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[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for April 11. See original here,  "Second Part" here and related article here.]

by Tomás Andino Mencía

First Part

The Honduran population in resistance has still not gotten over its surprise at the unexpected turn in international politics concerning the coup d’état in our country, not so much because of the well known cynicism of the Honduran oligarchy in blessing today whom it demonized yesterday as the worst monster in the world, but because of the political recognition and support the regime of President Hugo Chávez offered to the coup’s successor regime, as much for the sake of its return to the OAS as to enable it to receive the benefits of PetroCaribe.

In May, 2010, at the time of the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, President Chávez announced that he would not attend if Porfirio Lobo Sosa was taking part in it, because his was an “illegitimate” government; eleven months later, the same President Chávez declared in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, “With great pleasure, I have met President Lobo… and the results are very positive,” and explained that “We have made gestures to try to help Honduras rejoin all the international organizations and programs of cooperation with our countries,” in a clear reference to a reincorporation of Honduras into the OAS and the normalization of commercial relations disrupted by the coup d’état. Immediately afterward, he appeared in a photograph smiling and shaking hands with the scourge of the Honduran people.

But aside from the role of the Venezuelan president, what draws our attention is the fact that a country like Colombia has an interest in the predicament of Honduras. In fact, the Colombian president confessd that he has dedicated attention to this subject: “For some time we have been involved in discreet diplomacy to try to normalize the situation of Honduras in the hemisphere, so that it can rejoin the OAS and so that its condition will be recognized by all countries as a normal condition.”

What’s this all about? According to announcements, in the next few weeks the Colombian and Venezuelan governments will facilitate a process of “dialogue” and “reconciliation” in Honduras seeking to “normalize” the national situation and have Honduras again be accepted in the inter-American system, with a view toward the next OAS summit, to be held in San Salvador in June, or before then, as “El Zorro,” Arturo Corrales Álvarez, said on Channel 3.

The Coordinador General of the FNRP [Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular], who was not invited to the meeting and who was telephoned at the last moment, he says, reacted “with apprehension” and announced he was “vigilant” of the process, letting it be understood that he had not participated in shaping this big-time game. It is hard to believe that Mel knew nothing about what had been in the works for some time but if we take his word for it it is unacceptable for two governments to reach an agreement without taking into account the opinion of the Honduran Resistance, since it is not the future of Venezuela or Colombia that is at stake but the future of the people of Honduras. We could expect that scornful attitude toward the FNRP from a government in service to the United States, like the government of Colombia, but it has been difficult to digest coming from the government of Hugo Chávez, who we thought was our ally.

Would the Resistance gain anything from this game? From different corners, we have been sold the notion that as a consequence of these agreements, the Resistance would derive the following benefits:

a) The charges pending against former President Manuel Zelaya would be dismissed, making possible his return, but with the risk that once he is in the country new charges could be pressed, because golpismo would still be alive and active in the (in)justice system.

b) That hated functionaries in the Public Ministry and the Supreme Court would be replaced, but this does not necessaritly mean a gain since, apart from the fact that it would only be a matter of punishing the scape goats and not those really responsible for the coup d’état, we cannot expect that Juan Orlando and Pepe Lobo would replace them with progressive people;

c) That those responsible for the coup could be punished, but nevertheless [minister of planning and devopement] Arturo Corrales Álvarez, one of the architects in Honduras of this scheme, clarifies that just as the acquittal of Manuel Zelaya would be promoted, the same would happen with others involved, in the name of “peace” and “reconciliation”; and,

c) That thanks to this agreement the Resistance can participate in the next general elections and then “we will seize power,” when there is no willingness to yield one iota of the interests of the oligarchy, as was demonstrated in the recent teachers’ strike, much less to think of handing power over to the popular resistance. In other words, the supposed benefits are more shucks than tamales.

On the other hand, the benefits for the dominant class are more striking:

a) It would have a strong economic benefit because a juicy business deal with PetroCaribe would be in the works that would pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the oligarchy and the Honduran golpista regime, given that the high price of fuels is strangling their businesses in the midst of a difficult economic situation; for no other reason, businessman Adolfo Facussé is licking his chops with happiness, as he contemplates this offer from the Venezuelan government and from now on he will step forward to recommend it;

b) It would have a diplomatic benefit by opening to the world the doors of a regime that inherited a coup d’état, at a time when it is scorned by the inter-American community, which would improve the confidence of international financial organizations and transnationals to invest in the country; and,

c) It would have political success within the country because it would emerge on a “white horse” to polish the country’s tarnished image and its demagogic discourse, while massacring the heroic popular resistance with bludgeon and rifle .

So at bottom this move doesn’t seem to be intended to benefit the Resistance but the golpista oligarchy, in a chess game typical of the US State Department, very similar to what it did in San José, Costa Rica, when its pawn Óscar Arias acted as intermediary to have Manuel Zelaya Rosales agree to sit down to negotiate with a dictator who had just ousted him from the government.

How can these acts be explained and where are they leading? To answer this question, we will look into the motivations such disimilar actors as Presidents Santos and Chávez have had in this intrigue.

The role of the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos

We know that Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, is a puppet of the “hard-line wing” of the United States military and the Israel lobby. As Álvaro Uribe’s defense minister, Santos played a key role in the establishment of United States military bases in Colombian territory for the purpose of assaulting Venezuela (bases for the construction of which Santos gave a green light despite a prohibition by the Colombian supreme court). He was, furthermore, responsible for innumerable human rights violations. The following quote, taken from a long and macabre biography of President Santos in the days when he was minister of defense and later president of Colombia, shows the kind of official who is encouraging “reconcilation” in Honduras.

“In November of 2005, the minister of defense (Juan Manuel Santos) approved a secret directive that put a price on the heads of the guerrillas. The military took to assassinating civilians, making them pass as ‘rebels killed in combat,’ who were called ‘false positives.’ The attroney general is investigating some 3,000 cases, among them adolescents, the mentally defective, indigents, drug addicts. When Santos came to the ministry, in July of 2006, there were reports of 274 cases of ‘false positives.’ The next year, it reached a peak: 505 assassinated… Although it is seldom mentioned, it is estimated that 250,000 people have been ‘disappeared’ by the security forces and their paramilitaries. In the past four years alone there were almost 40,000 people. Some of them were buried in the largest mass grave in Latin America, found behind an army barracks 200 kilometers south of Bogotá: more than 2,000 bodies… We should emphasize as well Santos’ close relations with Israeli authorities and their security services.

“In October of 1997, Manuel Santos had already demonstrated his lack of scruples. He met with the three principal heads of the paramilitary to propose that they participate in a coup d’état against liberal President Ernesto Samper (a proposal he also made to the FARC and ELN guerrillas). A short time ago, one of them, Salvatore Mancuso, verified this before United States and Colombian judges in a prison in the United States where he had been extradited in May, 2008, together with 14 other leaders, for drug trafficking, an activity that finances the paramilitary. They were sent there despite the fact that their crimes amounted to crimes against humanity, which takes precedence over other offenses. In this way, Colombians were kept from learning first hand of the state’s responsibility for the paramilitary. In September of 2008, Venezuelan journalist José Vicente Rangel said of Santos: ‘He is the Pentagon’s man in Colombian politics. He has gained power in Uribe’s shadow and today it can be said he has overtaken Uribe himself.’”

(“Juan Manuel Santos: de Halcón a Paloma”)

Nevertheless, President Santos is an expert at camouflage, like the chameleon. These days he has given up his confrontational manner and has become a Latin American figure rivalling Lula and Chávez in South America for his diplomatic and political daring.

But what motivates the Colombian government’s concern for Honduras?

Their interest has to do with two things. First, in August of 2007 Colombia signed a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the countries of the Central American northern triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) and from that date on is part of the Mesoamerica Plan, a plan for massive investments in hydroelectric plants, dams, renewable energy, etc., which involves it directly in the economic life of the isthmus. In the case of Honduras, the FTA went into effect on March 27, 2010. As never before, there is great interest among Colombian businesses in investing massively in Honduras, especially in the areas of electrical power generation, engineering, clothing manufaturing, auto parts and construction materials. For now, this market has developed in El Salvador, where Colombian businesses have invested more than one billion dollars. But the current situation in Honduras, as an illegal state, does not favor the investment climate Colombian capitalists need.

Second. Colombia has a common border with Honduras and on the other side with Nicaragua (San Andrés Island) on the Caribbean, certainly in a border dispute since 1999. Nicaragua has always denounced the alliance between Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica as a threat to its sovereignty. This conflict almost led Colombia to armed conflict with Nicaragua in 2004. A gain for Santos from this treaty could be Honduran support in the border dispute with Nicaragua, because Honduras also disputes the 17th parallel with Nicaragua and its border with Colombia affects that country. A perfect scenario of alliances for generating international conflict for the Sandinistas.

In this sense, it is in the interest of the ultra-rightist Colombian government to have Honduras as an ally in order to strengthen its position in the Central American northern triangle, and promoting its return to the OAS is a good move in that direction.

Third. The preceding coincides with the interests of the United States government in promoting the return of Honduras to the OAS. Remember that the United States this year launched a diplomatic offensive in Latin America aimed at soothing a re-heated Latin America, to the degree that Barack Obama himself made a historical tour of three countries in the region: Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. In Brazil, he is trying to exert influence over Dilma Rousseff’s leadership. He has also approached Mauricio Funes in El Salvador. As for the Right, Obama visited Sebastián Piñera of Chile and also recently met with Juan Manuel Santos in the United States.

I don’t doubt that in these visits the gringo president dealt with the case of Honduras for the purpose of achieving its reintegration into the OAS in the next summit to be held in El Salvador. For this purpose, he had to convince his counterparts that Pepe Lobo has done everything he was asked to do in order to be reintegrated within a short period, the return of Manuel Zelaya being the only remaining impediment. Therefore, his strategy consists of diplomatic pressure to force the outcome.

Fourth. Santos is already a part of Honduras’ internal conflicts and not exactly from peaceful interests. Remember that Colombia was the first country to recognize the Porfirio Lobo Sosa regime. On the other hand, there is evidence that President Santos has for some time plotted with Porfirio Lobo Sosa in “security” matters, advising the Honduran police, supposedly in the war against drug trafficking, which has made it into a new Mecca for the constables of Óscar Álvarez and company. Worse yet, journalist Dick Emanuelsson, based on denunciations in the Colombian press itself, has uncovered evidence of operations in Honduras by members of the Colombian army special forces, called “Gaulas,” in the service of Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

So it is clear that Santos’ motives are not at all peaceful or disinterested.

(To follow: Chavez’s Motives)

Tags: Colombia, coup d'etat, Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, Honduras, Hugo Chavez, Juan Manuel Santos, Manuel Zelaya, Organization of American States, Porfirio Lobo, reconciliation. PetroCaribe, Venezuela

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.