In Honduras, a Mess Made in the U.S.

Dana Frank, a historyprofessor and the University of California, Santa Cruz, has an op-ed in the NewYork Times on Honduras this morning. It's well worth the read.

IT’S time to acknowledge the foreign policy disaster thatAmerican support for the PorfirioLobo administration in Honduras hasbecome. Ever since the June 28, 2009, coup that deposed Honduras’sdemocratically elected president, JoséManuel Zelaya, the country has been descending deeper into a humanrights and security abyss. That abyss is in good part the State Department’smaking.

The headlines have been full of horror stories aboutHonduras. According to the United Nations, it now has the world’s highestmurder rate, and San Pedro Sula, its second city, is more dangerous than CiudadJuárez, Mexico, a center for drug cartel violence.

Much of the press in the United States has attributed thisviolence solely to drug trafficking and gangs. But the coup was what threw openthe doors to a huge increase in drug trafficking and violence, and it unleasheda continuing wave of state-sponsored repression. 

I'm just not sure whatthe title is. On the webpage, it says "In Honduras, A Mess Made in the U.S."However, the link has a title of "In Honduras, A Mess Helped by theU.S." There's a pretty big difference between the two. One obviouslyconcludes that the US is the primary actor behind today's violence. In thesecond, the US is a secondary actor whose action, or inaction, has helpedcontribute to the insecurity in the country today.

The US role in Argentina's dirty war is also the focus of Ex-diplomat: US knew about Argentina baby thefts. A former U.S. diplomat testified Thursday that Americanofficials knew Argentina's military regime was taking babies from dead orjailed dissidents during its "dirty war" against leftists in the1970s, and it appeared to be a systematic effort at the time.

Elliot Abrams testified by videoconference from Washingtonin the trial of former dictators Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone and othermilitary and police figures accused of organizing the theft of babies fromwomen who were detained and then executed in the 1976-1983 junta's torturecenters.

Abrams said U.S. officials were aware that some children hadbeen taken and then illegally adopted by families loyal to the regime.

In this article, the US encouraged the regime to usethe Roman Catholic Church to return the babies to their families, but theregime refused. 

In some ways it reminds me of the situation inHonduras. Following the 2009 coup and Zelaya’s removal from the country, the USencouraged the parties to find an amicable settlement that would lead to Zelaya’sreturn to the country. Our allies in Honduras, in this case those who carriedout the coup, said no. The events were obviously a little more complicated thanthat, but the US’s failure to take a stronger stand in Honduras and Argentinamakes us complicit in these crimes.