Chris Hayes: Ask Jose Diaz-Balart to ask his brothers why people flee Central America

[flamingdem]

since they are directly responsible for US policy in the area, especially Honduras.

Note his little slip there: oh El Salvador has a guerilla/gang problem.

[flamingdem]

1. Supporters of coup: 3 Florida GOP members of Congress visit interim Honduras president

MIAMI -- Three U.S. representatives from South Florida who supported the ouster of Honduras' president traveled there Monday to meet with the interim government and to pressure President Barack Obama to sanction the upcoming Honduran elections.

It's the second trip there by a Republican delegation in a week and is part of a broader effort to challenge the Obama administration's Latin American policy.

Obama and many world leaders refuse to recognize interim President Roberto Micheletti, who took power following a June coup that ousted Manuel Zelaya. They say the Nov. 29 election will be illegitimate unless Zelaya is restored to power or comes to some compromise with the current government. The Organization of American States has refused to observe the elections.

U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, who say they're on a fact-finding mission, are among Republicans who view Zelaya's ouster as a legitimate response to his calls for a referendum on changing the constitution. Such a change they say could have enabled him to run again and remain president indefinitely, just as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has done.

http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2009/10/supporters_of_coup_3_florida_g.html

[flamingdem]

2. Lincoln Diaz-Balart warns Obama: No military action in Honduras, we are watching

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart warned the Obama administration Thursday against blocking next month's elections in Honduras -- suggesting the White House might consider military action against the Central American country.

"The only thing that could stop those elections is a military action ordered by President Obama. We are watching," Diaz-Balart said at a press conference where congressional Republicans called for an investigation into what they suggested were U.S. State Department improprieties related to the crisis. "Each day, there are more and more members of Congress and more people within the nation aware of this nation aware of this issue and supportive of the right of the people of Honduras to have elections. It would be unconscionable if President Obama ordered a military action to prevent an election, to impose a crony of Chavez, Castro, Ortega, et al. Congress is watching."

Asked by reporters to clarify, Diaz-Balart said he wasn't saying it was going to happen, "I'm saying if that happened...I certainly hope that will not happen because the people of Honduras deserve to have their elections."

Looks like much of the dispute may be moot. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggests a deal has been struck to resolve the dispute. But not without the critics of Obama's policy in Honduras winning won one of the battles: Congress' in-house Law Library rebuffed calls from the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that the chairmen charge is flawed and "has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks'' the country.

The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove deposed president Manuel Zelaya from office.

"They're trying to manipulate the legal division to suit their ideological and partisan views,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who Wednesday hosted a Capitol Hill briefing with business owners from Honduras who said the turmoil is hurting the country's tourism industry.


Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/10/lincoln-diazbalart-warns-obama-no-military-action-in-honduras-we-are-watching.html#storylink=cpy

[flamingdem]

3. All of this much worse since the coup and overthrow of the democratically elected Zelaya

** THANKS Diaz-Balart Brothers!

The homicide rate is stoked by the rivalry of the brutal street gangs, mostly descendants of gangs formed in Los Angeles and deported to Central America in the 1990s. Mara Salvatrucha — MS. The 18th Street gang. Their ranks are fed by the economic disaster that is Honduras and emboldened more recently by alliances with Mexican drug traffickers moving cocaine through the country.

The mayhem is compounded by political killings, mostly of leftist activists and those demanding land rights in this throwback semi-feudal country, and vigilante slayings by some police units. It's made even worse by the inability or unwillingness of authorities to investigate crime in a nation where almost every family has had a relative killed, kidnapped or attacked.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-c1-honduras-violence-20131216-dto-htmlstory.html

[octoberlib]

4. Very informative. Thanks for posting!

[flamingdem]

5. You're welcome

octoberlib!