Canada, Honduras and the Coup d’Etathttp://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3080

Canadian investments in Honduras are not limited to the manufacturing sector. Mining corporations Yamana Gold, Breakwater Resources and Goldcorp all have investments in the country, and all three companies are members of a national metal mining association, ANAMIMH, which is also affiliated with COHEP. The coup came before the final reading of a new mining law before congress, which would have restricted mining in the country and banned the use of cyanide in Honduras.

“The [mining] law was proposed to favour communities, but the mining companies have turned it around,” said environmentalist Carlos Amador in an interview at his home in El Porvenir. He expects the law that will be passed in 2010 by Lobo’s government to be the opposite of the proposal, and encourage more large-scale, transnational mining in Honduras.

“It’s like in 1998 when [Hurricane] Mitch hit Honduras: they’re saying that the only way to improve the Honduran economy is to open the doors to investment in mining,” said Amador.

comment-also see...Canada's Blood-Stained Mining Companieshttp://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/canadas-blood-stained-mining-companies.htmlEl Salvador: Salvadorans Hold Vigil to Honor Fallen Anti-Mining Activistshttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2314-solidarity-with-environmentalists-killed-in-el-salvadorThose gathered attributed the recent assassinations of three environmental activists to a generalized repression targeted at those opposed to the re-opening of the "El Dorado" gold mine by the Vancouver, BC-based Pacific Rim Mining Corporation

Canadian Mining in Latin America: Paramilitaries, Assassinations, and Impunityhttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2280/1/ Host Sylvia Richardson talks to Upside Down World editor Cyril Mychalejko about Canadian Mining in Latin America, violence associated with mining projects in the region, and the urgent need for reforms to be passed in Canada.

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Honduras : Micheletti Becoming 'Second Pinochet'?http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/honduras-micheletti-becoming-second.html

AL JAZEERA VIDEO: Haitians Dispute US Militarization of Aidhttp://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/al-jazeera-video-haitians-dispute-us-militarization-of-aid/

Paramilitaries suspected of 150,000 murdershttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7711-demobilized-paramilitaries-confess-150000-murders.html

Former members of demobilized paramilitary organization AUC have confessed to 30,000 murders so far, while prosecutors suspect them of a total 150,000 killings, El Tiempo reported on Monday.

comment-also see...RIGTHWING PARAMILITARISM in COLOMBIA 1 URIBE AUC killers COLOMBIA VIDEO TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH PART 1http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/jAABv-PfTtk/Colombia: A US-backed terror statehttp://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/821/42188   Death Squads Met At Uribe's Ranch http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041702007.htmlCousin of Colombian President Arrested in Death Squad Probehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042201144.htmlThe Death Squads of Colombia. Uribe's Boyshttp://www.counterpunch.org/cryan08252004.htmlColombia's death squads terrorise opposition to President Uribe http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86825

Eva Golinger: US Government led by Obama Is Preparing for War in South America http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_57843.shtml

5 MW---Are US NGO's and intelligence agents still trying to foment political instability in Venezuela or have those operations ceased since the failed coup?  Eva Golinger----In fact, the funding of political groups in Venezuela, and others throughout Latin America that promote US agenda, has increased since the April 2002 coup against President Chávez. Through two principal Department of State agencies, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the US government has channeled more than $50 million to opposition groups in Venezuela since 2002. The USAID/NED budget to fund groups in Venezuela in 2010 is nearly $15 million, doubled from last year's $7 million. This is a state policy of Washington, which the Obama Administration plans to amp up. They call it "democracy promotion", but it's really democracy subversion and destabilization.

Funding political groups favorable to Empire, equipping them with resources, strategizing to help formulate political platforms and campaigns - all geared towards regime change - is a new form of invasion, a silent invasion. Through USAID and NED, and their "partner NGOs" and contractors, such as Freedom House, International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, Pan-American Development Foundation and Development Alternatives, Inc., hundreds of political groups, parties and programs are presently being funded in Venezuela to promote regime change against the Chávez government. US taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these efforts to overthrow a democratically elected government that simply isn't convenient for Washington. Remember, Venezuela has 24% of world oil reserves. That's a lot! President Chávez takes Almacenes Exito to the Print This ShareThis  Woodshedhttp://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58159.shtml

This expropriation of Almacenes Exito, a huge trans-national supermarket chain (French/Colombian) that has consistently undermined price-controls and engaged in price-gouging on food over the last decade is a shot across the bow and a full frontal attack on the speculators. Almost immediately after the government devalued the Bolivar, the "hypermercado", Exito responded by increasing its prices by 50% and in some cases, doubling their prices on everything from food to laundry detergent. Soon after, Exito stores were occupied by the Venezuelan Guardia Nacionál and shut down from Zulia on the Colombian border to Caracas.

In his brilliant, annual State of the Nation speech to the Assembleia Nacionál (Congress) last week, he said the devaluation will be followed with a robust attack on speculation in the markets. 2 days later he began to keep his word. My personal hope is that when the government buys out Almacenes Exito that they'll pay them for their corporation not in cash, but in government bonds. In practical terms, the nationalization of Almacenes Exito means the provision of affordable food for Venezuelans. All other supermercados in the country have got to be watching this closely and reviewing the price tags they place on food. Seller beware!

Venezuela's CITGO renews cheap heating oil program in the United Stateshttp://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=350513&CategoryId=10717

CITGO, the US subsidiary of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, renewed a program under which it has provided cheap heating oil to hundreds of thousands of US low-income households since 2005. CITGO CEO Alejandro Granado, whose company carries out the initiative in partnership with US non-governmental organization Citizens Energy Corporation, told Efe Friday the goal this year is to benefit 200,000 families, the same number as last year.

According to the executive, the program is being continued despite the global recession in 2009 because "it's a commitment of the Venezuelan people and CITGO, grounded in principles of solidarity and cooperation. It's more necessary now than ever." The program provides aid to needy families in the form of coupons that can used to purchase the heating oil.

Government to buy alternative electricity barges to supply Caracashttp://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=87732

Israel: Global NATO's 29th Memberhttp://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/70675

"Extending Article 5 protection, hitherto limited to full member states, to Israel was being advocated with the inescapable implication that a coalition of most of the world's most powerful military nations, led by the self-designated world's sole military superpower, would retaliate against Iran if it responded to an Israeli first strike attack.

As the U.S. stations hundreds of nuclear warheads at NATO bases in Europe, including in Iran's neighbor Turkey, invoking NATO's war clause could provoke a nuclear conflagration....The U.S., Israel and NATO are preparing for momentous events in the Middle East. They will not be peaceful ones."

UN report that said Himalayan glaciers would melt within 25 years was all hot airhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1243963/UN-science-report-stated-Himalayan-glaciers-melt-25-years-guess.html

Claims by the world's leading climate scientists that most of the Himalayan glaciers will vanish within 25 years were last night exposed as nonsense.

Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aidhttp://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60G2DW20100117?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," Chavez said on his weekly television show. "They are occupying Haiti undercover." "On top of that, you don't see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies? ... Are they looking for the injured? You don't see them. I haven't seen them. Where are they?"

US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haitihttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/us-accused-aid-effort-haiti

The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected. Brazil and France lodged an official protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.

In Haiti, U.S. Accused of Blocking Airfield Needed for Rescue Effortshttp://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/haiti-us-accused-blocking-airfield-ne

Doctors Without Borders Cargo Plane With Full Hospital and Staff Blocked From Landing in Port-au-Prince http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=4165&cat=press-release

USA ACTS TO PROTECT THE COCAINE TRADE IN HAITI?http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2010/01/usa-acts-to-protect-cocaine-trade-in.html

An Assassination in Tehranhttp://almusawwir.org/resistance/2010/01/16/an-assassination-in-tehran/

Investigative report by Press TV on the recent assassination of Professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi(RA) which was claimed by the “Kingdom Assembly of Iran”, a terrorist outfit that is exclusively funded by the US regime, sponsored by the Zionist entity, and headquartered in the United Kingdom.

Senegal’s President Wade Offers Free Land to Haitians Who Wish to Relocatehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602048.html

“The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin,” said Wade’s spokesman Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye late Saturday following the president’s announcement. “Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land – even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come. If it’s just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region,” he said.

More Than 50 Lifetime Appointments!!http://hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-than-50-lifetime-appointments.html

The National Congress was feeling generous in its last session, at least towards those who led the coup. They gave more than 50 functionaries lifetime government appointments according to the newspaper Tiempo today. The decree, proposed by the unctuous José Alfredo Saavedra, rewarded not only Roberto Micheletti Bain, but also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jorge Rivera, the Public Prosecutor, Luis Rubi (who is guaranteed 3 percent of the government's budget), and the entire military High Command, among others.

According to Tiempo, this security is for more than 45 Ministers, attorneys, directors of autonomous institutes, and the family of Micheletti. The government will, in addition, assume the bill of hiring private guards for all of these people. Corrupt much?

The coups d'état in Latin America and the dangers facing Venezuelahttp://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/coups_in_latin_america_and_dangers_facing_venezuela.htm

In an essay titled “Making Coups d'État Invisible: What the Hegemonic Theory of Political Science Refuses To See,” Atilio Borón denounced on Jan. 5 a theory about Honduras, propounded by a report by the Latinobarómetro Corporation in Santiago, Chile, that says:“In the year 2009, Latin America suffered for the first time a coup d'état after 31 years since democracy was inaugurated in the so-called ‘third wave of democracy.’”

According to Borón, such assertion “is not only a notable error of history but also a symptom of something a lot deeper. It reveals the incurable limitations of the hegemonic concept of theory and methodology in social sciences that date back to our Anglo-Saxon inspiration.”To document the falsity of the information provided by the Latinobarómetro Corp., Borón recreates what happened during the coups d'état in Venezuela on April 11, 2002, and establishes the participation of the United States and Spain, as well as the complicity of functionaries in the European Union and the then-existing governments of Colombia and El Salvador.Borón also reminds us of the coups in El Salvador in 1979; Bolivia in 1978, 1979 and 1980; Paraguay in 1989; Haiti in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 2004.

To these coups, we could add those promoted by the United States in the second half of the 20th Century, to wit: • the coup d'état in Cuba by Fulgencio Batista in 1952; • the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954; • the armed invasion promoted against the Cuban Revolution on Bay of Pigs in 1961;• the coup against José María Velasco Ibarra in Ecuador in 1961; • the coup against Brazilian President João Goulart in 1964; • the invasion of the Dominican Republic on April 28, 1965; • the deployment in Guatemala and Bolivia of Green Beret military advisers in 1966-67;• the coups in Uruguay and Chile in 1973; • the military dictatorship in Argentina, beginning in 1976; • the intervention in the Salvadoran conflict in 1980; • the support from Honduras of the Dirty War against the Sandinista revolution, beginning in 1980; • the invasion of Grenada in 1983; • the invasion of Panama in 1989; • the intervention in Nicaragua's electoral process in the 1990 elections; • the Plan Colombia, beginning in 2000; • the coup d'état in Venezuela in 2002, and • the coup d'état in Honduras in 2009.

For these events, Borón points out, palliatives are used to describe bloody and illegal deeds that lead to the overthrow of governments that were installed legitimately by the people. Thus, the Newspeak creates terminology that justifies the theory of the coup, such as “liberating revolution,” “process of national reorganization,” “government of national reconciliation,” “government of national salvation,” “solution to a power vacuum,” “transition government,” “interim government,” etc.

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Canada's Blood-Stained Mining Companieshttp://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/canadas-blood-stained-mining-companies.html

Canadian mining companies continue to rape and murder Indigenous Peoples around the world, while stealing their lands, poisoning their water and violating their human rights and civil rights. Canadian newspapers are finally beginning to report on the abuses.

VIDEO-Police Pepper Spray Children at Anti-Arpaio Protesthttp://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/video-police-pepper-spray-children-at.html

VIDEO-Cop on Horse Charges, Pepper Sprays Anti-Arpaio Marchershttp://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/cop-on-horse-charges-pepper-sprays-anti.html

New HHS campaign urges H1N1 vaccinationhttp://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/81705832.html

WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services has released a series of public service announcements meant to encourage American Indians and Alaska Natives to get the H1N1 flu vaccine.

comment-the us government has the best interests behind this im sure(wink wink)Doctors speak out about H1N1 VACCINE DANGERShttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1K74TnrrokKiller Vaccineshttp://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/salud/salud_vacunas.htm

Video Footage of Immediate Aftermath of Earthquake in Port au Prince, Haitihttp://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3735/video-footage-immediate-aftermath-earthquake-port-au-prince-haiti

Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian DemocracyRandall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Effortshttp://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2010-0115-1.mp3

We speak with TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, author of An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. On President Obama tapping former President Bill Clinton and former President George W Bush to co-chair US relief efforts in Haiti, Robinson says, “Bush was responsible for destroying Haitian democracy…Clinton has largely sponsored a program of economic development that supports the idea of sweatshops… but that is not what we should focus on now. We should focus on saving lives.”

carlos_da_mackeral_19: Ortega warns of US deployment in Haiti http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116347&sectionid=351020706

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says that the United States has taken advantage of the massive quake in Haiti and deployed troops in the country.  "What is happening in Haiti seriously concerns me as US troops have already taken control of the airport," Ortega said on Saturday.

The leftist Nicaraguan president denounced Washington's move in deploying military forces in Haiti, saying "It seems that the bases (on Latin America) are not sufficient." "There is no logic that US troops landed in Haiti. Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops. It would be madness we all began to send troops to Haiti," said Ortega. "I hope they will withdraw troops occupying Haiti," he added.

Where do the writers for VenEconomy live? In Miami or Alaska? On Mars?http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=87722

Weekly News Roundup for Venezuela - January 16, Print This ShareThis  2010http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58150.shtml 

Parallel dollar gives way before Venezuelan Government policieshttp://www.abn.info.ve/go_news5.php?articulo=215638&lee=17

Imperialism Condemned in Boliviahttp://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/january/17/latam-10011703.htm

In a meeting held last Thursday in the city of Cochabamba, Calloni presented her latest research to President Evo Morales, government authorities and hundreds of Bolivians.In her introduction, the prominent journalist noted that since the 1950s, the United States has penetrated Bolivia with its intelligence agencies, marking the beginning of eternal interference. According to Calloni, imperialist intromission, followed by neoliberal invasion, caused a series of unstoppable rebellions that has brought together the best resistance in Bolivia, since the time when indigenous leader Tupac Katari headed the first rebellion against Spanish colonialism."Those circumstances led to what is today a model country for Latin America, led by Morales, who has waged those struggles and has challenged neocolonialism," the Argentinean journalist indicated. Calloni has vast knowledge about Latin America's political history. She wrote a book about the Condor Plan, an espionage network created by Southern Cone dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.For his part, President Morales referred to the attacks on him carried out by US agencies during his political and union career from 1985 to 2005, when he took office. "The empire has two methods to eliminate the leaders who fight for their peoples, one of them is exclusion from the political scenario by accusing them of being seditious, the other one is their physical elimination," the president noted.Referring to the book, Morales recalled the episodes in which police and military officers, lawmakers and coca growers warned him on time to avoid ambushes to assassinate him.

French Multinational GDF Suez Criticized for Lead Role in Building the Controversial Madeira Dam in the Brazilian Amazonhttp://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/view_news.php?id=1983

At the current rate, the Jirau dam is expected to displace thousands of river-dwelling families and endanger large swaths of standing forest, including protected areas. Dam construction will also threaten hundreds of migratory fish species with extinction. Decomposing vegetation and deforestation caused by the project will also contribute significantly to carbon dioxide and methane emissions from tropical rainforests. Currently tropical deforestation is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally.  The coalition of civil society organizations is calling on GDF Suez to immediately suspend all activities related to construction of the Jirau dam on the Madeira River. GDF Suez and its partner companies in the "Energia Sustentável" consortium currently owe fines for illegal deforestation, and are already co-defendants in civil action lawsuits in Brazil filed by the State and Federal Public Prosecutors' Office (Ministério Público) and non-governmental organizations.

52 congress candidates are suspicious: El Espectadorhttp://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7704-52-congress-candidates-are-suspicious-el-espectador.html

Colombian newspaper El Espectador on Sunday published a list of "suspicious" candidates in March's Congress elections. The newspaper considers the candidates suspicious because of their closeness to the paramilitary power structure.

The Conservative Party, one of Colombia's biggest political parties has the most "suspicious" candidates. Ten of the coalition party's candidates for either the House of the Senate are linked to politicians who are investigated or in jail for their ties to demobilized paramilitary organization AUC.Two new parties, Alianza Democratica Nacional (ADN) and Partido de Integracion Nacional (PIN), formed out of the ashes of Uribista parties whose senators joined bigger coalition parties, are also prominently present as backing suspicious candidates. Partido de la U, President Alvaro Uribe's most loyal supporter in Congress also has seven candidates who are suspiciously close to politicians with links to paramilitaries or have other suspicous links to criminal activity.One candidate, the independent Ricardo Castro, is cousin of Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias 'Jorge 40', one of the AUC's most feared commanders who's currently in the US awaiting trial on drug charges. Most candidates on the El Espectador list are from the north of Colombia, where the AUC had most power.More than a hundred Colombian politicians on both national, departmental and local level have been or are part of a criminal investigation because of they allegedly used intimidation by paramilitaries to be voted into office in the 2002 and 2006 elections. Dozens have been convicted for paramilitary ties.

See No Evil, Obamas Love Affair with Americas Right Wing : Veterans Todayhttp://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/16/see-no-evil-obamas-love-affair-with-americas-right/

America elected Barak Obama for one reason only. We had spent years with a government found to have become utterly corrupt, a pack of criminal gangsters no better than Pinochet in Chile or Pol Pot in Cambodia. We were going to go in, put Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice, Ashcroft, Gonzales along with 2 dozen top military leaders and more senior members of Congress in prison.

When we were done, we would go thru the oil companies, banks, defense giants, insurance companies and more, doing the same. We hoped that when we were finally done, whoever was left would know that they were part of a government by and for the people, not employees of a criminal conpiracy.

Cindy Sheehan leads protest at CIA, Cheney's househttp://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/20100116_ap_cindysheehanleadsprotestatciacheneyshouse.html

A group led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has protested near the CIA's headquarters and former Vice President Dick Cheney's home in northern Virginia. They were protesting the use of unmanned drone aircraft to attack al-Qaida and Taliban targets. The group of about 70 people rallied alongside a highway near the CIA compound Saturday. About half then marched to Cheney's nearby street and stayed for 20 minutes. Police kept them from going down his street.

Nuclear gauge missing from planthttp://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/16/Nuclear-gauge-missing-from-plant/UPI-82451263675551/

A nuclear density gauge missing from a Pennsylvania plant could release harmful levels of radiation if mishandled, authorities said. The device, which contains a radioactive label, disappeared from a storage locker at Jeff Zell Consultants Inc. in Coraopolis, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Saturday. The firm has offered a $1,000 reward for return of the device, which is used at construction sites. Rarely used flying bomb strikes new targets in Iraqhttp://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/82468.html

The U.S. military said Friday that militants who launched the Jan. 12 attack on a joint U.S.-Iraqi compound used an unusual weapon called an IRAM, for Improvised Rocket-Assisted Munition. Sometimes called "flying IEDs," IRAMs are a potentially deadlier incarnation of the garden-variety Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and Afghanistan — they're short-range projectiles that catapult toward unsuspecting targets.

Polluter lobbyists write Murkowski amendment to gut Clean Air Acthttp://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/01/12/breaking_did_polluter_lobbyists_write_th

"This Murkowski rider should be called the Protect Dirty Polluters amendment, especially since we now know that it was written by polluter lobbyists," Kert Davies, Director of the new PolluterWatch project at Greenpeace, told me today. "If this amendment passed, it would be a get out of jail free card for the worst polluters from Big Oil and Big Coal," Davies said.

MLK Event: "Foreclose the War, Not Peoples Homes"http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/1/16/mlk-event-foreclose-war-not-people-s-homes

Jenny Eisert told the crowd assembled at the church, "We are sick and tired of the government helping the banks and Wall Street when they are they are the reason we got into this mess." She also spoke about a bill that will be introduced when the state legislature opens to put a two-year moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions from foreclosed prosperities. Loan shark profits from Aboriginal welfarehttp://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/822/42278

The January 15 Australian reported that outback prospector Sam Tomarchio had “struck a new kind of gold in Western Australia by taking control of Aboriginal Centrelink payments”.

Jumping Through The Hoops For America’S Imperialist Warshttp://www.vivelecanada.ca/article/235930731-jumping-through-the-hoops-for-america-s-imperialist-wars