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Honduras update

The march against the usurpers yesterday.
(click to enlarge)

The OAS has suspended Honduras from its club, the score 33 to 0 with one abstention (Honduras....a protocol thing). "You're fired!" "I already quit on Friday!" "No you didn't, I didn't recognize it!" "Screw you!" "Screw you!" "Screw you!" (I could continue)

Klishtina has chickened out and won't be flying with Mel...she'll make the best of it by going shopping in NYC instead.

The usurpers have denied permission for Zelaya's plane to land. So they lied when they said he'd be let back into the country...big deal, normal for these coupmongers as their whole argument is based on lies anyway.

A crowd estimated at 200,000 pro-Zelaya people will be hanging round the airport when (if?) Mel lands....including snipers loyal to the usurpers on top of tall buildings.


UPDATE: Reader Nell just put the following in the comments section of this post. Thanks Nell.

In a press conference that got underway at OAS headquarters a few minutes ago at 11:55 a.m. ET (9:55 a.m. in Tegucigalpa), Honduran President Miguel Zelaya announced that two planes will be heading south today.
...
The first airplane will head from Washington DC directly to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, and it will carry President Zelaya and Miguel D’Escoto, president of the United Nations General Assembly.

The second airplane will head first to San Salvador, carrying Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Kristina Kirchner of Argentina, and OAS chairman Jose Miguel Insulza, "to begin the process... of assuring that the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States is complied with" in Honduras.

From Al Giordano, who posted before the press conference had ended. I imagine there will be corporate news reports shortly.

Honduras: Snipers are in place around the airport

Snipers in the Teguchigalpa airport control tower, as photographed this afternoon

Below is a direct translation of the first part of this post recently put up at Honduras Resistencia. The blogger has proven to be correct on several occasions this week, having blogged about the bus tires being shot out by troops before CNN got its hands on video footage and writing about how Micheletti's cousin was taking over as Mayor of San Pedro Sula before it hit the newswires. In other words, the blogger I'm translating has been getting the news stories right before they're news.

Now read the translation below, as tomorrow President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras and an entourage that is supposed to include Argentina's Fernandez, Ecuador's Correa, The OEA head Insulza and perhaps others will walk onto the tarmac at Tegucigalpa airport.

The de facto government led by our dinosaur coupmonger has placed his snipers around the area of the Toncontin International Airport, Tegucigalpa. The sharpshooters were seen today when protestors approached the area. They have maintained their position throughhout and we only hope they do not receive an order from the coupmongers and aim their rifles in the direction of the people and do what the Catholic church (which more than a church seems to be spokespeople of the government, they even get TV airtime) forecasted; "If Mel returns it will be a bloodbath". CONTINUES HERE

Zelaya returns to Honduras tomorrow

So reports The BBC and plenty of other news channels.

I'm hoping that it's a peaceful happening, but (take it away Mr. Marley) I know my history and I see where I'm coming from. I can't help thinking about an occasion in 1973 when an exiled president returned under controversial circumstances to his Latin American homeland and the ensuing battle in and around the airport where he landed caused dozens of deaths and hundreds (in fact probably thousands) of injuries. It also marked the beginning of the militarization of the country that ended up with tens of thousands of disappeared citizens.

Read about the 1973 Ezeiza Massacre at this wiki page to start with, then find out more from the links offered. Learn from history and you're not doomed to repeat it.

Honduras's de facto chancellor: "Obama is a little black man who knows nothing."

Cute huh?

Enrique Ortez (for it is he)

Meet Enrique Ortez, the man given the job of Chancellor of Honduras (basically foreign minister) by the usurper Micheletti. In an interview on Honduras TV last night he said the above about President Obama and a whole lot more. Here's a translation of this report in the El Salvador daily, LaPagina:

Following the Coup D'Etat over José Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti has named its new government team, among them the new Chancellor Enrique Ortez Colindres, who in his declarations has made the position of the coupmongers clear.

According to the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the new "chancellor" Enrique Ortez took part in a journalistic TV program in Honduras where he was asked about the international reactions to the coup d'etat. Ortez said that he gave no importane whatsoever to the OAS and "the other little groups out there", he said (Spanish premier) José Luis Rodrígues Zapatero should "go back to his shoes*" and said that he was not going to talk about (Honduras neighbour) El Salvador "because it's not worth talking about such a small country, where you can't even play football because the ball lands in another country".

But he went for more by defining President Barack Obama of The United States as "that little black man who doesn't know anything".

Keep apologizing for your coupmongers, wingnuts. Cos by gawd, every day there's more to apologize for.

UPDATE: I've had a couple of mails from people about what this Ortez scumbag actually said about Obama, so here goes with a bit more. His precise words in Spanish were "Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada". I decided to translate this as "that little black man who knows nothing" or "that little black man who doesn't know anything" to stay away from the controversial side of the statement and be as bland as possible. In fact the use of the word "negrito", i.e. the diminuitive of "negro", is very derogatory in nature and overtly racist in context; the kind of racism that would force the resignation of any public figure in the USA (for example). One mailer offered up the translation of "that know-nothing black boy" to get the proper feeling of the message implied by Ortez, and although it's extremely difficult to hit the translatory nail on the head in this case, I'd tend to agree that the offered translation captures the sentiment better than my deliberately bland version. Another way of catching the drift would be "That blackie that knows nothing about anything", or even "That negro...." would work, even the other "N" word would be a fair translation of what he meant.

The bottom line is that Ortez's statement, alongside the equally offensive words he has for Zapatero and the nation of El Salvador (note Revolter's comment below and Google up about the "football war" if you haven't heard about it previously) is dripping with bigotry and hatred.

* a play on words with the word "zapatero", which means "shoemaker" in Spanish

Honduras: You can't fire me cos I quit

So the OAS goes over and presents a message from all other states that make up the group that tells the usurper Micheletti to desist or face having his country thrown out of the organization. Micheletti's reaction is to resign Honduras from the OAS. As the blog Honduras Resistencia correctly comments

"...the only thing this measure shows is the lack of capacity for dialogue from the coupmongers. The infantile attitude of the spoiled child of "better I leave before they throw me out" offers nothing to the climate of dialogue, concertation and peace that, hypocritically, is their motto.

"The repercussions of this action in the international community are incalculable and as always will affect the poor (first)..."

Put the Honduras Resistencia blog on your RSS, or on your own blogroll if you have a blog. The voice of the people from inside Honduras is the most powerful and it's clear that they are not taking this abuse lying down. Meanwhile, for those morons that still believe what happened in Honduras was legal, some basic facts. If you can give me cogent, democratic reasons for any of these then you have the right to move your madness forward.

• The forced explusion of Zelaya from Honduras was both against the law and against the constitution that the coupmongers say they were protecting.

• The resignation of Zelaya needed to be made to congress. The coupmongers did this by presenting a clearly falsified document to the parliament, one Zelaya says he did not sign and even the US State Dep't has said cannot be taken seriously.
  

• There was no attempt to impeach Zelaya and remove him by legal methods.

• Since seizing power, the de facto government has suspended several articles of their precious constitution, including articles that protect basic human rights including habeas corpus.

• Troops have been captured on video shooting out bus tires as they tried to transport people to the capital city in order to protest the de facto government.
  

• The Colon region of Honduras is now under an all-day military controlled curfew, the measure passed to stop residents from travelling to the protests scheduled in the capital today. The announcement came yesterday afternoon and caused panic amongst people had just two hours to buy in provisions before the extended curfew began.
  

• Media have been silenced with only pro-government news items allowed on TV, radio and newspapers. Pro-Zelaya Canal 36 has been closed down against the will of its director and is guarded by troops. Apparently CNN is "on the payroll of Hugo Chávez" which explains why it has been suppressed inside Honduras.
  

• The leader of the 3-16 death squad from the 1980's has been appointed as ministerial advisor.

• The mayor of San Pedro Sula has been deposed and arrested. In his place Micheletti has appointed his cousin (this one of many examples, unfortunately).

You think this is normal? Good for society? Legal? Decent? As reader 'GR' wrote in a mail this morning;

Here the media do not talk or write about the Coup d`Etat, or so little.

It was a different story for Iran. We have been inundated with reports about the evil country for weeks.

But why this difference? First explanation that comes to my mind; there is no oil involved. Secondly this could be a "good dictatorship" (pro-Washington) as opposed to a "bad dictatorship" (anti-Washington).

Meanwhile, the whole of the international community...all of them, every single last one of them, have condemned the coup. Micheletti's lies about having places like Taiwan as allies have also been exposed at the highest level.

If you don't like Zelaya, that's fine by me. But why on earth do we have to be pulled back to the 1970's because it suits the self-interests of people who couldn't find Honduras on a map one week ago? You have the whole of the international community on one side, and a military government with a bunch of wingnuts on the other. Gimme a break here........

PS: Greg Weeks at his blog has been covering Honduras in a more scholarly, intellectual way (i.e. better than here), so go see for yourself.

Progress?

Ed Stafford is a incredibly brave (or stupid, or mad...your call) dude who decided to do what nobody else has ever done, namely walk the length of The Amazon River. His website, walkingtheamazon.com is right here and regular reader MM has been following his journey and occasionally sends me a "hey Otto, check out this Ed Stafford post" headsup.

Well MM sent one today (thank you sir) and it's pretty much obligatory reading for everyone. Ed met up with an anthropologist on his way through one area. She sent him a mail to point to the progress that the Amazon basin is facing. No more blab from me, read the entry yourself:

Hi Ed,

In December the CARE, the organisation the oversees the Ashaninkas, discovered that the Peruvian national and regional governments, along with the Brazilian govt, have been cooking up plans for no less than 3 dams on the Ene River - 15 in total in Peru. I wrote something about it in an article I have on my new blog… www.gezc.wordpress.com.

Well, the headlining act of these 15 dams happens to be right in the middle of the River Ene - I don’t know if you remember when you took the boat, when going upriver about 5 hours in from Puerto Ocopa there’s a massive canyon with high walls - it is called Pakitzapango by the Ashaninka.

Pakitzapango is a mythical eagle that the Ashaninkas believe was building a massive dam across the river in order to steal the Ashaninka and eat them but the Ashaninka succeeded in killing him before he finished his dam. They believe this is why there is such a tight canyon there…

Well, it is going to be dammed in reality, by a 165 meter concrete wall which will flood all the communities upstream & dry out the ones downstream. basically a HUGE disaster for the Ashaninka. Their declaration against the dam is copied below.

Emily xx

———

DECLARATION CONCERNING THE THREAT OF THE PAKITZAPANGO DAM
BY THE ASHANINKA COMMUNITIES OF THE ENE VALLEY

The Ashaninka communities of the Ene Valley, in the districts of Rio Tambo and Pango, Province of Satipo, Junin, Peru, gathered together to celebrate the XIII ordinary Congress of their representative organisation, Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE), in the community of Pichiquia on the 24th-26th of April 2009 in order to debate the threat of the current project for the construction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam, declare the following:

Considering that:

Our history is one of constant abuse: we were enslaved during the rubber boom, forcibly removed from our territory and subjected to cruel atrocities during the civil war that has unfolded in our territory since the 1980s. The Truth Commission reports that around 6000 Ashaninka were murdered or disappeared during the latter’s worst years. While organised in Ashaninka Self-defense Committees, we contributed with our blood and our lives to the pacification of this country, and yet the government still imposes new threats upon us: the concession of our territories to petrol companies and to the construction of the Pakitzapango dam. To us, the latter assaults on our territorial integrity signal a direct attack on our lives and our survival as a People. It leads us to one conclusion: this government intends to exterminate us.

The Ene river is the heart and soul of our territories: it feeds our forests, animals, plants, crops, and most of all, our children. For the Ashaninka People, Pakitzapango is of great cultrual and spiritual importance, as the origins of our People lie within this sacred place. We, the Ashaninka of the Ene have demonstrated our ability to care for our environment; we also helped create the Otishi National Park and Ashaninka Communal Reserve, to biodiversity hotspots which would be severely affected by the construction of the Pakitzapango dam.

Nevertheless, the government persists in ignoring and violating our human rights, as enshrined in the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is made clear in the Ministerial Resolution N. 546-2008-MEM/DM in which the Minister of Energy and Mines grants, to the company ‘Pakitzapango Energia SAC’, a concession for a feasibility study to prepare for the constuction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam. This concession was granted without informing or consulting us, demonstrating, once again, the peruvian government’s lack of respect towards our way of life and, more fundamentally, our human rights.

Furthermore, it is outrageous that our president Alan Garcia and Brasil’s president Lula da Silva are currently in the process of negotiating an energy agreement by which they commit to the building of six hydroelectric dams in Peru, Pakitzapango being the largest of them.

In view of this, the Ashaninka communities of the Ene river:

1. Wholly reject and demand the immediate anulment of the Resolution N. 546-2008-MEM as the Ashaninka communities of the Ene valley were neither informed nor consulted regarding it
2. Demand that the peruvian government respect and unreservedly apply our human rights as enshrined in the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
3. Insist that the national government, represented by the president Alan Garcia, and public institutions such as the Ministry for Energy and Mines, the Congress of the Republic, the Junin Regional Government and the local Municipalities (Pangoa and Rio Tambo) respect the decisions of the Ashaninka People and call off any negotiation regarding the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam.
4. Insist that international goverments such as Brasil, represented by Lula Da Silva, respect the decisions of the Ashaninka People and call off any negotiation regarding the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam.
5. Repudiate the use of the Ashaninka word Pakitzapango in light of its spiritual and cultural significance for the Ashaninka People of Peru.
6. Demand that any activity such as research, promotions, reports, meetings or proposals that support or promote the construction of the Pakitzapango dam are immediately called off. The Ashaninka of the Ene valley will NOT permit the entry of any institution carrying out any of the mentioned activities.
7. Provide our wholehearted support to our orgnisation CARE (Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene) and trust that it will transmit, maintain and defend our common decisions. Furthermore, we entrust it to disseminate our voices in all necessary social and political spaces.

The Friday OT: Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan

Best. Video. Ever.

Part of the 1965 documentary "Don't Look Back", Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues is about the coolest performance ever. Lots of side-issues here, including beat poet Allen Ginsberg skulking around in the background, the filming location (behind the Savoy Hotel, London) and deliberate mistakes made on the cards (e.g. "twenty dollar bills" when the song is "eleven dollar bills" and the beautifully mis-spelled 'suck cess').

As an extra IKN bonus, you can even follow that bouncing ball with the words:

Johnny's in the basement, Mixing up the medicine, I'm on the pavement, Thinking about the government, The man in the trench coat, Badge out, laid off, Says he's got a bad cough, Wants to get it paid off, Look out kid, It's somethin' you did, God knows when, But you're doin' it again, You better duck down the alley way, Lookin' for a new friend, The man in the coon-skin cap, In the big pen, Wants eleven dollar bills, You only got ten. Maggie comes fleet foot, Face full of black soot, Talkin' that the heat put, Plants in the bed but, The phone's tapped anyway, Maggie says that many say, They must bust in early May, Orders from the D. A., Look out kid, Don't matter what you did, Walk on your tip toes, Don't try "No Doz", Better stay away from those, That carry around a fire hose, Keep a clean nose, Watch the plain clothes, You don't need a weather man, To know which way the wind blows. Get sick, get well, Hang around a ink well, Ring bell, hard to tell, If anything is goin' to sell, Try hard, get barred, Get back, write braille, Get jailed, jump bail, Join the army, if you fail, Look out kid, You're gonna get hit, But users, cheaters, Six-time losers, Hang around the theaters, Girl by the whirlpool, Lookin' for a new fool, Don't follow leaders, Watch the parkin' meters. Ah get born, keep warm, Short pants, romance, learn to dance, Get dressed, get blessed, Try to be a success, Please her, please him, buy gifts, Don't steal, don't lift, Twenty years of schoolin', And they put you on the day shift, Look out kid, They keep it all hid, Better jump down a manhole, Light yourself a candle, Don't wear sandals, Try to avoid the scandals, Don't wanna be a bum, You better chew gum, The pump don't work, 'Cause the vandals took the handles.