U.S. foreign policy backs abusive Honduran state

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. foreign policy backs abusive Honduran state
Adrienne Pine
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Honduran prisons are overcrowded, but not because there are too many criminals, one of the explanations that has been given for the Valentine's Day prison fire in the city of Comayagua that killed 360 people- the worst prison fire in a century. They are overcrowded because a majority of prisoners have languished for years in prison without having gone to trial, and because of so-called "antigang" and "antiterrorist" laws passed by President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo that criminalize poverty and dissent.

In an attempt to bring a tidy end to the 2009 military coup that ousted President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, Lobo was brought to power in a U.S.-funded election marred by military and police violence and deemed by all international election monitoring bodies to lack the conditions necessary to be free and fair. Lacking a mandate and derided by the left and right, Lobo has few friends outside the U.S. embassy in Honduras. Other than commending Lobo for his public statements following the fire, the embassy has remained relatively quiet about the Comayagua tragedy.

~snip~
Last year, the U.S. Department of Defense spent more than $50 million in Honduras. Most of that went to the Soto Cano Air Base, the U.S. military base within spitting distance of the Comayagua prison. Additional hundreds of millions of dollars are being channeled through the Central American Regional Security Initiative to support initiatives like Lobo's "Operation Lightning," which deputizes soldiers to act as police officers. In the two months they have been on the streets, these military police have already been accused of numerous human rights violations.

In a Jan. 26 New York Times op-ed, Dana Frank argued that "the coup was what threw open the doors to a huge increase in drug trafficking and violence, and it unleashed a continuing wave of state-sponsored repression." Because of the coup - which Lobo supported and inherited - the homicide rate has shot up to 82 per 100,000, making Honduras the most dangerous country in the world. The solution, Frank concluded, lies not in funding repressive institutions, but in respecting proposals coming from Honduran human rights defenders who daily risk their lives in their fight for justice, dignity and life.

More:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/28/EDOV1NDFHK.DTL#ixzz1nnfNJjVD

[naaman fletcher]

1. interesting

"Lacking a mandate and derided by the left and right, Lobo has few friends outside the U.S. embassy in Honduras. "

why is the right deriding him? I would have thought that the right would like the current state of affairs, in hopes of getting 7 BILLION dollars to consolidate their control over the countryside.

[txlibdem]

2. Interesting that you think people on the "right" love repression and false imprisonment

From the OP: "so-called "antigang" and "antiterrorist" laws passed by President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo that criminalize poverty and dissent."

[naaman fletcher]

3. I don't believe that, per se

But what we are constantly hearing about Colombia on this forum is that the right-wing is in league with the criminals. I am wondering what is different between honduras and Colombia in that regard.

[txlibdem]

4. Both nations are US puppet narco-states

There is no difference that I have been able to ferret out.

[Bacchus4.0]

5. I'd like to see some examples of criminalizing poverty and dissent

as mentioned in the OP. I wonder if that includes writing editorials criticizing Lobo, or speaking publicly against him.

there appears to be a huge issue regarding holding prisoners without charge and/or conviction in prisons including another nation that has experienced several riots over the past year that where 70% of prisoners haven't been tried.