Arguably the most significant news so far--aside from the fact of the coup itself, and the fact that President is still alive, is the news that the OAS has condemned the coup. Her diary about this puts it in proper historical context, contrasting it with the strikingly similar coup in Haiti in 2004:
UPDATE 6:54PM OAS HAS JUST CONDEMNED COUP IN HONDURAS, CALLS FOR ZELAYA'S REINSTATEMENT In a major blow to the coup leaders in Honduras who just illegally installed themselves in power, the Organization of American States (OAS) has just issued a resolution condemning the coup against President Zelaya, demanding the return of Zelaya to power immediately and clarifying that the OAS will not recognize any other government other than Zelaya's in Honduras. Whew! For a minute there I thought this was going to turn out like Haiti in 2004 when coup forces kidnapped President Aristide and forced him into exile and, while the OAS "condemned" the constitutional rupture, they never called for Aristide's reinstatement, and since the US backed the coup, an illegal transitional government was installed and nothing more came of it from the international community.
This time, things seem different. Still waiting on the US Government's official position...If they say they will not recognize the coup government, then we have to see how things will play out in Honduras.
Other posts from her throughout the day make it clear that the Obama Administration has been typically vague, and still has not made its position clear. In her most recent post, she said:
Since the Obama Administration has stated the coup situation in Honduras should be resolved via the OAS, and the OAS has just condemned the coup and called for the unconditional restoration of President Zelaya to power, that should also imply that the US Government shares the same position.
America's history of intervention in Latin America goes back over 150 years. There are some good timelines tracking them with different types of information here and
here. Honduras first suffered military intervention in 1905, followed by four more interventions in the next two decades.
Here's what happened in Central America alone in just six years a century ago:
1905: U.S. troops land in Honduras for the first of 5 times in next 20 years.
1907: Marines intervene in Honduras to settle a war with Nicaragua.
1908: U.S. troops intervene in Panama for first of 4 times in next decade.
1909: Liberal President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua proposes that American mining and banana companies pay taxes; he has also appropriated church lands and legalized divorce, done business with European firms, and executed two Americans for participating in a rebellion. Forced to resign through U.S. pressure. The new president, Adolfo Díaz, is the former treasurer of an American mining company.
1910: U.S. Marines occupy Nicaragua to help support the Díaz regime.
1911: The Liberal regime of Miguel Dávila in Honduras has irked the State Department by being too friendly with Zelaya and by getting into debt with Britain. He is overthrown by former president Manuel Bonilla, aided by American banana tycoon Sam Zemurray and American mercenary Lee Christmas, who becomes commander-in-chief of the Honduran army.
Because of this long history, about which most of us know nothing, but which is quite well known in Latin America, what Obama does in the next 24 hours will be crucial to how he is seen throughout the region. Will his his fresh rhetoric be matched by deeds? Or will it be just more of the same old same old?
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