Honduras - A coup is a coup is a coup is a coup

COMMENTARY

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Author: Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/07/09 21:16

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The pre-Neanderthal characters who have taken control, at gunpoint, of the government of Honduras are telling us that this was not a coup d’etat, but an orderly legal proceeding against a president who had violated the constitution: A normal constitutional succession, as they are telling us.
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This is nonsense. It was a coup, as indicated by the following and many other things.
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The removal of Zelaya by a squad of troops and his expulsion from his country is the way coups are done in Latin America, not the way elected officials are normally removed for malfeasance.
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The arrest of members of Zelaya’s cabinet, without any kind of due process or legal bill of particulars, and effectuated by the military also, shows that this is a coup.
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Likewise, the arrest and harassment of pro-Zelaya labor, community and political figures is something that is done in military coups, not in “constitutional successions”.
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The physical attack against the ambassadors of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, who were trying to protect the foreign minister from injury, shows that this is a coup.
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The closing down of all media that supported Zelaya or just reported the news accurately, via military squads bashing down the doors of their offices, are hallmarks of a coup.
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The removal of elected officials in smaller cities and towns around their country, and their replacement by military officers, is something that would only happen in a coup.
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The actions of the military in going through towns and villages to grab military age men and force them into the army, is something that no democratic government would do, and is another hallmark of a coup.
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The act of the military firing on a crowd of tens of thousands of extremely peaceful and disciplined demonstrators, resulting in the death of several people, is behavior typical of regimes installed by coups.
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Every time there was a military coup d’etat in Latin America in the past century, the army brass would always find some judges, senators and other civilian politicians to invent some pseudo-legalistic claptrap to give it the appearance of legality. Many of the worst dictators in Latin American history ran their countries from behind the façade of a civilian leadership.
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We are not fooled. The world is not fooled.

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