School of the Americas Graduate Led Honduras Coup

by Jennifer Svetlik 06-30-2009

Sunday morning, a military coup took place in Honduras led by commander Gen. Romeo Vasquez, ousting democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya. Like many other Latin American military coups over the past 50 years, this one was led by a School of the Americas graduate.

Early in the morning, 200 troops surrounded the presidential palace, took the president into custody, and exiled him to Costa Rica. A national vote had been scheduled for Sunday to consult citizens on a proposal to hold a Constitutional Assembly this fall, but the military opposed the vote. After the coup, the Honduran military teargased Zelaya’s supporters outside the palace and also cut off electrical, telephone, and mobile phone lines. Additionally, the public television station was shut down and a curfew was set for Sunday and Monday nights in the capital city.

Immediate international response condemned the coup, and the Organization of American States demanded the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya. President Obama, however, failed to go so far. While his statement expressed deep concern, he added that “any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.”

While, in principle, I agree with Obama’s statement, the U.S.’s history in Latin America has not been one of peaceful dialogue nor refraining from interference. On the contrary, over the past 60 years, the U.S. has meddled frequently in the affairs of Latin American governments to serve U.S. interests and has also trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, psychological warfare and interrogation tactics at the School of the Americas (SOA)/WHINSEC located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Many of these graduates have been convicted of human and civil rights abuses against their own people upon returning to their home countries. President Obama must acknowledge the link between our nation’s history and the current realities in Latin America. If Obama wants to usher in a new era in Latin American relations, he should do all that he can to make sure that the SOA and other similar schools are closed.

Some progress has been made; last week, the House of Representatives voted to force the Pentagon to release information about SOA grads to the public. The House and Senate joint committees must approve the bill before it goes into law, but if it passes, it will be an important step in increasing the SOA’s accountability.

Currently, the SOA/WHINSEC claims to practice transparency, however, since 2005, all Freedom of Information requests to the Pentagon have been denied, proof of WHINSEC’s unwillingness to submit to oversight from the public. These denials began after research revealed that the SOA continues to train known human rights abusers. Access to information regarding SOA graduates of previous years has been a valuable asset to human rights organizations in identifying Latin American military personnel who have committed human rights abuses in their home countries after attending the school.

Click here to learn more about the movement to bring transparency (and closure) to SOA and to contact your Senators.

Jennifer Svetlik is an organizing assistant for Sojourners.

Categories: Global Issues, Human Rights, War & Peace

Minnesotan

Jennifer, I think we need to be careful in evaluating this situation. The ousted President of Honduras was defying the Constitution and the national Supreme Court and the elected assembly with his call for a referendum to allow him lifetime or long term rule, like other strong arm leaders in Latin America like Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega of Nicaraugua and others. The President of Honduras looks like he was defying the rule of law. I would not be so quick to push this into the mold of "right wing military guys trained by the U.S. overthrew a virtuous politician." The lawless one may very well be the ousted president of Honduras. I know you are a strong opponent to the School of the Americas, but it seems to me that you are dragging that side issue into this troubling situation of the President of Honduras defying the rule of Honduran law.

BuckeyeDon

Assuming you're right here (and I don't know whether you are or not):

Do you know whether the Honduran constitution has any provision for what to do in the case of a corrupt elected official? I'm thinking in terms of refrerendum, impeachment proceedings, etc.

My guess is that the army's taking over the country and dragging the alleged corrupt official off to the airport in his pajamas and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica is not part of the Honduran constitution's provisions.

JamesM

Wrong again, Don:

Article 4, Section 5 of the Honduran Constitution allows for just this scenario- depsoing a leader and dragging him or off to the airport in nightwear, if, and only if the perpetrator is a graduate of the School of the Americas.

Do your homework before spouting off. Okay?!

Eric77

I think this gentleman, in an op-ed in the Washington Post today, offers some good commentary on the issue:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

Last year, following the script originally laid out by Chávez in Venezuela and adopted by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Zelaya announced that he would hold a referendum to set up a constituent assembly that would change the constitution that barred him from reelection. In the next few months, every legal body in Honduras -- the electoral tribunal, the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the human rights ombudsman -- declared the referendum unconstitutional. According to the Honduran constitution (articles 5, 373 and 374), presidential term limits cannot be changed under any circumstance; only Congress can modify the constitution; and political institutions are not subject to referendums…In defiance of court orders, Zelaya persisted. Surrounded by a friendly mob, he broke into the military installations where the ballots were kept and ordered them distributed. The courts declared that Zelaya had placed himself outside the law, and Congress began an impeachment procedure.

This is the context in which the military, in an ill-advised move that turned a perfectly legal mechanism for stopping Zelaya into a coup, expelled the president. The fact that the constitutional procedure was subsequently followed by having Congress appoint the head of the legislative body, Roberto Micheletti, as interim president, and that the elections scheduled for November have not been canceled, is not enough to dissipate the cloud of illegitimacy that hangs over the new government.

It seems like that what Zelaya was doing was unconstitutional and illegal - not surprising considering his fascination with everything Chavez. However, the Congress was preparing to deal with this issue when the military unwisely stepped in. Hopefully the issue can be resolved so that Zelaya leaves office in November when his term ends (and prosecuted for any crimes) and the Honduran people can elect someone new.

The fact that the head of the military took a couple classes at the School of the Americas decades ago has little to no bearing on the overall story. I’m not sure why Sojourners chose that as the focus of their sole commentary on this issue up to now.

JamesM

I think Sojourner's major complaint is that some of the people who study at the School of the Americas go back and engage in coup d'etat and death squads. I'm not sure as to why Sojourners would care about such a trifling problem either. No big deal to me.

Eric77

I understand their overall point about the School of Americas and other South/Central American injustices. I just don't see why it's the focal point of this story about Honduras. There's no evidence provided that Vasquez's limited experience at the SOA had any bearing on the coup. It sounds like a poor attempt at guilt by association.

JamesM

Well, I guess that if you hold the author to an absolute proof standard that there is a link between the schooling and a the coup, it would sound like a poor attempt at guilt by association.

However, it may not seem like such a poor attempt at guilt by association if you are looking at a pattern and practice of past graduates from the same school.

JamesM

Not surprising.

jsvetlik

To be clear about what exactly was to take place during the Sunday vote:
According to the first BBC article linked above, "Mr. Zelaya planned to hold a non-binding public consultation on 28 June to ask people whether they supported moves to change the constitution. This would in practice have meant holding a referendum at the same time as November's presidential election on setting up a body charged with redrawing the constitution."

Honduras' current political system does not allow for much citizen participation; one part of the proposed redrawing was to allow more participation from non-elite groups such as labor and social movement groups, which I would argue increases democracy in the country.

I did not mean to imply that Mr. Zayala was a necessarily virtuous politician, but I do mean to say simply that this coup was a grievous violation of democracy, led by a U.S.-trained officer who follows in the footsteps of many other U.S.-trained military leaders in committing human rights violations against his own people.

mjw0486

Honduras president Manuel Zelaya Rosales will arrive to Washington D.C. where he will be attending a special meeting this afternoon at Organization of American States.

Area residents from Honduras and supporters will get together at 4:00 PM at Washington Monument in the D.C. Mall and march at 5:00 PM to the Organization of American States to demand the end of the military coup and the restitution of civil government and President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Bring Transparency to SOA/WHINSEC. Contact your Senators today!
www.soaw.org/vote

csquared78

I agree with Minnesotan. However, there is no doubt that America has meddled into the affairs of Central & South America for the past 60 years. I also am not so naive to think that we as a super-power would not do this. Any country with power like us would find itself meddling into unnecessary international affairs. However, the president of Honduras violated the Constitution and the coup was not a military coup, but a removal by the citizens, mainly the Honduras Supreme Court. I am curious Jennifer, why do you feel it necessary to blame the American institution? I don't think it's wrong to hold American institutions accountable, but the tone of your article seemed very mean-spirited. Whether or not you meant it, your tone sounded as if this was another opportunity to "blame America for the problems of the world." Do you think that? I hope not.

LeeRials

Ms. Svetlik's characterization of the Army's School of the Americas is utterly false and dishonest. Calling the Honduran general a 'graduate' is ludicrous when SOAW itself shows he attended two courses of a few weeks each 33 and 25 years ago. Can any rational human being believe that that short contact long ago has any impact on his character today? The other accusations about the school (which Pres. Clinton closed nine years ago) are equally specious--not one example of anyone using what he learned there to commit a crime has ever been shown--not one. Saying so with no evidence is libel of the loyal US personnel who taught there. I take offense because I am a retired Army officer; those people were my peers. WHINSEC, which Pres. Clinton and Congress created to continue the security cooperation with our partner nations in this hemisphere, is utterly transparent. Anyone, with only a photo ID, can sit in its classes, talk with its students and faculty, and review its instructional materials. Not only is it open to ordinary citizens, it has a federal oversight committee reviewing it annually. This committee has members of Congress and civilians from the clergy, attorneys, and businesspersons on it. I encourage you to educate yourself about this great educational facility.

RedBear

For Us he is a HERO
Im writing you from Honduras,maybe you havent heard a lot from us, but we need you support. Our armed force following a court order removed the president. now, that action have shown the world that we are willing to go ALONE against all the left alba nations, their political, economical and propaganda power...Its easy to see situation through a black/white paper sheet, there, is not showed his abuse of power and taking advantage of it. But the truth is we are a peaceful nation, an our determination will be tested, just "BECAUSE WE DIDNT GAVE ANY CHANCE TO DICTATORSHIP" actually all the world (UN)its pointing us like if we where north korea or cuba. Why our people are treated like that?,chavez campaign of terror is covering all fronts, economical, social, diplomatical and militar. threatened & slandered by chavez. Who openly spoke about a military invasion by alba countries(Check youtube). We will stand alone against them but with courage and god on our side. Please expose it..A patriot

jkc1945

Listen to this man!! Read his post, several times. Let's get it through our corporate heads, here in the United States of America, that there are a lot of people in the world who know little of democratic principles and operation, no matter what their paper constitution says. Honduras looks like it has been one of them. A Leftist government is in the process of being overthrown, in Honduras. We ought to be rejoicing in this!! We ought to be supporting the people of Honduras, who are probably represented very well by this poster.

carlcopas

"A Leftist government is in the process of being overthrown, in Honduras. We ought to be rejoicing in this!!"

Yes, just as we rejoiced in 1953 when a leftist government was overthrown in Iran, in 1954 in Guatemala, in 1965 in Indonesia, in 1957 in the Philippines, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, in 1973 in Chile, in the early 1990s in Afghanistan. No blowback from any of these overthrows, by gum. Everything worked out perfectly and with absolutely no negative consequences for the United States.

kevinchez86

This article leads the reader to believe the military acted on its own accord and overthrew the president. I remember reading that the supreme court ordered this. It seems the rule of law is being followed?

SisterMarie

"It seems the rule of law is being followed?"

Heck, yes. If the Supreme Court of the United States can overturn an election result, why can't they do it in Honduras?

paradoxtor

What if the Supreme Court had ruled for Gore and Bush had refused to leave the White House? What would have been the appropriate action?

Thankfully we live in a country where it is so highly unlikely that an elected leader would take such a course of action, that we can hardly imagine what would be the course to force him to leave. I don't know for sure who's right in Honduras but I don't think we can make it as clear cut as SOJO thinks or tie it to the SOA.

SisterMarie

"What if the Supreme Court had ruled for Gore and Bush had refused to leave the White House?"

Well, if the Supremes had gone the other way, Bush could not have refused to leave the White House because he would not have been in it to begin with (we can only dream).

Review the list of "graduates" from SOA. Bunch of strong-man type dictators like Manuel Noriega.

paradoxtor

Sorry, I had the wrong election, but the point of the question still remains, how would you have resolved that situation?

SisterMarie

"but the point of the question still remains, how would you have resolved that situation?"

1. Well, if the Supreme Court had ruled for Gore, there would have been no constitutional crisis. (Clinton would have handed over the keys.)

2. But I don't think that is the question you are asking. I think that the hypothetical question that you're posing is: What would happen is the election outcome is still in dispute when the term of the incumbent president expires (similar to the Franken/Coleman situation in Minnesota). (And that scenario might have occurred if for example, the Florida governor and secretary of state had been Democrats.) My opinion is that even with the hypothetical scenario that I described, our legal system would have somehow resolved the issue.
3. Now back to Honduras. None of those factors are relevant. The military ousted a constitutionally elected president. That is wrong whether you are replacing a leftist with a rightist or a rightist with a leftist. And the complicity of the United States of America in training these leaders of military coups in the School of Americas (under both Republican and Democratic administrations) is wrong.

SisterMarie

Here is a link to School of Americas graduates: http://www.derechos.org/soa/index.html

Reads like a rogue's gallery.