Contact Your Representative

I have written the following letter in response to our House of Representatives proposing a bill to recognize Zelaya as the legal president. I give permission to everyone who wishes to change the name of the representative and their name in the letter and send it to your respective Representative(s). I not only give you permission to do so, I recommend it. This is something you can do and it takes (if you don't live in Texas, New York, or California) less than five minutes. So here it is:

Dear Michael Michaud:

I am concerned about the situation in the Republic of Honduras, where, on June 28, the military removed the former president, Manuel Zelaya, on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court.

President Obama condemned the actions of the military of Honduras without reading the Honduran constitution. In reference to article 239 I make this plea to correct the United States position. I do not want to alter our support for Democracy and Constitutional law. I merely wish to alter who we endorse to help us in our cause.

Although clear statements are needed, at the end of the day standing with those who most closely resemble our level of society and process of legal orders should be who we stand shoulder to shoulder with.

Some of your colleagues in the House have introduced a resolution, H Res 630, that I believe expresses a very dangerous position toward the situation in Honduras. It calls, among other things, for a cutoff of military and other non-humanitarian aid to the government led by Roberto Micheletti until the he steps down and President Zelaya is returned to office.

As a Maine voter and taxpayer, I would like to ask you to oppose this resolution. The failure of this bill to pass will be enough to prove to the Honduran government that our seperation of powers, not a president alone, represents a nation's respect for Constitutional law and our aknowledgement of the risk they took in order to protect and follow their Constitution.

Sincerely
Randy Hughes-King
Maine

Why Honduras Matters

I know the average person might go "Honduras, what is that?" So, I am going to explain why Honduras matters so much right now (beside my explanation of the ALBA alliance in earlier posts.)

Honduras is a country of 7.5 million people, and is poor. The average person earns less than two dollars a day. The annual GDP is 14 billion dollars. Compare this to 14 trillion in the United States. It has a high level of wealth seperation (I.E. little to no middle class with a limited wealthy elite.) Its earliest days saw the Mayans build many, many temples. These temples provide one of the largest industries of Honduras: tourism.

1899 was the year in which the first shipment of bananas went from Honduras to the U.S. The company that shipped them would become Standard Fruit Company. This company became very powerful and controlled the government to a certain extent. This created the term "banana republic." Honduras was the first banana republic.

The companies began having their own towns to control with all the land grants from the Honduras government. As time passed the Monroe Doctrine brought the U.S. into Honduras often. We sent troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925. Following generally functioning democratic presidents they had a dictator for 16 years.

A coup in 1955 but an election took place in 1957. However, in 1963 there was another coup. Then there was a war following a soccer match with El Salvador. The reasons for the war were complex and you can look it up on your own time.

The U.S. has a majority of businesses in Honduras. It is excellent for food growing and that is the basis of our relations with them. For the past 60 years we have not invaded Honduras. Our 600 troops in Honduras remained at their base during the turmoil.

We usually don't care who is in power as long as the business relations stayed open. That explains the seemingly hands-off approach we have taken this time. We have made big statements, but have actually done very little. The reason this crisis is important now more than the previous power shifts is because of Zelaya's alliance to Chavez. On Monday many of you will read in your local papers about the newest findings on the drug smuggling operations of the Chavez government.

If that isn't enough, I believe Chavez is forming an alliance against us which is intent on having a fourth world war in order to destroy America and will put in place fascist governments worldwide in coordination with Iran.

That is why not having Zelaya in power matters. Mitchelleti and the others in Honduras are fighting the ALBA dependance Honduras has formed under Zelaya. I hope that helps give some perspective.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Negotiator for ousted Honduran president accepts Arias plan in principle, say talks stalemated.

Excerpt over. From 9 P.M. Eastern Time, there are 4 hours until the talks, by Zelaya standards, are over. This report means anytime now Zelaya could say it is over. Unless there is a major breakthrough, the talks are essentially over. If Zelaya keeps the hard line, Honduras enters civil war. If he backs down, his legitimacy is finished and the Mitchelleti government has breathing space. This is only if Venezuela and Nicaragua maintain neutrality in the affairs of Honduras.

Should they get involved it becomes more than a civil war. It could be an invasion or a proxy war. The only way this is going to avoid conflict is if Zelaya admits, in a sense, defeat. All the bluster and talk so far has been pointless if he backs down. It diminishes his legitimacy and gives the new Honduran government recognition as they hold the country. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

Legitimacy of Reports

Alright, anyone who uses Vheadline.com to get news on, well, anything, just a warning to you. Consider the source of the information. In one of the articles on Honduras the entire article is just a copy of a blog post from marxist.com. Ahem, the journalistic quality of an opion from a blog, copied into a news outlet seems like a pathetic way to have news without being able to afford journalists. At least they provided the source, which marxist.com does not. I would link to it in my blog, but I have standards.

Meanwhile a human rights lawyer has made a report detailing 155,000 human rights violations by the Mitchelleti government. It has only been twenty days. Two people at most are confirmed dead, only one confirmed to be by intentional actions. The reports say roughly three hundred people are generally the protest size, and they are still protesting peacefully (mostly) so illegal arrests are not massive. How one can reach 155,000 violations in the accused media blackout and human rights restriction on speech and everything else seems, well, contradictory.

Seriously, think about it. Turn on your common sense and turn off the "sheep mindset". If there is really such a crackdown on the media, restriction of freedom of speech and assembly, and all the other accusations would it be possible to access information on 155,000 incidents to make a report about it, and then release the report from WITHIN Honduras? The violations were invented to make a negative headline for the Mitchelleti presidency. They can't even find 155,000 things to say about Saddam, and he ruled for thirty years. I doubt Honduras has that many violations in twenty days.

Tacoa City - The First of Many?

Another tragedy has occured in Honduras. The bloodshed continues with newly termed "Zelayistas" causing violence once more. So far a pattern of violent protest results in tragedy for the Zelaya supporters. The attempted break through of the barricade at the airport in Tegucigalpa resulted in a supporter being shot. Today, in a coastal town Zelayistas attacked a march in support of the interim government.

In Tacoa City the report says the following:
Zelaya's sympathizers clashed with demonstrators in support of the interim government headed by former congressional leader Roberto Micheletti.
Witness said that during the conflict many people, including youngsters and children, were badly beaten, and the police had to intervene to bring the situation under control.
So far there has been no report of death, and the exact number of injuries remained unclear.
Iris Turcios, coordinator of the pro-interim-government demonstration, told radio channel HRN that the situation was sad, and that greater tragedy could have happened if the police hadn't taken action.


Excerpt over. I fear this is just a taste-test of what Honduras will be facing at midnight tonight if the talks in Costa Rica do not result in Zelaya accepting a life without presidential power.

In an almost eerie twist, I just closed the link to the website with the report. I've spent twenty minutes searching for it again using the same google search. Tacoa city returns absolutely nothing. Tacoa city, according to results, doesn't exist. A search of maps and wikipedia does not show it exists. A very confusing turn of events for me.

I am looking into HRN radio right now. I found it. Now I wonder how google determines what is related to searches, especially in the news searches. It was in the Honduras search one moment, and gone the next. Very interesting. Anyhow, here is the link:

http://english.cri.cn/6966/2009/07/19/1722s502423.htm