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If it is true that the U.S. installed president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, agreed to the return of the elected and unconstitutionally expelled president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, then it may have been a Walid Makled for Mel Zelaya swap.
Background:
In 2009-2010, the U.S., in collusion with its pet criminal, Alvaro Uribe, extradited a number of death squad witnesses to the U.S., on mere drug charges, and "buried" them in the U.S. federal prison system--out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors and over their objections--by complete sealing of their cases (an unusual procedure) in U.S. federal court in Washington DC. Colombian prosecutors needed these witnesses in on-going death squad investigations. The U.S. also (in my opinion) recently aided the flight of spying witnesses against Uribe out of Colombia with the chief spying witness getting instant asylum in the U.S. client state of Panama--also over the objections of Colombian prosecutors (who wanted to interrogate this witness in their spying case against U.S. pet criminal Uribe). (My guess: There is a coverup in progress re Uribe/Bush Junta crimes in Colombia.)
Lately, the U.S. wanted yet another accused criminal, Walid Makled (in custody in Colombia), to be extradited to the U.S. on mere drug charges. But Makled is additionally charged with murder in Venezuela, and Venezuela was first to ask for his extradition, ahead of the U.S. Santos was apparently summoned to the White House about Makled, but decided to extradite Makled to Venezuela, because (so he said) the charges against Makled there are more serious and Venezuela asked first.
Context: Santos badly needs restored trade with Venezuela, one of Colombia's chief trading partners, whom Uribe and the Bushwhacks had grievously alienated with a secretly negotiated U.S. military buildup, an attack on Ecuador and other hostilities. Extraditing Makled to Venezuela is one of those peace-making gestures that governments can do, for instance to restore diplomatic relations and trade after such a flap. Some interpret this as Santos taking an independent course from Washington, but I am not sure of that interpretation, and am more inclined to believe that Santos is (at least in part) carrying out a U.S.-designed plan. (The trade issue is real but there is more going on here than just that.)
Which brings me to Zelaya. Mel Zelaya was a good president. For instance, he raised the minimum wage for sweatshop workers at U.S. multinational sweatshop operations in Honduras, subsidized bus transportation for poor workers, provided a school lunch program for poor children, agreed with the labor unions that the Reagan-regime-written constitution needed reform, and generally identified with Honduras' massive poor population**, though he came from the rich upper class. And he was an ally of Chavez.
In June 2009, the Honduran military--funded and trained by the U.S. military--shot up Zelaya's house, terrifying his family, rousted him out of bed and took him away at gunpoint, put him on a plane with blackened windows--which stopped at the U.S. military base at Soto Cano, Honduras, for refueling--and dumped him on an airport tarmac in Costa Rica.* Far rightwing operatives, in alliance with the likes of John McCain and Jim DeMint, then took over the government in a junta. The U.S. government (Obama/Clinton), acting all innocent, at first condemned this coup, but kept funding it (secretly) and eventually arranged a martial law election to "legitimize" the coup, even while anti-coup protestors, trade unionists, teachers, human rights workers, journalists and others were being imprisoned, beaten raped, tortured and murdered.
No honest election monitoring group on earth would touch this phony, martial law election. All refused. So Clinton brought in groups like McCain's (U.S. taxpayer funded) "International Republican Institute" to "monitor" the election. The anti-coup forces in the country boycotted the election. Half the voters didn't vote. Two U.S. friendly, rightwing candidates contended for the privilege of being a U.S. client. Lobo "won."
The OAS condemned this coup and has refused to recognize its U.S.-rigged election. Brazil--which was very active in trying to reverse the coup and get Zelaya restored to his rightful office--and many other Latin American countries, cut off diplomatic relations with Honduras. The U.S. arm-twisted, bullied and bribed four countries (Colombia and Panama among them) to "recognize" the illegitimate coup regime, but the ban and the boycott have otherwise continued to this day.
Honduras' oligarchy (the country is basically run by ten rich families and various U.S. entities including the Pentagon) now wants back into the "south-south" trade that Chavez has done so much to foster in Latin America (and that Brazil and others joined him in fostering). Thus, we have Santos--who, in my opinion, is CIA vetted and approved (and who has, among his assignments, covering up Uribe/Bush Junta crimes in Colombia--the reason for the above extraditions and asylums)--working on behalf of the U.S. to influence Chavez to "recognize" the Lobo government.
Rabs reported that Makled was interrogated eight times by various U.S. officials in Colombia, and that Hillary Clinton said, of the interrogations, "We got what we wanted." Whatever that was, it apparently made not getting Makled an easy "sacrifice" in order to get something else: Lobo "recognized," if Zelaya is permitted to return unmolested. There is continuing rightwing death squad activity in Honduras, so Zelaya's security will be an issue. (It is not safe being a leftist in that country. There have been hundreds of killings--similar to Colombia--aimed at terrorizing and decapitating the leftist leadership of the country--the bloodsoaked ground of U.S. "free trade for the rich.")
One other note: After the interrogations by U.S. officials (including the DEA, the FBI and lawyers from the U.S. Embassy), Makled issued some statements accusing Chavez administration officials of drug trafficking. I imagine that that may be what Clinton "wanted" and "got," but there are other possibilities, including information about crimes by the Bush Junta in Colombia that need covering up.
I don't know if this "Colombia Reports" account is true--that a deal has been made for Zelaya's return. They are generally reliable. If it's true, this is my guess: Venezuela gets to try Makled, on the murder and other charges against him, in exchange for recognition of Lobo's government on condition of Zelaya's return.
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*(One of the ironies of the coup against Zelaya is that the couptsters broke a very specific provision of the Honduran constitution forbidding the exile of any Honduran citizen, then--under a Washington PR's firm's tutelage--concocted false charges against Zeyala that he had violated the constitution--in proposing the trade union-backed constitutional reform by a vote of the people. Typical Bushwhack propaganda: whatever crimes you are committing, project them onto others and trumpet it through the compliant corporate media. Zelaya did nothing illegal. He proposed a yes/no vote on the question: Do you want a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution? The vote would have had no force of law. It was an advisory vote only, to the legislature. For this, he was kidnapped and taken out of the country at gunpoint. Obviously, decent wages and other help to the poor didn't sit well with Honduras' oligarchy and military and their U.S. corporate/war profiteer masters.)
**(One of the Honduran coup generals said that their coup was intended "to prevent communism from Venezuela reaching the United States." (--quoted in a report on the coup by the Zelaya government-in-exile). "Communism" (in this general's mind) = decent wages, school lunches, siding with the poor majority, reform, etc. Note: Chavez is not a "communist," but he does believe in being fair to the poor majority.)
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