HONDURAS- The U.S. embassy's lies continue http://quotha.net/node/1871

Llorens may have skipped town on July 3rd to work for the National Defense University in DC—leaving the embassy under the charge of USAID until the new Biofuels ambassador arrives (presumably to work for Miguel Facussé)—but nothing in the bunker on the hill above Guanacaste has changed. Silvia Eiriz, Political Counselor for the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, recently sent this absurd email to a member of the board of Alliance for Global Justice, a group that recently sent a delegation that witnessed the aftermath of the Rigores attack, in which police, without any warning, burned the houses of an entire Bajo Aguán community, along with its schools and church.

The AFGJ delegation interceded to prevent traumatized community members from being kicked out of the small community center where they had sought refuge, after two women had suffered miscarriages from the Honduran-government-imposed and U.S.-supported violence.

"Let me assure you that ensuring respect for human rights has been, is, and will continue to be a top priority for the United States Embassy in Tegucigalpa." —The only top priority of the U.S. government has been the continuing neoliberalization of Honduras's economy, to the detriment of Honduran democracy, sovereignty, and health. This has directly contradicted any respect for human rights, as is evident in the vile statements coming from people like Jeremy Spector and Llorens, blaming the resistance for the violence and deaths its own members have suffered at the hands of the Honduran State under both Micheletti and Lobo.

"I would note that President Porfirio Lobo was elected president with the greatest number of votes in Honduran history in an election held on November 29, 2009 that was recognized as credible by most of the international community. —It was actually unbelievable for me to read this. I'm used to absurdities coming out of State, but there is not even a hint of truth to these statements. Even the TSE, illegally appointed and part of the coup structure (i.e., by no means independent), admitted that its claims of high voter turnout were a lie very soon after the election, and that voter turnout (according to them) was only 49% (although dozens of accounts from around the country demonstrate that it was far lower). That Eiriz would continue with this fiction is frankly astounding.

"Concrete examples of the Lobo Administration’s commitment are the creation of a Secretariat of Justice and Human Rights and the creation of a special unit in the Secretariat of Security to investigate human rights violations." —And again, wow. Repeating Llorens' mantra that because a human rights unit exists, therefore the Lobo administration respects human rights is like claiming that because we have a Department of Homeland Security, we are now more secure (thanks to the suspension of all those pesky civil rights). Or because the National Endowment for Democracy is spending money on infiltrating democratic movements in countries around the world, they are now more democratic. Or that because Lobo calls his government the government of unity and reconciliation, there has been anything resembling that, instead of burnt-down peasant communities; ongoing targeted assassinations of journalists, teachers, campesinos, and others; the destruction of public education; and the auctioning of of national resources and the environment to the highest corporate bidder.