Honduras Gone Wrong

by Valeria Fanelli

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138188/dana-frank/honduras-gone-wrong

I chose this story from the Foreign Affairs website because it denounces another case of human rights violation in Honduras.

The part that surprised me and interesting me the most is the last paragraph of the story, where the author clearly attributes responsibilities to the U.S. government.

“In many ways, Washington is responsible for this dismal turn. From the earliest days of the coup, the United States made poor decisions. The Obama administration was willing to call Zelaya’s ouster a coup, but it refused to ever use the term “military coup,” which would have legally triggered a cutoff of all military and police aid. Instead, U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton legitimated Micheletti as an equal player in negotiations. They never denounced the repression that followed.”

I believe this is one of the examples that we often discussed in class about responsibilities attribution, in human rights violation cases.

The author here is not impartial and takes a strong position, accusing the White House to not handled the case in the right way.

Also, I though it was interesting to learn more about problems affecting Honduras. Even if it is a small country, it does not have to be ignored by the International community and especially by the U.S. that have closer relationships with the country.