalty for these pariahs. And the curtain goes up and then is lowered and the spectacle keeps the population's eyes away from the transactions of the government, the army and the oligarchy. Using the violence of gangs and drug trafficking as an excuse, they create U.S. military bases in Latin America with the sole purpose of encircling those who seek to free their land of all oppression. And so they have turned us into U.S. colonies, defeated and defenseless.


Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, after Mexico, are the countries that export the most cheap labor to the United States. Whole populations are forced to emigrate due to violence, lack of opportunities and because they seek to develop their lives. Undocumented migration makes them easy prey for organized crime.

In Guatemala, the dismissal of Perez Molina resulted in the election of another capo named Jimmy Morales. The population voted in favor of another executioner. Changing one puppet for another only served as a show for the international press. In Honduras things are going differently, as the population voted in favor of Salvador Nasralla and must defend that vote, taking to the streets and demanding that their decision be respected.

You can not let your sovereignty be stolen, the Honduran people must defend their vote and not allow another coup like that against Zelaya. There is a lot at stake and the Honduran people can not let themselves be defeated, they have already traced a path and they must follow it - it is the path of progress.

Two years ago, Honduras was filled with indignant people demonstrating with torches, and the night was filled with light, with resistance, with awakened people, with utopias and agency.

They must not let themselves be defeated, the Honduran people have the strength, the dignity, the integrity and the love to resist and not allow vultures of exploitation, manipulation and extermination to be the ones who govern them.

They must show the current government that their time is over, that Honduras has woken up and they will defend their constitutional right at any cost. For those who are no longer there, for those who are and for those who are yet to come. It is now, the time is today.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opini ... -0014.html

The regular police have come out in favor of the masses and say the refuse to repress them.

Why now? Mebbe something big and mebbe a 'good cop' gambit.
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 05, 2017 4:15 pm

Honduran police maintain strike despite promises of payments and increases

Image
Police officers refused on Monday to repress Honduran citizens during the curfew. | Photo: @radioamericahn

Published 5 December 2017 (1 hour 26 minutes ago)

Although the Government promised the payment of bonuses and raises for the police, they remain on strike after refusing to repress the citizens during the curfew.
Members of several police units, including special divisions such as Cobras and Tigers, continue on a sit-down strike Tuesday, despite the government's promise of monthly payments and increases.

In this way, in cities such as San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Copán, La Ceiba and Santa Bárbara, the officers returned to their barracks as a protest measure, after refusing to repress people in Honduras during the curfew.

Officials say that "we do not want to be repressing the people anymore, we want the confrontation to stop in this country. We are here to protect people, "while reiterating that" they are not political "and that they only seek to meet their demands.

In their protest, the officials affirm that "we do not want to continue repressing society".

Presumed increase to the police bodies after electoral situation

The Honduran Minister of Security, Julian Pacheco Tinoco, guaranteed yesterday that they have ready an increase to the members of the different units of the Police, the money to give them the bonus and also a "special bonus" to reward them for the "extra time" that They have worked, after the uncertainty and unrest that has taken place in the country after the general elections on Sunday, November 26.

"As of yesterday (last Sunday), some rumors began to incite our National Police to reveal themselves. Our Police is a disciplined, hierarchical and organized institution, therefore we are a serious institution that can not be politicized or used for personal purposes, "said Pacheco Tinoco.

These promises come after the refusal of police bodies such as Los Cobras to repress Honduran citizens during the curfew imposed by the electoral situation.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Policia- ... -0029.html
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:53 pm

Grupo Cobra in Honduras declares a sit-down strike

Image
The special operations group reiterated its moral duty to the people of Honduras and recalled its civil and apolitical nature. | Photo: EFE

Published 5 December 2017 (10 hours 41 minutes ago)

The Cobra special forces of the Honduran police will remain locked until the end of the political and social crisis in Honduras, an agent said.
A group of agents of the special force Cobra of the Honduran Police declared a "sit-down strike" in the face of the political crisis unleashed in the Central American country after the delay in the delivery of the results of the presidential elections.

A representative of the special force group Cobra read a statement in which he assured that the special forces will be kept locked until the end of the crisis and demanded that the authorities define the political situation in Honduras for the welfare of the people.

The group denounced in the communique that they receive pressures from the "highest level" and reiterated that their duty is to ensure public order by responding to their civil and apolitical nature.

"We call the sister armed forces to assume their constitutional role by virtue of the silence to which they were called," the representative said.

On the other hand, the San Pedro Sula police force is reluctant to repress the demonstrations and bring order to the current curfew imposed by President Juan Orlando Hernández.

The agents maintained that they are also part of the people and have a family and therefore can not kill each other. They also called attention to the unpaid salaries for the months of October and November.

On Sunday, November 26, Honduras held general elections and the final results are not yet published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) due to irregularities and allegations of fraud that favors the president and unconstitutional candidate for the second term, Juan Orlando Hernández.

Ignorance of the results a week after the elections generated political and social instability in the country, while supporters of the Alliance of Opposition against the Dictatorship, candidate Salvador Nasralla's party, took to the streets on Wednesday, considering that the TSE tries to steal Nasralla's triumph.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Grupo-Co ... -0005.html

Google Translator

Bolding added.

Hmmm, this is like the Tsar's Cossacks going on strike, but no pay for two months may loosen loyalties. Blandishments, back pay and bribes aren't having their normal effect, maybe it's just a matter of Hilary's boy being too incompetent for even crooked cops to stomach.(That would be a 'first')
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:38 pm

Revista La Comuna @RevistaComuna 32 minutes ago
HONDURAS| El Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (Cofadeh) denuncia que desde que comenzó la represión de las manifestaciones contra el fraude van 20 personas asesinadas, 51 heridas y 844 detenidas. IMAGEN EFE
Translated from Spanish by Bing
HONDURAS | The Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (Cofadeh) reports that since the beginning of the repression of demonstrations against fraud will 20 people killed, 51 injured and 844 arrested. EFE image
Image

Funny how Trump shows no interest in undoing this nasty bit of Obama/HRC 'legacy'.....
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:21 pm

Honduran opposition challenges election results at deadline

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The challenger in Honduras’ still unresolved presidential election has filed a challenge to the Nov. 26 contest that seeks to annul the results and requests a recount.

Salvador Nasralla, candidate of the opposition alliance, and his campaign team handed over the paperwork with just minutes to spare before a midnight deadline Friday.

The Honduran electoral court’s original tally put President Juan Orlando Hernandez ahead by more than 52,000 votes or 1.6 percent. But in an electoral process plagued by problems that dragged on for days, both candidates declared themselves winner.


International observers had urged the opposition to challenge the election through existing channels. The opposition alliance had called for a total recount in recent days, but said it would not accept any role for the electoral court, which it said was biased and lacked credibility for its ties to the government.

“We’re sure it’s not going to stick,” Nasralla said of the challenge. “It is going serve for us as a reference point to be able to travel abroad and say that we exhausted the local process.”

Nearly two weeks after the election, the way out of the standoff remains unclear. The electoral court is in the midst of a recount of the votes in nearly 5,000 ballot boxes that it says could take several more days. The boxes, more than a third of the total, held votes that were not transmitted to election officials on the night of the election. The court has said that they otherwise present no inconsistencies.

The electoral court has 30 days from the election to declare a winner, potentially placing an announcement square in the holiday season.

A local bar association also filed a challenge to annul the election on the grounds that Honduras’ constitution does not allow re-election. The country’s supreme court had earlier cleared the way for Hernandez to run.

After several days under a curfew called in the wake of some looting and property destruction, the government allowed people to move about freely in most of the country, including the capital Friday. More demonstrations were expected through the weekend.

https://apnews.com/4e228fb612e044d0ac78 ... _medium=AP

Note that this AP item makes no mention of those killed, wounded or detained by the army. Whose side are they on?
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:18 pm

Honduras in Flames
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on DECEMBER 6, 2017

Image
A highway protest on December 1 against vote tampering in favor of President Juan Orlando Hernández, popularly known as JOH – “Get Out JOH, narco-dictator!” (Honduras Solidarity Network)

Aaron Schneider and Rafael R. Ioris

Ten days after Honduras’ presidential elections, results have not been announced and Honduras is in flames. Thousands of demonstrators have been battling gas bombs and bullets in the streets of Tegucigalpa, leaving at least 11 dead. After initially taking the streets, the country’s U.S.-trained and financed armed forces have refused to follow the president’s orders to enforce a hastily imposed curfew. Despite the government’s violence, students and members of various social movements continue to risk their lives demanding democracy, jeopardized by the current regime of president Juan Orlando Hernández of the right-wing National Party. The National Party has been in power since a coup removed former President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

Zelaya’s ouster—eventually accepted by the Obama administration despite widespread regional condemnation—hinged on his plans to consult the electorate about the possibility of running for a Constitutionally prohibited second term. It is painfully ironic, then, that Honduras’ current president Hernández upended the constitution by appealing to a Supreme Court he had packed to grant him the right to run for reelection, four years after his first election in 2014 was tainted by a scandal that revealed his campaign had stolen funding from national social security accounts.

And yet, against all odds for the firmly entrenched regime, initial electoral returns indicated a seemingly insurmountable advantage for the opposition candidate and political novice Salvador Nasralla, whose political coalition is backed by Zelaya. The Electoral Courts (TSE) were then suspended for 72 hours, and when they resumed releasing results, Hernández was in the lead with a 1% margin. The clear lack of transparency and evidence of vote tampering was too much even for a country with a much weaker Left than most of its regional neighbors. People took to the streets. At this point, a peaceful solution seems less and less likely.

The government has indicated a plan to recount about 1% of votes, the EU and the OAS have called for a recount of all disputed votes, and the opposition is increasingly calling for new elections or at least to review all ballot boxes opened since the TSE’s blackout during the original count.

The events over the last ten days symptomize a growing consolidation of power by a new kind of right-wing alliance in Honduras and across Latin America: an alliance that brings together the power of the traditional landed elites and that of the financial elites who have benefited more recently from globalized neoliberalism. This alliance emerged amid the ashes of the Cold War and the dawn of the Washington Consensus—and can help explain some of the dynamics of the current electoral crisis in Honduras as well as recent events across the region.

At the end of the 1980s, three political and economic shifts opened the path for the rise of a neoliberal elite in Latin America. First, a decade of Central American revolutions and regional debt crises delegitimized both oligarchies and economic nationalism, as political actors seemed incapable of resolving the multiple crises they faced. At the same time, the fall of the Soviet Union removed the ideological threats that had animated the Cold War. This coincided with a new era of U.S. international influence as it turned toward neoliberal globalization policies exemplified by the bipartisan Washington Consensus. In Honduras and across the region, such policies took shape in the removal of trade barriers, privatization of state-owned enterprises, liberalization of banking and services, austere fiscal policies that slashed public programs, and a general removal of the state from economic planning.

Throughout the 1990s, those intent on advancing a neoliberal, globalized regime dominated the region, forming new parties that captured power in places like El Salvador, working through traditional parties in places like Mexico, and handing over the reigns on public policy to technocratic elites in places like Honduras. Neoliberal policies temporarily resolved inflationary crises, but they did little to include long excluded sectors or advance equitable development.

In the 2000s, a wave of Left and Center-Left governments won electoral power by rejecting the Washington Consensus. The U.S. appeared to have no recourse, until Honduras in 2009. Traditional oligarchic interests and newly wealthy elites who had embraced neoliberalism made common cause with an uninterested U.S. embassy to remove a president who threatened a shift to the left. Since the coup, the coalition has brought together traditional oligarchs and neoliberals, with U.S. support.

In Honduras, both old and new elites benefited from the National Party’s ascension to power in 2009. To the benefit of the new neoliberal elite, Honduras has ceded territory to boards of international and local businesspeople with power to set regulations and laws for investment in so-called Charter Cities. To the benefit of the land-owning oligarchy, clientelist politicians, and the military, Honduras has undertaken large-scale infrastructure projects and mining. The violence inherent in this oligarchic-neoliberal alliance is best exemplified by the 2016 murder of indigenous environmental activist Berta Cáceres. Cáceres was an obstacle to the building of a hydro-electric dam that she and her community opposed. In the wake of her death, a former soldier revealed the Cáceres had appeared on a military “hit list.”

The illegitimate election in Honduras currently taking shape will consolidate the undemocratic alliance between oligarchs and neoliberals across the region. Such a coalition appeared in Haiti in 2004, mounted the 2009 coup in Honduras, staged a 24-hour impeachment in Paraguay in 2012, and removed a president in Brazil in 2016. Similar coalitions have attempted and failed to remove presidents in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Though events are still unfolding, some lessons are already evident. First, in some places, it appears the oligarchic-neoliberal alliance can win elections and govern, as occurred in 2016 Argentina, and in Chile in 2010 and perhaps again this year. In other places, such alliances can wrest power through undemocratic manipulations or “constitutional coups,” as in Honduras in 2009, Haiti in 2010, Paraguay in 2012, and last year in Brazil. Second, in many places the Left is weak, and only remains in power where oligarchs and neoliberals cannot unite, like El Salvador, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. And these Left forces are not blameless themselves, in some cases tragically treating democratic institutions with the same Machiavellian disdain as the Right, though for different reasons.

Third, the U.S. is influential—but not sufficient—to determine political outcomes in the region. Again and again, the U.S. selectively opposes democratic manipulations when the Left governs, and turns a blind eye when the Right enacts similar machinations. This fails in two ways. First, U.S. support rarely unites neoliberals and oligarchs. Second, acquiescence to and support for anti-democratic manipulations where the Right governs bolsters the exclusionary oligarchic-neoliberal alliance and hollows any U.S. claim to defend democracy elsewhere.

Finally, it is worth considering the Honduran elections in the context of the Trump administration. Throughout the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, the State Department acted to advance its vision of neoliberal globalization and appeared to grudgingly follow along with the oligarchic-neoliberal alliance when it appeared. Now, Trump has hollowed out the State Department and made support for the new rightwing alliance overt.

On Monday, Reuters reported that Honduras will receive its full aid package—parts of which were contingent on the country showing significant progress on certain human rights outcomes—despite its clear failure to do so. Moreover, Trump’s antagonism to free trade and support for militarized extractivism raises the oligarchy to a dominant position in the alliance.

Almost as if by design, this takes us back to Trump’s 1950s idyll of international relations, when U.S.-backed oligarchic elites won elections when possible, overturned them when necessary, and manipulated institutions to ensure their ongoing grasp of power. If history is any indication, such a trend should give us pause. In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, oligarchic-led alliances eventually closed democratic options entirely, enacting long periods of repressive military rule across the hemisphere. The U.S., more fearful of popular sectors than the oligarchs, either supported such dictatorial turns or allowed them to occur. Allowing the alliance between landed oligarchs and neoliberal elites to steal an election in Honduras tragically signals that we are eager to repeat our past mistakes.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2017/12/ ... in-flames/
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Re: Hondouras

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 18, 2017 3:01 pm

Protest grows after the electoral coup in Honduras

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The streets were filled with protesters calling for a new electoral process. | Photo: ALBA Movements

Published 18 December 2017

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Several areas of the country have been heated by the protests after the electoral coup.

Honduran protesters mobilized this Sunday against the announcement of the Honduran TSE by making it official that Juan Orlando Hernández "won" the elections with 42.95 percent of the votes.

The protests were strongly repressed by the security forces.

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Several areas of the country have been heated by the protests after the electoral coup.

From the beginning of the night, the first victims of military repression began to be reported in Choluteca, in the south of the country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Crecen-l ... -0006.html

Google Translator

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MOE OAS notes low quality of the electoral process in Honduras

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The OAS affirms that the SIEDE did not have robust security measures. | Photo: @OEA_oficial

Published 18 December 2017 (10 hours 0 minutes ago)

Quiroga: "There are cases where inexplicable discrepancies were found among the revised records."
The Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Honduras offered the second preliminary report of the last elections on Sunday night through a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

In the report issued by the OAS EOM and read by the Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga, they point out the inconsistencies that the 82 experts in charge recommended to review during the process, emphasizing that they are an observation mission and do not define the results.

The entity does not confirm that the Integrated System of Electoral Scrutiny and Disclosure (Siede) has intentionally adulterated, but they do assure that "it did not have the robust security measures necessary to guarantee its integrity".

Among the points discussed in the report, we can highlight the change in the voting tendency based on the minutes that were not transmitted on the first day, the discrepancy between the minutes of three political parties and TSE minutes and the doubt of the electoral process, as well as the inconsistency in the system of computations that compromises the transparency of the elections.

Due to this, the OAS OAS denounced the low quality of the electoral process in the presidential elections held in Honduras on November 26.

"Based on the analysis presented in this report and the accumulation of observations included in the first preliminary report, the EOM considers that a process of low electoral quality has been observed and therefore can not affirm that the doubts about it are now clear," he said. the entity in its second report.

In addition, the OAS observers call on all actors to "remain calm and act responsibly" after the regrettable incidents of violence that occurred during various phases of the electoral process.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) formalized Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH) as president of Honduras, with 42.95 percent of the votes after the elections held on November 26 and amid allegations of fraud made by the candidate of the Alliance of Opposition against the Dictatorship, Salvador Nasralla.

For his part, the opposition candidate expressed through a video posted on Facebook that "It is clear that there was fraud before, during and after the elections. (...) The President of the Republic at this moment is an impostor, and the Honduran people know it ".

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/MOE-OEA- ... -0002.html

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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