U.S. Policy in Post-Coup Honduras: Where is the U.S. Congress?

• In Event: The Honduran Coup at Seven Years: A Case Study in Radical Neoliberalism

Abstract

Human rights groups and international bodies have widely documented the vast human rights abuses committed by the Honduran military and police since the 2009 coup, and the post-coup regimes that oversee those forces are riddled with bald corruption. Yet the White House, the Department of State, and the U.S. Southern Command continue to support the Honduran government enthusiastically. Where is the U.S. Congress as all this plays out? Liberal Democrats have repeatedly challenged the Administration's policy, while far-right Republicans affiliated with the Cuban-American community have celebrated the coup and its victors. In 2014, though, the landscape shifted, after alarms were raised about unaccompanied, undocumented minors from Central America arriving at the U.S. border, and Republicans captured the majority in both houses. Using the "crisis" to attempt to shore up U.S. power in the Northern Triangle, the White House in 2015 pushed full court press for $1 billion in U.S. aid for Central America, in service to transnational corporate interests and regional elites. Meanwhile, the Honduran government, including President Juan Orlando Hernández, has repeatedly and publicly attacked "bad Hondurans" who travel to Washington to report human rights issues. This paper will examine the cast of congressional characters and analyze their different policy positions since the coup, in the context of roiling scandals and mass protests in Honduras, and successful grassroots pressure from solidarity groups in the U.S.

Author

• Dana Frank