HONDURAS: Where and When is Peaceful Protest an Insurrection

[L. Coyote]

Apparently, today in the AP offices, a call for protest is an insurrection, ergo:
"President Manuel Zelaya's calls for rebellion" is how it is characterized in their news reporting.

Since when is a Constitutionally guaranteed right of a free people--freedom to assemble and protest--an "insurrection"?

Today, the People of Honduras either will have to take back their rights or allow a few right-wing criminals to rule their nation.
I hope they have more courage than the People of the USA had on 2000.12.12 when Bush took over the country. And more insight into the future under these two choices.

Zelaya did not call for insurrection or rebellion, he called for a protest, assembly of the people, a Constitutional right.
What the coup plotters have done DOES call for insurrection, and apparently they will get it today.


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Dallas Morning News - ‎13 minutes ago‎
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Associated Press - http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-honduras_28int.ART.State.Edition1.3eb6776.html

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras' interim government is cracking down on civil rights in response to ousted President Manuel Zelaya's calls for rebellion.

The order announced by government officials Sunday suspends key individual liberties and guarantees contained in the nation's constitution – allowing authorities to ban any "unauthorized" public meetings, arrest people without warrants and temporarily close news media outlets that "attack peace and order."

The government said the measure is in response to Zelaya's "calls for insurrection."

Earlier in the day, Zelaya called on his supporters to stage a mass march

[L. Coyote]

1. Latest News threads here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4080380

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4080130

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4079528

[L. Coyote]

2. Democracy Now Headlines- Honduran Coup Regime Imposes Media, Protest Crackdown

Honduran Coup Regime Imposes Media, Protest Crackdown
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/28/headlines

The Honduran coup regime has intensified its grip on power in the face of growing pressure for restoring the elected President Manuel Zelaya. On Sunday, coup leaders issued a decree granting themselves broad authority to clamp down on free speech. Under the new rules, the regime can ban protests and suspend media outlets found to have committed “disturbances of the peace.” Meanwhile the regime also refused entry to a delegation from the Organization of American States that had come to seek a negotiated solution to the crisis. Speaking from his hideout in the Brazilian embassy, Zelaya called for a massive national protest against the coup regime.

....................

[L. Coyote]

3. Troops close Honduras radio station

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/2009928124228951255.html


Honduran soldiers have raided a radio station aligned with Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, and shut down its operations.

David Romero, the director of Radio Globo de Tegucigalpa, said on Monday: "Soldiers assaulted the radio this morning, took over the station and took it off the air."

He said that all the staff had managed to "escape" and that no arrests had been made.

Radio Globo has a reporter inside the Brazilian embassy .........

[L. Coyote]

4. Los golpistas de Honduras decretan un estado de sitio encubierto

Honduran news is actually only fully available in Spanish language outlets.
The English news is not covering the facts in any depth whatsoever.

Here is a detailed article for Spanish readers:

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http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/09/28/internacional/1254098968.html

estos fueron los puntos leídos por radio y televisión a todo el país:

* Prohibir cualquier reunión publica no autorizada. La Policía y las Fuerzas de Seguridad podrán disolver cualquier reunión no autorizada.
* Impedir la emisión por cualquier medio de manifestaciones contra la paz, el orden público o que atenten contra la ley. Las Fuerzas de Seguridad podrán suspender cualquier televisión o emisora de radio que no cumpla con estas disposiciones.
* La Policía podrá detener a cualquier que ponga en peligro su vida o la de los demás.
* El Ejército desalojará las instituciones publicas invadidas por cualquier persona.

El decreto ya fue impreso en el boletín oficial del Estado .....

==============
The decree, for the next 45 days:

* No public assembly. Police can dissolve any unauthorized meeting.
* No broadcast contrary to peace, public order, or attempt against the law. Security forces can suspend any T-V or radio that does not comply.
* Police can detain any person who places their own life in danger, or endangers any other.
* Army can vacate public institutions invaded by anyone.

[L. Coyote]

5. Micheletti ordena el cierre de los medios de comunicación afines a Zelaya

La crisis hondureña
Micheletti ordena el cierre de los medios de comunicación afines a Zelaya
La medida se produce horas después de que el Gobierno golpista de Honduras suspendiera cinco derechos fundamentales
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Micheletti/ordena/cierre/medios/comunicacion/afines/Zelaya/elpepuint/20090928elpepuint_2/Tes


Roberto Micheletti ha decidido esta madrugada que los militares cierren los medios de comunicación que le resultan hostiles, es decir, Radio Globo y el Canal 36 de televisión, afines al depuesto Manuel Zelaya. Los cinco derechos constitucionales que quedan anulados son tan importantes como el de libertad personal, libre emisión de pensamiento (libertad de expresión), libertad de asociación y de unión, libre circulación y los derechos de los detenidos. .....

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The five Constitutional guarantees suspended are:

* libertad personal = personal liberty
* libre emisión de pensamiento = freedom of expression
* libertad de asociación y de unión = fredom to assemble and associate
* libre circulación = freedom of movement
* derechos de los detenidos = rights of persons detained

=================================================
.... El decreto ejecutivo PCM-M-016-2009 ocupa sólo dos folios, pero son dos folios que dan miedo. Porque a fin de cuentas lo que vienen a señalar es que la libertad de los ciudadanos queda a partir de ahora, y por un periodo de 45 días, a discreción de militares y policías, a los que Micheletti da carta blanca. Se podrá detener, dice el texto del decreto, "a toda persona que sea encontrada fuera del horario de circulación establecido, o que de alguna manera se presuma como sospechoso por las autoridades policiales y militares de causar daños a las personas o a sus bienes..." Según el artículo 187 de la Constitución de Honduras, el Gobierno tiene la potestad de suspender los derechos citados en los casos de "invasión del territorio nacional, perturbación grave de la paz, de epidemia o de cualquier otra calidad general". El artículo siguiente, el 188, deja muy claro que en el territorio en que fuesen suspendidas las garantías anteriores, "se regirá por la Ley de Estado de Sitio".

Desde su refugio en la Embajada de Brasil, el presidente Manuel Zelaya denunció que el decreto "es una barbaridad que indigna" y volvió a llamar a la resistencia pacífica .....

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BY Executive Decree: Whosoever ambulates after curfew, or who for whatever reason is presumed to be suspicious by the police and military of causing dameage to persons or property may be detained ....

[Peace Patriot]

6. The Associated Pukes (AP) are just that. Never, ever trust their account of anything

especially on events in Latin America.

Thanks for pointing out this particular lie--associating a peaceful protest march with "rebellion" (the closest word they could choose to reinforce the Junta's word "insurrection").

I think we need to repeat, over and over again, that ALL violence in Honduras has been committed by the Junta military and police. The violence against peaceful protest has been widespread and vicious, and includes murder. Their effort--and the efforts of the corpo/fascist press, and of some Freepers here at DU--to blame Zelaya for this violence is a mind-boggling lie. As we learned from George Bush, that is what the rightwing does: It asserts the OPPOSITE of the truth, and then the corpo/fascist press presents those lies as a reasonable position. And that is what the Associated Pukes are doing here--they are trying to bolster the Junta propaganda that their violence is somehow justified because Zeyala called for a protest march, or because Zelaya is in the Brazilian embassy, or because Zelaya exists.

They don't want dialogue. They have repeatedly refused entry into Honduras of OAS and other mediators.

They don't want a fair election. They are actively bashing leftist heads, and imprisoning thousands of political activists, and beating people up and killing people, and shutting down all objective media, to prevent the people of Honduras from organizing for an election.

And they don't have any program except more greed and more violence. It is plainly obvious that the majority of Hondurans despise them and desperately want to establish real democracy. They and their elected President, Manuel Zelaya, have time and again pledged to achieve this by non-violent means. The Junta cannot tolerate such dissent because of its moral force and widespread support. In any fair argument with the Honduran people, they would lose. So they must paint this moral force, this passionate democratic movement, as a violent insurrection. They are very like the British in India during the Gandhi era. They, like this Junta, knew how to kill and oppress people, but not how to treat them as equals, and were thoroughly baffled by non-violent resistance. It is the most powerful democratic strategy ever devised. So it must be slandered, and the violence must somehow be blamed on the non-violent resisters.