Disaster Capitalism and Outrage in Post-Coup Honduras
Disaster Capitalism and Outrage in Post-Coup Honduras
By: Adrienne Pine
Washington continues to interfere in the internal politics of Honduras six years after the coup.
On June 28, 2009, School of the Americas-trained general Romeo Vásquez Velasquez led the military coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The plane that flew the president out of the country (lent by palm oil tycoon Miguel Facussé) stopped to refuel at the Soto Cano U.S. military base before depositing Zelaya — famously still in his pajamas — in Costa Rica. The Honduran orchestrators of the coup and their Washington collaborators disingenuously justified the putsch by claiming Zelaya had broken the law by (among other things) attempting to modify the constitution to permit presidential reelection.
A lot has happened since that fateful day six years ago. We learned through Cablegate, for instance, that Facussé was known to the U.S. embassy since at least 2004 to be a drug trafficker. Since the coup Facussé was directly responsible for the murders of at least five (the number he admitted to on national television, an admission that did not even result in an investigation), and likely over 100 small farmers who challenged his claim to their collectively-held lands. Facussé died last week, having never answered for his crimes, at age 90.
Vásquez went on to run for president in the 2013 elections, in which the main opposition candidate was Xiomara Castro, former President Zelaya's wife. Both lost to coup-backer Juan Orlando Hernández in an election riddled with fraud and violence and — we now know — tipped by the emptying of the Honduran Institute for Social Security (IHSS, a public health insurance program tied to certain forms of legal employment) coffers to finance the campaigns of Hernández and his fellow National Party candidates. Like Facussé, Vásquez has not answered for his crimes in relation to the coup. He benefitted from the U.S.-created "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" which ensured immunity from prosecution to those who committed crimes during and in defense of the coup.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has promoted her role in preventing Zelaya from returning to office as part of her hawkish electoral campaign strategy. And earlier this Spring, the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court overturned the Constitutional prohibition on reelection — the same prohibition used to justify ousting Zelaya (though he himself never attempted to change it).
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Disaster-Capitalism-and-Outrage-in-Post-Coup-Honduras-20150628-0004.html