The United States has renewed military aid to Honduras with a donation of 25 heavy trucks valued at US$812,000, Spanish website infodefensa.com said.
On June 18, US ambassador Hugo Llorens also announced Washington would give Honduras $75 million through USAID for various development projects and $20 million as part of the Merida Program to enhance “security”.
These developments signify a big step in the normalisation of the relationship between the US and the government of Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, following the formal suspension of diplomatic ties after the June 28, 2009, military coup against elected president Manuel Zelaya.
The coup was condemned unanimously by the Organisation of American States, but soon afterwards the US began working to promote acceptance of the coup regime.
A determined non-violent resistance movement has mobilised millions of Hondurans and united activists from many diverse struggles: labour, human rights, campesinos, queer rights, anti-mining, indigenous rights and others.
In response, intense repression, reminiscent of the US-trained death squads operating in Central America in the 1980s, has taken the lives of hundreds of Hondurans.
The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) has refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Lobo government because the November 2009 elections were held amid strong repression and censorship by the coup regime that overthrew Zelaya.
The FNRP is demanding a constituent assembly be called to write a new constitution and that genuine democracy be restored. Most Latin American nations continue to withhold recognition of the current regime, even in the face of US pressure.
Murders of FNRP leaders and sympathetic journalists occurred often and with impunity — not a single case has been solved.
Meanwhile, big landowners continue their violent suppression of peasants and community radio stations are being destroyed. The regime announced on June 18 that the military will be deployed in the streets to help the police maintain order.
[Reprinted from Upside Down World.]
Video: Australian solidarity with people of Honduras against the coup (2010) - Peter Boyle.