More on Honduras

I got home too late for the network news so I watched the Directv channel where you can see all the cable news channels at once - hoping to switch to whatever one was showing Latinos in camouflage. I waited, and waited, and waited. This was the one hour 6:00 news and ALL the stations had non-stop Michael Jackson for at least 20 minutes. Finally Fox moved on, and eventually MSNBC did, but CNN kept with it for so long I stopped tracking!! Good Lord!

I talked to Liz today and she had only heard the bit of news they are getting on the radio. But she was sure that someone had "gotten to" the media because they were reporting what surely HAD to be a lie - that countries throughout the world were condemning the coup! I hated to tell her - that it wasn't a lie. She was SO disappointed and had a hard time understanding why no one could see that if the military hadn't done what they did, Zelaya would have rigged the constitutional vote so that he could stay in power.

After reading a lot about the situation I've tentatively formed my opinion. I think they are an amazing, and courageous people who ignored warnings from the US State Dept and did what they thought needed to be done to protect their country's rule of law. When we hear the military was behind the coup we think of a non-populist violent force. But it was non-violent. And the military is in a unique position in Honduras because they deliver ballots in an election. AND the Congress and Supreme Court both supported the move!

Today the new President said something along the lines of "Please leave us alone and let us do what we have to do until November when we will democratically elect a president."

I just saw good news - Hilary Clinton declared that the U.S. will not label what occurred a "coup" since that would result in cutting off millions in aid to Honduras.

In my mind Obama got it all turned around. He should have come out loud and clear immediately in support of the protesters in Iran and thoughtful and restrained on any condemnation of Honduras. Hmmm...

Honduran Coup

I've spent the last hour searching for analysis of the Honduran situation but have not been able to find much. When I talked to Liz today the electricity was off throughout the country and before that the television stations were out of commission.

The people Liz has talked to have been very concerned about the election that was supposed to take place this week. The president was attempting to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second, currently unconstitutional, term.

Unfortunately, the method chosen to prevent Pres. Zelaya from taking a page from Iran's history and rigging the vote, was a military coup. Now they have a newly appointed (by Congress) president that many of the people of Honduras may be recognizing, but an ousted president in exile in Costa Rica that the rest of the world recognizes (Cuba, Venezuela, U.S. - all on the same page on this).

A few minutes ago it was reported that Chavez is threatening to invade Honduras.

SO - the situation is much more unstable than I had thought, after talking with Liz, but she is only able to get information from short telephone calls she's been getting from the Peace Corps. I continue to be impressed with the quick response from the Peace Corps when it comes to safety. If things don't improve I'm sure they'll be sending all volunteers home.

Videos like this one are hard to watch. Fortunately, she is far away from Tegucigalpa, where most of the action is taking place.

Back to Blogging

or not.. who knows? But I realized I've stopped blogging and I decided to change that. We'll see how long it lasts. I'm currently up way to late, playing on the computer and listening to Michael Jackson stuff on CNN. I can't believe I'm doing that! When he died and they interrupted radio and TV, I thought, "Good Lord! This guy is not the president!" But it is pretty fascinating to watch the videos that were popular while I was in a black hole called "early parenting"! He really was very gifted. What a sad life.

BUT it is Friday and I am looking forward to a 3 day week next week. Love ya'll!

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It's in color - even though taken around 1909. Read the photographers amazing story here.

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