<html>
<body>
<h1><font size=6 color="#FF0000"><b>Two reports follow<br><br>
</i></font>Thursday, Bloody Thursday in
Honduras</b></h1><font size=3>Posted by
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/users/al-giordano">Al
Giordano</a> - July 30, 2009 at 7:29 pm<br>
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/thursday-bloody-thursday-honduras" eudora="autourl">
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/thursday-bloody-thursday-honduras</a>
<br><br>
By Al Giordano<br><br>
JULY 30, 2009, CUESTA DE LA VIRGEN, COMAYAGUA, HONDURAS: The first signs
came in the form of tractor trailers, miles and miles of them, easily
thousands, laden with melons and pineapples and bananas and sports
apparel manufactured in the factories to the north, frozen in place,
engines turned off, on the side of the road, about 80 kilometers out of
the capital city of Tegucigalpa.<br><br>
It was one p.m. today and there were no cars or trucks coming from the
other direction. The oncoming lane was empty and that’s the one your
correspondent took.<br><br>
The blockade had been in place since early morning. By 1:20 p.m., driving
down from the mountain in the wrong lane, your vehicle still had not come
to the blockage point. Finally, even the oncoming lane had become an
endless traffic jam of more cars and trucks seeking the same southbound
route, stopped cold.<br><br>
A little after two p.m. the long line of vehicles began crawling forward
again.<br><br>
At a stretch of the road at the bottom of the miles-long hill stood three
hundred or more military soldiers, National Police and specialized riot
police with the acronym COEDO on their uniforms. They stood alongside the
remains of burning matter, rocks and other debris that had just been
cleared to the shoulders. The terrible sting of teargas clung to nostrils
and throats and burned the eyes. But no remaining protesters could be
seen anywhere.<br><br>
The ANSA press agency would report that here, in Cuesta de la Virgen, the
coup regime’s show of force against the nonviolent blockaders wrought
<a href="http://www.ansa.it/ansalatina/notizie/rubriche/amlat/20090731003934923882.html">
a toll of 156 arrests</a>, including three seriously wounded.<br><br>
In the same hour, Radio Globo – its northern signal at 101.1 FM had
weakened at this point in the highway as its capital city signal at 88.7
FM became accessible – reported that the violent repression against the
pacific demonstrators was not an aberration restricted to Cuesta de la
Virgen. Today’s crackdown had been ordered nationwide.<br><br>
Roger Abraham Vallejo Cerrado, 38, secretary of the San Martín high
school, who had participated in a different anti-coup demonstration in
Tegucigalpa, received a bullet wound to the head. Another 88
arrests and 25 wounded was the body count from the illegitimate state
repression on this same road, at El Durazno, five kilometers from the
capital.<br><br>
Among the arrested today were presidential candidate Carlos Reyes, beaten
violently by the coup soldiers, left with a broken arm and a bloodied
ear, and also arrested was national union leader Juan Barahona.<br><br>
The news team of Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) was physically attacked
by the police,
<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/54945-NN/nuevas-agresiones-contra-personal-periodistico-internacional-en-honduras/">
TeleSur reports</a>.<br><br>
Those are just a few glimpses of the story as seen and reported from
below, from the ground level in a country occupied by a military coup
regime.<br><br>
Meanwhile, up above, the illegitimate “president” Roberto Micheletti,
continued to mock the neutered "peace process" championed in
San José and Washington. With the left hand, he flashed a peace sign,
while with the right hand, according to multiple press reports, he today
ordered the police and military forces to “put a stop” to the peaceful
blockades.<br><br>
And in the next-door country’s capital of Managua, Nicaragua, the
legitimate President Manuel Zelaya met with US Ambassador to Honduras
Hugo Llorens, who led a delegation of US officials there for talks of
which the details are not yet publicly known.<br><br>
The full toll of Thursday, Bloody Thursday in Honduras has not yet been
counted. “They treated us like animals,” Baranhona told
<a href="http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105355&Itemid=1">
Prensa Latina</a>, while under arrest. The “forces of order” pursued and
brutally beat the multitude in many locations across the land that had,
for the fifth time in three weeks, successfully blockaded the key points
of the country’s major arteries for most of the business day.<br><br>
The logic of such ritual animalistic repression has never been clear to
this observer. It never works to win hearts and minds. It very rarely
works to cause protests to diminish. More often, it reminds the people
that the repressive nature of the regime is a big part of why they are
willing to risk life and limb for a just cause.<br><br>
As events of the next few days will demonstrate, the civil resistance to
the Honduran coup is visibly growing in size, organizational capacity and
geographical scope. Today was the first time the people had put up a
blockade in Cuesta de la Virgen. Despite the bloody repression – more
likely because of it – don’t make any bets that it will be the
last.<br><br>
<b>Update II:</b> Today in the state of Olancho, home of President Manuel
Zelaya, coup supporters (popularly called "los perfumados" by
many in Honduras) had announced a march in the President's home town of
Catacamas, and loaded two busloads from the Tegucigalpa to play the role
of local citizens two hours away. The authentic local citizens caught
wind of it, though, and went to the town before Catacamas - La Real - and
set up this blockade:<br><br>
<img src="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/Catacamas,OlanchoJuly30.09.JPG" alt="[]">
<br><br>
The coup supporters never made it past the blockade, which was held
peacefully and successfully without incident. Lacking <i>local</i>
participants, the announced pro-coup march in Catacamas never
happened.<br><br>
<b>Update III 10:44 Tegucigalpa Time, 12:44 a.m. ET:</b> The legitimate
First Lady of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, who has been in the border
regions with Nicaragua for the past week, is right now entering the city
of Tegucigalpa in a caravan and heading for Radio Globo, where she will
make an announcement tonight. You can
<a href="http://www.radioglobohonduras.com/">listen to it here</a>. Lord
knows, most of Honduras will be. There is a certain optimism, if not
giddiness, in the voices of the radio announcers telling this story.
Remember that her husband, Mel Zelaya, met with a US delegation today in
Managua. Oh my, here she is...<br><br>
<b>Update IV:</b> There are conflicting reports about the status of
schoolteacher Roger Abraham Vallejo Cerrado with some media saying he
passed away tonight and others saying he is still fighting for life.
Neither version is confirmed.<br><br>
<b>Update V: </b>The Zelaya family has been on the air with a supporting
case of hundreds on Radio Globo for 70 minutes now, with some very moving
moments, but no "hard news," at least none announced. Tomorrow
will be a most interesting day.<br>
******************************************************<br>
</font><h1><b>Honduras Coup: The Dumbest Regime on
Earth</b></h1><font size=3>Posted by
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/users/al-giordano">Al
Giordano</a> - July 29, 2009 at 6:44 am <br>
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/honduras-coup-dumbest-regime-earth" eudora="autourl">
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/honduras-coup-dumbest-regime-earth</a>
<br><br>
By Al Giordano<br><br>
All governments have a tendency to become dimwitted and encrusted
bureaucracies. But one month into the Honduras coup d’etat the
illegitimate regime of “president” Roberto Micheletti wins the
prize.<br><br>
Its obsession with the possibility that the elected president Manuel
Zelaya might return to Honduran soil has offered 32 days of clown show,
one that has only served to increase the Honduran people’s opposition to
the coup.<br><br>
The regime says it has an arrest warrant for Zelaya but twice it has had
the opportunity to enforce it and twice it did not.<br><br>
The worry that the third time might be the charm has caused the
illegitimate president to order a 24-hour martial curfew in the border
states of El Paraíso and Choluteca. You can see in the video, above, the
blockades set up by military forces with specific orders to stop three
kinds of shipments from reaching those states: food, medicine and potable
water. The drivers demonstrate for the camera that all they are carrying
is food.<br><br>
And you can see the trucks and cars that had been transporting that newly
defined contraband lined up and unable to cross the checkpoints.<br><br>
Zelaya is camped out across the border in Nicaragua. How starving or
suffocating the border state Hondurans somehow prevents him from
reentering is not explained by the coup mongers.<br><br>
A military official explains on camera that he and his troops are only
following orders from “the president” (meaning, the joke of a leader that
is Micheletti). He also claims that ten Red Cross vehicles carrying food
and medicine were allowed through the checkpoints.<br><br>
Yet in the video one can see a Red Cross vehicle detained at the
checkpoint, unable to pass.<br><br>
El Paraíso counts with 380,000 residents. Choluteca has 420,000. Together
they are home to more than ten percent of the Honduras' 7.5 million
population. Even if the military official was telling the truth, how ten
vehicles would somehow feed and heal 800,000 people – short of a Biblical
miracle complete with a Sermon on the Mount – was also not
explained.<br><br>
<img src="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/honduras_mapa_politico.png" width=724 height=462 alt="[]">
<br><br>
In sum, the coup regime has converted two of the most important states
into giant penitentiaries, with 800,000 inmates who have been cut off
from the rest of their country and from food and medicine.<br><br>
Neither El Paraíso nor Choluteca have historically been hotbeds of
unrest, especially compared to the politically active capital of
Tegucigalpa and the northern coastal regions and their social, farmer and
labor movements.<br><br>
But in less than a week, through martial law, the coup regime has
ratcheted up the resentment against it, now, from these regions, too.
Honduras’ legitimate First Lady, Xiomara Castro, now being pushed from
some corners to enter the November presidential election as a candidate,
perhaps with a newly formed independent party, has drawn large crowds in
the region during her attempts to reunite with her exiled
husband.<br><br>
A blogger named Boz lists some
<a href="http://www.bloggingsbyboz.com/2009/07/six-lessons-one-month-after-coup.html">
lessons learned</a> from the month of imposed dictatorship in Honduras,
and the first is this:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>The Micheletti government is dumb</b>. If we didn't know it on day
one, we knew it within the first week. The Micheletti government couldn't
get its story straight about what occurred the day of the coup. They
clearly botched the congressional vote, used a forged resignation letter,
shut down media, imposed curfews and failed to get a single other
government to recognize them. Violations of the constitution in the name
of protecting the constitution and violations of civil liberties in the
name of protecting democracy. Now it appears cracks are forming within
the coup coalition. They've managed to stay in power for a month, but
that's about all they've accomplished.<br><br>
</dl>Meanwhile, yesterday, across the country, six hours away in
Honduras’ second biggest city of San Pedro Sula,
<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/07/29/index.php?section=mundo&article=020n1mun">
Micheletti reacted</a> to news that Washington had begun to cancel the
visas of coup leaders babbled this inanity:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>“No gringo</i>, Venezuelan, Bolivian or Ecuadoran is going to give
orders to us.”<br><br>
</dl>This, after his short-term Secretary of State had called US
President Obama a “little nigger.”<br><br>
To give you an idea of how deranged this coup “president” is while drunk
with this particularly false brand of power, he offered his opinion of
what would have happened if on June 28 the Honduran people had been
allowed to vote on a non-binding referendum on whether they wanted to
vote in November on whether to convene a Constitutional
Convention:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>“If we had permitted the Fourth Ballot Box, we would already, at this
moment, be Chavistas, slaves to twenty-first century socialism, we would
already be out of balance. Here, the only interference comes from the
Supreme Creator!”<br><br>
</dl>He forgot to mention that cats would already be sleeping with dogs,
too.<br><br>
Ahem, Señor Dictator: a binding vote couldn’t have taken place until
November 29 and that would have only started the arduous process toward a
democratically implemented change of the Honduran Constitution, a process
that would take place under the next president elected on that same date.
The suggestions that a previous non-binding vote could have “already” led
to slavery and/or socialism are no more than the ravings of an unstable
madman.<br><br>
Meanwhile, the civil resistance to the coup continues to self-organize.
In the coming hours, we’ll have important news to report about
it…<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>