Castro, Chavez Warn of More Coups

By Circles Robinson

Venezuela president Hugo Chavez Frias, photo: Que Comunismo
Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, photo: Que Comunismo!

HAVANA TIMES, July 11 – According to Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, there is much more at stake than just Honduras with the outcome of the military coup in that Central American nation.

Castro sent out his alert on Friday evening after no apparent progress resulting from the first two days of talks in San Jose, Costa Rica, involving ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and coup leader Roberto Micheletti.

Hugo Chavez also said on Friday that with the US possessing the Pamerola military base near the capital Tegucigalpa, the Obama administration should be doing much more to show its dissatisfaction with the rupture of democratic order in Honduras.  He suggested stronger US economic and diplomatic sanctions that would be felt by the coup leaders.

Manuel Zelaya and Fidel Castro during the last visit of the ousted Honduran President to Cuba, Photo: Presidency of Honduras
Manuel Zelaya and Fidel Castro during a recent visit of the Honduran President to Cuba, Photo: Presidency of Honduras

Chavez said the talks in Costa Rica were going nowhere and disagreed with Micheletti being giving “equal treatment” as the constitutional Honduran President.  Instead, “the Costa Rican authorities should have arrested him,” he said.

In noting that the coup leaders stated intention “was to put Zelaya on trail for violating the constitution,” Castro asks: “Why didn’t they let him land,” last Sunday when he tried to return to the country accompanied by UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto?

“If President Manuel Zelaya is not reinstated in his post, a wave of coups threatens to wipe out many governments in Latin America or leave them at the mercy of the far rightwing military, educated in the security doctrine of the School of the Americas, experts in physiological warfare and terror.  The authority of many civilian governments in Central and South America would be weakened,” warned Castro.

The senior Cuban leader encouraged Zelaya “not to allow delaying actions to wear down the social forces that support him.”

In related news on Friday, Coup leader Micheletti announced that his point man on foreign affairs, Enrique Ortez, would no longer hold that post after he made highly offensive racist remarks in attacking US President Obama.

For more on the issues involved in the Honduran crisis see these Havana Times reports and commentaries:

Cuba Civic Support for Hondurans: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11386
Live from Honduras: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11305
Cristina Fernandez on Honduras Coup: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11319
Cuba Cuts Assistance to Honduras: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11375
Honduras Coup Back to Washington: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11152
The Coup is Irreversible: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11155
Week Two: Honduras Unrest Grows: http://havanatimes.org/?p=11141