Help In These Times reach its five-week $10,000 online fundraising goal! With two weeks left, we're only halfway there. Donate now!
Help this website survive! Donate to In These Times now!

No Such Thing as a Free Putsch

Lies, violence and the fight for freedom in Honduras.

By Jeremy Kryt

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—The military junta in Honduras has failed to achieve international recognition, and is unable to win the hearts of la gente at home, but it does seem to have one great talent: arresting and torturing unarmed, peacefully demonstrating civilians. The Committee for Detained and Disappeared Persons of Honduras (COFADEH) has so far documented more than 9,650 illegal detentions. Hundreds of… return to article

  • subscribe to print magazine

  • Zoom OutZoom In Reader Comments (1)

    Page 1 of 1 pages

    Is there perhaps some distortion of reality going on here with regards to the facts and how the Honduran people really view the whole situation? :

    “The international press would have you believe that Honduras is in disarray. Nothing could be further from the truth. A constitutional change of government occurred, without violence; and this constitutional change has brought the people of Honduras together in defense of their constitution and their freedoms. Hondurans and foreigners, both sides of the political spectrum, stand solidly together to support HONDURAS. Tens of thousands of people have staged rallies throughout the country in support of the actions taken against the ex-president. The only violence that has occurred is when Zelaya tried to return to the country, creating a media frenzy as he asked his very few supporters to disrupt the country.

    Sounds it it’s necessary to advance a lie in order to cover for a lack of honest argument:

    “Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d’état.

    That is nonsense.

    In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.”

    Plain and simple, any support of Zelaya is based on a fervent love of socialism.  You basically have to make stuff up (it was a military coup) in order to make an argument about Honduras. 

    But it makes perfect sense that Obama would come down on the opposite side of the Honduran constitution, which apparently is somewhat modeled on our own.  Here he expresses his disapproval of our constitution, because it isn’t socialist enough for him:

    “The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, as least as it’s been interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn’t shifted.”

    Franklin “2nd Bill of Rights” Roosevelt smiles approvingly from the beyond.

    United States Posted by Natalie on Oct 15, 2009 at 8:03 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages
  • register a new account »Posting Security

    To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.
Also by Jeremy Kryt
Popular Discussions