Pro-Honduran government supporters in the small town of Choluteca, Honduras
Today, July 1, 2009, El Heraldo, Honduras
Today, July 1, 2009, El Heraldo, Honduras
World:
Please ask yourself these questions and then ask your own media outlets why they aren't reporting anything from the Honduras newspapers, the Honduran television, or the Honduran man on the street. Why are they not reporting the Honduran bloggers, Twitters, and Facebookers (who are not being censored)? They do that for Iran.
As just one example, please, please read this from Born in Honduras: Hondurans against the world. There are many, many more, but unfortunately most are in Spanish so they are ignored by the US and other English speaking countries.
Why have they not reported the millions in cash found in the offices, bank accounts, and hotel rooms of former President Mel Zelaya and his supporters, much of which was in small bills being used to pay supporters and voters? Why have they not reported the statements of the Honduran government as to what happened and why they believe that what they have done is legal and in line with the Honduran constitution? Why have they not reported the general sense of joy in the country to be rid of Mel Zelaya?
When Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, countries with some of the most repressed media in this hemisphere, are calling for democracy in Honduras, what do you think about that? How can you possibly believe it?
When Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama support Castro and Chávez at the United Nations, is it because they have similar ideologies, or is it simply because they have bigger, more important fish to fry, than the tiny, poor, mostly-ignored country of Honduras?
Does that not strike you just a teensy, tiny bit odd?
Ask CNN why it shows 20 minutes of a few pro-Zelaya protesters for every 30 seconds they show of the tens of thousands of peaceful pro-Honduras supporters. Ask CNN why they did not play the audio of the speakers at the peaceful march yesterday which was translated to English after each announcement.
Ask yourself why they don't show the pro-Zelaya protesters (are they even Honduran?) who arm themselves with huge rocks, bats, and pipes attacking the military just hoping to get a reaction so they can run to Venezuela's Telesur camera and get on CNN. Ask yourself why you didn't see the pro-Zelaya supporters (again, are these people even Hondurans or are they Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have been imported for the show?) armed with pipes and bats violently threatening and chasing off the peaceful Honduran supporters two blocks down the street in San Pedro?
I saw all of that on my Honduras news yesterday so who is the one who is receiving biased, censored news?
Everything coming out of Honduras is being completely ignored.
Hondurans have demonstrations all the time. It is a custom in Central America and is a right guaranteed by the constitution. However, it is not common for Honduran protesters to get violent. Hondurans are a peaceful people and that is one of the reasons that they have been victims of corruption for so long.
I have been a voracious reader of everything I can find on this issue. I've had about 12 hours sleep in the past four days. I don't stop at the major media articles, though. I read what everybody is saying AND, unlike most bloggers, I actually know what has been going on in this country. Stunned by the amount of disinformation, I try to trace where these crazy "facts" are coming from.
Yesterday, I read about our "repression" in Honduras. I read that on a USA blog, who referenced the information back to a Mexican blog. The Mexican blog offered his source: a Kansas, US, blog. And the source for the Kansan information? A Venezuelan newspaper.
Uh-huh. So rather than reading what Hondurans are saying, a better source is US-->Mexico-->Kansas-->Venezuela? Please, folks! If you are going to write about something, show a little responsibility and don't become part of Hugo Chavez's disinformation campaign, because that is what is happening. That is false information and it is easily disproved. Don't say that there is no information coming out of Honduras or from Hondurans. There is, but no one is listening.
A massive organized campaign of disinformation is coming out of Venezuela and is being picked up by bloggers and what most people think of as reliable media sources. When you read that "communications" have been blacked out or censored in Honduras, all you have to do is look at the postings from Hondurans in Honduras on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to know that this is false. Why does no one do that?
Look at my archives for "In the news" and "Corruption" for starters. I am no fool and certainly no apologist for the corruptos or rich oligarchy in Honduras. I am not censored though many people have warned me long before all this occurred that I could be in danger both personally and economically for what I write.
The biggest difference between what many of us are saying is that we know the history. We discuss and research. We aren't buying the disinformation campaign because we know it is false.
Heartfelt statements from Hondurans are completely ignored because they have not been trained to organize and blast the media with sound bites. Most of them naturally are writing in Spanish. Neither the Honduran government nor the Honduran citizens have the sophistication, knowledge, or experience to mount a counter campaign in the media or social media.
Okay, now if you think I'm a conspiracy theorist, I invite you to read the comments on this blog. I am willing to bet that the minute this article is posted, it is going to be inundated with comments with Chavista propaganda, which usually can be recognized because they are abusive and try to intimidate others from giving opposing opinions.