Translating Twitter from Honduras

[Joanne98]

Posted by Al Giordano




OMG! OMG! Oh noes! A violent coup d’etat and its censorship in Honduras is fine by us, but we’re really really upset about the coup on Twitter!

Thus could be summed up the unintentionally comedic efforts of some coup supporters on the Twitter #Honduras feed today.

Most of the messages there - hundreds per hour - are in Spanish. A handful are in Brazilian Portuguese and in English. And as with the events in Iran this month, Twitter has become a clearinghouse for information, disinformation, rumors, arguments, questions and answers about what is going on in a country where an authoritarian regime has attempted to block the media and the Internet.

Yesterday, the pro-coup defenders seemed to outnumber the critics of the coup on Twitter. But that's old news now: most of the "tweets" have turned against the coup.

Two events seem to have taken the steam out of the twittering coup defenders: One, the evident press and Internet censorship by the coup regime. The hypocrisy of being apologists for censorship and repression online – where only those Hondurans and cyber-cafes with satellite access can get on the Internet (satellite access, interestingly, skews to poor rural areas and their cyber cafes, where opposition to the coup is strong and organized) – became too much for some to continue with the same fighting spirit. Two, the statements by US President Obama today about the coup being “illegal” has clearly whooped the morale of the golpistas, whose only hope, really, was that Washington would endorse and protect their end run around their country's constitution.

Meanwhile, a creative anonymous twitterer and coup opponent created the accounts of DiarioPrensa and DiarioHeraldo, using the logos of two pro-coup national newspapers as avatars, to galvanize the anti-coup forces in that medium.

The pro-coup twitterers are apoplectic over that one, posting repeated messages like this one (translated from Spanish):

Unscrupulous twitterers are creating fakes of the Twitter accounts of #Honduras newspapers!

To which the creator of those accounts responded:

What La Prensa and El Heraldo need is a “forced transition” toward freedom of expression and respect for democracy in #Honduras

The remaining pro-coup twitterers are mainly obsessed with, A. declaring every anti-coup claim on Twitter is false, and B. complaining about Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama. That, and the communism and homosexuality that they say unites the two (real model citizens, these golpistas):

Show me a communist in power, and I’ll show you a good reason for a coup d’etat

As Hugo said, him and Castro woke up and they were on the right side of Obama

Why is Obama a freedom hater?

CNN can go learn journalism from WSJ! WSJ - Honduras Defends its Democracy http://tiny.cc/lr4wg

y won't BHO supprt the rule of law? No1is above the law, not even pres.

Analyst Charles Krauthammer to Fox News: “Obama Is Wrong”

“Professional” Venezuelan Rioters Stir Protests in Honduras

Anyway, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, the anti-coup forces have now overwhelmed the coup defenders on Twitter, with messages like these:

twitter seems to be the only source of info here in #Honduras. all news channels blocked even international

It’s confirmed that the 4th Armored Battalion is with the people

Chile calls its Honduran ambassador back to Santiago

Military curfew in Tegucicalpa #Honduras from 6PM

Conflicts cause at least 15 wounded in #Honduras

"We in Latin America can no longer accept someone trying to resolve his problem through the means of a coup," Lula da Silva

Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala close the borders to commerce with #Honduras

President Zelaya announces his return to #Honduras after his speech tomorrow to the UN http://migre.me/2Z8L

In #Honduras only the private TV channels are broadcasting and its programming is based on sports and cartoons

Mel assures that he will return to his country to restore constitutional order

We are journalists with dignity not disposed to obey orders; we maintain our journalistic ethics and we inform

The popular organizations in struggle to recover the constitutional order are uniting in the Resistance Front in search of unity

Curfew imminent in #Honduras (heard on Radio Progreso)

“PetroCaribe will stop sending all oil to #Honduras while a de facto government is in power” – H Chavez

The Honduran people are not informed, all the media is blocked

I think this is the first time in my life that the governments of Venezuela (Chavez), Cuba and the US agree about anything

Brasil withdraws its ambassador from #Honduras

At least 60 wounded in the conflicts in #Honduras

CNN in Espanol is fine, but English viewers deserve in-depth treatment of #Honduras too.

OAS declares "no government arising from this unconstitutional interruption will be recognized."

Honduras is now #6 on the (Twitter) trends. Finally

“We condem these acts unambiguously, and we demand the restitution of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya” said Calderon of MX

Mexico also retires its ambassador from #Honduras

I denounce that the cable AMNET service continues blocking the international news channels

They’ve begun to bring those that demonstrate to prison

National TV is censoring and doesn’t tell what is really happening other than what it finds convenient

Take all "tweets" with a grain of salt, and confirm their claims through other sources. But one has to admit that the "collective conscience" reflected by the sum of so many posts does provide the reader with a feel for where the fault lines of the debate rage...



http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/translating-twitter-honduras

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. You should post this on GD. nt

[David__77]

2. Thank you.

This is a critical test for the Obama administration. I hope it is a test that is passed, but I am not hopeful at this point. It will probably be up to the progressive bloc of Latin America to do the right thing.

[Peace Patriot]

3. "first time in my life that Venezuela, Cuba and the US agree about anything"!

So true! The rightwing coupsters in Honduras may not have figured THAT "blowback" into their calculations! Venezuela, Cuba and the U.S. together opposing a rightwing coup! Is Hell freezing over, or what?*

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Full quote: "first time in my life that the governments of Venezuela (Chavez), Cuba and the US agree about anything."

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*But before we get too happy about this development, we need to consider the likelihood that the Honduran military would move without permission from someone in the U.S. This is very, very unlikely. It's possible Obama gave them a wink with maybe the caveat "as long as it isn't too bloody," but more likely that someone else did, in disobedience of, and to subvert, Obama's new policy of cooperation and respect toward Latin America (the U.S. military commander in Honduras? Higher commanders? The U.S. ambassador? Some Bushwhack mole in the Clinton State Dept.? Clinton herself (who favors "free trade" with fascist regimes, or used to)? Who?) The Honduran military is basically a creation of the U.S. military. In fact, the Honduran commander who heads the coup is a SOA graduate. They are also closely tied to our worst fascists--people like John Negroponte, who used Honduras as the launching pad for killing sprees in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s. Last week, Zelaya said some things that indicated he had assurances from the U.S. embassy they didn't support the coup, and he thought he was safe because of this. He said the U.S. had foiled the coup. Then the coup happened anyway. Did they get the nod from some U.S./Bushwhackian operative?

It will be interesting to see how Obama responds to these Latin American initiatives--embargo, boycott, closing the borders. Much of Honduras' trade is with the U.S.--although they get a significant amount of cheap oil from Venezuela. Will Obama shut down trade, too? Will he put the squeeze on the coup regime, where it really hurts? Finally, is this Obama's, or the CIA's, or Clinton's, or some other official clever strategy to prevent reform in Honduras? Perhaps they are working with the coup toward this end: oust Zelaya but don't kill him; then let him return and finish his term (this year), but with reform off the agenda and delayed indefinitely into the future. (He had promoted an advisory referendum to ask Hondurans whether or not they want to re-write/reform their Constitution, which was written by Reagan's henchmen in the 1980s to disempower the poor majority.)

Honduras has a lot of strategic and political importance to the U.S., or rather to our global corporate predators and war profiteers. Those forces loathe the idea of a leftist democracy in Honduras--currently a fascist bastion, run by a rich elite with the military having much too much power. Leftist democracies have arisen all around it, and throughout South America. And what our global corporate predators and war profiteers want generally becomes U.S. policy, no matter which party is in office here. If so--if this is a clever strategy to foreclose reform in Honduras (and possibly to keep it in tact as a base for future oil wars)--damn, I've gotta hand it to Leon Panetta or Clinton or whoever devised it. Talk about "bait and switch"! This would far outstrip anything the bumbling Bushwhacks got up to in Latin America. Could be a fantasy (of mine). And it could be that the Bushwhacks are running this coup in defiance of Obama policy, or he's got moles somewhere. Too soon to really say. But meanwhile, we have...

Venezuela, Cuba and the U.S. in accord on something. That is amazing--and maybe bodes well for peace in our hemisphere.

For those who might jump on me for suggesting that Obama might not be sincere on the Honduran matter, please know that I have studied his Latin American policy closely, and that I support his positive initiatives (for instance, reopening relations with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba), but I think there is reason to be wary, both because of what he has said (and not said), because of his appointments and advisers, and because his hands are obviously tied on many important issues, whatever his policy or his personal beliefs are. I also know the sorry history of U.S./Latin American relations. I tend toward the view that he is sincere, but I cannot ignore these other factors and indicators, and am basically holding my breath as to whether or not the U.S. is really going to change from a history of brutal interference, to a genuine, respectful partner with the other peoples of the Americas. They are going their own way, for good reason. They have gotten nothing but a filthy rotten deal from past U.S. policy. They seek independence, control of their own resources, social justice, cooperation and peace. None of the Latin American countries are militaristic except the ones that our tax dollars have heavily armed (Colombia being the most militaristic and a clear danger to the peace of South America, as to its own people). These are legitimate aspirations, and it is a joy to see them come forth and to see what democracy and clean elections can accomplish. Will the U.S.--whose policies are dictated by the rich and the corporate--be content to be an equal partner and not a domineering force in Latin America? That remains to be seen.