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Will the hunger strike in Venezuela lead to another Egypt? #OperacionLibertad #HuelgaDeHambre

While the US goes broke and the Middle East bursts in riots, students have gone on hunger strike in Venezuela protesting human rights conditions in the country.

Noticias 24 reports that the students are dehydrated but in stable condition. The strike started on January 31 at the OAS office with a dozen students but by now a total of 67 people are on hunger strike in several locations in 10 states across the country, including the Brazilian embassy in Caracas. The protestors are requesting that all political prisoners named in a list of 27 people be freed and given medical attention:

The protestors, mostly university students and youth activists, have been calling for the OAS to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in Venezuela as well as for the release of jailed opposition figures they believe are political prisoners. OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has said that he could not meet with the protesters in Caracas without an invitation from the Venezuelan government.

Maduro said the protest should be handled internally, without the intervention of the U.S. or international organizations. He also alleged that right-wing opponents of Venezuela’s socialist government were operating from Miami and playing a part in orchestrating the hunger strike.

About a dozen students and activists began a fast Jan. 31 outside the local Caracas office of the OAS. Some news reports have stated that the protest has grown to include as many as 65 protestors.

The protesters have called for the release of several jailed opposition figures including two jailed members of the national parliament. One of the officials faces corruption charges while the other has been found guilty of being complicit in a homicide.

Bryan Llenas writes, Venezuela Student Hunger Strike Gains Momentum, Gov. Worried About a “Virtual Egypt”

On Friday, the hash tags #OperacionLibertad, and #HuelgaDeHambre saw feverish activity as tweets supporting the Venezuelan hunger strike poured into those conversations.

“#OperacionLibertad is for all Venezuelans!,” Milagros González tweeted in Spanish. “They aren’t in a hunger strike for nothing! They are using their bodies as a tribute to the survival of Venezuela.#OperacionLibertad,” Rafael Marín wrote.

This Venezuelan social media awakening comes months after an amendment to the Social Responsibility Media law that allows the government to restrict Internet messages and access. The measure stated that the use of Facebook and Twitter to spread “media manipulation” would be prohibited.

Hoewver, Llenas’s article trivializes the plight of the hunger strikers by comparing them to the University of Puerto Rico students striking over a $800/yr tuition increase.  I am also doubtful that the strike will lead to Egypt-like riots at this time.

The Venezuelan situation is a lot different: Venezuela News and Views explains,

The fact of the matter here is that the regime has long ago placed human life in the bargain department.  How can you explain that Chavez does not lose any sleep over the thousands and thousands of violent murders taking place every year in Venezuela?  When someone has the chutzpah to say that those murders are not his responsability then you know he is not hurting whatsoever.

Amen of those who die in Venezuelan jails shot by the other inmates as if nothing!

The way the regime has managed the natural disaster victims since 1999 is another telling sign: they are simply exploited for political purposes and real help is barred if it does not serve the regime purposes.  For memory, the refusal of help from the US in 1999 or the confiscation of the relief truck of Voluntad Popular last year.

And equally as damaging if not as bloody, is the total ignorance by the regime of the brain and energy drain that Venezuela is suffering.  For all practical purposes these people leaving Venezuela in search of better hopes under other skies should be also accounted with the “death toll” of the people we will never see again.

The reality here is that we are dealing with a regime who is not afraid to eliminate its opponents.  It has not been that obvious so far in an era of Internet and CNN, but all the signs are there, do not be mistaken, elimination is an ever present option for these people.

The US media’s attention is elsewhere, which makes the possible outcome all the more unpredictable.

Cross-posted at Real Clear World.

UPDATE, Monday February 21,
Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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US endorses Insulza to continue as head of OAS

Following Insulza’s shameful behavior during the Honduran crisis, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backs him for another term as head of the Organization of American States (h/t La Gringa):

The United States will support Chile’s Jose Miguel Insulza in his bid for another five years as head of the Organization of American States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday in a letter to the OAS secretary-general that was seen by Efe.

In the letter, Clinton said that it was a “pleasure” to inform Insulza that the Barack Obama administration will support his reelection and that of the assistant secretary-general, Alberto Ramdin, of Suriname, at Wednesday’s special OAS General Assembly in the U.S. capital.

The vote of confidence by Washington comes despite the campaign against Insulza launched a month ago by certain Republican lawmakers and the editorial page of The Washington Post.

As you may recall, the WaPo has gone on record requesting that Obama press for change at the OAS

Despite the adoption in 2001 of a “democracy charter,” the OAS has done little to stem what has been a steady erosion of free elections, free press and free assembly in Latin America during the past five years. When Honduras’s president was arrested and dispatched to exile by the military last year, the organization was aggressive but clumsy — and ended up making a democratic outcome harder to achieve. In the case of countries where democracy has been systematically dismantled by a new generation of authoritarian leaders, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, the OAS has failed to act at all.

The embodiment of this dysfunction has been OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. A Chilean socialist, Mr. Insulza has unabashedly catered to the region’s left-wing leaders — which has frequently meant ignoring the democratic charter. Last year, he pushed for the lifting of Cuba’s ban from the OAS, even though there has been no liberalization of the Castro dictatorship. When Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez launched a campaign against elected leaders of his opposition, stripping them of power and launching criminal investigations, Mr. Insulza refused to intervene, claiming the OAS “cannot be involved in issues of internal order of member states.” Yet when leftist Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to change his own country’s internal order by illegally promoting a constitutional referendum, Mr. Insulza supported him, even offering to dispatch observers.

The WaPo reasonably requested that

The United States should make clear that it will not support any secretary general whose platform on democracy issues is inadequate. Congress should meanwhile consider whether the United States should continue to provide the bulk of the funding for the OAS when it fails to live by its own charter.

The request fell on the deaf ears of “smart diplomacy.”

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Honduras leaves the OAS: “There is no room in the OAS for freedom-loving countries.”

Fron Libertad Digital: HONDURAS RENUNCIA A SU PRESENCIA EN EL ORGANISMO
“En la OEA ya no existe espacio para los estados que aman su libertad” (brief translation: If you used this translation please credit me and link to this post)

The Micheletti administration renounced the OAS charter “effective immediately”, following José Miguel Insulza’s visit.

Vice-chancellor Marta Lorena Alvarado read the letter addressed to Insulza, which stated the government’s decision “the OAS believes that it no longer has room for Honduras, for the states that love their freedom and defend their sovereignty,” … “in spite of Honduras having taken part in the inter-American systen since its first stages in 1889.”

Video in Spanish here.

Another video from CNN International, with Alvarado reading the letter of resignation,

She read, “The Honduran government repudiates the pretension to impose unilateral measures against it,” and denounced the OAS’s “tolerance and silence” about threats of “use of force” coming from OAS member states (namely, Venezuela) against Honduras.

The Miami Herald,

Hours later, acting President Roberto Micheletti and vice chancellor Martha Lorena de Casco announced Honduras planned to withdraw from the region’s key diplomatic organization. The move preempts an OAS General Assembly meeting scheduled for Saturday, where Honduras was widely expected to be suspended from the group for overthrowing a democratically elected leader.

The OAS “tried to impose unilateral solutions. The government of Honduras repudiates such attempts to impose unilateral solutions and reaffirms its sovereignty,” de Casco said in a nationwide address. “The OAS is a political organizatioon, not a court of law. … There is no institutional crisis here.”

She ended her brief statement by invoking article 143 of the OAS charter — without elaborating what that article says. The OAS clause she cited calls for member nation to withdraw from the OAS after submitting a written complaint.

The Honduran Supreme Court rejected the OAS’s demand to reinstate the ousted President, Manuel Zelaya:

OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza was told the court’s position was “irreversible” when he met its president for two hours in the capital Tegulcigalpa.

By now even the BBC is saying

The new leadership enjoys the support of a substantial proportion of the population and says it stands for democracy, our correspondent reports.

It suggests that Mr Zelaya had despotic ambitions, and therefore the extreme action of removing him from power was justified.

More details on this AP report (via GoV, report also at the Wall Street Journal, emphasis added):

Jose Miguel Insulza, who heads the Organization of American States, flew to Honduras in an attempt to persuade the forces that ousted Zelaya to take him back in the face of overwhelming international condemnation and economic sanctions.

He met for two hours with Jorge Rivera, president of the Supreme Court that authorized the military to seize Zelaya on Sunday and fly him into exile.

“Insulza asked Honduras to reinstate Zelaya, but the president of the court categorically answered that there is an arrest warrant for him,” said court spokesman Danilo Izaguirre. “Now the OAS has to decide what it will do.”
…
Insulza also was meeting with leaders of Congress, “basically to clarify exactly what our position is.”
…
Micheletti asked Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu to help mediate the conflict, and she arrived in Tegucigalpa on Friday.

On his part, Insulza said the Honduran crisis will last a long time.

insulzahonduras

The photo shows Insulza in Tegucigalpa meeting with diplomats of the G-16 countries. The Panamanian government agreed to mediate today’s OAS meeting.

Hugo Chávez halts oil shipments to Honduras
The measure seeks to put pressure on the Honduras government to reinstate Manuel Zelaya, an ally of Chávez, as Honduras President. Zelaya was ousted in an army coup on June 28. In addition, Chávez admitted that he’s directly interfering in Honduran affairs,

Hugo Chávez said that he supports the return of deposed President Zelaya to Honduras by means of “a set of actions,” including contacts with military officers. Zelaya could return home “by land, air or water,” said Chávez in an address on Thursday in a state-run TV station, AFP reported.

“Zelaya will return to Honduras. It may be by land air or water. Nobody knows,” Chávez said, while he talked by phone with Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro, who is accompanying the ousted Honduras president.

“We are supporting his return to Honduras and we are planning several actions. (We are) contacting social leaders that are heading the resistance movements. We have contacted military leaders who disagree with what is happening in their country,” Chávez said.

UPDATE, 4:50PM
Sour grapes at the OAS: OAS Honduras’ interim government can’t withdraw

The caretaker government of Honduras cannot withdraw from the Organization of American States because it is not a legitimate government, a senior OAS official said on Saturday.

“Only legitimate governments can withdraw from an entity such as the OAS,” said Albert Ramdin, the OAS assistant secretary-general, told reporters before a special OAS meeting on Honduras.

He said the current “regime” in Honduras is not recognized as the country’s legitimate government.

———————————————-

At the blogs:
Blogger Hunter Smith is now reporting from Honduras. Here are his first impressions (h/t Legal Insurrection).

Government Removes Zelaya’s Perks

Aside from canceling all of Zelaya’s government backed credit cards (before which, he had spent 80,000 dollars in less than five days), terminated also was the leasing of 50 luxury vehicles and 61 cellular phones with a credit of over 47,500 lempiras, and over 100 bank accounts, all backed by Honduran government funds.

The chancellor of Honduras confirmed that Mel Zelaya ordered the withdrawal of 40 million lempiras from the Central Bank of Honduras.

When the investigations were made at the presidential house, black garbage bags filled with thousands and thousands of dollars were found, as well as in almost every drawer.

Investigations documented over 600 million lempiras worth of expenditures that Zelaya had spent on his quest to hold the “opinion poll” to allow the fourth vote.

Witnessing Hope appeals for prayer and fasting for Honduras

Jason Poblete: Hondurans Seek Independence from Cuba-Venezuelan Meddling, Obama Officials Should Listen

Unless a resolution can be found for this matter consistent with Honduran law, it will be the Obama Administration that will set back the growth of Honduran democracy. It is seems to have an extreme obsession for meddling in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state through international organizations such as the OAS. In the process, it is making things easier for the enemies of freedom to further weaken rule of law and democratic institutions throughout the hemisphere.

This July 4, Stand for the Unalienable Rights of the Hondurans

Chavez Chess.
Post edited to add Miami Herald & blog items omitted

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Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern: Cuba in the OAS

oas-seal

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, Henry Gomez and Val Prieto talk about the news: OAS ends Cuba suspension after 47 years.

Chat’s open at 10:45AM and the podcasts are archived for your listening convenience.

UPDATE
El Insulza Conspiracy

OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza has sat placidly as Chavez and Ortega have masticated democracy in their own countries. Insulza is violating his own imperative to kick these tyrants out, because one of the rules of OAS membership is that all members be democracies. They’ve violated the Inter-American Democratic Charter since it was enacted in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now begins the descent: Cuba’s pawns in the OAS are using their presumed legitimacy as democracies to open the door to Cuba’s brutal dictatorship, rendering the idea of democracy meaningless.

If that happens, the OAS will become just another anti-American talk shop, with Cuba driving the agenda.

Creepily enough, it will be financed by America, which bankrolls most of the OAS. The Obama administration is aware of this and thinking about yanking OAS funds if Castro sails in as full member.

Go read the rest.

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