Democracy Held Hostage in Honduras

July 01, 2009 - "The Field" -- June 30, 2009 at 9:54 pm -- Today in Honduras, various important things happened. The illegitimate “president,” Roberto Micheletti, convened a rally where he stood side by side with the military general that led the violent coup. So much for the spin that the generals handed over the reins to

civilian authorities: the coup has expanded their power vastly. The pro-coup event generated a decent sized – but not all that impressive considering all the power at its command - crowd. Employees of pro-coup businesses were forced to attend, and bussed in. Anyone who saw it on TV could tell it was not grassroots, but Astroturf: they had clean little Honduran flags and very few homemade signs. And compare the lily white gang on that stage with any other photo of the Honduran population! It was the "escualidos" all over again, Honduras chapter.

Meanwhile, watch this video of what his troops were doing to the media while he launched his campaign to deny that he had committed a coup:

You don’t need to speak Spanish to “get” the gist of it. (And if you understand just some Spanish, these are radio guys and gals: they speak very clearly and coherently.) Just watch the body language of the reporters describing the beatings they got and the positions the soldiers forced them into while they destroyed Honduras’ biggest radio chain Globo’s transmitter and took them off the air.

Members of the media: When you defend or make apologies or excuses for this coup, you are enabling that level of violence and repression against media workers just like you.

Later, Dictator-for-Three-Days Micheletti called a “cadena nacional,” decreeing that all TV stations in the country would broadcast his second speech of the day live. There, he announced that the military curfew – initially said to be just for two nights – will now be extended for five more nights, that no Honduran may leave his or her home from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. this week.

He sent his attorney general on a TV tour to announce that the coup government had compiled 18 charges against President Zelaya – including treason, for, get this, wanting to reform the Constitution – and that if Zelaya makes good on his pledge to return to Honduras on Thursday he will be arrested “the moment he steps on Honduran soil.”

That was followed by another “cadena nacional,” this time with the president of the Supreme Court offering legal imprimatur for the illegal coup d’etat.

Meanwhile, here are some translations of Twitter messages from Honduras by others who watched Day Three of this travesty unfold:

Looking at the coup’s charges against Zelaya, tomorrow they’ll blame him for climate change, AIDS and hunger in the world.

Commerce is blocked in #Honduras. Will the businessmen unite to pressure for the return of Zelaya to avoid more losses?

The Facebook page of Manuel Zelaya can be read; Roberto Micheletti just wants your “estado” (in Spanish, “estado” is the same word for “status” as for “state”)

Honduras - How to bypass Internet blocking ... - http://www.r.ieves.com/a1.aspx

Look at this video with images that COWARDLY JOURNALISTS would never dare show you http://bit.ly/4oOXaU

Excellent photo gallery showing the repression by the military coup http://tinyurl.com/mx3mdz

In these moments #Honduras has reinstituted the signal of CNN in exchange that it read letters of support for the coup. TeleSur, to the contrary, remains censored.

CNN interviews the attorney general of #Honduras. Really, in seriousness, I ask: How did these guys that are such imbeciles succeed in a coup. Gorillas!

“From what I know there has not been one death, not one arrest,” says the attorney general of #Honduras. Clearly he’s lying in the face of the evidence.

The attorney general of #Honduras doesn’t know how to expl ain why Zelaya now faces criminal charges after they first exiled him to another country. A pathetic cabinet…

#Honduras must question what is the benefit of having an Army in a poor country. It seems that it only serves for coups d’etat.

Micheletti: "Cuban doctors will recieve hospitality and are welcome to stay."

Micheletti: “Thank you for your support. I will lower the minimum wage, maintain the curfew and I won’t let the impoverished hoardes bother your luxury automobiles.”

What was the point of that last “cadena”?

President of the Supreme Court is now on “cadena nacional”

Honduras - How to send an anonymous email ... - http://www.r.ieves.com/b1.aspx

The World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank have suspended their loans and credits to #Honduras

We already have the UN, the OAS, SICA, ALBA, World Bank, Interamerican Bank, and PetroCaribe, among many… who is still missing from those that refuse and repudate the coup?

More news is still coming in tonight. Our team is working around the clock. Stay alert and keep refreshing our front page and also here for the next updates being written up right now...