{"id":2646,"date":"2009-07-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/obama-administration%e2%80%99s-statements-endanger-lives-of-hundurans\/"},"modified":"2009-07-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T00:00:00","slug":"obama-administration%e2%80%99s-statements-endanger-lives-of-hundurans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2009\/07\/obama-administration%e2%80%99s-statements-endanger-lives-of-hundurans\/","title":{"rendered":"OBAMA ADMINISTRATION\u2019S STATEMENTS ENDANGER LIVES OF HUNDURANS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 55 Organizations and Scholars Call on Obama Administration to Warn Honduran Regime Against Further Violence<\/em><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, July 20 —<\/em> 56 representatives of organizations and academic experts on Latin America and scholars issued the following statement today:<\/p>\n

The Obama administration’s recent statements are endangering the lives of Hondurans, including the president Manuel Zelaya. From the Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2009:<\/p>\n

"A senior U.S. official said Friday the Obama administration continues to stress to Mr. Zelaya its opposition to him trying to return. The official said Washington fears another attempt by Mr. Zelaya could reignite political tensions while undercutting efforts to find a negotiated settlement. ‘Zelaya is well aware of our position," the official said.’"<\/p>\n

Such statements are very disturbing, especially combined with the fact that the administration has not issued a single warning to the coup government, which has already shot and killed peaceful demonstrators, that such human rights abuses are unacceptable.<\/p>\n

In fact, there has not been a single statement from the Obama administration since President Zelaya was overthrown on June 28, condemning the violations of human rights and civil liberties committed by the coup government. These violations include shootings and beatings; arrests, intimidation and deportation of journalists; and the closing of independent radio and TV stations. These abuses have been documented and condemned by the Inter American Commission for Human Rights, by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and a report from the Honduran Committee for the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees.<\/p>\n

President Zelaya is, as President Obama has pointed out, the legitimate president of Honduras. He is also a Honduran citizen, and has the right to return to his country. The United States government should be defending democracy in Honduras, and the civil and human rights of its citizens – not trying to make it look as though those who defend these rights are doing something wrong.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration’s position puts it outside the consensus of the hemisphere and the world, which has called – through the OAS and the UN General Assembly — for the "immediate and unconditional" reinstatement of President Zelaya. The repeated refusals of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked by the press, to say that the United States government also seeks Zelaya’s reinstatement have further muddied the waters about where the administration stands. Such ambiguity feeds the resolve of the dictatorship to try and run out the clock on President Zelaya’s remaining months in office.<\/p>\n

The United States has trained and funded the Honduran army; the generals who led the coup were trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia; the Obama administration by its own admission was in discussions with the Honduran military up to the day before the coup. All of this places greater responsibility on the administration to help reverse this coup. Yet the administration has refused to take even modest steps such as freezing the bank accounts of the perpetrators, despite appeals from the legitimate government of Honduras and from civil society.<\/p>\n

We call on President Obama to condemn the human rights abuses committed by the dictatorship, and to make it clear that violence against the civilian population is a crime that will not be tolerated by the international community; and to make it clear to his own State Department that the United States government stands with the Honduran people and all other governments, for the immediate and unconditional return of the elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya.<\/p>\n

Signed,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Anderson
University of Sydney, Australia<\/p>\n

William Avilés
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska, Kearney <\/p>\n

Nikhil Aziz, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Grassroots International <\/p>\n

Elizabeth Bast
International Program Director, Friends of the Earth U.S. <\/p>\n

Jules Boykoff
Associate Professor of Politics and Government Pacific University <\/p>\n

Oscar A. Chacón
Executive Director National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities<\/p>\n

James D. Cockcroft
Honorary Editor Latin American Perspectives<\/p>\n

Lauren Coodley
Professor of History Napa Valley College<\/p>\n

Pablo Delano
Professor of Fine Arts Trinity College Hartford CT<\/p>\n

Arturo Escobar
Professor of Anthropoology UNC, Chapel Hill<\/p>\n

Linda Farthing
Journalist, independent scholar<\/p>\n

Mario D. Fenyo Professor of History Bowie State University <\/p>\n

Luis Figueroa
Associate Professor of History Trinity College Hartford, Connecticut <\/p>\n

Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Executive Editor BlackCommentator.com<\/p>\n

Dana Frank
Professor of History University of California, Santa Cruz<\/p>\n

Gavin Fridell
Assistant Professor, Department of Politics Trent University <\/p>\n

Gilbert G. Gonzalez
Professor Emeritus University of California, Irvine<\/p>\n

Manu Goswami
Department of History New York University<\/p>\n

Greg Grandin
Professor of History New York University<\/p>\n

Peter Hallward
Professor of Modern European Philosophy Middlesex University, UK<\/p>\n

Art Heitzer
Chair, National Lawyers Guild Cuba Subcommittee<\/p>\n

Doug Hertzler
Associate Professor of Anthropology Eastern Mennonite University<\/p>\n

Katherine Hoyt
Co-Coordinator Nicaragua Network <\/p>\n

Forrest Hylton
Assistant Professor, Political Science and International Relations Universidad de los Andes (Bogota)<\/p>\n

James Jordan
Coordinator Campaign for Labor Rights <\/p>\n

Gil Joseph Farnam
Professor of History and International Studies Yale University<\/p>\n

Chuck Kaufman
Co-Coordinator Alliance for Global Justice <\/p>\n

Benjamin Kohl
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair Geography and Urban Studies Temple University<\/p>\n

Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus (Economics) Simon Fraser University, Canada <\/p>\n

Eric LeCompte
SOA Watch<\/p>\n

John Lindsay-Poland
Latin America Program Director Fellowship of Reconciliation<\/p>\n

Florencia E. Mallon
Julieta Kirkwood Professor of History University of Wisconsin <\/p>\n

Luis Martin-Cabrera
Assistant Professor, Literature University of California, San Diego<\/p>\n

Frederick B. Mills
Professor of Philosophy Bowie State University<\/p>\n

Kirsten Moller
Executive Director Global Exchange<\/p>\n

Robert Naiman
Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy<\/p>\n

Diane M. Nelson
Department of Anthropology Duke University <\/p>\n

Héctor Perla Jr.
Assistant Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz<\/p>\n

Adrienne Pine
Assistant Professor of Anthropology American University<\/p>\n

Beatrice Pita
Faculty Supervisor for lower division Spanish Dept. of Literature University of California, San Diego<\/p>\n

Vijay Prashad
George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College<\/p>\n

Peter Ranis
Professor Emeritus CUNY Graduate Center<\/p>\n

Gerardo Renique
Associate Professor, Department of History, City College of the City University of New York<\/p>\n

James J. Goodwin Professor of English Coordinator, Trinity-in-Trinidad Global Learning Site Member, Executive Board of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics <\/p>\n

William I. Robinson
Professor of Sociology Global and International Studies Latin American and Iberian Studies University of California-Santa Barbara<\/p>\n

Rosaura Sanchez
Professor, Department of Literature University of California, San Diego<\/p>\n

T.M. Scruggs
School of Music University of Iowa<\/p>\n

Kent Spriggs
Counsel School of the Americas Watch<\/p>\n

Richard Stahler-Sholk
Professor, Political Science Eastern Michigan University<\/p>\n

Miguel Tinker Salas
Professor of History Pomona College<\/p>\n

Steven Topik
Professor of History University of California Irvine<\/p>\n

Alberto Toscano
Lecturer in Sociology Goldsmiths, University of London<\/p>\n

Maurice L. Wade
Professor of Philosophy, International Studies, and Graduate Public Policy Studies Trinity College Hartford, CT <\/p>\n

Jeffery R. Webber
Assistant Professor, Political Science University of Regina, Canada<\/p>\n

Mark Weisbrot
Co-Director Center for Economic and Policy Research<\/p>\n

John Womack, Jr.
Professor of History Emeritus Harvard University

CONTACT:<\/strong> Latin American Experts
Dan Beeton,  (202) 239-1460

GO TO ORIGINAL – INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 55 Organizations and Scholars Call on Obama Administration to Warn Honduran Regime Against Further Violence WASHINGTON, July 20 — 56 representatives of organizations and academic experts on Latin America and scholars issued the following statement today: The Obama administration’s recent statements are endangering the lives of Hondurans, including the president Manuel Zelaya. From the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}