Democracy Wins in Honduras... a joyous and well deserved victory for the Honduran poeple...

12/03/2009

This past weekend, a stubborn Central American country of Honduras proved to the world once again that democracy and freedom are alive and well, despite attempts by thugocrats like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and other international leftist interventionists to destroy it.

Last Sunday, the Honduran people went to the polls in a peaceful, fair and free election to vote for their democratic future and to reject the socialist pressures to reinstall the ousted communist Manuel Zelaya. The popular Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo won the presidential election with 56 percent of the vote and has vowed to unify Hondurans in the wake of former President Manuel Zelaya’s removal last June. He also stated that he would not permit foreign meddling in the internal affairs of Honduras in any way shape or form.

With one firm voice the people of Honduras shouted to the world, "Our country, our decision."

U.S. and democratic nations recognize and support Honduras vote...

Democratic freedom loving supporters of Honduras' National Party presidential candidate Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo celebrate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Monday recognized the results of a controversial election in Honduras but said the vote was only a partial step toward restoring democracy after a June coup that ousted the elected president.

The State Department recognized Porfirio Lobo's victory in Sunday's election but said the Honduran Congress still needed to vote on the restoration of deposed President Manuel Zelaya and form a government of national unity.

"While the election is a significant step in Honduras' return to the democratic and constitutional order ... it's only a step and it's not the last step," said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela.

Before the election, the United States tried and failed to have Zelaya reinstated. Its support of the election upset many Latin American nations, including powerful Brazil, which called Sunday's vote invalid.

Elected five months after a coup forced Zelaya into exile on June 28, Lobo is urging Latin American governments to recognize him as president-elect in order to help pull the country out of a deep political crisis.

Opposition leader Lobo won some 55 percent of the vote, easily defeating ruling party candidate Elvin Santos. A boycott by supporters of Zelaya was ineffective and electoral officials say the turnout was above 60 percent.

Human rights groups say crackdowns on pro-Zelaya media and marches during the campaign put the validity of the vote in doubt.

LOBO WANTS RECOGNITION, SAYS ZELAYA IS THE PAST

Lobo, 61, urged leftist governments in the region to recognize the vote, which was scheduled before the coup.

"We ask them ... to see that they are punishing the people who went to vote, do so every four years and have nothing to do with what happened on June 28," he told journalists.

"I am happy looking toward the future. You keep asking, 'And Zelaya?' Zelaya is history, he is part of the past," Lobo told foreign reporters, although the conditions mentioned by the United States include a vote on Zelaya and presumably his participation in a unity government.

"For us, the most important international relationship we have is obviously with the United States," Lobo said.

Brazil, which is increasingly flexing its muscles as its economy becomes more powerful, has dug its heels in on Honduras and refuses to acknowledge Lobo's win.

"Brazil will maintain its position because it's not possible to accept a coup," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday.

Zelaya, who slipped back into Honduras in September, has taken refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital. That put Brazil at the heart of a crisis in a region where the United States has long been dominant.

Washington supported coups and right-wing governments fighting civil wars against Soviet-backed leftist guerrillas in Central America during the Cold War.

Today, millions of Central American immigrants to the United States send home money vital to the economies of countries like Honduras and El Salvador.

The coup against Zelaya sparked Central America's biggest political crisis since the end of the Cold War.

Neither Zelaya nor his archrival, Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as interim president by Congress after the coup, took part in the presidential election.

The dispute threatens U.S. President Barack Obama's attempts to turn a new page with Latin America, where leftist governments are in the majority.

"This is a very, very poor start in terms of U.S.-Latin American relations," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

"What was needed here was that the United States had to embrace a principle that was very important to Latin America after the experience it had throughout the late 1970s and '80s -- that the military cannot interfere with civilian government."

Argentina and Venezuela also oppose the Honduran election, but Panama, Peru and Costa Rica have said they back the vote.

Lobo has also called on the international community to resume aid that was blocked in retaliation for the coup.

Due to take office in January, he must now decide what to do with Zelaya. He could try to negotiate a form of political amnesty for the deposed leader and the main players in the coup in a bid to unite the deeply divided nation.

Communist ALBA governments in Latin America and their international leftist sympathizers tried like a huge tsunami wave to drown-out the demands for freedom and the right to self determination of the Honduran people. On election day the out pouring of more than 60% of the electorate signified a huge victory for the people of Honduras who stood-up to the interventionists who demanded that Honduras reconstitute the ousted communist leaning Manuel Zelaya as president.

The Honduran people with one voice have led it be known to the world, "Our country, our decision." And the leftist (supporters of the Chavez dictatorship and the Castro 50-year old dynasty in Cuba) who continue to insist on not recognizing the Honduran election obviously have a hidden agenda that doesn't include the voice or the will of the people.

Congratulations Honduras!

The Honduran people defeat communist interventionists and win back their freedom and their democracy...

The Honduran people shouted with one clear firm voice, "Yes We Can." The huge and victorious outpouring of votes completely drowned out the international socialist interventionists from disrupting the democratic ideals of the freedom loving Honduran people.

The electoral win by the Honduran people has also been a huge defeat for the chavista/castrista ALBA acolytes who continue their banal and stupid rhetoric regarding dictatorship in Honduras; the only dictatorships in the Americans are the shameful 50 year dinasty of the Castro Bros. in the humiliated island of Cuba, and in Venezuela where Hugo Chavez dictates and decrees as if he owned the country.

I applaud the Honduran people for their character strength to stand up against the tsunami of socialists that included organizations such as the OAS and the UN. It's good to know that even Obama finally saw the light. Best wishes to the inspirational new and democratic elected government of Honduras and to the heroic people who made it possible.

Hundreds of students attack Nicaraguan communist dominated legislature...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) reported that hundreds of students lobbed homemade bombs at the Nicaraguan Congress to protest government plans to cut university funding, as pro-and anti-government demonstrators prepared to square off at the weekend in Managua.

The explosives caused only minor damage when they were thrown at the building that houses the Congress, said lawmaker Francisco Aguirre.

But Aguirre said that if they had been used in a street demonstration, which both the ruling party and opposition groups are planning for Saturday, "they certainly could kill a person."

Students on Tuesday marched to the legislature building to oppose government plans to cut funding for public universities as set out in the draft budget for 2010, said National Universities Council leader Telemaco Talavera.

Meanwhile, groups for and against President Daniel Ortega traded insults and claimed the right to demonstrate this weekend on the same stretch of road where thousands of people will square off with the likelihood of violence.

Pro-government groups said they will muster 100,000 people in support of the leftist president, while opposition leaders speak of "sinister plots" by authorities to arm their followers with rocks, clubs and bombs so they can use them against dissenters.

The tension has been building since the ruling Sandinista party's crushing win in mayoral elections a year ago, which the opposition charged were riddled with fraud, and a Supreme Court ruling last month that cleared the way for Ortega to seek reelection in 2011.

Sandinista union leader Gustavo Porras said everybody has the right to demonstrate, as long as it is clear that the opposition's "will be a march of thieves and corrupt people."

Opposition groups have complained to authorities for allowing the two demonstrations to take place Saturday at the same time and place, while business leaders have appealed to Ortega to personally ask that his followers change the timing of their march.

Pro-Nicaragua Movement official Violeta Granera told AFP that Porras' provocative comments were meant to intimidate anti-government demonstrators, adding that bus and truck drivers have been warned not to ferry people to the protest march.

"The government thinks it not only owns the streets but the whole country. We're going to march, which will be orderly and peaceful.

"We won't allow ourselves to fall into violence because we're not only after ending the (Ortega) dictatorship and rescue democracy, but also breaking the vicious circle of violence" gripping the country, she added.

Ortega led the 1979 Sandinista uprising that ousted the regime of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza, after 45 years of oppressive rule.

International leftist interventionists fail to mention that Daniel Ortega, who served as president in Nicaragua from 1985-1990, fraudulently gained office again in 2006.

Communism is a failed ideology that the world has rejected, yet Latin America's frustrated geriatic revolutionaries are now using the democratic processes as a 'Trojan Horse' to gain political power and then undermine the democratic structures from within. We have seen this time and again in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Honduras (with the ousted Zelaya), Etc.

The people of Latin America have witnessed Chile and Honduras regain their freedom and ridding themselves of these opportunistic communist parasites .

Interventionist communist lobby against recognizing Honduras' elections...

The following is a copy of a letter sent to Dr. Arturo Valenzuela, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs by over fifty scholars and practitioners meddling in Central American affairs.


Dr. Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, United States Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520.

Dear Arturo:

As a group of scholars of Central America we ask that you seek to change the ill advised position taken by Mr. Thomas Shannon that would recognize the results of the Honduran election even though Pres Zelaya is not restored to office.

This sets a terrible precedent that undermines the wave of democratization that has swept the region because it in essence legitimizes a coup. It is at odds with the other Latin American nations. We ask also that the Department of State not fund election observation missions by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, as announced by Senator Richard Lugar.

This would legitimize a patently illegitimate poll. The secretary general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he would not send observers to monitor the November 29th elections, while many of the OAS's member countries said they would not recognize the election winner unless Zelaya was reinstated. Will you push for reconsideration of the decision to send U.S. observers?

The issue is not whether technical election procedures are carried out, or if the ballots are counted accurately, but rather the effects on the election of the coup. Several candidates have withdrawn because they do not wish to legitimize an election sponsored by a coup government, including Carlos H. Reyes of the Independent Party and leader of the resistance movement against the coup.

It is highly unlikely that the forces behind the coup would have allowed him to take office were he to win. The broad-based national resistance movement has called for a total boycott of the elections and a number of candidates have withdrawn.

Press reports note that as many as 110 mayoral and 55 congressional candidates have withdrawn because they do not believe the elections will be free and fair.We are concerned that there appear to be powerful forces (beyond the individual efforts of Senator Jim DeMint) pushing the United States in the direction of acceptance of efforts to roll back the democratic gains in Latin America because of the election of some or all candidates of the left. Could you tell us if you perceive these rollback efforts as a threat and, if so, what your plans are to minimize them?Human rights violations continue.

The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) notes, in its second report since the coup, that the de facto government relies on:
“the use of excessive force on the part of military and police, control of the media and closure of media outlets that are not allies of the regime, use of paramilitaries to intimidate, threaten and kidnap those opposed to the coup, and the emission of illegal decrees that suspend the exercise of fundamental rights....

It is clear that a repressive apparatus is being mounted to intimidate and annihilate resistance to the coup. In the 115 days since the coup, thousands of human rights violations have been registered that reflect the evolution of state violence and the rupture of institutionality.”The United States should forcefully condemn these human rights violations. We ask that it announce that the U.S. will not fund observers to the Nov. 29 elections, and that it not recognize the election results, and that we will work with other members of the Inter-American community to resolve this crisis in a way that reflects democratic processes and respects human rights.

Sincerely,

Jack Spence, University of Massachusetts, Boston Aaron Schneider, Tulane University David Close, Memorial University of Newfoundland Marc Zimmerman, University of Houston Nora Hamilton, University of Southern CaliforniaFrancisco J. Barbosa, University of Colorado, BoulderKaren Kampwirth, Knox College Ellen Moodie, University of Illinois Gary Prevost, St. John's UniversityThomas W. Walker, Ohio University Irene B. Hodgson, Xavier University Julie Stewart, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Marc Edelman, Hunter College, CUNY Lisa Kowalchuk, University of Guelph, Ontario Sylvia Tesh, University of Arizona Eliza Willis, Grinnell College Lena Mortensen, University of Toronto Scarborough Abigail E. Adams, Central Connecticut State University Robin Maria DeLugan, University of California-Merced Susanne Jonas, University of California, Santa Cruz Mary Finley-Brook, University of Richmond Aviva Chomsky, Salem State College Mayo C. Toruño, California State University, San Bernardino Miguel Gonzalez, York University Richard Grossman, Northeastern Illinois University Carol A. Smith, University of California, Davis William S. Stewart, California State University, Chico Katherine Borland, The Ohio State University Hector Perla, University of California, Santa Cruz Jefferson Boyer, Appalachian State UniversityRose Spalding, De Paul University Bruce Calder, University of Illinois, ChicagoSheila R. Tully, San Francisco State UniversityLaDawn Haglund, Arizona State University Suyapa Portillo, Pomona College Arturo Arias, University of TexasLaura Enriquez, University of California, Berkeley Chris Chiappari, St. Olaf CollegeDana Frank, University of California, Santa CruzKatherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network Gilbert G. Gonzalez, University of California, Irvine Celia Simonds, California State University Northridge Beatriz Cortez, California State University, Northridge Ana Patricia Rodriguez, University of Maryland, College Park Justin Wolfe, Tulane Univesrity Gloria Rudolf, University of Pittsburgh Elizabeth Dore, University of Southampton, UKRichard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University Leisy Abrego, University of California, Irvine Craig Auchter, Butler University Bill Barnes, City College of San Francisco Linda J. Craft, North Park University, Chicago Lois Ann Lorentzen, University of San Francisco Juliana Martinez Franzoni, University of Costa Rica Breny Mendoza, California State University, Northridge.


Note: This cabal of "useful fools" conveniently omit any mention of the many socialist/communist human rights abuses and electoral fraud by Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, or the communist 50 year old dynasty of the Castro brothers in the humiliated island of Cuba. As a Central American, I can only say to these armchair communists, "Surrender your country, not mine." Central America, my land, my decision. "NO" to foreign interventionists.

Honduras gears up for elections, rebuffs the Chavista/Castrista communist acolyte Manuel "El Sombrerudo" Zelaya...

Less than a week away from the presidential elections scheduled for November 29, the people of Honduras have rejected deposed president Manuel Zelaya’s boycott calls.

Instead, they look to the coming elections as the solution to the crisis brought about by Zelaya’s defiance of the Supreme Court’s orders. Since his removal from office last June for violating the country’s constitution, Mr. Zelaya has conducted a campaign to return to power, with the active help of a group of left-wing Latin American rulers, and the acquiescence of a compliant Organization of American States and United Nations General Assembly.

The people of Honduras, however, have shown heroic determination in the face of international pressure. They have resisted the economic sanctions imposed against them and stood firm in defense of their constitution and democratic rights.

Shamefully, the international press has contributed to the suffering of the Honduran people by characterizing Zelaya’s Supreme Court sanctioned and National Congress decreed removal as a military coup d’état. While the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Press wire services routinely showed pictures of handfuls of Zelaya supporters protesting his removal, they never showed those of much larger – and peaceful – anti-Zelaya demonstrations.

Yesterday, as the campaigning period came to a close, all political parties held rallies. The accompanying photographs attest to the massive enthusiasm and support for the electoral process among Hondurans. According to the opinion polls, National Party Candidate, Porfirio Lobo, holds a double digit lead over Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos.

When the history of this tumultuous year in Honduras politics is written, it will be said that Mel Zelaya made serious miscalculations. He assumed that his election as president constituted a vow of personal loyalty from the electorate that guaranteed public support for any initiative he might undertake. He misread the public mood and thought that his return to Honduras would cause a popular uprising and that he’d ride back to the Presidential House on the shoulders of his supporters. When he couldn’t muster more than a few thousand supporters at the height of his effort, he failed to see the futility of his attempts.

History will also record how a naïve and uninformed American president embarrassed himself by placing his efforts to appease our country’s Latin American left-wing detractors ahead of America’s – and democracy’s’ – interests.

But the most lasting and important lesson to be learned is how a small and poor nation gave the world an admirable example of courage. Pitted against incalculable odds, the people of Honduras remained firm in their defense of their country’s independence and its democratic institutions. They stood alone, but for their steadfast faith in God, and stared down the threats and demands from every powerful country in the world. With patience and dignity, they rebuffed the attacks and found the way to make reason prevail over hubris. Interim president Roberto Micheletti will never win a Nobel Peace Prize but, in the hearts of his countrymen and anyone who truly loves freedom, he deserves it.

Chile and Honduras have shown the way to oust communist parasites who want to usurp political power. It's better to be a lion for a single day that 100 days a sheep.

Why did the Nazis and so many others throughout history so brutally persecute Jews and other minority groups…

The Nazis thought that Jews (among the many groups that they persecuted) were "untermenschen" or sub-humans

They felt they would be improving the lot of the entire human race by killing all "untermenschen" in the same way a farmer might have to cull cattle that are sick or genetically inferior

Of course the Nazis were very, very, wrong to see themselves as better than others in this way, and to use that as justification to murder those they thought to be inferior

As a direct consequence of the horrors of WW2 the Geneva Convention was agreed by the world's civilized nations to prevent the same sort of atrocities from happening again

The way the Nazis treated the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto is IMO almost identical to the way the Israelis are currently treating the people in Gaza and the West bank

Therefore sadly it is clearly demonstrable that mankind is incapable of learning from its prior mistakes and atrocities, and we must remain alert that this behaviour never again happens.

As long as ‘greed’ is the dominant focal point of human nature, mans inhumanity toward man will simply continue to ‘be’….