See
Great source of blackholed news from Latin America:
http://www.narconews.com/Many important stories about Honduras from various reporters' notebooks:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/honduran-military-assassinates-leftist-presidential-candidate Retraction about Congr Ham:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/correction-honduran-presidential-candidate-still-aliveNews out of Honduras was and still is extremely hard to get. The fascist coup shut down the news media. The story that Ham had been killed came from the police, via a news source called Notimex. But Ham's allies have said it is false. He is alive and in hiding at a secure location.
Congr Ham is the only leftist candidate for president in November's election. He is an ally of Zelaya (Zelaya is term limited), and helped author and promote the advisory referendum asking whether or not voters support starting a Constitutional assembly process, to discuss and rewrite the Constitution (which dates from the Reagan "reign of terror" era). Zelaya's support for this advisory referendum--a vote that would have had no legal force, a simple, opinion-poll type referendum that contained not one word about Zelaya's or anyone's term limit (see www.BoRev.net)--was the excuse given by the military and the rightwing elite for shooting up the presidential palace in the middle of the night, dragging Zelaya from his bed, beating him up and forcing him onto a plane with blackened windows that flew him to Costa Rica, and for shutting down the country and appointing a new president. I guess they really feared hearing from the voters about the John Negroponte-written Constitution!
Narco News is a very reliable source on the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" and other news from and affecting Latin America. It was one of very few places you could get live, on the ground reports of the six months long teachers' strike and leftist uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico, for instance--a major blackholed story in our corpo/fascist press. I consult this site regularly for blackholed LatAm stories. They handled the report of Ham's murder as well as they could. It was a police source with quotes. They used "if this is true" language. And they immediately retracted it, when they heard from Ham's political allies that he is alive.
Why would the powers-that-be in Honduras with a legitimate beef against Zelaya shut down the media, and station troops around public buildings and TV stations (and arrest reporters--even AP), and shut down electricity, and kidnap the president, and overthrow his election by appointing someone else as president? They apparently had the supreme court and a majority of the national legislature on their side, against Zelaya. So why didn't they prosecute him, if he did something improper or illegal in promoting this
advisory referendum? And what's so scary to rich elites about an advisory vote anyway?
In any case, the apparently false report about Congressman Ham was not Narco News' fault. It was the fault of the military which shut down the country and all news sources. Was the police report about Ham part of a psyops campaign to spread fear and confusion? That's what it seems like. Could have been just malicious rumor-mongering. But creating fear, confusion and mayhem are hallmarks of repressive regimes and illegitimate powers. I think this may have been more than a random artifact of the situation. It occurs to me, also, that it would be a useful rumor with which to terrorize Congressman Ham's constituents in particular. If you heard that your congressman had been shot and killed, in a rightwing coup situation, it could well keep you off the streets and out of protests, because you would be without an advocate in government. It would contribute to your feeling of dangerous mayhem and disorder. (If they are shooting elected officials, they wouldn't hesitate to shoot you.) I don't know much about Congressman Ham, but I would guess that his constituency is poor--poor workers, the dispossessed, labor union members, displaced peasant farmers--citizens whom the rich elite especially wanted to intimidate as they ousted Zelaya (who had become an advocate of the poor, though he was initially a "conservative"). It's a guess--but that may be the motive behind this rather cleverly devised story (-with police quotes, etc.). I don't know anything about Notimex--never heard of them before. They could be innocent, too. Narco News simply wouldn't spread a false rumor, if they could help it. They have been rock solid. But I can't assert the same about Notimex, since I don't know them at all. If they are covert tool of the right, this needs to be exposed.
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