No Change Here

In the first year of his presidency, the first year of the "hope and change" he promised to bring to the conduct of American affairs, Barack Obama countenanced -- and abetted -- a coup in Honduras that ousted a mildly reformist, democratically elected president and replaced him with a clique of thuggish elites who now rule, illegitimately, through repression, threat and outright murder.

Since the installation of these throwbacks to the corrupt and brutal 'banana republics' of yore, Obama's secretary of state, the "progressive" Hillary Clinton, has spent a good deal of time and effort trying to coerce Honduras' outraged neighbors in Latin America to "welcome" the thug-clique, now led by Porfirio Lobo, back into the "community of nations." Let bygones be bygones, Clinton says, as Lobo's regime murders journalists (nine so far this year), political opponents and carries on the wholesale trashing of Honduran independence (such as sacking four Supreme Court justices who opposed the gutting of liberties and the overthrow of constitutional order). After all, isn't that Obama's own philosophy: always "look forward," forget the crimes of the past? Every day is a new day, a clean slate, a chance for a new beginning -- indeed, for "hope and change."

In other words: let the dead bury the dead -- and the rich and powerful reap their rewards.

  Chris Floyd

Venezuela, of course, reversed a US-sponsored coup in 2002, and has accelerated its oil diplomacy in the region to expand an FTAA-alternative trade agreement called ALBA. Honduran President Zelaya’s decision to join ALBA had a great deal to do with the decision by the US and the Honduran oligarchy to have him removed. Since Venezuela itself has proven too hard a target, the US pursuing a “weakest lamb in the flock” approach, with Honduras first, and - I suspect - Nicaragua next.

[...]

The loss of a US military base in Ecuador has been a big setback for the US, and Colombia is effectively a US aircraft carrier. Its latest accusations about Venezuela harboring terrorists is a campaign made-in-the-USA. For whatever reason, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy team is as much a one-trick pony as is financial team, and so the covert ops game is is back in force in Latin America.

  Stan Goff

What haven't we done to bugger Latin America?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.