The general at the center of the military coup in Honduras has a connection to the U.S. military—General Romeo Vasquez attended the School of the Americas (SOA).

(photo: REUTERS/Edgard Garrido)

The School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. General Vasquez attended trainings at least twice–in 1976 and 1984, according to the watchdog group School of Americas Watch.

Graduates of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC have a long history of repression and anti-democratic actions. The School has produced at least 11 Latin American dictators, including SOA grad General Juan Megler Castro who became military dictator of Honduras in 1975.

“From 1980-82, the dictatorial Honduran regime was headed by yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in all of Latin America (founded by Honduran SOA graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates),” says SOA Watch.

It’s worth noting that John Negroponte, former ambassador to Iraq under Geoge W. Bush, was ambassador to Honduras 1981-1985. As filmmaker Paul Laverty wrote in the July 2005 issue of The Progressive, “a prizewinning series in the Baltimore Sun in 1995 demonstrated that Negroponte knew about the torture and murders that Honduras’s Battalion 3-16, trained by the CIA, was carrying out. He then covered them up by whitewashing reports back to Congress about Honduras’s human rights record.”

The United States used Honduras for years as a staging ground for its proxy war against the Sandinistas. The United States still stations troops at Cano Soto Air Base, near Tegucigalpa, which was used as a base of operations for the U.S.-backed Contras.

And while U.S. assistance to Honduras does not quite match the incredible sums spent during the 1980s, between 2005-2010, military and police aid to Honduras will reach more than $40 million.

FY 2010 Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations report, which was released May 2009, states that “U.S. foreign assistance to Honduras focuses on partnering with the Government of Honduras to enhance security, strengthen democracy and rule of law . . .”

Given the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, Obama faces a skeptical audience when he talks about upholding the rule of law. His State Department’s budget request says “Honduras has the lowest level of public support for democracy of the 22 countries surveyed in the Americas.”

Let’s hope that when the story behind the coup emerges, taxpayer dollars, through groups such as USAID, are not found to be supporting the coup plotters, like it did in Venezuela.

President Obama has said he was “deeply concerned” and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya’s arrest should be condemned.

At least Obama did not endorse this ill-fated coup, unlike the Bush Administration’s immediate diplomatic recognition of coup plotters in Venezuela in 2002. But Obama could do more.

My friend and colleague Roberto Lovato writes, “Beyond immediate calls to continue demanding that Zelaya and democratic order be reinstated, protesters in Honduras, Latin America and across the United States will also pressure the Obama Administration to take a number of tougher measures including: cutting off of U.S. military aid, demanding that Hondurans and others kidnapped, jailed and detained be released and accounted for immediately, bringing Vasquez and coup leaders to justice, investigating what U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, did or didn’t know about the coup.”

In the early 1990s, I spent a few months in Honduras. Most of my time was spent in a Chiquita banana plantation town in the north near San Pedro Sula. Honduras’s utter poverty was overwhelming, even compared to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Chiapas, Mexico. Social movement groups, such a human rights organizations, seemed beaten down.

Now, though, times have changed. The poverty remains but “civil society” seems pretty upset about this coup. Kristin Bricker, a writer for NarcoNews, reports, “It is clear that Hondurans are resisting. People are taking the streets in Honduras despite incredibly hostile conditions created by the military. Radio Es Lo De Menos reports that their colleagues on the ground have been fired at by snipers who are positioned in rooftops around the city. They stress that the gunfire at this point has only been in the form of ‘warning shots’ and no one has been reported injured from gunfire.”

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) wrote in a communique, “We tell everyone that the Honduran people are carrying out large demonstrations, actions in their communities, in the municipalities; there are occupations of bridges, and a protest in front of the presidential residence, among others. From the lands of Lempira, Morazán and Visitación Padilla, we call on the Honduran people in general to demonstrate in defense of their rights and of real and direct democracy for the people, to the fascists we say that they will NOT silence us, that this cowardly act will turn back on them, with great force.”

Meanwhile, the “kidnapped” Honduran President Zelaya, in an interview with Al Jazeera, is calling for peaceful resistance.

Malalai Joya is one of the bravest people in the world. She’s the outspoken Afghan parliamentarian who was unlawfully suspended from parliament for speaking out for human rights and against the warlords ruling her country. This is her speech at the Global Forum on Freedom of Expression held in Oslo, Norway in June.

Here’s part of her speech:

I am honored that my voice has become the voice my oppressed and unfortunate people. They are supporting me. I announce from your tribune that I will not stop for a moment from telling the truth in the face of death threats and intimidations, as I know achieving our rights requires force and risks. No one will donate to us freedom of expression and other human rights unless we struggle to achieve them. I believe in the inspiring words of Dr. Martin Luther King: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.

Shakespeare, as in Robbie Shakespeare, of Sly and Robbie fame, rocked the Barrymore Theater on June 10. Sly and Robbie have been the backbone of Jamaican reggae for more than thirty years. But their influence is felt worldwide.

According to Allmusic.com, “Their rhythms have been the driving force behind innumerable songs — one statistician estimated that together they’ve played on approximately 200,000 tracks, and that doesn’t count remixes, versions, and dubs. As a production team, the pair has been the equivalent of a creative storm, the cutting edge of modern dub, ragga, and dancehall.”

They’ve played on and produced albums for a variety of artists including Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Bunny Wailer, Ben Harper, No Doubt, Serge Gainsbourg, the Rolling Stones, Gilberto Gil, and Carlos Santana.

Sly Dunbar was on drum kit and Robbie bounced the heavy bass lines, with a top-notch back-up band. (The rhythm guitarist bore a striking resemblance to Nelson Mandela, which was kinda cool.)

They started out playing “Liquidator Dub,” which is the opening track to their excellent album “Masters of Dub.”

For people unfamiliar with the genre, dub music is a form of reggae that features a throbbing bass and drums sound. Often older tunes are remixed into a dub style. So, for example, “Liquidator Dub” is a remix of the 1969 hit, “The Liquidator,” with lots of echoes and reverb.

And it’s this remixing that Sly and Robbie are so good at. Unlike other reggae bands, Sly and Robbie take old songs and make them sound fresh. I saw Stephen Marley, scion of Bob Marley, a few months ago at the same venue and was disappointed by the weak Bob Marley medley Stephen threw in. Sure, the audience expected it, but did it seem stale.

Sly and Robbie drew from reggae hits from the past and performed current ones, too. They played a pared down version of “Welcome to Jamrock,” a recent hit by Damian Marley (another progeny of Bob Marley).

And when Robbie sang the old dancehall tune, “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No),” I wanted to melt. It’s one of my favorite songs, ever. And to see it performed live by the Masters of Dub was truly memorable.

Robbie looked like a samurai, dressed in a long, black sleeveless coat hanging over his jeans and sneakers. He wielded his bass like a sword. I could feel the bass line in my chest. As a friend said, he could play the same note for 100 measures in a row and still make it sound interesting.

Sly Dunbar was amazing on drums. It resonated on the dance floor.

After nearly 2 hours of groove, the band bid farewell. Robbie was the last one on stage. He sang and played a long meandering solo on his guitar. He left the stage while still playing his bass.

After all these years, they didn’t dial it in. They even came to the lobby and smiled for photographs. I happened to be right there at the merch table and snagged an autograph.

I was one of fifty or so hungry bicyclists who lined up at a makeshift commuter station that was set up on the bike path on Lake Monona this morning. The draw? Free bacon.

It’s Bike to Work Week here in Madison. Events are happening all over town, with inducements that range from morning treats to after work happy hours. A few local businesses, including Planet Bike and Just Coffee, sponsored this morning’s commuter station, which was

photo by newlow

stocked with bacon, coffee, fresh fruit, bakery, and bike repair. How cool is that?

At lunchtime I wandered over to the farmers’ market and found another Bike to Work Week event at the cement park in front of an ugly state office building. Machinery Row workers were on hand to fix people’s bikes.

Courtney Klaus, who works for the Department of Natural Resources, was taking advantage of the opportunity. She was getting her brakes looked at.

Klaus is a fan of Bike to Work Week. “It’s great. I’m an all-year-round bicyclist, but I enjoy hearing my co-workers talk about it,” she told me. “My boss rode to work for the first time yesterday and he liked it. He’s going to try it again-and he lives in Verona.” (That’s quite a haul–around 10 miles away.)

“It’s really good for bike advocacy,” she added, “especially when they fix your bike.”

We need more advocacy for bicycling these days. In early June, GOP Representatives John Boehner and Eric Cantor proposed to end funding for many bicycle projects. The GOP wants to cut the Safe Routes to Schools program, which helps kids learn basic bike safety rules. The Republicans want to kill a program that pay for crossing guards, bike paths, and new sidewalks. We can fund never-ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but teaching our kids how to bike to school breaks our budget?

Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, says this attack on bicycling and walking is “short-sighted and out of touch with reality.”

Even here in Wisconsin we have to fight for crumbs. For the first time, $5 million has been added to the state’s transportation budget specifically designated for bicycle projects. That may sound like a lot of cash-until you realize this amount accounts for less than 1/10 of 1% of the state’s proposed $6.5 billion transportation budget.

According to the Bike Federation of Wisconsin, Wisconsin currently ranks nearly last in total dollars spent on bicycle infrastructure, even though bicycling is a $1.6 billion industry in the state. The Bike Fed points out that “40% of all trips made by automobiles are two miles or less. Improved bicycle infrastructure alleviates congestion, eases wear on existing roadways and reduces pollution.”

Biking is good for the Earth and it’s good for the soul. Now about that bacon . . .

One of the most pernicious effects of the U.S. government’s commitment to militarism is a toxic landscape. Current legislation pending in the House, H.R. 672, the Military Environmental Responsibility Act, would force the military to comply with environmental and public safety laws.

Photo from CSWAB

“The Department of Defense and Department of Energy have not been held to the same environmental standards as everyone else, and as a result the military continues to be the nation’s biggest polluter,” says Laura Olah, executive director of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB).

Olah knows a lot about military pollution. She and her neighbors in rural Wisconsin discovered their drinking water wells were polluted with high levels of carcinogenic solvents. Fifty years of weapons manufacturing from the nearby Badger Army Ammunitions Plant had poisoned groundwater, contaminating wells more than a mile away.

This tenacious bunch of citizens has been fighting to get the Department of Defense to clean up after itself for nearly twenty years.

“The bill will help leverage cleanup at the local Army base which should have been completed years ago,” says Olah. “The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and EPA finalized enforceable cleanup orders more than a decade ago but the biggest contaminated site at Badger still hasn’t been touched.”

“Explosives, mercury, solvents, and other toxins that pose a risk to both human health and the wildlife are still found at unsafe levels in surface soil and with the years of delayed cleanup, these contaminants have migrated to surface water and to groundwater, polluting nearby rural drinking water wells,” she adds. “Demanding a complete and comprehensive cleanup will ensure that future generations will not be burdened with the legacy of pollution from Badger.”

CSWAB is part of a national coalition of affected communities and organizations that are supporting this federal legislation. H.R. 672 seeks to eliminate military waivers to key environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

H.R. 672 would “require the Department of Defense and all other defense-related agencies of the United States to fully comply with Federal and State environmental laws, including certain laws relating to public health and worker safety, that are designed to protect the environment and the health and safety of the public, particularly those persons most vulnerable to the hazards incident to military operations and installations, such as children, members of the Armed Forces, civilian employees, and persons living in the vicinity of military operations and installations.”

On June 5, World Environment Day, CSWAB and other coalition members organized a national call-in day to increase the number of Congressional co-sponsors.

Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of California, introduced the Military Environmental Responsibility Act on January 26, 2009. As for April 18, there were only five co-sponsors:
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA)
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

This isn’t the first time these groups have worked together on this issue. The coalition sent a letter to the White House, organized by Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, expressing support for H.R. 672 back in March.

The letter states, “Unregulated military projects have placed countless communities, workers, soldiers, and families at increased risk for cancer and other deadly disease from exposure to military toxins–the hidden casualties here at home. Even as we write this letter, contamination caused by munitions production, testing, and disposal is poisoning our drinking water wells, contaminating the air we breathe, destroying our lakes, rivers, and fisheries, and polluting our soils and farmlands.”

Olah is optimistic that the legislation will eventually pass.

“Independent reviews by the Government Accountability Office have shown that environmental compliance does NOT interfere with the military’s ability to do its job,” she says. “As taxpayers, we are paying for thousands of military cleanups like the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, which alone may ultimately cost more than $200 million. The bill is not only in the best interest of the health of our soldiers, civilian workers, neighboring communities and families–it’s in the best interest of our pocketbooks.”