Obama, Chavez, and the Honduran Takeover

[SuperTrouper]

EXCERPTS:

Has Obama sided with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez? That's certainly the view of the leader of Honduran coup regime Roberto Micheletti, whose spokesman angrily denounced a $30 million cut in US aid announced on Thursday.

Micheletti's spokesman added that Obama's decision "condemned the people that struggle against Marxist expansion in central America."

In the rest of Latin America the tougher US stance was welcomed, in particular the proposals to revoke the visas of members and supporters of the regime and the indication that the US will not recognise the outcome of scheduled elections in November.

Yet, despite coming under pressure from senior members of his own party, Obama has so far resisted calls to formally declare that the June 28 overthrow of President Zelaya was military coup. Were he to do so, the US government would by law be required to make permanent its cuts in aid and suspension of visas.

However, a formal declaration would require ratification by Congress and some analysts have suggested that Obama is desperate to avoid playing into the hands of right-wing Republican law-makers who are busy echoing the claims of the coup leaders that he has allied himself with Venezuela's socialist president.

While this may in part account for Obama's reluctance to issue a declaration, others in his administration - most notably Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - are opposed in principle.

Clinton's role since the coup has been opaque. She chairs the US government's Millennium Challenge Corporation, which had continued to fund the regime until Thursday's announcement prohibited all direct aid. In July, she denounced President Zelaya's attempt to return to Honduras as "reckless." And her confidant Lanny Davis, who was chief fundraiser for her presidential campaign, has since been hired as a public relations spokesman for the coup regime.

Inside Honduras, a growing resistance movement has emerged, uniting trade unions, social movements and the black and indigenous populations. They are intent on pressing ahead with plans to convoke a constituent assembly which would redraft the constitution and shift power away from the wealthy elites towards the impoverished working class and poor farmers.

The resistance fears that Clinton wishes to impose a solution that would see a symbolic return of Zelaya to office, but with real power left in the hands of the army and other institutions controlled by the elites. Their suspicions are almost certainly justified.

And while the decision to cut direct US aid has undoubtedly shaken the coup leaders, the big money - $164m of aid already allocated to Honduras - is sitting in an International Monetary Fund bank account. After stalling for time, the IMF has now indicated that it will deny the coup regime access to these funds. If the IMF makes good on this promise, the impact on the Honduran economy will be devastating, further undermining support for the coup and likely fuelling new waves of strike action.

Faced with mounting unrest and economic isolation, it is doubtful that the coup leaders will be able to maintain the already shaky unity of the four key pillars of the regime - the military, the political elite, the private media and the business community.

Their last roll of the dice will be an attempt to legitimise the coup by holding elections in November. But this gamble is unlikely to pay off. The resistance has announced a boycott of any poll conducted under conditions of violent oppression and censorship, and the US has declared that "at this moment" it would not recognise the outcome of the elections.

The days of this regime are numbered. And, when it ends, so too will the curious convergence of interests between the Latin American left and the current US administration.

Henceforth, the struggle will be about whose vision for Honduras and the rest of the continent will prevail.


http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/features/Obama-Chavez-and-the-Honduras-takeover

[David__77]

1. "Marxist oppression?" Sounds just like Pinochet.

Yet it doesn't garner the interest of most elites in the west, because the socialist countries don't really exist any more. The fascist ruling class in Latin America is still living in the 1980's, fearful of being swallowed up. Interestingly, the ruling class in Venezuela is the bourgeoisie, not the working class; and economic polarization hasn't really lessened since the start of the Bolivarian revolution, or its acceleration in the current "socialist" stage. What are the elites afraid of?

[OllieLotte]

2. There is a lot more to this story. Calling it a coup is not accurate.