Update--Clinton finally admits role in Honduras Coup aftermath

Since the migrant children immigration crisis broke in June, I have written about the 2009 coup in Honduras as a key cause of the violence kids are now fleeing, see here and here.

Now finally we have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's side of the story that conflicts with the Administration's official account.

Center for Constitutional Rights

Hillary Clinton admits role in #Honduras coup aftermath. Not surprisingly, contrary to official storyline

Al Jazeera America
Hard choices: Hillary Clinton admits role in Honduran coup aftermath:
           Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy

In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a review of Henry Kissinger’s latest book, “World Order,” to lay out her vision for “sustaining America’s leadership in the world.”

***See here and here for more on the Mainstream Media's general obsession with Kissinger, ignoring his role in war crimes and coups.

See also Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice on 60 Minutes

As the president’s national security advisor, Susan Rice works in what some consider the second best office in the White House.

Lesley Stahl: This is the office, huh?
Susan Rice: This is Henry's office, as we call it.
Lesley Stahl: Henry's office, Henry Kissinger's office.
As Kissinger was, Rice is the quarterback of American foreign policy. She’s the one who wakes up the president when there’s a 3 a.m. international crisis.

and now back to the article

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The chapter on Latin America, particularly the section on Honduras, a major source of the child migrants currently pouring into the United States, has gone largely unnoticed.

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the State Department’s response to the violence and military and police impunity has largely been silence, along with continued U.S. aid to Honduran security forces. In “Hard Choices,” Clinton describes her role in the aftermath of the coup that brought about this dire situation. Her firsthand account is significant both for the confession of an important truth and for a crucial false testimony.

First, the confession: Clinton admits that she used the power of her office to make sure that Zelaya would not return to office. “In the subsequent days [after the coup] I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary [Patricia] Espinosa in Mexico,” Clinton writes. “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.”

This may not come as a surprise to those who followed the post-coup drama closely. (See my commentary from 2009 on Washington’s role in helping the coup succeed here, here and here.) But the official storyline, which was dutifully accepted by most in the media, was that the Obama administration actually opposed the coup and wanted Zelaya to return to office. 

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In addition to her bold confession and Clinton’s embrace of the far-right narrative in the Honduran episode, the Latin America chapter is considerably to the right of even her own record on the region as secretary of state. This appears to be a political calculation. There is little risk of losing votes for admitting her role in making most of the hemisphere’s governments disgusted with the United States. On the other side of the equation, there are influential interest groups and significant campaign money to be raised from the right-wing Latin American lobby, including Floridian Cuban-Americans and their political fundraisers.

Like the 54-year-old failed embargo against Cuba, Clinton’s position on Latin America in her bid for the presidency is another example of how the far right exerts disproportionate influence on U.S. foreign policy in the hemisphere.