The Nightmare Libertarian Project to Turn This Central American Country Into Ayn Rand's Paradise
The Nightmare Libertarian Project to Turn This Central American Country Into Ayn Rand's Paradise
And naturally, the US is pushing the efforts along.
By Mike LaSusa / AlterNet
January 27, 2015
Since the 2009 coup against President José Manuel Zelaya and subsequent election of Porfirio “Pepe Lobo” Sosa and his favored successor Juan Orlando Hernandez, Honduras has embarked on a devastating neoliberal economic program that has contributed to its status as one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the region. The privatization of Honduran society has been accompanied by a militarization of public security efforts in the country, both of which have been fueled by a network of U.S.-supported policies and programs.
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The PMOP plan isn't the only initiative with dubious implications for human rights put forth by Hernandez's government. Honduras is also experimenting with Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico (special employment and economic development zones), also known as ZEDEs or “charter cities.”
According to reporting by Danielle Marie Mackey for the New Republiclast month, here is how the project works: "An investor, either international or local, builds infrastructure....The territory in which they invest becomes an autonomous zone from Honduras...The investing company must write the laws that govern the territory, establish the local government, hire a private police force, and even has the right to set the educational system and collect taxes."
An earlier article by Erika Piquero at Latin Correspondent described the law as “allowing the corporations and individuals funding the ZEDEs to dictate the entire structural organization of the zone, including laws, tax structure, healthcare system, education and security forces. This kind of flexibility is unprecedented even in similar models around the world.”
George Rodríguez reported for the Tico Times that the plan was previously challenged and ruled unconstitutional in Honduras' supreme court, but Hernandez "twisted arms, had the (dissenting) judges removed, and brought in obedient replacements." Hernandez then re-tooled the bill and pushed it through the congress.
As Mackey reported, "The ZEDE’s central government is stacked with libertarian foreigners," including a former speechwriter for presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., conservative political operative Grover Norquist, a senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, and Ronald Reagan's son Michael, as well as "a Danish banker, a Peruvian economist, and an Austrian general secretary of the Friedrich Hayek Institute."
More:
http://www.alternet.org/world/nightmare-libertarian-project-push-one-central-american-country-through-massive-privitization
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