Launch a Military Coup, Hire a High-Power PR Firm and Represent Democracy!

By Kevin Tillman, AlterNet. Posted September 28, 2009.

I notice the major papers are now referring to the perpetrators of the military coup in Honduras as the "de facto" government. Quite a benign frame.

Contrary to the prevailing narrative, right-wing elements in Honduras and the United States -- including, according to reports swirling around Latin America, bloody veteran hands from Reagan's dirty wars, like Otto Reich -- had been laying the groundwork for deposing President Manuel Zelaya for several years.

Roberto Micheletti's coup government has done a fine job spinning away the fact that this was the kind of military coup that has been anything but par-for-the-course in recent years in an overwhelmingly democratic Latin America. They've done it with savvy lobbying and PR. Historian Greg Grandin wrote about debating former Clinton confidant Lanny Davis, now a lobbyist representing the coup government, among others:

The Honduras coup occurred on June 28, when soldiers working on behalf of a the small group of business and political elites who now control the country, kidnapped democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and sent him into exile.

Since then, the military-backed regime of Roberto Micheletti has argued to the world that it was acting constitutionally, even though nearly every country in Latin America, along with the European Union, isn't buying it.

Only in the U.S. is there a debate as to whether the Micheletti government is legal -- largely thanks to the lobbying efforts of Davis.

Not only is there debate in the U.S., it is surreal; consider right-wing lunatic Dana Rohrbacher's recent post on The Hill's blog arguing that through a right-wing military coup a "crisis was averted and the constitutional democracy in Honduras was preserved."

Expect much more of the same kind of nonsense in the immediate future:

See more stories tagged with: lobbying, davis, honduras, zelaya, micheletti

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »