[HCCN] Fwd: Emergency Alert: Coup in Honduras!

[Judith Robbins]

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> From: Ken <kjones at usm.maine.edu>
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>> 	Alliance for Global Justice	
>>
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>> www.nicanet.org
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>>
>> 	 Emergency Action Alert: Coup in Honduras!
>> [This action alert comes to you from the Alliance for Global  
>> Justice and its member projects, the Nicaragua Network, the  
>> Campaign for Labor Rights, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, and  
>> the Respect for Democracy Campaign.]
>>
>> EMERGENCY ALERT: COUP IN HONDURAS!
>> Demonstrate at Honduran Consulates or US Federal Buildings Sunday  
>> or Monday
>> [See list of consulates below!]
>>
>> MOBILIZE YOUR COMMUNITY NOW!
>> Demand Obama Denounce the Coup and Demand Return of President  
>> Zelaya to Honduras
>> [See below for phone numbers, web page and sample message.]
>>
>> As of 11:15am Sunday June 28, 2009, Caracas time, Honduran  
>> President Manuel Zelaya was speaking live on Telesur from San  
>> Jose, Costa Rica. He verified that soldiers entered his residence  
>> in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill  
>> him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go  
>> with the soldiers who took him to an air base and flew him to  
>> Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public  
>> statement condemning the coup; noting that no statement would  
>> indicate its compliance.
>>
>> Zelaya said that he has not resigned and that until his term ends  
>> in 2010 he remains president of Honduras. The Honduran Foreign  
>> Minister and the ambassadors to Honduras from Cuba, Venezuela, and  
>> Nicaragua were detained by the military. The ambassadors, after  
>> suffering physical mistreatment by the military, were reportedly  
>> set free but the Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, remained in  
>> military custody.
>>
>> Call the White House comment line at (202) 456- 1111
>> Upload a message to the President at http://www. whitehouse.gov./ 
>> contact/
>> Call the State Department comment line at (202) 647- 4000
>>
>> Sample message:
>>
>> President Obama, I urge you to condemn in no uncertain terms the  
>> coup d'état in Honduras. Please demand the immediate return of  
>> President Manuel Zelaya to office. Please state that you will not  
>> recognize any new illegal government and would suspend all  
>> assistance to such illegal government.  President Zelaya is  
>> supported by Honduras poor majority, including members of labor  
>> and social movements, tens of thousands of whom have come out in  
>> the streets to support his return. If you do not condemn the coup,  
>> people around the world will assume that the U.S. government  
>> supports the coup or, worse yet, was involved in its planning.
>>
>> Give your name, city and state.
>>
>> Organize a protest at one of the ten Honduran consulates in the  
>> United States. There are consulates in Washington, New York,  
>> Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston,  
>> Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, and also a consulate in San Juan, Puerto  
>> Rico. See the list at the bottom of this message for the exact  
>> address of each consulate.
>>
>> Background material from lawyer/activist Eva Golinger:
>>
>> OBAMA'S FIRST COUP D'ETAT
>> President Zelaya of Honduras has just been kidnapped
>> By Eva Golinger 28 June 2009
>>
>> Caracas, Venezuela - The text message that beeped on my cell phone  
>> this morning read "Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d'état  
>> underway in Honduras, spread the word." It's a rude awakening for  
>> a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that  
>> were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for  
>> the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future  
>> convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution.  
>> Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today's scheduled  
>> referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll  
>> to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to  
>> eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.
>>
>> Such an initiative has never taken place in the Central American  
>> nation, which has a very limited constitution that allows minimal  
>> participation by the people of Honduras in their political  
>> processes. The current constitution, written in 1982 during the  
>> height of the Reagan Administration' s dirty war in Central  
>> America, was designed to ensure those in power, both economic and  
>> political, would retain it with little interference from the  
>> people. Zelaya, elected in November 2005 on the platform of  
>> Honduras' Liberal Party, had proposed the opinion poll be  
>> conducted to determine if a majority of citizens agreed that  
>> constitutional reform was necessary. He was backed by a majority  
>> of labor unions and social movements in the country. If the poll  
>> had occurred, depending on the results, a referendum would have  
>> been conducted during the upcoming elections in November to vote  
>> on convening a constitutional assembly. Nevertheless, today's  
>> scheduled poll was not binding by law.
>>
>> In fact, several days before the poll was to occur, Honduras'  
>> Supreme Court ruled it illegal, upon request by the Congress, both  
>> of which are led by anti- Zelaya majorities and members of the  
>> ultra- conservative party, National Party of Honduras (PNH). This  
>> move led to massive protests in the streets in favor of President  
>> Zelaya. On June 24, the president fired the head of the high  
>> military command, General Romeo Vásquez, after he refused to allow  
>> the military to distribute the electoral material for Sunday's  
>> elections. General Romeo Vásquez held the material under tight  
>> military control, refusing to release it even to the president's  
>> followers, stating that the scheduled referendum had been  
>> determined illegal by the Supreme Court and therefore he could not  
>> comply with the president's order. As in the Unted States, the  
>> president of Honduras is Commander in Chief and has the final say  
>> on the military's actions, and so he ordered the General's  
>> removal. The Minister of Defense, Angel Edmundo Orellana, also  
>> resigned in response to this increasingly tense situation.
>>
>> But the following day, Honduras' Supreme Court reinstated General  
>> Romeo Vásquez to the high military command, ruling his firing as  
>> "unconstitutional' . Thousands poured into the streets of  
>> Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa, showing support for President  
>> Zelaya and evidencing their determination to ensure Sunday's non- 
>> binding referendum would take place. On Friday, the president and  
>> a group of hundreds of supporters, marched to the nearby air base  
>> to collect the electoral material that had been previously held by  
>> the military. That evening, Zelaya gave a national press  
>> conference along with a group of politicians from different  
>> political parties and social movements, calling for unity and  
>> peace in the country.
>>
>> As of Saturday, the situation in Honduras was reported as calm.  
>> But early Sunday morning, a group of approximately 60 armed  
>> soldiers entered the presidential residence and took Zelaya  
>> hostage. After several hours of confusion, reports surfaced  
>> claiming the president had been taken to a nearby air force base  
>> and flown to neighboring Costa Rica. No images have been seen of  
>> the president so far and it is unknown whether or not his life is  
>> still endangered.
>>
>> President Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, speaking live  
>> on Telesur at approximately 10:00am Caracas time, denounced that  
>> in early hours of Sunday morning, the soldiers stormed their  
>> residence, firing shots throughout the house, beating and then  
>> taking the president. "It was an act of cowardness", said the  
>> first lady, referring to the illegal kidnapping occuring during a  
>> time when no one would know or react until it was all over. Casto  
>> de Zelaya also called for the "preservation" of her husband's  
>> life, indicating that she herself is unaware of his whereabouts.  
>> She claimed their lives are all still in "serious danger" and made  
>> a call for the international community to denounce this illegal  
>> coup d'etat and to act rapidly to reinstate constitutional order  
>> in the country, which includes the rescue and return of the  
>> democratically elected Zelaya.
>>
>> Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela  
>> have both made public statements on Sunday morning condeming the  
>> coup d'etat in Honduras and calling on the international community  
>> to react to ensure democracy is restored and the constitutional  
>> president is reinstated. Last Wednesday, June 24, an extraordinary  
>> meeting of the member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for  
>> the Americas (ALBA), of which Honduras is a member, was convened  
>> in Venezuela to welcome Ecuador, Antigua & Barbados and St.  
>> Vincent to its ranks. During the meeting, which was attended by  
>> Honduras' Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, a statement was read  
>> supporting President Zelaya and condenming any attempts to  
>> undermine his mandate and Honduras' democratic processes.
>>
>> Reports coming out of Honduras have informed that the public  
>> television channel, Canal 8, has been shut down by the coup  
>> forces. Just minutes ago, Telesur announced that the military in  
>> Honduras is shutting down all electricity throughout the country.  
>> Those television and radio stations still transmitting are not  
>> reporting the coup d'etat or the kidnapping of President Zelaya,  
>> according to Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas. "Telephones and  
>> electricity are being cut off", confirmed Rodas just minutes ago  
>> via Telesur. "The media are showing cartoons and soap operas and  
>> are not informing the people of Honduras about what is happening".  
>> The situation is eerily reminiscent of the April 2002 coup d'etat  
>> against President Chávez in Venezuela, when the media played a key  
>> role by first manipulating information to support the coup and  
>> then later blacking out all information when the people began  
>> protesting and eventually overcame and defeated the coup forces,  
>> rescuing Chávez (who had also been kidnapped by the military) and  
>> restoring constitutional order.
>>
>> Honduras is a nation that has been the victim of dictatorships and  
>> massive U.S. intervention during the past century, including  
>> several military invasions. The last major U.S. government  
>> intervention in Honduras occurred during the 1980s, when the  
>> Reagain Administration funded death squads and paramilitaries to  
>> eliminate any potential "communist threats" in Central America. At  
>> the time, John Negroponte, was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras and  
>> was responsible for directly funding and training Honduran death  
>> squads that were responsible for thousands of disappeared and  
>> assassinated throughout the region.
>>
>> On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS), convened a  
>> special meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras, later issuing a  
>> statement condemning the threats to democracy and authorizing a  
>> convoy of representatives to travel to OAS to investigate further.  
>> Nevertheless, on Friday, Assistant Secretary of State of the  
>> United States, Phillip J. Crowley, refused to clarify the U.S.  
>> government's position in reference to the potential coup against  
>> President Zelaya, and instead issued a more ambiguous statement  
>> that implied Washington's support for the opposition to the  
>> Honduran president. While most other Latin American governments  
>> had clearly indicated their adamant condemnation of the coup plans  
>> underway in Honduras and their solid support for Honduras'  
>> constitutionally elected president, Manual Zelaya, the U.S.  
>> spokesman stated the following, "We are concerned about the  
>> breakdown in the political dialogue among Honduran politicians  
>> over the proposed June 28 poll on constitutional reform. We urge  
>> all sides to seek a consensual democratic resolution in the  
>> current political impasse that adheres to the Honduran  
>> constitution and to Honduran laws consistent with the principles  
>> of the Inter-American Democratic Charter."
>>
>> As of 10:30am, Sunday morning, no further statements have been  
>> issued by Washington concerning the military coup in Honduras. The  
>> Central American nation is highly dependent on the U.S. economy,  
>> which ensures one of its top sources of income, the monies sent  
>> from Hondurans working in the U.S. under the "temporary protected  
>> status" program that was implemented during Washington's dirty war  
>> in the 1980s as a result of massive immigration to U.S. territory  
>> to escape the war zone. Another major source of funding in  
>> Honduras is USAID, providing over US$ 50 million annually for  
>> "democracy promotion" programs, which generally supports NGOs and  
>> political parties favorable to U.S. interests, as has been the  
>> case in Venezuela, Bolivia and other nations in the region. The  
>> Pentagon also maintains a military base in Honduras in Soto Cano,  
>> equipped with approximately 500 troops and numerous air force  
>> combat planes and helicopters.
>>
>> Foreign Minister Rodas has stated that she has repeatedly tried to  
>> make contact with the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens,  
>> who has not responded to any of her calls thus far. The modus  
>> operandi of the coup makes clear that Washington is involved.  
>> Neither the Honduran military, which is majority trained by U.S.  
>> forces, nor the political and economic elite, would act to oust a  
>> democratically elected president without the backing and support  
>> of the U.S. government. President Zelaya has increasingly come  
>> under attack by the conservative forces in Honduras for his  
>> growing relationship with the ALBA countries, and particularly  
>> Venezuela and President Chávez. Many believe the coup has been  
>> executed as a method of ensuring Honduras does not continue to  
>> unify with the more leftist and socialist countries in Latin America.
>>
>> HONDURAN EMBASSY AND CONSULATE ADDRESSES
>>
>> Diplomatic Representation in US: Chief of mission: Ambassador  
>> Roberto FLORES Bermúdez. Embassy: 3007 Tilden Street NW,  
>> Washington, DC 20008. Telephone: [1] (202) 966-7702, 2604, 5008,  
>> 4596 FAX: [1] (202) 966-9751. Washington, DC (Consular Section)  
>> 1014 M Street, NW Washington, DC, 20001 (202) 682 7873 (202) 682  
>> 5947/48/49
>>
>> Consulates General are in:
>>
>> Los Angeles 3550 Wilshire Bl., Suite 410, Los Angeles, CA 90010.  
>> (213) 383-9244
>>
>> San Francisco Flood Bldg., 870 Market St., Suite 875 San  
>> Francisco, CA 94102. (415) 392-0076
>>
>> Chicago 4506 W. Fullerton Av. Chicago, IL 60639 (773) 342-8281 FAX  
>> (773) 342-8293
>>
>> New Orleans World Trade Center, Canal St., Suite 2340, New  
>> Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 522-3118
>>
>> New York 35 West 35 Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10001 212 714  
>> 9450 (1) (2) .
>>
>> San Juan Mercantil Plaza Building, Ponce De Leon Av., Suite 604,  
>> Hato Rey , Puerto Rico
>>
>> Houston 6161 Savoy Lane, Suite 625 (713) 785 5932/5625 Houston, TX  
>> 77036
>>
>> Atlanta 6825 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Bldg, 1400 Suite 1490, Norcross,  
>> Ga 30071 (770) 645 8881/79
>>
>> Miami 7171 Coral Way, Suite 309 Miami, FL 33155 (305) 269 9399/45/22
>>
>> Phoenix 4040 East McDowell Rd, Suite 305 Phoenix, AZ 85008 (602)  
>> 273 0173/74
>>
>> Alliance for Global Justice has, for two years in a row, received  
>> a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America's largest  
>> independent evaluator of charities.
>>
>>
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