Hillary Clinton's Military Coup in Honduras 7-Yr Anniversary

By Deborah Dupré

Tuesday, June 28th marked seven years since Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, spearheaded the U.S.-backed military coup in Honduras. Nearly four months, after speaking truth to power about Clinton, powerful organizer protecting Indigenous and environmental rights, innocent Targeted Individual Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home. Two weeks ago, H.R.5474, the “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act,” was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

H.R.5474 calls for immediate suspension of U.S. security assistance to Honduras “until such time as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Clinton continues to lie about her leadership in the Honduras coup, according to Dana Frank.

Since the Clinton-backed Honduras coup, death squads have returned to Honduras. The name Berta Cáceres was on the military hit-list. Americans are outraged that U.S. tax dollars are paying for such atrocities.

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U.S. tax dollars fund the School of the America (SOA, that now calls itself Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia. SOA – also called School of the Assassins — is where Americans troops train Latin American soldiers to torture and assassinate, who in turn, can train anyone else. Most violent Latin Americans leaders were trained there at Fort Benning. Human rights leaders are so outraged over these war crimes, they have planned a historical border rally in protest, led by SOA Watch, founded by and managed by Fr. Roy Bourgeois, known as the Prophetic Priest..

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[Author's Note: The reader is urged to watch the documentary below, In so doing, Americans better understand how their tax dollars are creating the refugee crisis. They view differently and more humanely the crisis and are more determined to hold accountable their leaders directly responsible for the crisis.]

On the Road to Historical Convergence at the Border

Arturo, Kat and Maria Luisa from SOA Watch’s staff are on the road from Washington, DC to Nogales, Arizona/ Sonora, to prepare for the SOA Watch Encuentro at the Border, slated from October 7-10, 2016. Tuesday, they were in Nashville, Tennessee, gathering with allies at the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) headquarters to protest inhumane detention of asylum-seekers, to remember the coup, and honor those impacted by U.S.-backed militarized violence in Central America.

CCA is the largest for-profit private prison corporation in the U.S., profiting from both mass incarceration of citizens and the detention refugees & migrants.

Many persons detained in CCA and other private and public detention centers across the country are people who fled violence created by the U.S. militarized foreign and immigration policies.

The 2009 Honduran coup and recent immigration raids against asylum-seekers are only two policies placing geopolitical interests and racist fears above lives of Central Americans, according to SOA Watch.

“Since 2009, Honduras has gone through an incredible amount of turmoil and violence as a direct result of the military coup, which was implicitly and explicitly supported by the U.S. government,” says SOA Watch. “The coup regime remains in power to this day through undemocratic elections and a blatant disregard for human rights and the rule of law.

“As a result of the coup, Hondurans are forced to flee their country, often braving a gauntlet in Mexico (where U.S. taxpayer money funds their persecution, detention, and deportation through Plan Frontera Sur) only to have their international rights as refugees and asylum-seekers violated once again when imprisoned in the U.S. CCA is one profiteer of militarization, even cynically attempting to obtain a ‘child care license’ for their Dilley Texas Family Detention Center.”

“U.S. support for military coups must end. The profiting from refugee imprisonment must end.”

SOA is urging action to support the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, that would suspend security aid and training “until such time as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice”.

“As we saw, yesterday’s decision against the SOA-trained killer of Victor Jara, Pedro Barrientos, the constant struggle for accountability is long, but necessary to achieve justice.”

Monday, a Florida jury handed over a verdict that could lead to Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez’s extradition to face criminal charges over 1973 killing of folk singer and political activist Victor Jara, awarding $28m in damages to his widow and daughters in one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom. The verdict against Pablo Barrientos Nuñez came after a two-week civil trial in Orlando’s federal court. It might possibly pave the way for his extradition to face criminal murder charges in Chile related to his conduct during a CIA-backed coup that led to Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year military dictatorship and deaths of almost 3,100 people.

Established in 1946, the SOA at Fort Benning, Ga. trained more than 64,000 Latin American soldiers in  a wealth of counterinsurgency techniques, torture instruction and intelligence tactics. SOA Watch says, “The deceitful mission statement of the SOA deemed democracy an integral part of military training; however, Latin American history has been replete with accounts of torture corresponding to tactics learned at the SOA.” Those same tactics originally learned in the U.S. with U.S. tax dollars are increasingly used on US soil. Instead of looking at the source of the violence, Americans’ blaming finger is usually pointed at the wrong side of the border, according to SOA Watch.

Click here to ask your member of Congress to support H.R.5474  the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act