HONDURAS, 2009. LEGACY OF A COUP UNDER THE SHADOW, EPISODE 7, PART 2

[Judi Lynn]

(There is a podcast in this link. I just saw this episode today for the first time, and discovered the other episodes are available, as well. What they can do for anyone is provide an excellent review of US policy toward the Americas South of the border as it really happened, not as it was portrayed through the US corporate media. The people of the Americas are very keenly aware of what has been happening all these years, unless they identify with the predator class in each country. )

The list of the other podcasts in the series is linked at the bottom of this post.


Police occupy the National Institute of Agrarian Reform in Tegucigalpa on September 30, 2009. Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images

POSTED IN UNDER THE SHADOW

HONDURAS, 2009. LEGACY OF A COUP | UNDER THE SHADOW, EPISODE 7, PART 2

Honduras’s return to democracy after the 2009 U.S.-backed coup is a heroic story of popular resistance.

In June 2009, Honduras faced a devastating coup that shattered the country’s fragile democracy and sunk the country into violence, repression, and a decade-long narco-dictatorship.

But the people fought back.

In this continuation of Episode 7, host Michael Fox looks at the fallout of the 2009 coup in Honduras, walking from 2009 into the present. He takes us to Tegucigalpa to dive into the fraudulent U.S.-backed elections that ushered in a narco-dictatorship, and also the resistance movement that, after years of struggle, ultimately did what it set out to do: remove the dictatorship and return democracy to Honduras.

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode looking at the 2009 coup in Honduras and the aftermath.

Under the Shadow is a new investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

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TRANSCRIPT
Michael Fox: Hi, I’m your host, Michael Fox.

Two things I want to say before we get started. First, today’s episode is Part 2 of Episode 7, where we look at the 2009 US-backed coup in Honduras. We ended up breaking this episode into two parts because there’s just so much to dig into here. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, I suggest you go back and do that first. It’ll set the scene for everything we dive into today.

Second, many portions of today’s episode deal with harsh themes from the years following the 2009 coup in Honduras. If you’re sensitive to this, or you’re in the room with small children, you might want to consider another time to listen. OK. Here’s the show…

So the Brazilian embassy is down this this side street in this residential neighborhood, kind of a northern Tegucigalpa. You can tell that this is a spot with many embassies here because literally the street just adjacent to it is the Republic of Panama, and this one we’ve got Balboa Street, but on my Google Maps it actually says Brazil Brazil St.

And then these two-story buildings kind of go back. It’s behind this gate. So it almost looks like a gated gated neighborhood. Many of the, you know, it’s tree lined streets. Pretty, Quaint. You tell this has been kind of an upscale. Section of Tegucigalpa for a long time. Cars rumble back and forth. There’s a Chinese restaurant right here. That can actually smell the Chinese food from where I’m standing. Just half a block away from the Brazilian embassy behind this fence. And it was here that Manuel Zelaya was was holed up. For months.

Four months total. Back in late 2009, there was a constant line of state security forces outside the embassy. Meanwhile, Zelaya, his wife, Xiomara Castro, and their daughter lived in the cramped two-story home, alongside four dozen embassy workers.

It’s really wild being here because a lot of the different episodes that I’ve been working on are things that happened way in the past. But right here, was the 2009 was the coup against Manuel Zelaya. I remember this moment. I was following what was happening very, very closely from Brazil. Had friends on the ground. And so it’s really strange to be here now and to see this up close and be thinking of this as history, because it’s so present. It’s still so present, right?

Zelaya arrived at the Brazilian Embassy in September 2009, returning from exile in Costa Rica. The calculation at the time was that Zelaya’s return would keep the spotlight on Honduras and the internationally condemned coup that removed him from power three months earlier.

More:
https://therealnews.com/honduras-2009-legacy-of-a-coup-under-the-shadow-episode-7-part-2

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Under the Shadow

A podcast on US intervention and revolutionary resistance in Latin America, and all the ghosts that still linger, from independent journalist Michael Fox. Co-produced by The Real News Network and NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America).

https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/under-the-shadow--5958129