Chavez: U.S. and Venezuelan Right Wing Support Coup in Honduras, a Challenge to Obama
Mérida, July 3rd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused the "extreme right wing" of the United States and Venezuela of being involved in last Sunday's military coup in Honduras, perhaps behind U.S. President Barack Obama's back.
"It could be that Obama did not know. But I am sure the ambassador of the United States in Honduras [Hugo Llorens], who is the same as [former U.S. President George W.] Bush's, knew about the coup," Chavez said on a special edition of his weekly talk show, "Hello, President."
The "horrendous military, industrial, financial, terrorist, and drug trafficking complex is supporting the coup leaders and challenging Obama," Chavez explained.
Chavez said the Obama administration has so far been "soft-hearted" in response to the coup, because it has not yet called for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was kidnapped by the military on Sunday. "Define yourself, or you are a mollusk," Chavez said to Obama, urging the U.S. president to follow the lead of the Latin American fair trade bloc ALBA and the Organization of American States (OAS) and take "a firmer stance."
The U.S. government has admitted the military actions in the coup were a violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and recognized Zelaya as the legitimate president. However, it has stopped short of putting economic pressure on the coup leaders, withdrawing its ambassador, threatening to close its military base in Honduras, and demanding the restoration of Zelaya to power without conditions.
Also Thursday, Chavez defended the Venezuelan government's response to the coup against accusations of interventionism by the right wing Venezuelan opposition. "We are obligated to respect [Honduras's] sovereignty... We are not an interventionist government but we are in the process together with other countries and international organizations, of doing everything we can to avoid a bloodbath," he said.
The Venezuelan government has suspended oil shipments to Honduras until Zelaya is reinstated, Chavez confirmed. Venezuela has also called for an investigation of the coup by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and advocated possible multi-national military intervention if diplomatic means fail to restore Zelaya to power.
Chavez said those who accuse him of interventionism are the same groups who accuse him of being a dictator and violating freedom of expression, such as the conservative Inter-American Press Society (SIP). "Why don't they say anything with regard to this issue in Honduras?" Chavez asked rhetorically.
Since the coup on Sunday, the coup government led by the former president of the Congress, Roberto Michelleti, has raided and shut down television and radio stations, arrested domestic and international journalists, imposed a nation-wide curfew, and suspended the constitutional rights of citizens, including the right to due process and protections against illegal search and seizure.
Meanwhile, the heads of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, National Assembly, Supreme Court, Attorney General, and Public Defenders Office released a joint statement condemning the coup and demanding the immediate and unconditional return of Zelaya to the presidency.
Venezuela's minister for indigenous affairs, Nicia Maldonado, described the coup as an attack against Latin American integration, a project that the Chavez government has taken on its shoulders and named "Bolivarian" after the South American independence fighter Simon Bolivar.
"All the government leaders who express the voice of the people are going to be attacked," said Maldonado in an interview on the state television channel VTV. "Chavez is the enemy, they see him as a spectre, because he carries the flag of Bolivarian ideals against the empire."
On Tuesday, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the coup leaders to restore Zelaya to power. On Friday, OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza arrived in Honduras to meet with the coup leaders. "We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to ask that what is going on now be stopped, and look for avenues that permit a return to normality," said Insulza of his visit to Honduras.
According to the New York Times, "OAS officials" have begun "informal discussions" to negotiate a compromise that could include amnesty for the coup leaders and Zelaya's abandonment of a constitutional reform initiative in return for his reinstatement.
Zelaya and OAS
I'm disappointed that Zelaya says that if he is returned to power that he'll abandon the non-binding referendum. Under no circumstances should he compromise with the Honduran oligarchy. Nor should the OAS offer any amnesty to the coup leaders or any compromise whatsoever.
WHAT??????????????????
HUGO.... GET YOUR THE FACTS STRAIGHT ! ! ! !
1) The US denounced the ousting of a president, and cut all military ties with Honduras.
2) The "ex" president Zelaya was denied by the senate to have a referendum vote. He then...
3) Was denied by the Supreme Court the referendum vote. He then...
4) Demanded a general go AGAINST his legal power, to distribute voting boxes. Zelaya then....
5) Ilegally fired the general for not following through on an ILEGAL demand.
6) The supreme court then called for his removal.
The facts are simple. (FORMER) President Zelaya broke the CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF HONDURAS and was removed. This is not a "leftist, Socialists, Boliviarian" thing. This is the way the LEGAL PROCESS works in a democracy. If Zelaya wanted to change that, he should have done the following....
FOLLOWED THE LAWS OF HONDURAS!!!
USA getting involved???????????
Let me gat this straight. Hugo Chavez DEMANDED the US get involved in the politicl affairs of Honduras.
HMMMMM...... Is this the same guy that DEMANDS the US stay OUT of political affairs in latin america???? "GOTCHA!!!"
The coup that almost toppled Chavez has NEVER been proven to be linked to the US in ANY WAY. Honduas' removal of a president gone bad will prove the same. The US denounced his removal, cut military ties, and stayed away. The ONLY one that got very offensive with insightful words, THREATENED OF WAR, and had his troops on alert was....
H U G O.
You are insane, Will
1. If, in fact, Zelaya broke some law (that I am not aware, having actually read the absurd Washington-authored Honduran constitution) then the mandated procedure is to impeach him through the defined legal manner. Period. End of discussion point.
2. The MSM's portrayal of this "referendum" as a last-ditch "power-grab" allowing him to serve another term is false on it's face: he Did Not and Could Not have presented himself as a presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. Period. End of discussion point.
3. The "referendum" was NOT a Legally Binding process, it was an Opinion Poll to establish whether Hondurans, by a Direct process of one man-one vote method, WANTED constitutional reform placed to an Official BINDING vote in 2010 - i.e AFTER Zelaya had ceded his Presidency to Someone OTHER than HIM, since, of course, HE WOULD NOT EVEN HAVE BEEN ON THE BALLOT in November. Period. End of discussion point.
4. Just as in the US, under the Honduran constitution the President is "commander-in-chief" of the Military. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. He can arbitrarily fire ANY Military officer At His SOLE discretion and there is not a goddamn thing anyone can do about it. If, by some convoluted reading of the constitution, such an action could be construed as "illegal", then the process of Impeachment and Trial is the Mandated Remedy. Period. End of discussion point.
5. The ONLY self-described "leftist" candidate in the upcoming elections HAS been killed by the Honduran military. He's as dead as freaking Julius Caesar folks, with a military bullet. Period. End of discussion point.
6. Given the above EXTANT FACTS: exiling the ELECTED President is a COUP D'ETAT. Period. End of discussion.
Zelaya
Do you have information on what kind of POLITICAL support that Zelaya has from ANYONE inside of Honduras. I am unable to find anything showing any member of ANY party supporting him.
Now I am assuming I am not getting the full story but what is the story. Am I to assume that the entire political system TOP/DOWN of every party is simply corrupt?
The reason I ask is that he seems to have much support of the people but this is not showing up in any party support. Have all the people simply been disinfranchised and are not being supported by any of these parties?
Democratic way to impeach a president
In a democracy a president may be removed from office only by impeachment. Namely by a public hearing, open to the public, where the president may call witnesses in his defense.
But not so in Honduras, as their rich nobility created a smoke screen called a constitution that made the president as temporary and weak as possible, so that the military could continue to be as all powerful as possible.
Comes now our State Department in Washington to try and prove that they had nothing to do with the violent overthrow of Honduras by asserting that they tried to stop it. But surely the only way to stop it would have been to warn the democratically elected president about it.