Clinton says US committed to returning Honduras to OAS

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Radio Netherlands

Clinton says US committed to returning Honduras to OAS
Published on 23 April 2011 - 3:20am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Honduran President Porfirio Lobo she was committed to his country's readmission to the Organization of American States, officials said.

Honduras was kicked out of the OAS following a coup that toppled leftist president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009 and placed Lobo in power.

A State Department official said Clinton spoke with Lobo by telephone and discussed the country's political challenges and safety issues for Honduran citizens.

The top US diplomat "expressed her strong support for ongoing efforts by President Lobo and the people of Honduras to address those challenges," the official said.

Read more: http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/clinton-says-us-committed-returning-honduras-oas

[Judi Lynn]

1. Honduras on alert to track down al-Qaida activists

Honduras on alert to track down al-Qaida activists
Published: April 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, April 22 (UPI) -- Honduran authorities are on alert to track down two alleged members of al-Qaida international terrorist network after receiving warnings from U.S. Embassy officials in the capital.

Honduras appeared in news headlines as a possible sanctuary for al-Qaida activists more than six years ago but then little was heard of the reported infiltration as anti-terrorist operations moved to the Middle East and North Africa and anti-narcotics operations took precedence in Central and South America.

In recent months al-Qaida reappeared in news reports and security agencies' briefs as suspects were reported active in several South American countries.

Security agencies investigated reports earlier this month that a frontier triangle linking Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay had become a nexus for al-Qaida activities with alleged armament and training of Latin American youths and planning of cross-border attacks.

More:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/04/22/Honduras-on-alert-to-track-down-al-Qaida-activists/UPI-58401303501752/

http://blog.timesunion.com.nyud.net:8090/funiciello/files/2010/01/incredulous.jpg http://seriouslyblog.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/09/sk_incredulous.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/1226/1264397610_59d6492492.jpg

[EFerrari]

2. LOL

Good one!

[flamingdem]

3. Nice that Honduras turned into the biggest drug transition point

after the coup.

[rabs]

6. Oops, wrong thread, delete

[Judi Lynn]

4. Police Brutality in Honduras

Police Brutality in Honduras
04/12/11
Stephen Lendman



On June 28, 2009, a coordinated State Department-Pentagon project allied with Honduran military commanders and top opposition figures ousted President Manuel Zelaya, establishing the current fascist dictatorship, supported, armed, and funded by Washington.

In fact, all Honduran officers from captains on up are trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas (SOA), popularly known as the "School of Assassins."

Established in 1946, SOA Watch calls it "a combat training school," teaching soldiers how to torture, repress, exterminate poor and indigenous people, overthrow democratically elected governments, assassinate targeted leaders, and suppress popular resistance when it erupts.

As a result, its graduates have "left a trail of blood and suffering in every country," sending recruits to learn the latest ways to brutalize, disappear, and massacre their people back home, including in Honduras.

More:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/04/22/Honduras-on-alert-to-track-down-al-Qaida-activists/UPI-58401303501752/

~~~~~
Honduras: Human rights defenders subjected to a campaign of attacks, threats, arrests and judicial harassment
Posted on 2011/04/05

Human rights defenders, trade unionists and journalists in Honduras are facing a wave of repression as the authorities crack down on ongoing protests in support of striking teachers' unions.

Further Information
Over the past several days, Front Line has received reports of widespread threats, attacks, arrests and ill-treatment against human rights defenders who have taken to the streets in order to peacefully demonstrate in solidarity with the teachers, who have been on strike for the past three weeks.

On 31 March 2011, members of the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad Autónoma de Honduras – Sitraunah (Union of Workers of the Autonomous University of Honduras) were prevented from entering their headquarters at the National Autonomous University of Honduras after it was surrounded by police and military squads.

Previously, on 18 March 2011, human rights defender Mr René Andino Alvarenga, President of the Central Directive Board of Sitraunah received a message stating that assassins had been hired to kill him, along with Mr Donatilo Jimenez, President of Section 3 of Sitraunah, Professor Marco Antonio Moreno Fuentes, Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University and President of Section 1 of Sitraunah, and Mr Francisco Obando Torres, treasurer of the Central Directive Board of Sitraunah.

Read more:
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/14817

[eridani]

5. The only way you can get to even be an SOS in the US

--is to agree to whore for international corporations and their interests above all.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Hence the expression

sack of shit e.g Kissenger..

[Judi Lynn]

7. No wonder the teacher died and fell in the street to be run over by the police water weapon truck.

Honduran government unleashes violence vs striking teachers
Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:10

The US-backed government of President Porfirio Lobo has used police and military violence in an attempt to quell a teachers’ strike and protests that have continued to escalate over the last month.

Tens of thousands of teachers and their supporters have taken to the streets of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and cities and towns throughout Honduras in opposition to a new law—called “Encouraging community participation for the improvement of quality in education”—that decentralizes the country’s public education system with the aim of preparing its privatization. The Lobo government has also repealed the Teachers Statute, wiping out rights won over decades.......

The state violence employed against these protests has already claimed the life of one prominent teacher activist, Ylse Ivania Velázquez Rodríguez, who was killed on March 18 when police fired a tear gas canister at point-blank range into her head. At least 20 teachers have been imprisoned on “sedition” charges.......

Lobo escalated the confrontation on Sunday, declaring the strike illegal and vowing to suspend without pay for six months all teachers who failed to return to the classroom the following morning and to permanently fire those who did not come back to work by April 4. He also claimed the power to outlaw the teachers’ unions for backing the strike.

More:
http://www.theoilage.com/honduran-government-unleashes-violence-vs-striking-teachers-t2962.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Ah, Honduras, the country our State Department believes is a roaring success

after the oligarchs removed the popular elected President Zelaya.

Recent news:

Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011
Honduran police ignore rise in attacks on journalists, gays
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers

PUERTO GRANDE, Honduras — In a nation with the highest murder rate in the Western Hemisphere, it's perhaps not a surprise that someone armed with a 9 mm pistol opened fire last month on Franklin Melendez, wounding the radio journalist in the thigh.

What astonishes is what happened next: Police refused to go to the crime scene. Later in the evening, the three officers on duty also didn't budge when the alleged assailant waved his gun out of a moving vehicle and threatened to shoot another reporter for the radio station.

"He pointed the pistol at me and said, 'You're next, bitch. We're going to kill you,' " recalled Ethels Posada, a 30-year-old part-time reporter.

Numerous witnesses saw the assailant shoot Melendez and threaten Posada, but the police wouldn't act without a formal complaint. Once the complaint arrived, eight days later, they still refused to do anything, saying an arrest order was needed. The assailant has now fled the area.

More:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/11/111990/honduran-police-ignore-rise-in.html?story_link=email_msg#ixzz1KI0FMFtT

[Judi Lynn]

9. U.S. to Open a New Military Base in Honduras

Friday 15 April 2011
U.S. to Open a New Military Base in Honduras

Tegucigalpa - Douglas M. Fraser, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command met Honduran Minister of Defense Marlon Pascua and agreed that the United States will increase its military bases in Honduran northern coast.

Fraser is visiting Honduras, according to him, for concreting cooperation agreements to fight drug trafficking and for a better regional security.

El Heraldo newspaper posted that a new base will be open in Islas de Bahia with the assessment of U.S. Southern Command.

The U.S. Southern Command is assessing another base since 2010 in Gracias a Dios department, in the border with Nicaragua with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.

More:
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/april/15/centralamerica11041501.htm

On edit, adding maps of new base location:

http://liz2.re-data.org.nyud.net:8090/assets/honduras_map2.gif http://www.landfall-learning.org.nyud.net:8090/images/misc/mapCaribbean2007B.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

11. US to Open New Military Base in Honduras

US to Open New Military Base in Honduras
by CubaDebate

The United States is planning to open a new military base in the Islas de la Bahía (Bay Islands) in Honduras, according to a report in the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo this Wednesday.

The news emerged after the meeting between Honduran Defense Minister Marlon Pascual and the head of the US Sothern Command Douglas Fraser.

The US military commander is on a visit to this Central American country to promote agreements that supposedly expand the collaboration against drug trafficking and the struggle to improve regional security.

The Honduran newspaper said that the opening of this new military base would constitute the second such opening in less than a year, after April 2010 when the Southern Command established its presence in Gracias a Dios Department on the border with Nicaragua.

More:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/honduras160411.html