This blog is intended for those who want to read press articles that contain unique insights --as well as information that is often hard to find-- about Latin American politics, economy and society. I compile news articles on a regular basis and occasionally include my own analysis. Comments are always welcome. I hope people find this site useful.
Hylton: By not taking steps prescribed by US law, US gov't supporting an increasingly repressive regime
The Real News
August 6, 2009
The silence from Washington over the past month of human rights abuses from the de facto Honduran government becomes deafening when one considers that the US government holds both the ability to bring that regime down as well as a recent history of criticizing similar abuses in Iran. Groups inside the US have taken up the call to pressure the government into taking the action required by US law in addressing a military coup.
Bio
Forrest Hylton is the author of Evil Hour in Colombia (Verso, 2006), and with Sinclair Thomson, co-author of Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics (Verso, 2007). He is a regular contributor to New Left Review and NACLA Report on the Americas.
As talks for a peaceful resolution fail, a fierce battle is on to win over the US government
The Real News
July 27, 2009
Lanny Davis, former spokesperson for Hilary Clinton's 2008 Presidential Campaign, is now lobbying on behalf of Honduran business interests for the US Government to recognize the coup government in Honduras. He is one of numerous faces that have appeared before Congress recently, trying to persuade lawmakers that what is happening in Honduras is not a military coup. Meanwhile, Honduran human rights monitor has documented over 1100 human rights violations in three weeks under the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti. The result is a showdown in Washington between high-powered lawyers, politicians and lobbyists on one side, and on the other some dedicated anti-coup activists and one Honduran delegation.
Bio
Jari Dixon Herrera is a district attorney with the Honduran Attorney Generals office, and the Vice President of the Association of Honduran Government Attorneys (Asocación de Fiscales de Honduras). In 2008, he gained national fame for coordinating a hunger strike by lawyers who work for the Attorney Generals office, to protest widespread corruption inside the legal system.
Marvin Ponce is a member of Honduras' National Congress, representing the Democratic Union party (UD). He has been a vocal leader of the anti-coup resistance and was selected to speak on behalf of a coalition of organizations in Washington.
Police fire tear gas during a protest by university students supporting ousted President Manuel Zelaya at the National University in Tegucigalpa, August 5, 2009. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido (HONDURAS POLITICS CONFLICT IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias walks in his residence after a meeting with Spanish Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Ibero-American General Secretary Enrique Iglesias and Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Jose Miguel Insulza, in San Jose August 3, 2009. President Arias met with Spanish Vice President Fernandez de la Vega and OAS Secretary Genaral Inzulsa, to discuss the political crisis in Honduras. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate (COSTA RICA POLITICS)
Jamie Moffett, a Philadelphia based independent filmmaker, traveled to El Salvador in July to finish work on a documentary, Return to El Salvador, which examines how that Central American country is still struggling with the aftermath of its bloody 12-year-long civil war, which ended in 1992. But on June 18 Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, a community leader and anti-mining activist, whose most recent work targeted a controversial and widely unpopular gold mine project proposed by Canada's Pacific Rim, was disappeared. Less than two weeks later his corpse was found at the bottom of a 60-foot-well, while an autopsy later revealed he was strangled to death and tortured...
How did such a sizeable portion of modern society develop into a post-literate, fantasy-fueled, perma-reality show? Noted reporter Chris Hedges joins us in the studio to discuss his new book: The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
News from Honduras has been in short supply even though the standoff between ousted leader Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti continues. July 30 marked one of the bloodiest days since the military coup and efforts to achieve some kind of power sharing agreement between the two parties and ensure Zelaya’s return have failed. So what’s happening on the ground? And why aren’t we hearing about it?
Rick Rowley, independent journalist and founder of Big Noise Films has just returned from Honduras and Sandra Cuffe, a correspondent for The Dominion in Honduras, discuss recent political developments in the country.
Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya leaves at Teatro de la Ciudad (City theater) after a meeting with Mexican supporters in Mexico City August 5, 2009. Zelaya is on a two-day official visit in Mexico. REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar (MEXICO POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Mel Zelaya: "Honduras, despite what the coup leaders say, does not depend on Caracas. Honduras depends on Washington."
Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya delivers a speech during a joint news conference with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Tuesday Aug. 4, 2009. A high-ranking diplomatic mission will travel to Honduras in a new effort to pressure coup-installed leaders to restore Zelaya, Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias, chief mediator in the crisis, said Monday. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza speaks during a press conference in San Jose, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009. Insulza is in Costa Rica to meet with Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez, Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias and Ibero-American General Secretary Enrique Iglesias, to discuss the crisis in Honduras. (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)
Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, seen here in Ocotal, are preparing new protests calling for his return to power more than a month after the military threw him out of the country. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella)
On The Listening Post this week, the coup in Honduras and the mixed messages received from the media, and the difficulties of reporting the closed world of North Korea.
We start our show with a look at Honduras. It has been more than a month since Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, was overthrown in a violent coup and replaced by Roberto Micheletti.
But watch the television news in the country and you will not hear of a "coup" but of a "legal substitution" of the president.
Across Latin America, the political left and right are battling for greater influence and power. The media is central to this fight and has a huge influence on how the story of the Honduran coup is being told.
Salah Khadr reports on an 'illegal' overthrow of an elected president, the lockdown on the Honduran media - and international reporting that has not been able to get the story right...
While Manuel Zelaya, Honduras' democratically-elected president, was unceremoniously overthrown in a military coup and sent into exile, Latin America was quick to condemn this attack on democracy. So did the US, eventually.
How Washington behaves in the coming period will have a lasting effect on inter-American and arguably North-South relations.
Latin America has historically been a region where empires have collided. After decades that have seen numerous violent revolutions, military coups, the emergence and establishment of Bolivarian Socialism and more recently, catastrophic economic collapse, a new Latin America is now emerging.
The recent political and social confrontations occurring in places such as Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Honduras are re-shaping the continent as countries question old alliances and make new alignments.
The US has long exerted political and military influence in the region but with a succession of elected leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correa rejecting such influence a new era of US-Latin American relations is emerging.
Upon his election as US president, Barack Obama promised closer cooperation with regional neighbours, including efforts to improve relations with Communist Cuba.
In this month's Empire Marwan Bishara and his guests examine the state of North-South relations in the hemisphere, question the extent and potential impact of the change promised by Obama, analyse the alternative political model posed by Hugo Chavez and ask whether President Lula da Silva of Brazil is now another counter-point for the region.
In a special interview Professor Noam Chomsky discusses US-Latin America relations and the repercussions of the crisis in Honduras.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and Dilma Rousseff, presidential Chief of Staff, attend a meeting with his cabinet in Brasilia, Monday, July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet adresses a media conference during a meeting with her Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo July 30, 2009. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker (BRAZIL POLITICS)
