Peter Kent Self Deprecates (all over Honduras)

September 27, 2009

Peter Kent Self Deprecates (all over Honduras)

News out of Honduras today is that the interim government military dictatorship is to impose a 45 day state of emergency, during which time unauthorized meetings, freedom of expression, and travel will be restricted. The decree also legalizes the ongoing, arbitrary detentions happening around the country.

Forty five days of emergency measures will allow the military dictatorship to continue doing as they please with the folks resisting the coup until November 11. Elections are scheduled for November 29.

The military regime, led by Roberto Micheletti, also blocked the arrival of a delegation from the Organization of American States over the weekend.

Canada has refused to condemn the coup, instead joining the US in allowing it to continue unabated by promoting dialogue and negotiation.

In the run up to the current disaster, junior foreign minister Peter Kent had the gall to send a congratulatory message to Hondurans on their independence day (September 15).

"Although these are trying times, we value our relationship with Honduras, which has grown stronger through our cooperation in many areas of common interest," said Kent in a press release. Maybe he thought pretending the military coup didn't happen would make it disappear.

Kent, who's billed as a "Journalist, Late-Life Politician & Self-Deprecating Commentator" by a booking firm that represents him, refused to support President Zelaya's return last week.

"Despite mounting tensions, we remain hopeful that a peaceful, negotiated solution can be reached and call on all parties to act in good faith," he said.

But since when does a military dictatorship that just overthrew a democratically elected president count as a party that can act in good faith? What's that? Oh, but the coup in Haiti was way back in 2004. When those evil Liberals were in power. Right.

Speaking of being misinformed about the facts on the ground, a cursory google news search for news items relating to Honduras from sources in Vancouver reveals a pithy seven articles, none of which are about the current political situation.

Some of the papers and free dailies are running Reuters and AP reports and photos of pro-coup protests. The only paper to have run a fair amount of critical accurate coverage is The Tyee. Their coverage even prompted Mr. Kent to claim that one of their pieces "could have been written by Hugo Chavez." Oh, snap!

Even lefty favourite Georgia Straight came out swinging with a pro-coup piece in July, which they followed up with an anti-coup piece.

The garbled, overwhelmingly pro-coup message coming from the mainstream media (and promoted by the Canadian government) is but an attempt to create confusion in order to justify the unjustifiable.

Amid it all, Vancouver's Latin American activist community has provided a beacon of clarity, organizing regular protests and events to denounce the coup. A photo from a recent action, in front of CTV HQ in downtown Vancouver, is above.

Photo by Andrea Pinochet.