Narco-states near and far

One is a “threat to national security” and traffics drugs. But which one?

[At right: Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH), an inspiring figure for our times]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has declared Venezuela a national security threat and at the beginning of April got Trump to send warships into the Caribbean for “enhanced counter-narcotics operations” targeting that country. The Washington war party has had its heart set on ousting the chavista regime there for years and has sponsored coup attempts, promoted the farcical Juan Guaidó as the “real” president, and imposed crippling sanctions on an already dysfunctional economy. So far, Trump has resisted the siren calls for direct military intervention, but if he feels the need for a quick “victory” for purposes of distraction, the temptation is there.

The latest accusation is that the Nicolás Maduro-led government is colluding with remnants of the Colombian guerrilla movement, FARC, to “flood the United States with cocaine and devastate American communities.” And here I thought cocaine had been around for a while! But I digress.

Not everyone is entirely persuaded about the reasons given for the build-up. The Miami Herald noted:

The shift from considering Maduro “illegitimate” to being publicly labeled a “narco-terrorist” provided a rationale for the military moves, despite government data suggesting Venezuela is not a primary transit country for U.S.-bound cocaine.

Even the cautious Herald recognized the flimsy excuse to deploy “Navy destroyers, Coast Guard cutters, Navy littoral combat ships, helicopters, Navy P-8 patrol aircraft, Air Force E-3 AWACS and E-8 JSTARS,” along with thousands of troops from five different armed forces. If the U.S.

The head of the Southern Command assured reporters just days ago that the build-up is “not aimed at ousting Maduro,” but merely at boosting drug interdiction. Funny how that requires “airborne surveillance, control, and communications” equipment like the E3, which has been seen in action during wars with Serbia, Iraq, Syria, and Libya.

Under the law variously attributed to John Pilger, Claud Cockburn, and many others (“Never believe anything until it is officially denied.”), we can assume invasion planning is well advanced. Lindsey Graham, for one, doesn’t think we should hold back, writing in the Wall Street Journal April 13:

The U.S. must be willing to intervene in Venezuela the way we did in Grenada.

Graham understands Trump well enough to use the Grenada example, a quick-and-dirty war that boosted Reagan’s standing and cost virtually nothing.

Our friends in Central America

By contrast, Honduras isn’t facing any such harsh treatment. The International Monetary Fund recently made an announcement of support to the Central American country:

Amid heightened needs for healthcare and social spending to protect the well-being of Hondurans, the authorities will access resources in the amount of US$143 million currently available under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) SBA/SCF arrangement approved in July 2019 for a total of US$312 million.

Honduras’ authorities, the IMF notes approvingly, have maintained a steadfast commitment to sound macroeconomic policies over the last years.

These are the same authorities whose “sound” economic management has led to crushing poverty, a quarter of Honduras children suffering from malnutrition and stunted growth, and caravans of citizens fleeing from the most violent cities in the hemisphere. But the moneylenders at the IMF did not seem to notice the other salient point about the Honduran authorities:

Honduran President's brother found guilty of drug trafficking charges

(CNN) The brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty of trafficking cocaine Friday [17 Oct 2019], according to the US Department of Justice. Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, also known as “Tony Hernández,” is facing 30 years to life in prison.

Between 2004 and 2018, Hernández was involved in processing, receiving, transporting and distributing multi-ton loads of cocaine that came to Honduras by plane, boat and, on at least on occasion, by submarine, a federal indictment states. Hernández had access to labs in Honduras and Colombia, where some of the cocaine was stamped “TH” for Tony Hernández. [boutique blow!]

One of the most explosive allegations against Hernández during the 11-day trial was that he funneled the drug money to National Party campaigns “to impact Honduran presidential elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017,” the release said. Between 2010 and 2013, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, helped Hernández with cocaine shipments and delivered a $1 million bribe to the Honduran president during the 2013 national elections in Honduras, according to the Justice Department.

Guzmán is the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel now serving a life sentence in the United States.

The other brother happens to be Honduras’ current president Juan Orlando Hernández, named in the case as an unindicted co-conspirator. But that doesn’t seem to bother the IMF, nor Mr Pompeo, nor his flotilla of Dudley Do-right drug combatants.

Similarly, the Obama-Hillary crew nodded benignly when the Hernández team overthrew the country’s elected president, Manuel Zalaya, in 2009, showing once again, that when we are ignoring the flow of drugs performed by our loyal allies, the United States is admirably bipartisan.

Honduras has long suffered from extreme rates of violence and gang intimidation. Here’s a typical story of a Honduran-born sometime visitor from the U.S.

The moment I land in Tegucigalpa, I know I can’t call attention to myself. I try to not speak too much so I’m not asked where I’m from. I don’t wear any jewelry. I’m not allowed to walk alone from my grandmother’s house to my godson’s house even though it is only four blocks away. I, under no circumstances, am supposed to even think about taking public transportation alone, my family tells me.

My cousins have been held at gunpoint in cabs. During one visit, our flight was so delayed we had to land in the neighboring airport in San Pedro Sula, which is about a six-hour drive from Tegucigalpa. The airline arranged a bus for us with a police escort the whole way because the route was considered too dangerous for a bus full of tourists to travel. I would never buy my godson a pair of expensive sneakers because I don’t want to risk his safety.

Nice place our guys are running.

The U.S. military hardware floating around the Caribbean might well be put to use seizing drug shipments given that they’re making sure nothing of value slips out of Venezuelan beaches. But let’s not delude ourselves that the goal is to cut down cocaine availability to our domestic partyers. They can always consume Honduran-sourced cocaine, which will be plentiful as long as JOH continues to do Washington’s bidding.