Reply #1: Magical Realism: A Coup in Honduras ... So Twentieth Century!

[Judi Lynn]

Weekend Edition
January 15-17, 2010

Magical Realism
A Coup in Honduras ... So Twentieth Century!
By SAUL LANDAU and NELSON P. VALDES

“I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.”

-– Henry Kissinger, June 26, 1970

“I’ve heard many in this room say that they will not recognize the elections in Honduras. … What does that mean in the real world, not in the world of magical realism?”

-- W. Lewis Amselem, US Representative to the Organization of American States, Nov. 11, 2009

For US magical realists, a coup becomes a coup after Washington defines it as such. On March 10, 1952 Cuban General Fulgencio Batista grabbed power and sought to legitimize his coup by holding fake elections. Magically, the coup makers won; Washington recognized Batista.

In 1964, Brazil’s military removed President João Goulart and covered naked crime with electoral fig leaves, as if coups came with routine republicanism.

In 2009, few imagined military goons taking orders from a corrupt supreme court, kidnapping a President and exiling him to Costa Rica. Fewer imagined Costa Rican President Oscar Arias cooperating with kidnappers, and instead of charging them with major felonies, allowed them free return in their military plane. More 21st Century Magical Realism surfaced when Arias evolved from collaborator to mediator – with US and OAS blessing.

Washington could have frozen the plotters’ assets, or denounced the coup-supporting Honduran congressional hooligans for producing a fake resignation letter by President Manuel Zelaya, one he had not signed and with the wrong date.

In stead of the State Department labeling the blatant heist a coup, officials “studied” the absurd allegation that Zelaya had violated Honduras’ Constitution by calling for a referendum (consultation) with his people -- to see if they wanted to change the document. Indeed, a 2009 State Department human rights report had labeled as corrupt the very Supreme Court that ordered Zelaya arrested – but not kidnapped and exiled.

By November, the thugs had repressed opposition media, killed, tortured and beaten protesters. Then, the conditions were ready for the plotters to hold “elections.” 50% or less voted for candidates that reflected none of Zelaya’s programs. Despite charges of fraud and irregularities, Washington recognized the process and beseeched the world to forget Honduras’ disagreeable past: five months of a nation’s upset stomach?

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/landau01152010.html