Bush and Obama: Different Styles of Coup-Making | Black Agenda Report

Bush and Obama: Different Styles of Coup-Making

Glen Ford, BAR executive editor

22 Jul 2009

🖨️ Print Article

Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.

Although nobody but Americans believes Washington was not behind the late June coup in Honduras, Barack Obama brings his own touch to subverting one's hemispheric neighbors. “Obama makes democratic noises – and then refuses to back them up with any actions that would cause U.S. clients in the Honduran military and oligarchy to relinquish power.” And he does it all with a straight face.

Bush and Obama: Different Styles of Coup-Making

Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Bush would ratchet up the aggression with threats of regime-change all around.”

There should be no doubt about U.S. involvement in the military coup in Honduras, June 28. Nothing happens in the Honduran military without U.S. knowledge and consent. Honduras is the original “banana republic,” once a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands) and for the last three generations a U.S. staging area for subverting governments throughout the hemisphere.

What the U.S.-backed Honduran coup illustrates is the difference between Barack Obama and George Bush. President Bush would likely have set the coup in motion with bombastic statements from the White House and State Department charging Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya with conspiring with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders to undermine governments in the region friendly to Washington. Rather than simply defend the local necessity of the coup, Bush would ratchet up the aggression with threats of regime-change all around. But of course, that’s one of the reasons Bush isn’t there anymore, and why after eight years of Bush’s counterproductive rants and threats U.S. corporations threw their money to the Democrats – specifically, the fresh new face of Barack Obama.

“Obama’s State Department continues to avoid even using the word 'coup.'”

Obama keeps the drama out of regime change, by pretending to be opposed to coups in principle. So Obama makes democratic noises – and then refuses to back them up with any actions that would cause U.S. clients in the Honduran military and oligarchy to relinquish power. Obama’s State Department continues to avoid even using the word “coup” to describe the military’s arrest and forced exile of President Zelaya. If the Americans acknowledged that a coup had occurred, they would be legally obligated to cut off millions of dollars in military and economic aid to Honduras. Latin American heads of state made it a point to meet directly with President Zelaya, to show their solidarity with his elected government. Obama sends underlings, to signal to the coup plotters that he’s got their back. Alone among members of the Organization of American States, the U.S. continues to maintain an ambassador in the Honduran capital. His name is Hugo Llorens, a Cuban exile and Republican holdover and multinational corporate political operative. Llorens has admitted to having participated in meetings where coup plans were discussed, although he claims he was simply an observer. Historically, in Latin America, the U.S. embassy has been ground zero for regime change. There is no reason to think the latest coup in Honduras is any different.

President Obama may have trouble pulling off his innocent act. The European Union is threatening to suspend $92 million in aid to Honduras, which caused Secretary of State Clinton to make a call, pretending to pressure the civilian coup leaders.

In the end, it is even possible that the U.S. will allow Zelaya to return, although in a weakened condition. The coup will have served as a lesson to Latin America, that the U.S. is still in the regime-change business, even if Barack Obama denies it with a straight face.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Congo, Ebola Virus Disease, and Colonial Exploitation
22 May 2026
Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, joins Black Agenda Report to discuss the latest outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease and explains what it tells us about conditions in that…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Deed Theft and Black Communities
22 May 2026
Leah Goodridge, a New York City-based attorney, housing advocate, and writer, is a member of the City Planning Commission. She joins Black Agenda Report from New York to discuss deed theft and…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Ahmed Kaballo
Ahmed Kaballo on the France Africa Summit
20 May 2026
Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report speaks with Ahmed Kaballo, founder of Nairobi-based Sovereign Media, about the Africa Forward summit with France, the Pan-Africanism Summit Against…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Betrayal in Venezuela
20 May 2026
Venezuela’s betrayal of Alex Saab in handing him over to the U.S. leaves little room for debate. The Bolivarian revolution has been seriously undermined and can only be revived by the Venezuelan…
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Malcolm X and Human Rights in the Time of Trumpism: Transcending the Masters Tools
20 May 2026
Malcolm X understood that “oppressed peoples must commit themselves to radical political struggle in order to advance a dignified approach to human rights.” What’s needed is a bottom-up mass movement…