Hillary, Honduras, and the Murder of My Friend Berta

[Judi Lynn]

May 30, 2016
Hillary, Honduras, and the Murder of My Friend Berta

by Porfirio Quintano

Just one year ago, I had a joyous reunion in San Francisco with a high school classmate from my native Honduras. Social justice campaigner Berta Caceres came to the Bay Area to receive the prestigious Golden Environmental Prize for her leadership among indigenous people opposed to mining and the construction of hydro-electric dams that would destroy their communities.

Unfortunately, in a time when Honduras has grown ever more violent and repressive since its 2009 military coup, Berta’s continued activism and global recognition put a bullseye on her back. On March 3 of this year, she was killed by gunmen in her hometown of La Esperanza, not far from where I grew up before I emigrated to the United States two decades ago.

This tragedy added Berta’s name to the long list of recent Honduran political martyrs—students, teachers, journalists, lawyers, LGBT community members, labor and peasant organizers, and even top civilian investigators of drug trafficking and corruption. More than 100 environmental campaigners have been killed in the last five years. This carnage, along with escalating gang violence, has led many Hondurans to flee the country, often arriving in the United States as unaccompanied minors or mothers with small children.

The world learned recently that four people have been arrested and charged with Berta’s assassination. The suspects include a retired military officer, an army major, and two men with close ties to Desarrollos Energeticos S.A. (DESA), the controversial dam builder. As The New York Times reported, Berta’s family and friends “questioned whether the investigation would ultimately lead to those who planned and ordered the killing.”

Flush with tens of millions of our tax dollars for “security assistance,” the Honduran army and national police have acted with impunity since U.S.-trained generals overthrew Manuel Zelaya, the elected president of Honduras, seven years ago. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton toed the White House line that this wasn’t really a “military coup” worthy of near unanimous condemnation by the Organization of American States. The United States was more concerned about maintaining its own military presence in Honduras than objecting to local human rights abuses that have increased ever since.

Today, candidate Clinton cites her foreign policy experience and describes her run for the presidency as a “campaign for human rights.” Yet, unlike her rival for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton believes that youthful refugees from violence in Honduras “should be sent back” rather than welcomed and assisted on this side of the border. Today, many still face deportation while languishing in U.S. detention facilities under poor conditions and without proper legal representation (which even Clinton agrees they should have).

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/30/hillary-honduras-and-my-late-friend-berta/

Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016158826

[TBF]

1. Interesting anecdote -

We are in suburban Houston (where wealthy Mexican and Latin American owners love to buy "weekend" homes) and I happened to know the Honduran family on my street because our daughters played together. So, when the coup happened I queried the grandma about it (not knowing they were wealthy restaurant owners down there). She explained to me that (wealthy) Hondurans who "work hard want to keep their money" and told me about her family's restaurants. She was thrilled about the coup and ready to go home. Her kids/grandkids stayed in the house after she and her husband went back.

Once I heard that I knew that our government was "helping" certain interests - and it certainly wasn't the poor folks.

[billhicks76]

18. Clintonites Just Close Their Eyes And SayNa-Na-Na-Na Like Petulant Children

Their mantra is: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. Great strategy right?

[lewebley3]

43. The US doesn't govern Honduras: and we are not responsible for

Honduras: They are an independent country!

[TBF]

52. Right, so what's the deal with Hill's coup -

Are you denying that it happened?

The only major outlet last week that questioned Hillary on her role in regime change outside of the Middle East was the New York Daily News. Toward the end of an interview with the paper’s editorial board, Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez pressed Clinton specifically on her decisions during the coup in Honduras, and if she had any “concerns about her role in the aftermath of the coup.” Clinton replied:

Well, let me again try to put this in context. The legislature, the national legislature in Honduras and the national judiciary actually followed the law in removing President Zelaya. Now I didn’t like the way it looked or the way they did it but they had a very strong argument that they had followed the constitution and the legal precedence. And as you know, they really undercut their argument by spiriting him out of the country in his pajamas, where they sent the military to take him out of his bed and get him out of the country. So this began as a very mixed and difficult situation.

If the United States government declares a coup, you immediately have to shut off all aid including humanitarian aid, the Agency for International Development aid, the support that we were providing at that time for a lot of very poor people, and that triggers a legal necessity. There’s no way to get around it. So our assessment was, we will just make the situation worse by punishing the Honduran people if we declare a coup and we immediately have to stop all aid for the people, but we should slow walk and try to stop anything that the government could take advantage of without calling it a coup.

In other words, Clinton had no problem with the forced removal of a democratically elected leader of a country; she only took issue with the fact that things got a little messier than she would have liked. In her glib response, Clinton never elaborates on what the “strong arguments” were that justified the United States not calling the ouster a coup, despite the fact that various governments around the world, as well as the United Nations, condemned Zelaya’s ouster as a coup and called for his restoration as president. Dana Frank, a professor of history and expert on U.S. relations with Honduras called it “chilling that a leading presidential candidate would say this was not a coup . . . . She’s baldly lying when she says [the United States] never called it a coup.” Indeed, President Obama himself said soon after, “We believe the coup was not legal, and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected leader of the country.” By November 2009, the United States had backtracked on its position and focused on pushing for elections, but the claim that it didn’t call it a coup is simply not true.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/04/19/hillary-clintons-dodgy-answers-on-honduras-coup/

[lewebley3]

55. What left wing nonsense: Hillary SEC state not the President

[billhicks76]

57. Left Wing?

Maybe you should retry the Republican Party.

[lewebley3]

103. No, I am progressive: I am not a left wing whinning tea bagger

[TBF]

61. Is she going to blame POTUS for her secret server as well?

I'm sure he'll appreciate that.

[lewebley3]

85. The Read report cleared Hillary: No laws were broken

[TBF]

91. Great, I'm sure Comey will be impressed. nt

[lewebley3]

100. You wouldn't be impressed with any one as successful as Hillary: you

are jealous of other people success.

[TBF]

110. Lovely personal insult -

well I tried taking all of you off ignore but it's not going well. #2 on the list it is.

[lewebley3]

111. Just the truth

[DemMomma4Sanders]

87. Wow.......you just justified everyone who calls the hillary camp REPUBLICAN-LITE

[lewebley3]

102. No, Sanders people are lying about Hillary having anything to do with Honduras;

and its problems.

[DemMomma4Sanders]

106. Living in a fantasy world where Hillary can do no wrong doesn't mean ur opposition is wrong.

Anyone living under the delusion that Hillary was able to head the state department but keep her hands clean of its part in Empire maintenance obviously doesn't understand politics.

[lewebley3]

107. Hillary is a politician: she is not St.Bernard

[billhicks76]

56. So is Iraq

Your arguments are vapid and lame.

[lewebley3]

59. You attempt to attack Hillary is lame

[TBF]

60. "Your attack"

just helping you out. I know it's hard when you have so much material to get through each day.

[lewebley3]

99. I do have a lot of material: because their so many lies made up by Sanders people

[billhicks76]

94. Actually I Was Evaluating You

Your comments are always the attacks...and totally jingoistic with a complete lack of interest in human rights or whats decent. You would make a great spokesperson for the military regardless if a democratic or republican President was commander in chief. Honduras speaks for itself. I don't nee to attack Hillary. She supported the coup and ouster of their populist president. Whether she did it to give corporations whatever they wanted or did it just for fun is up to you. I remember when it was happening and all I heard was he pal Lanny Davis doing his usual PR firm advocating for her support of the coup. Keep trying though because it needs to be talked about. The more you deny outright facts the more attention we can give it here.

[lewebley3]

98. You cannot evaluate me: you don't have any facts; that has not stoped you

[Perogie]

88. Dude you know nothing

The US has been overthrowing governments in other countries for decades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

[lewebley3]

101. The US has a history for decades: Not Hillary:

[Perogie]

108. Like I said nothing

She was involved in Honduras.

[Judi Lynn]

109. Everyone know it, especially the professional liars. n/t

[Actor]

77. The petulant will be those who sit back and let Trump win and subsequently destroy the human race.

Talk about petulant children.

[tonyt53]

2. Uh, time for a government lesson - the Secretary of State does what the President tells them to do.

Also, the CIA and NSA operate independently of the office of Secretary of State. They have their own armies.

[pnwmom]

9. Are you suggesting Obama should have sent troops in? Is it the US's job to make sure

that no elected leader anywhere in the world is deposed?

They called for new elections, which occurred, and Zelaya was already near the constitutional end of his term. What could Obama and Hillary have done to assure that Berta wasn't killed?

[reddread]

15. tell it to the OAS

http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=e-219/09

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

is liberal going to follow freedom into the vortex of lost lexicon?

[pnwmom]

29. Tell what? You're avoiding the question. n/t

[reddread]

34. tacit approval or full support

not much difference when orphan refugees get sent back to the good life created for them by sweatshop slavers.

[pnwmom]

42. Obama withdrew non-humanitarian aid and joined the OAS and UN in condemning the coup.

What else should he have done if not go in militarily?

[noiretextatique]

35. how abouit not *actively supportinmg* the coup?

like the rest of the civilized world?
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/hillary-being-misleading-about-her-role-honduras-coup

[lewebley3]

44. There is nothing the US could do:This post is a left wing tea bagger post

[Judi Lynn]

80. The left wing doesn't have an extreme right-wing idiot side.

Right-wingers don't seem to be able to realize that just because the right-wing has drooling, racist, greedy, murderous imbeciles, the left-wing does, too.

Doesn't work that way.

[Marksman_91]

90. No, it just has conspiracy nuts who think every cat stuck up a tree is a CIA plot n/t

[ReRe]

5. Well...

... if what the President is asking them to do is against their conscience, they can resign. Hillary knew the name of the game, and she took it on. If she didn't agree with the policy, she should have resigned and wrote the story, telling the world what she wanted no part of. But nooooooo, she made it her State Dept, right down to the e-mail system she chose to use, disregarding whether it was secure or not. Hillary went along and got along and threw her conscience in the trash.

[pnwmom]

10. Should the US have sent in troops to Zelaya back in office? What did Hillary do that was wrong? nt

[ReRe]

28. I'm no expert on Hillary's...

... entire tenure at the State Dept. And I am NOT going to argue with you. See Octofish's reply below, please?

[406-Boz]

12. "threw her conscience in the trash."

Assuming she had a conscience to begin with.

[pnwmom]

30. What should they have done differently? How should they have supported this President--

who was already near the very end of his Presidency? If you're not suggesting they should have sent troops in to put him back in office, then what are you suggesting?

[ReRe]

31. See #6 directly below please. nt

[pnwmom]

32. That doesn't answer the question. Obama denounced the coup,

joined with the OAS and the UN in opposing it, and cut off military aid.

What else -- short of military action -- should the Obama administration have done?

[JDPriestly]

89. Hillary explained what she should have done.

She should have declared the coup to have been a coup and stopped aid to Honduras.

That's what she should have done.

She argued that had she done that, poor people would have suffered from the lack of aid.

But that was not her concern, the suffering of poor people, when she voted for the Iraq War Resolution. And as it has turned out, a lot of poor people in Honduras suffered as a result of the coup.

That's why we had so many refugees from Honduras after the coup.

This is at best another example of faulty judgment by Hillary (and Obama if you will) or at worst cooperation, perhaps even collusion or conspiracy with the coup leaders. We really don't know that part.

But in our history, we have often quite actively encouraged coups.

One of the reasons I will not vote for Hillary is that she relies on Kissinger for foreign policy advice. Remember the coup in Chile? Remember the events in Cambodia?

You may be too young to remember those horrible times. Kissinger, his lack of humanity and his poor judgment were greatly to blame for those horrors.

Yet Hillary relies on him and prides herself in his approval.

So that is why those of us who support Sanders criticize Hillary about the coup in Honduras. It is part of a sinister pattern, and she relies on one of the authors of that pattern for advice.

Are we assuming that she may have had active or acquiescent support for that coup? Yes. One or the other. One worse than the other, but both unacceptable for the future of our planet and our children and grandchildren.

If Hillary accepts a coup against a democratically elected leader in Honduras, would she also accept one here?

What does she think about the principle of democratic government? Is it really all that important to her? I suspect that she is not as avidly dedicated to democracy as she should be if she is to serve as our president.

This is one of the many reasons I will not be voting for Hillary next Tuesday in the California Primary.

[lewebley3]

45. Hillary did the right thing and stayed out of it: Its what the American's want

[ReRe]

48. lewebley3...

... have you ever watched DemocracyNow with Amy Goodman? The foreign policy of the USA has been so screwed for the last 40-50 years. Did you know that? Don't you ever doubt anything that the foreign relations side of our gov't exudes?

[SalviaBlue]

49. He already called the OP a "left wing tea bagger" post

He probably thinks Amy Goodman is a "left wing tea bagger" too.

[lewebley3]

58. Amy Goodman is a left wing tea bagger: but Yes I listen to her program

on the subject: US policy has always been in flux, that is the
nature of foreign policy. In any event, Obama has a foreign policy,
he is the President not Hillary.

Goodman uses innuendos to smear Hillary with the events in Honduras,
as if Hillary is personally responsible every small or large events in Honduras,
her program is nonsense most of the time.

Only Hondurans are responsible for Honduras, the American people
don't want any involvement with this country.

[shenmue]

64. Exactly

[ReRe]

65. There's no hope, is there?

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." Start reading, lewebley3. Believe it or not, you can do it at the library. Take notes and get into the bibliography at the back of the book. If a book doesn't have an index and a bibliography, don't even open it up. Look for books that you can verify what the author has written.

And since you are so interested in Honduras, start there.

Reading is goooooood. Really. Good luck.

[lewebley3]

71. Stop attacking Hillary for everything: she is good leader

[ReRe]

78. Yeah...

... if you like Henry Kissinger.

[lewebley3]

104. There is hope in having Hillary as President and Dem congress: Hope in voting

[Judi Lynn]

81. How did you never acknowledge what Honduras has been to the US all these years,

contrary to what the people of Honduras, the victims, wanted, anyway?

[center] ________[/center]
Our Man in Honduras
Stephen Kinzer

September 20, 2001 Issue

When a country finds itself at the center of world history, it begins attracting spies, mercenaries, war profiteers, journalists, prostitutes, and fortune-seekers. Often they gravitate to a particular hotel. In Honduras, which was shaken from its long slumber in the 1980s and turned into a violent staging ground for cross-border war, the Maya was that hotel. Perched atop a high hill near the central plaza in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, its tinted windows giving it an air of mystery, the Maya attracted a variety of sinister characters. Counterrevolutionaries hatched bloody plots over breakfast beside the pool. You could buy a machine gun at the bar. Busloads of crew-cut Americans would arrive from the airport at times when I knew there were no commercial flights landing, spend the night, and then ship out before dawn; they said they didn’t know where they were going, and I believed them. Friends told me that death squad torturers stopped in for steak before setting off on their night’s work. But in those days, much of what anyone said in Honduras was a lie. That was certainly true at the Maya, and equally so at the American embassy a couple of miles away.

The diplomat who presided over that embassy from 1981 to 1985, John Dimitri Negroponte, was a great fabulist. He saw, or professed to see, a Honduras almost Scandinavian in its tranquillity, a place where there were no murderous generals, no death squads, no political prisoners, no clandestine jails or cemeteries. Now that President Bush has nominated Negroponte to be United States ambassador to the United Nations, his record in Honduras is coming under new scrutiny. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on his nomination soon, probably in September. With the chairmanship of the committee now passed from Jesse Helms to Joseph Biden, this hearing promises to be anything but routine. It will recall the polarizing drama of Central America in the 1980s, a historical chapter that seemed closed but that the Bush administration has chosen to reopen. It may even throw some light onto places that have for two decades been as dark and scary as the Maya Hotel bar at midnight.

Over the last few weeks, investigators for the Foreign Relations Committee have been reading classified government documents written by or about Negroponte. They have also conducted an extensive private interview with him. At the committee hearing on his nomination, senators are likely to ask him about what they suspect were false reports that he filed on human rights conditions in Honduras, and about questionable sworn testimony he later gave the committee.

. . .

n Honduras Negroponte exercised US power in ways that still reverberate throughout that small country. His most striking legacy, though, is the Honduras of his imagination. Most people who lived or worked in Honduras during the 1980s saw a nation spiraling into violence and infested by paramilitary gangs that kidnapped and killed with impunity. Negroponte would not acknowledge this. He realized that the Reagan policy in Central America would lose support if truths about Honduras were known, so he refused to accept them.

By nominating Negroponte as ambassador to the United Nations, the Bush administration is sending at least two clear messages. The first is addressed to the UN itself. During his years in Honduras, Negroponte acquired a reputation, justified or not, as an old-fashioned imperialist. Sending him to the UN serves notice that the Bush administration will not be bound by diplomatic niceties as it conducts its foreign policy.

Negroponte’s nomination is also part of a concerted effort to rehabilitate those who planned and organized the Nicaraguan contra war of the 1980s. When last heard from, these men were objects of public opprobrium and, in some cases, criminal indictments. Bush administration officials believe that they were shamefully mistreated and that they ought to be honored for their much-maligned service. No one is more worthy in their eyes than Negroponte, whose work made it possible for the United States to turn Honduras into a staging area for the contra war.

More:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/09/20/our-man-in-honduras/

[Judi Lynn]

76. Well said, ReRe. Thanks. n/t

[Octafish]

6. Originally, President Obama backed ousted Honduran president Zelaya

Here's a lesson for you.

Dancing with Monsters: The U.S. Response to the 2009 Honduran Coup

"A coup anywhere in Latin America is a very big deal.”

By Alvaro Valle
Harvard Political Review, April 13, 2015

SNIP...

The U.S. Response

Latin American governments immediately denounced Zelaya’s ouster as a military coup. The United States was not quite as decisive in its diction, with the initial statement from the Obama administration merely calling on “all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms.” Obama did go on to denounce the coup in the following days, but Frank noted that Obama’s characterization of the government change was very important. “He very clearly failed to call it a military coup. If he had called it a military coup, the United States would have had to immediately suspend all police and military aid,” Frank explained. “Eventually some money sent was suspended, but the vast majority was not.”

Following the coup, President Obama called many times for the reinstatement of Zelaya. In contrast, Secretary of State Clinton made remarks that were far more equivocal. When asked if the United States had any plans to alter aid to the coup government, , “Much of our assistance is conditioned on the integrity of the democratic system. But if we were able to get to a status quo that returned to the rule of law and constitutional order within a relatively short period of time, I think that would be a good outcome.” Clinton seemed to prioritize having a stable regime over preserving democratic ideals.

As further evidence, Clinton wrote in her book, Hard Choices, “In the subsequent days [after the coup] … we strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot,” revealing that even as the administration publicly advocated for Zelaya’s return, Clinton was not working to ensure that it would happen.

Pastor added that Clinton had personal connections with supporters of the coup government that may have led her to soften her stance. For instance, Lanny Davis, Bill Clinton’s former personal lawyer and a longtime Hillary Clinton supporter, lobbied in Washington for the Honduran coup government, Honduran elites, the Business Council of Latin America, and the American companies that took issue with Zelaya’s reforms. Bennett Ratcliff, another top Democratic campaigner with close ties to the Clintons, also worked for the Honduran coup government as a lobbyist in Washington. These personal connections to advocates for the coup government raise troubling concerns that political ties influenced Clinton’s stance.

In Clinton’s defense, these personal connections were not the only political forces supporting the coup. Levitsky noted that initial opposition to the coup in the United States may have given way because “Republicans held a couple of major U.S.-Latin America appointments: the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Ambassador to Brazil. They held these positions hostage to a softening of U.S. policy toward the coup government.”

CONTINUED w/ links sources etc....

http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/us-honduran-coup/

Which is not what you wrote, tonyt53.

[mountain grammy]

13. Thank you, Octafish!

One of the best things I've read on the subject.

[Octafish]

24. You are most welcome, mountain grammy! Lookit what DU has on Bennet Ratcliff...

From DUer magbana:

Honduran Coup: Bennet Ratcliff, Advisor to Micheletti; OBAMA CONNECTION

I got this through a list serve that I belong to. Further, I know the person who wrote it and trust his opinion.

Please note, in the last paragraph a URL is missing for a DN show on charter schools. When I get the URL, I'll post it.

Perhaps, many of you have seen the following NYT article about
Micheletti’s use of consultants/image managers who are close to the Clintons.

Bennet Ratcliff, who is the “American” mentioned in the NYT article, is a
partner of a consulting company called Vander Ark/Ratcliff, based in San
Diego.

In addition to the fact that Mr. Ratcliff has direct contacts with the
Clintons, Tom Vander Ark (Ratcliff’s partner) and his wife also have
direct connections to the Clinton Administration and the Obama
Administration. Mr. Vander Ark is an old friend and strong supporter of
Mr. Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary appointed by President Barack
Obama. Mr. Vander Ark also has direct connections to Bill Gates
(Microsoft) as the former Executive Director of his Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.

No doubt Mr. Gates is not very happy that Venezuela and others are working
towards developing alternatives to the use of the Microsoft operating
system. This could lead to other countries following Venezuela's lead.

So, it appears they may be some unexpected players and multiple
motivations for the coup in Honduras, in terms of the corporate concerns
about losing their control over certain aspects of resources and life in
Latin America.

References:

NYT article on Clinton/DNC Honduras Coup Connection:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/world/americas/13honduras.html

Vander Ark/Ratcliff Corporate Information:
http://www.varpartners.net/?page_id=2

Bennet Ratcliff’s Linkedin Web Page:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bennet-ratcliff/1/985/a36

ABC News Article Showing Direct Vander Ark/Arne Duncan Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=7876217&page=1

Notice that among the goals of President Obama is the expansion of
“Charter Schools”, a movement in which Mr. Vander Ark has been a key
player, with the support of Bill Gates. The for-profit education business
is booming and it clearly has the support of major players, apparently
including our President. Here is President Obama’s speech to the Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce in March:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/10/Taking-on-Education /

Mr. Duncan recently (July 2) gave a speech at the NEA Convention in San
Diego (city where Vander Ark/Ratcliff is based). You’ll find in this blog
and its entries more information about the connection between Mr. Duncan
and the privatization movement.

http://nea-ra.blogspot.com/2009/07/arne-duncan-speaks-to-delegates.html

There is more, much more, to uncover but I'll leave you with an
interesting Democracy Now! piece that includes an interview with Secretary
Duncan and his critics. One thing is clear the Charter School approach is
anti-union. Sound familiar?

How are the teachers and the unions doing in Honduras these days?

OP from 2009: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x18819

How is this any different from what Gen. Smedley Butler was talking about in the 1920s?

[lewebley3]

46. Its one of dumbest things posted: Hillary has nothing to do with Honduras

problems.

[Judi Lynn]

82. You announce that if you don't say it happened, it didn't? That simplifies things, considerably! n/t

[lewebley3]

84. Again Hillary has nothing do with Honduras problems

[Judi Lynn]

86. So great reading your information, Octofish. Even the expression "the question of Zelaya" tells us

something wrong was happening. Unbelievable!

First, here's another of your posts linking DU'er magbana's excellent work, which is deeply interesting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x18819

Little mentioned name "Bennett Ratcliff", isn't it, will be looking for more if I can. You have to wonder how many of these creeps there are.

EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton sold out Honduras: Lanny Davis, corporate cash, and the real story about the death of a Latin American democracy

Want to know why Clinton's State Dept. failed to help an elected leader? Follow the money and stench of Lanny Davis

Matthew Pulver



. . .

One of those strategic partners appears to have been Clinton family legal pitbull, Lanny Davis, deployed as an auxiliary weapon against the rightful, legal, democratically elected president of Honduras. Davis famously defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings, and he’s been on Team Clinton for decades, most recently serving as a booster for Hillary’s campaign in its early days.

Davis, along with another close Clinton associate, Bennett Ratcliff, launched a Washington lobbying offensive in support of the coup government and its oligarchic backers, penning a Wall Street Journal op-ed, testifying before a Congressional committee, and undoubtedly knocking on office doors on Capitol Hill, where he enjoys bipartisan connections, which valuable asset he demonstrated during his committee hearing.

“If you want to understand who the real power behind the (Honduran) coup is, you need to find out who’s paying Lanny Davis,” said Robert White, former ambassador to El Salvador, just a month after the coup. Speaking to Roberto Lovato for the American Prospect, Davis revealed who that was: “My clients represent the CEAL, the (Honduras Chapter of) Business Council of Latin America.” In other words, the oligarchs who preside over a country with a 65 percent poverty rate. The emerging understanding, that the powerful oligarchs were behind the coup, began to solidify, and the Clinton clique’s allegiances were becoming pretty clear. If you can believe it, Clinton’s team sided with the wealthy elite.

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/08/exclusive_hillary_clinton_sold_out_honduras_lanny_davis_corporate_cash_and_the_real_story_about_the_death_of_a_latin_america_democracy/

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]


The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup


The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.

July 23, 2009|Mark Weisbrot | Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. (www.cepr.net).

Powerful special interests have flexed their muscles and confronted President Obama on the most important legislative priorities of his domestic agenda. But this kind of politics-by-influence-peddling doesn't stop at the water's edge. And in foreign policy, the consequences can be more immediate, violent and deadly.

Meet Lanny Davis, Washington lawyer and lobbyist, former legal counsel to President Clinton and avid campaigner for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. He has been hired by a coalition of Latin American business interests to represent the dictatorship that ousted elected President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in a military coup and removed him to Costa Rica on June 28.

Davis is working with Bennett Ratcliff, another lobbyist with a close relationship to Hillary Clinton who is a former senior executive for one of the most influential political and public relations firms in Washington. In the current mediation effort hosted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the coup-installed government did not make a move without first consulting Ratcliff, an unnamed source told the New York Times.

Davis and Ratcliff have done an amazing public relations job so far. Americans, relying on media reports, are likely to believe that Zelaya was ousted because he tried to use a referendum to extend his term of office. This is false.

More:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/23/opinion/oe-weisbrot23

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A coup for lobbyists at the White House
By Rick Attig, The Oregonian
on August 05, 2009 at 6:38 AM, updated August 05, 2009 at 6:39 AM

. . .

Bennett Ratcliff, another Clinton White House connection, was a key adviser to the coup leader Micheletti during the Costa Rica negotiations. According to Ratcliff's firm's bio, he "created TV and radio advertisements for President Bill Clinton's 1992 and 1996 Presidential campaigns." Firm partner Melissa Ratcliff "worked as communications strategist for The White House during the Clinton Administration." Their firm promises "access to key decision makers and influencers."

More:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/a_coup_for_lobbyists_at_the_wh_1.html

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Ex-Clinton aides advising Honduran coup regime

By Bill Van Auken
15 July 2009

Ever since the military abducted President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28 and expelled him from the country, the Obama administration has cast itself as a steadfast defender of “democracy” in Honduras.

The real nature of that defense has become somewhat clearer with the news that key former aides to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have surfaced as top advisers to the illegal regime led by Roberto Micheletti, which was installed by the coup.

Ginger Thompson of the New York Times reported from San Jose, Costa Rica Sunday that in organizing the first sessions of a US-brokered mediation exercise between the ousted President Zelaya and the leader of those who overthrew him, Micheletti, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias instructed both men to appear at his residence with just four advisers.

“On Thursday morning, Mr. Micheletti showed up with six, adding an American public relations specialist who has done work for former President Bill Clinton and the American’s interpreter, and an official close to the talks said the team rarely made a move without consulting him,” Thompson reported.

The PR man was identified as Bennett Ratcliff of San Diego. Thompson quoted an official close to the talks as saying that “Every proposal that Micheletti’s group presented was written or approved by the American [Ratcliff].”

Perhaps even more significantly, Lanny Davis has emerged as among Washington’s most prominent defenders and spokesmen for the Honduran coup regime, acting as a lobbyist for the Honduran branch of the extreme right-wing Latin American Business Council.

Davis has been closely tied to the Clintons since he attended Yale Law School together with them in 1970. Between 1996 and 1998, he served as President Clinton’s special counsel. And in the 2008 presidential campaign, he served as one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent fundraisers and surrogates in attacking her principal rival, Barack Obama.

It is inconceivable that such figures would be playing such a prominent role in advising and defending the coup regime in Honduras without receiving a green light from both Secretary of State Clinton and the Obama White House.

More:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/07/hond-j15.html

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Bennett Ratcliff

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Just found this YouTube. I have seen the still photo taken once it was in place. They are across the street from Lanny Davis' offices.

[Melissa G]

20. SoS does what president says... So why did Hillary

use Sid Blumenthal in violation of Obama's direct order?

[rhett o rick]

3. Clinton just spreading more "democracy". nm

[Herman4747]

7. Hillary's fans aren't concerned about this:

...to them, the only words that matter are "Madame President."

Hillary, of course, learned well from the Master:

[reddread]

16. Democrats for Kissinger!

Im gonna make up some bumper stickers and get rich.

[Divernan]

37. She ADORES her some Henry! doesn't look at Bill like that!

[lewebley3]

47. Hillary is not responsible for Honduras: The Honduran's are

[pnwmom]

8. All Hillary's fault? This happened several years after she left office. Is she all powerful?

Or is it her fault that Zelaya got deposed? What should she have done instead of calling for a new election? Should she have sent US troops in? Is that what she did wrong? Not get involved militarily in yet another country?

What did Bernie say should have been done? Was he calling for military engagement to restore Zelaya to power? Did he support the same elections Hillary supported? If so, is he responsible for Berta's death, too?

[reddread]

17. Hillary Clinton admits role in Honduras coup aftermath

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/9/hillary-clinton-honduraslatinamericaforeignpolicy.html

[pnwmom]

21. Yes, she "admitted" that she called for new elections. As i already asked, what SHOULD she and

Obama have done? Send in US troops to put Zelaya back in so he could finish out the last few months of his term? Is that the job of the US everywhere in the world now?

[jeff47]

19. Is W all-powerful for ISIS taking power after he left office? (nt)

[pnwmom]

23. What should Hillary and Obama have done? Send US troops in, instead of calling for

elections? Send US troops in to install him as President to complete the term that was almost over?

Would the US people have been on board with that?

[jeff47]

25. Nope! It turns out there are options besides guns!

For example, Obama started with a policy of supporting the president who was overthrown by the coup. Until his Secretary of State convinced him to support the coup.

It is totally understandable that a foreign policy expert would never expect any violence in the aftermath of a coup.

[pnwmom]

27. You haven't answered. How were they supposed to "support" him,

since his goal was to return to office?

[Bacchus4.0]

33. You won't get an answer. Zelaya was going to make Honduras like Denmark in his last 6 months

The chavistas types who support Z did not want an election to take place when it was scheduled. Which is completely bizarre since if there was no election the interim government would continue to govern.

[Herman4747]

51. By *NOT* supporting those who overthrew him!!!

Well, that would be a start.

Instead of condemning the figures behind the uprising, suspending support to the illegitimate government of Zelaya’s successor, Roberto Micheletti, and demanding a restoration of the democratically elected Zelaya, Secretary Clinton decided to move on. In her memoir “Hard Choices,” Clinton wrote that after the coup, she went about hatching a plan with other leaders in the region “to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.” The United States pushed for elections, and in November 2009, despite a boycott by opposition leaders and international observers, elections were orchestrated by the same figures behind Zelaya’s ouster.

Since the coup, violence and assassinations, as well as persecutions of journalists and social justice advocates, have skyrocketed in Honduras.

-- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/10/hillary-clinton-needs-to-answer-for-her-actions-in-honduras-and-haiti/

Damn, what a candidate you got there, buddy!

[pnwmom]

53. Are you aware that his term of office was almost over? And that Obama

did condemn the coup, joined with the OAS and the UN in opposing it, and withdrew military aid?

[Herman4747]

54. Why bring up Obama?

What precisely did your beloved candidate do?

Here, become informed by a good professor: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/13/shes_baldly_lying_dana_frank_responds

Do please note the photo below as I have a question pertaining to it:



How anyone calling herself a DEMOCRAT can support a candidate who seeks out Henry Kissinger for advice is beyond me, but maybe you could explain.

[pnwmom]

62. Because he was the President with the ultimate authority for determining policy. And

Hillary represented him and the US when she joined with the OAS and the UN in opposing the coup.

[Herman4747]

66. Did you elect not to learn from the professor?

We both know that your beloved learns from Dr. Kissinger, but what can you learn from Dr. Frank?

Just a couple of points from Dr. Frank for now:

"she says, well, the military put him on the plane; that was the only problem here. She’s admitting it was a military-led coup and that so, therefore, she’s in violation of the law—so is Obama—by not immediately suspending the aid."

"I mean, what she did at the time was she played out the strategy—Obama and Clinton played out the strategy—that they would delay negotiations. They treated Micheletti, the post-coup dictator, as an equal partner to democratically elected President Zelaya, moved the negotiations into a sphere they could control and then delayed until the already scheduled elections in November. The problem, as you say, is that this—that almost all the opposition had pulled out of that election. All international observers, like the Carter Center or the U.N., had pulled out, refusing to observe that election—the only observers were the U.S. Republican Party"

"Well, I mean, it’s incredible this woman is a presidential candidate, that she’s doing like things like this, the fact that she would say we wanted to "render the question of Zelaya moot," we wanted to bury the democratically elected president’s existence and act like the coup didn’t happen. I mean, that’s why it’s so terrifying that today—or rather, on Saturday, she would say—she would defend this coup, say it wasn’t a coup, and defend her actions in installing this terrifically horrific, scary post-coup regime."

from: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/13/shes_baldly_lying_dana_frank_responds

[pnwmom]

67. It was "moot" because his term of office was almost over,

and he was constitutionally barred from running again.

[Herman4747]

68. So then, under your logic, it would be okay to:

overthrow Obama in December.

Dumb as hell.

[pnwmom]

70. The situation in Honduras was much murkier than you are portraying

and the question remains: other than imposing sanctions, and joining with the OAS and the UN in denouncing the coup what was the US supposed to do?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27état

Arguments that Zelaya's removal was illegal have been advanced by several lawyers.[40][41][42] The Supreme Court never ruled on any of the charges filed by the public prosecutor on 26 June. The arrest warrant was issued for the purposes of taking a deposition from him. According to Edmundo Orellana, the events were constitutionally irregular for several reasons:[43] because Zelaya was captured by the Armed Forces, not the National Police (Art. 273, 292); and because the Congress, not the courts, judged Zelaya to have broken the law (Arts. 303 and 304). Orellana concluded, "Violations of the Constitution cannot be put right with another violation. The Constitution is defended by subjecting oneself to it. Their violation translates into disregard for the State of Law and infringes on the very essence of the Law. Therefore, a coup d'Etat never has been and should never be the solution to a political conflict." Other civic and business leaders, even those opposed to Zelaya's referendum efforts, agreed that Zelaya was deprived of due process in his ouster.[44]

Still, many people in Honduras, including most of the country's official institutions, claimed that there was a constitutional succession of power. In a statement to a subcomittee of the US House Committee on International Affairs, former Honduran Supreme Court Justice, Foreign Affairs minister, and law professor Guillermo Perez Cadalso said that all major governmental institutions agreed that Zelaya was violating the law.[45] Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said that, as a sovereign and independent nation, Honduras had the right to freely decide to remove a president who was violating Honduran laws. She added: "Unfortunately, our voice hasn’t been heard."[46] She compared Zelaya's tactics, including his dismissal of the armed forces chief for obeying a court order to impound ballots to be used in the vote, with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: "Some say it was not Zelaya but Chávez governing."[6]

There is a small amount of middle ground between those who term the events a coup and those who call them a constitutionally-sound succession of power. On the one hand, several supporters of Zelaya's removal, including Micheletti and the top army lawyer, have admitted that sending Zelaya out of the country was illegal, although they argue it was justified by the need to prevent violence.[28][47] Acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said forcing deposed President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country, instead of arresting him, was a mistake.[31][47] On the other hand, a fraction of those who oppose the events consider the arrest warrant against Zelaya to be legal, although they say he was denied a fair trial.[48]

[Herman4747]

72. If it's "murky" as you say, then the best thing would be...

NOT TO MEDDLE, and ALSO NOT VIOLATE U.S. LAW.

Second, your link doesn't work.

[pnwmom]

73. The link works if you copy and paste. I don't know why I couldn't post it. nt

[Divernan]

39. S/He really does exemplify a Clinton supporter-laughing at murdered children.

[Laser102]

22. Will not read anything with those ridiculous insects running around. Childish and distracting.

[snort]

41. Use your ignore list

like I'm about too.

[AlbertCat]

69. Will not read anything with those ridiculous insects running around. Childish and distracting.

Oh yes... wouldn't want to be childish about anything, would we? After all, gifs in a tag line is all important.

[emsimon33]

26. K&R

Hillary is our Lady Macbeth without the regret!

[jalan48]

36. Hillary is world corporate domination with a few social issues thrown in for flavor.

[Actor]

79. You make the social issues sound very unimportant. I guess they would be more important

if your very life depended on them, as many do.

[jalan48]

95. Not at all-it makes the economic domination more palatable too.

[Divernan]

38. Thanks Judi Lynn for speaking truth to power about Central/So. America!

Your valuable and informative posts on this part of the world are one of the few reasons I bother to continue participating in DU!

[Judi Lynn]

74. So glad you have read these. We are all learning together, believe me. You are very kind. n/t

[MisterP]

83. and it's a nice alternative to the denialists' "what does the Secretary of State have to do

with foreign policy?!" stance ...

[Judi Lynn]

92. There's no opening in their minds, unfortunately. Information can't penetrate. Sad! n/t

[MisterP]

96. "it's a coup! not a military coup!"

[Judi Lynn]

97. Ah, one of the most time-worn, comical claims! The "coup, not a military coup" coup.

May as well be a coupé, as a non-military coup.

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coupé



Military coupé.

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[LiberalLovinLug]

50. For those Hillary supporters where it is all about gender

And I know there are those of you out there. That the #1 reason to vote for her is her gender...the first female President!..how wonderful!

How does she compare to other women leaders like Berta? You are choosing a female who gives courage to those that would murder strong female leaders that work for justice in countries over brutal military regimes...if they get in the way of American corporate profits and preventing fairer distribution of wealth in these third world economies.

[Judi Lynn]

93. Ouch. You're right.A woman who would give HER live for her fellow humans is worth more than millions

of women who would want her to lose her life for their supporters, and to drop dead for their backers.

Thank you, LiberalLovinLug.

[Uncle Joe]

63. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[Judi Lynn]

75. Thank you, Uncle Joe. n/t

[2banon]

105. Kick for exposure, excellent article Judi, thank you.