US Ambassador Hugo Llorens Discloses Secrets of the Honduran Coup; Chinese Viewing Prohibited

Llorens appears to want to appear to play a middle ground on this, and is showing his true colors-- that he, along with Clinton, Lanny Davis and the other "yanqui" payasos (clowns), while giving slight lip service to "democracy," they really do favor the golpistas. If the U.S. were serious, it would FULLY shut down the base, pull money from the MCC, and shut down its insipid School of Assassins. Llorens makes me be ashamed of being an American. He is frankly another golpista being paid by U.S. tax dollars.

From the story:

Pressed once again by Judy Ancel on the issue of the MCC funds, Llorens claimed that 90 percent of the sum promised to Honduras had already been spent or was “in the pipeline” for such projects as highway improvement, which if interrupted would create a huge legal liability for the US government.

To date, some $80 million out of a total aid compact of $215 million has been disbursed. That’s only 37 percent of the funds disbursed — and that doesn’t mean that money is already spent.

So Llorens, it seems, is playing fast and loose with the numbers.

Also, his argument that suspending or terminating MCC funds would “create a huge legal liability for the US government” seems specious on its face.

First, MCC distributes the taxpayer funds under the Honduran compact to a Honduran government entity, called MCA-Honduras. Based on MCC’s own documents, that Honduran entity is responsible legally for implementing the aid compact in Honduras.

From a recent Office of Inspector General audit report on MCC:

The Government of Honduras designated the Millennium Challenge Account–Honduras (MCA-H) as the accountable entity with the legal authority to oversee the implementation of compact programs.

From a notification MCC provided to Congress concerning the compact with Honduras:

In accordance with its Congressional mandate, MCC will only disburse funds consistent with the limitations Congress has placed on the use and treatment of MCA assistance. These limitations are expressly set forth in the body of the Compact.

… MCA-Honduras, a legal entity comprised of a Board of Directors and a Program Management Unit (PMU), will be established as an independent government agency under Honduran law to implement the Compact and is the entity ultimately responsible for Program success. The duties of MCA-Honduras will include program management, financial management and reporting, and coordination of monitoring and evaluation. [Empasis added.]

So it would appear from the MCC’s own documents, that if any entity would be held responsible legally for a breech of contract in the event of the termination of MCC funds, it would be MCA-Honduras [since it is the legal contracting agency set up under Honduran law to oversee the funds].

Consequently, the legal liability Llorens seeks to frighten us about would actually fall on the putsch government, it seems, creating further pressure on that coup regime to fold its cards.

In any event, if Llorens were not speaking with a forked tongue with respect to potential legal liabilities, then how do we explain the fact that MCC earlier this year chose to terminate, after earlier suspending, foreign aid compacts in Madagascar and Nicaragua?

It just doesn’t add up.

In fact, it can be argued that MCC might even have violated its own policies in the case of Honduras, since it is required to act within “5 days” of learning of a recommendation from the President or Secretary of State that would require it to take action “vis-à-vis MCA eligibility or assistance.”

And, on July 7, the State Department announced the following:

We are suspending, as a policy matter, assistance programs we would be legally required to terminate if the events in Honduras are found to have triggered section 7008 [of the U.S. Foreign Operations Law relating to military coups].

It’s now well past five days since that State Department announcement, yet MCC continues to funnel funds to the coup government of Honduras — at least $6.5 million in July alone.

It seems Ambassador Llorens forgets that the MCC money we’re dealing with here belongs to U.S. taxpayers.

Whose watching out for their legal rights in all of this, if the ambassador is only concerned with the legal rights of the multi-national private companies who are being subsidized by those U.S. tax dollars via MCC?

Some food for thought, no?

Fascinating how the Ambassador does not want to ruffle the feathers of the Chinese in this whole affair. Why is that? Are the Chinese supporting the coup by making a play for the minerals of Honduras? Recall how one of the first things that occurred after the Venezuelan coup against Chavez was the full fledged immediate assault upon all things Cuban in that country. However in Honduras, the VERY first diplomatic action I saw occur after the coup had nothing to do with Cuba. Rather, the Taiwanese ambassador abruptly cancelled his visit to Honduras. The Chinese connection. Is there more here than meets the eye?

I am one of the people on the GX delegation who visited with Ambassador Llorens Friday. The delegation didn't even get a chance to bring up the National Endowment for Democracy aid to Honduras. Apparently it continues, and I don't know whether it is subject to withholding under Section 7008 fo the US Foreign Operations Law. According to the NED website, there are at least three programs which include Honduras. They are: (1) The International Republican (as in Republican Party) Institute - $550,000 for Mexican and Honduras to promote think tanks as pressure groups to impel political parties to develop concrete positions on key issues. There is specific emphasis on Honduras. (2) The International Republican Institute - $400,000 to provide elected officials with practical institutional skills that will facilitate good governrance practices, policies and initiatives. IRI partners with municipalities in the Domican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras. (3) Trust for America - $95,338 to promote freedom of expression and access to information in Domican Republic, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua (I truly didn't make this up). Perhaps someone can further research the current state of these projects in Honduras.

I posted a link to the article at http://www.NicaLiving.com/node/15553. One reader has mentioned that there has been no other media coverage of this, pretty much suggesting this is just a "leftist plot". Is there a recording of the meeting or any other source to help show people this is not being made up?

 

As for the other aid, I would love to see an article that accounts for all of this. To me, it would seem that "the right" would be concerned that tax money is being thrown away.

Phil - I don't usually bother with those who go railing about how they don't believe a report is true. In this case, Fernández's story quotes eight people by name who were physically present, two of them Embassy officials, two of them journalists for another media, and it's a safe presumption that since none have negated the report that all agree it was an accurate account of the meeting. You may quote me to such conspiracy theorists that their protestations simply demonstrate how devastating the information provided is to their pro-coup spin and the falsehoods they like to trumpet. Otherwise, they wouldn't feel such an overarching need to play "make believe" and pretend those facts didn't happen. After all, any one of them can pick up the telephone and call the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa to confirm the date of the meeting, the persons who attended, and ask if the report is accurate. But, alas, sloth is another character flaw of the conspiracy theorist.