{"id":133337,"date":"2014-07-25T14:44:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T14:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=133337"},"modified":"2014-07-25T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T14:44:13","slug":"hillary-clintons-real-scandal-honduras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/hillary-clintons-real-scandal-honduras\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton\u2019s Real Scandal Is Honduras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clinton’s Central American foreign policy blunder ought to darken her presidential prospects.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emily Schwartz Greco<\/em><\/p>\n

Is it too soon to predict who will be the next president of the United States?<\/p>\n

Without officially declaring her intention to run again, Hillary Clinton has cornered Democratic frontrunner status. Given the\u00a0weak and crowded Republican field<\/a>, that makes her the presumptive next occupant of a prestigious office lacking \u2013 as comedian\u00a0Jon Stewart observes<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 any corners.<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s apparent unbeatability this time around helps explain the\u00a0right-wing hysteria<\/a>\u00a0over the Benghazi tragedy. The conspiracy theories about the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya amount to a desperate effort to discredit the Democratic Party\u2019s strong centrist candidate. It\u2019s no surprise that this ploy isn\u2019t making a dent on her popularity.<\/p>\n

What beats me is why more Democrats aren\u2019t deeply troubled by the legacy of Clinton\u2019s foreign policy blunder in Honduras.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve forgotten what happened in that small country in the first year of the Obama administration \u2013 more on that in a moment. But surely you\u2019ve noticed the\u00a0ugly wave of xenophobia<\/a>\u00a0greeting a growing number of\u00a0Central American child refugees<\/a>arriving on our southern border.<\/p>\n

Some of President Barack Obama\u2019s supporters are trying to blame this immigration crisis on the Bush administration because of an\u00a0anti-trafficking law George W. signed in 2008<\/a>\u00a0specifically written to protect Central American children,\u00a0which\u00a0preceded the uptick in their arrivals. But which country is the\u00a0top source of kids crossing the border<\/a>? Honduras, home to the world\u2019s highest murder rate,\u00a0Latin America\u2019s worst economic inequality<\/a>, and arepressive, U.S.-backed government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Honduran military forces allied with rightist lawmakers ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in 2009,\u00a0then-Secretary of State Clinton sided<\/a>\u00a0with the armed forces and fought global pressure to reinstate him.<\/p>\n

Washington wields great influence over Honduras, thanks to the numerous military bases built with U.S. funds where\u00a0training and joint military and anti-drug operations take place<\/a>. Since the coup, nearly\u00a0$350 million in U.S. assistance<\/a>, including more than $50 million in military aid, has poured into the country.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of investment in a nation where the police, the military, and private security forces are killing people with alarming frequency and impunity,\u00a0according to\u00a0Human Rights Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In short, desperate Honduran children are seeking refuge from a\u00a0human rights nightmare<\/a>\u00a0that would cast a dark cloud over Clinton\u2019s presidential bid right now if the\u00a0media were paying any attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That wouldn\u2019t give Republicans a big advantage, of course. Until they stop alienating a majority of female voters and communities of color, I find it hard to see the party of\u00a0Mitt Romney<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0John McCain<\/a>\u00a0winning the White House.<\/p>\n

Given the Democratic Party\u2019s demographic edge, progressives have nothing to lose by seizing on the GOP field\u2019s weakness and pressing for a\u00a0viable alternative<\/a>\u00a0to another Clinton administration. Senator Elizabeth Warren could prove a contender. Unfortunately, the consumer-rights firebrand and Massachusetts Democrat lacks any foreign policy experience.<\/p>\n

And foreign policy is no afterthought these days. Israel \u2013 the recipient of\u00a0$3.1 billion a year in U.S. military aid<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 is waging a\u00a0ground war in Gaza<\/a>, and the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine conflict\u00a0just grew<\/a>\u00a0following the downing of that Malaysia Airlines jet. Plus, Iraq is growing more violent and unstable once more. On all these issues, Clinton is more hawkish than most of the Democratic base.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0other Democrats with a wide range of liberal credentials<\/a>\u00a0and foreign policy expertise are signaling some interest in running, especially if Clinton ultimately sits out the race.<\/p>\n

Even if Clinton does win in 2016, a serious progressive primary challenge could help shape her presidency. As more and more Honduran kids cross our border in search of a safe haven, voters should take a good look at her track record at the State Department and reconsider the inevitability of another Clinton administration.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinton’s Central American foreign policy blunder ought to darken her presidential prospects. Emily Schwartz Greco Is it too soon to predict who will be the next president of the United States? Without officially declaring her intention to run again, Hillary Clinton has cornered Democratic frontrunner status. Given the\u00a0weak and crowded Republican field, that makes her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17],"tags":[698],"class_list":{"0":"post-133337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-hillary-clinton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}