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Category: Hugo Chavez

  • Obama sends wrong message to Chavez

    In the past, the messages that the US has sent to foreign governments has caused many of our foreign policy problems. Who can forget Saddam Hussein thinking he had Ambassador April Catherine Glaspie’s tacit approval for an invasion of Kuwait? The reason the Soviets thought they could invade Afghanistan was because they knew Jimmy Carter would do nothing (boy, he fooled them – he boycotted the Moscow Olympics. That taught ’em.)

    Now, by coming down on the wrong side of the Honduras problem, Obama could be giving Chavez clearance to forcibly re-install ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes today in the Wall Street Journal;

    At issue is Mr. Chávez’s determination to restore deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to power through multilateral pressure. His phone call to a State Department official showed that his campaign was not going well and that he thought he could get U.S. help.

    This is not good news for the region. The Venezuelan may feel that his aims have enough support from the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) that he would be justified in forcing Mr. Zelaya on Honduras by supporting a violent overthrow of the current government. That he has reason to harbor such a view is yet another sign that the Obama administration is on the wrong side of history.

    In the three weeks since the Honduran Congress moved to defend the country’s constitution by relieving Mr. Zelaya of his presidential duties, it has become clear that his arrest was both lawful and a necessary precaution against violence.

    The Obama Administration has ignored the fact that Zelaya’s removal was required by the Honduran Constitution. In fact, under the Honduran Constitution, Zelaya’s loss of his Honduran citizenship was required. Continuing to call this a coup, only lends a violent return of Zelaya legitimacy.

    The Obama Administration has refused to acknowledge the discovery of computer files in Honduras that held the pre-ordained outcome of Zelaya’s illegal referendum (reported to us by Alberto de la Cruz at Babalu Blog on Saturday) intentionally ignoring the fact that the whole world has been set up by the amateurs of the Bolivarian Revolution.

    Fausta writes this morning that Zelaya has shifted his ultimatum date to July 24th – enough time for Chavez to position Venezuelan troops in Nicaragua to force the return of Zelaya.

  • Zelaya gives talks until midnight

    Things are heating up in central America over former President Zelaya’s ouster. The deposed politico, from the safety of Nicaragua, has declared that at midnight he’ll steal into Honduras to continue his fight against the Constitutional government in Honduras. This from Fausta’s Blog;

    Sounds to me he’s saying he’ll be leading a battle… mañana. We’ll see what the weekend brings. The negotiations are scheduled to resume today.

    From Alberto de la Cruz at Babalu Blog, it seems that the referendum Zelaya was booted for inciting had the fix in;
    (more…)

  • Honduras teeters on violence

    Yesterday, de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti offered to step down to keep the peace there (according to New America Media);

    President Roberto Micheletti said Wednesday for the first time that he is prepared to step down if it will return peace to Honduras, but on the condition that ousted President Manuel Zelaya does not return to office, reports La Opinión. Meanwhile, the government Wednesday night re-instituted a curfew that it had lifted over the weekend in an attempt to quell national unrest.

    Compare that to Manuel Zelaya’s threat to conduct “the final battle” for his return to power in the Central American nation;

    Patricia Rodas, foreign minister of Zelaya’s toppled government, says Zelaya is en route to Honduras but she did not provide details as to where he plans to set up the alternative seat of government. Zelaya himself will announce it when he deems appropriate.

    One is willing to resolve the situation while the other side is willing to spill Honduran blood. Nicaraguans are against Daniel Ortega‘s attempts to interfere in their neighbor’s politics.

    Fidel Castro demands that the US withdraw their troops from Honduras;

    “The only correct decision at this moment is to demand the U.S. authorities stop interfering and providing military assistance to coup leaders and withdraw their troops from Honduras,” Cuban media reported citing Castro as saying in his article.

    He added that “the civil coup in Honduras has created a really complicated situation in Latin America, which cannot be resolved by traps, cunning and lies.”

    “New details of U.S. involvement [in the coup] emerge daily and it [the coup] will result in a broad resonance across the whole Latin America,” the 82-year-old former Cuban leader said.

    US involvement in the coup was to prevent it for over a week, until Hondurans decided to stop listening. Zelaya admitted as much the first week. The only “new details” are coming from motor-mouth dictator Hugo Chavez (who also admits to daily cocaine use). You’d think Castro would know better since there have been thousands of American troops stationed at Guantanamo,Cuba for nearly a century with no adverse effect on Cuba’s government.

  • Morales; US military behind Honduran coup

    Hugo Chavez’ poodle, Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia charged the US military with leading the removal of Honduran President Zelaya from his bed chambers two weeks ago, parroting the official Bolivarian party line from Chavez;

    “I have first-hand information that the empire, through the U.S. Southern Command, made the coup d’etat in Honduras,” President Morales said during a visit to the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.

    The coup that saw Honduran President Manuel Zelaya swept up by the military on June 28 in his pajamas and expelled from the country “is an aggression, a provocation of the empire,” he added.

    “Maybe I do not know Obama, but the imperial structure remains in force.”

    Meanwhile Chavez has ramped up his anti-US rhetoric warning that he has information on other planned coups in the region in EL Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. All of that gladhanding and smooching Obama did with Chavez got him this statement (quoted by El Universal);

    “Obama is not going to trick us with an ambiguous discourse or with a smile (…) Zelaya will return to his country (…) The process of change in Latin America is not going to stop, President Obama. You can send the Fourth Fleet and the Sixth Fleet, but changes will not end.”

    The commie Chavez worshipers at Venezuelanalysis provide us with this quote from Hugo;

    “Don’t deceive the world with a discourse that contradicts your actions,” he warned Obama, “demonstrate that it’s true that you are disposed to confront the imperialist hawks, if not, its better that you go away, because you will end up worse than Bush.”

    This is the result of hugging dictators and thugs. The more Obama lets them bully him, the more they’ll bully him.

  • UN coaxes OAS to act on Honduras

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    The United Nations’ Secretary General, who can’t see anything to complain about when Chavez nationalizes private property in Venezuela, or when Ortega does the same in Nicaragua, or when Correa of Ecuador lends moral and material support to terrorists, urged the Organization of American States to step in and “restore the Constitutional order” in Honduras. From El Universal;

    The Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, requested Monday the restoration, under the auspices of the Organization of American Estados (OAS), of the “constitutional order” in Honduras, where president Manuel Zelaya was stopped and expelled by the military.

    The OAS must assume “a leadership role to find a peaceful solution so that the constitutional order can be restored”, said Ban.

    Those are some real pretty words – except that the Constitutional order has been restored. Zelaya was the fella who violated the Honduran constitution as I explained yesterday. The bloodshed in Honduras is because the OAS, Chavez, Correa, Fernandez and Ortega won’t keep their fingers out of Honduras.

    If Ban is so concerned about the deaths yesterday, he’d be telling the OAS to step back instead of pursuing a path towards more blood shed.

    And if Zelaya had a brain in his head, he’d throw up his hands, too. He got off easy compared to a lot of deposed Latin American leaders of the last century.

    If he becomes too much of a pest to the Honduran government, they’ll have no other option than to kill his dumb ass so he can’t return. Sure he’d be a martyr, but he’d be dead.

  • Zelaya heads home to Honduras (Updated 3x)

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    A few minutes ago, Manuel Zelaya, the ousted President of Honduras, headed back to Honduras on a Venzuelan (surprise!) jet, according to the Associated Press. The Constitutional President, Roberto Micheletti, has instructed the Honduran military to prevent the jet from landing with the former president.

    Thousands of protesters descended on the airport in the Honduran capital in anticipation of the showdown, some of them pressing against several hundred soldiers with riot shields. Police helicopters hovered overhead, and commercial flights were canceled.

    Micheletti also alleged that Nicaragua is moving troops to their border in an attempt at psychological intimidation, and warned them not to cross into Honduras, “because we’re ready to defend our border.”

    Zelaya is flying back to Honduras on a Venezuelan jet, the Nicaraguan army is on Honduras’ border, and where is our President? I guess he’s taking his instructions from Daniel Ortega these days;

    Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called on the White House to hold firm against Honduras coup.

    Ortega recalled that after two months as president, Barack Obama suspended all form of cooperation with the de facto government in Madagascar.

    The least we can expect of Obama is to act with the same firmness now, he pointed out.

    The Sandinista leader told pres that the struggle against the coup continues, seeking the reestablishment of constitutional order through the return of President Manuel Zelaya to complete his mandate.

    From El Universal, my Calle J translation;

    The director of Civil Aeronautics of Honduras, Alfredo San Martin, assured the media today that the airplane that transports the demoted president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya from Washington [DC] will land in El Salvador because it does not have authorization to land in Honduran territory. San Martin indicated to the press that, because of the refusal of the Honduran authorities, the plane ” was turned aside to El Salvador, and will not land in Tegucigalpa”.

    The Honduran chancellor, Enrique Ortez, among others announced that his Government would not allow the landing of the airplane of Zelaya, reasons, for ” prudence” , he indicated.

    So where, exactly, is our President? I guess he’s in his Russia mode and can’t switch back to American mode right now.

    UPDATE: Fausta confirms that Zelaya’s plane landed in El Salvador and Honduran police have allowed protesters pass onto the airport after they promised not to commit any acts of violence.

    UPDATE: Noticias 24 reports that Zelaya’s plane is attempting to land in Honduras;

    The channel TeleSur reports that the airplane which President Zelaya has been flying over the Toncontín airport is unable to land due to the obstacles that the military placed.

    Vehicles of the troops were deployed along the runway, while helicopters flew over the airport to prevent the demoted president of Honduras from landing.

    The pilot of the airplane, in a contact with Telesur, indicated that they requested the authorization to land but it was not granted to them, threatening that they would intercept them.

    And to answer MD’s comment below;

    Zelaya, from the airplane, called for the President of the US, Barack Obama to take a firmer position in the conflict and to collaborate to speed his return to the power.

    President Chávez, minutes later, made the same plea and said that “there is no longer any doubt that the “gorilla government” [he said “gorilla” not “guerrilla” and he refers to the new Honduran government] had the support of the North American Empire”.

    Why would Chavez and Zelaya want US intervention if they weren’t already assured of the outcome.

    UPDATE: BBC reports at least one dead at the airport in clashes with the police.

  • Real story of the Honduran situation

    You’re probably not as interested in the Honduras thing as I am, but I spent time in the region and it’s hard to avoid this story. One of our readers who lives in Panama sent me this article from the English language Panama Guide.com and it gives a lot of background from the perspective of someone who lives in Honduras. It’s a long article, but I learned things I hadn’t known. For example; (more…)

  • 100% wrong

    The current administration seems to be making their decisions by asking themselves what George Bush would do and then doing the complete opposite. They coddle dictators and thugs from the Middle East to Central America despite the fact that it can do nothing to further the cause of peace or democracy. Gateway Pundit has a video of Charles Krauthammer saying the same thing.

    While Obama is stroking Ahmadinejad over the election dispute in Iran, Secretary of Defense Gates reminds us that Iran has ratcheted up their support of Shi’ite militias in Iraq. From the Wall Street Journal;

    Some of the Iraqi Shiite extremist groups that the U.S. claims are backed by Iran say they are ratcheting up attacks in Iraq in tandem with Tehran’s post-election crackdown on protesters.

    Shiite militia leaders say a toughening resolve among hard-liners in Iran is translating into direct orders from Iran-based leaders to increase attacks, as well as inspiring militants next door in Iraq to demonstrate their influence.

    So, what is probably the worst thing that Obama could do to disrupt the successes in Iraq? How about putting the one man in charge of resolving political and tribal differences in Iraq who is universally despised by all of the groups in Iraq – Joe Biden;

    As the U.S. military met its deadline to withdraw from Iraqi cities, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama asked his No. 2 to work with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Christopher Hill on mending fences in Iraq.

    Biden would be “working with the Iraqis toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place, but needs to take place,” Gibbs said.

    So why is Joe Biden a bad choice? Remember how his plan for Iraq was to partition the place along ethnic divisions? Why would anyone consider him the guy to “mend fences” when his plan was to build walls? A flashback from the archives of the Wall Street Journal;

    Despite deep resistance from the Iraqi government, Mr. Biden tried to turn his plan into U.S. policy, introducing a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for its implementation. But his effort completely backfired in Baghdad. The proposal ended up unifying all the disparate Iraqi factions in opposition.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who called on the Iraqi parliament to meet and formally reject the Biden plan, immediately went on Iraqi television with a blistering statement: “[Biden] should stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty . . . [He] shouldn’t be proposing its division. That could be a disaster not just for Iraq but for the region.”

    So you tell me…is the Obama Administration trying to sabotage peace in Iraq? It sure looks that way to me.

    And then, they side with Chavez, Castro, Ortega, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa against the legal government of Honduras. The Obama Administration continues to call it a coup (just like his new communist friends in the region), even though, it reality wasn’t. Again, lets read the Wall Street Journal;

    As military “coups” go, the one this weekend in Honduras was strangely, well, democratic. The military didn’t oust President Manuel Zelaya on its own but instead followed an order of the Supreme Court. It also quickly turned power over to the president of the Honduran Congress, a man from the same party as Mr. Zelaya. The legislature and legal authorities all remain intact.

    We mention these not so small details because they are being overlooked as the world, including the U.S. President, denounces tiny Honduras in a way that it never has, say, Iran. President Obama is joining the U.N., Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and other model democrats in demanding that Mr. Zelaya be allowed to return from exile and restored to power. Maybe it’s time to sort the real from the phony Latin American democrats.

    I wonder how quickly all of those clowns would have rode to the defense of Colombia’s Uribe if he’d been shipped out in the early morning hours. And honestly, as coups go, Zelaya got off easy this time. The OAS is calling for his reinstatement to his office in two days – I’m pretty sure the next time Zelaya leaves Honduras, it’ll be feet first to preclude meddling by the thug huggers.

    But all of this contrary behavior by our own presidential administration is not in the interests of our own security, not a bit. It seems to me that Obama is now trying to deliberately destroy our economy while destroying our standing in the world making us insecure and poor just to not be Bush.