Wednesday, June 1, 2011

• Out of Exile: Part II of Exclusive Report on Ousted Honduran President Zelaya’s Return 2 Years After U.S.-Backed Coup

  
  
  

  We continue our coverage of the historic return of ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, who on June 28, 2009, was kidnapped at gunpoint and put on a plane to Costa Rica in a coup orchestrated in part by two generals trained in the United States. Scores of peasants, teachers, journalists, farmers have been assassinated since the coup. This week 87 U.S. Congress members sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for the suspension of aid to the Honduran military and police until steps are taken to hold security forces accountable for human rights abuses. "Defense and security forces have to exist," Zelaya says in an interview with Democracy Now! at his home in Tegucigalpa. "But violence always will be the worst method in order to correct either political or social problems. Poverty and corruption cannot be battled with more arms, but with more democracy." [includes rush transcript]

• Xiomara Castro, Wife of Manuel Zelaya, on Returning to Honduras and Her Rumored Bid for the Honduran Presidency

  
  
  

  Much of the buzz surrounding Manuel Zelaya’s return to Honduras centered on whether his wife, Xiomara Castro, will run for president. During a press conference on Sunday, Zelaya said, "The one who is engaged in politics is the first lady. I’m just a simple citizen." In an interview with Democracy Now! in Honduras, Castro addresses the prospect of seeking office and her thoughts upon returning from exile. [includes rush transcript]

• Former Honduran Minister: U.S. Undoubtedly Played Central Role in Zelaya Coup

  
  
  

  After masked soldiers kidnapped the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009, and flew him to a U.S. military base in Honduras and then onto Costa Rica, hundreds of Hondurans, fearing for their lives, went into exile. Zelaya’s former minister of culture, Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, was one of them. After he fled Honduras, Pastor joined Harvard University as a visiting professor where he taught courses on Latin American history. Now back in Honduras, Pastor says he is certain the United States helped engineer the coup. Democracy Now! spoke to him in Tegucigalpa over the weekend while reporting on the return trip of Zelaya to Honduras. [includes rush transcript]

• Zelaya’s Return: Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy in Honduras

  
  
  

  Manuel Zelaya’s return has raised hopes of a Honduran reconciliation and a readmission to the Organization of American States. But Adrienne Pine, an American University professor who has worked extensively in Honduras, says the country is no closer to reconciliation than it was in the months following the June 2009 coup. "In order for there to be reconciliation, there needs to be justice," Pine says. "The ongoing state violence needs to end." [includes rush transcript]