The bullet that killed the young man yesterday at the Toncontin airport in Honduras was not fired from a military weapon. The military released a statement on the incident today.Hunter Smith just released this news from El Heraldo:

This is just a rough translation, as I am hurrying to make it available in English:

The Minister of Defense Adolfo Lionel Sevilla said this afternoon that the bullet that killed a young man at the demonstration Sunday in the Toncontín airport did not come from a military weapon.

According to the experts, the bullet that took the life of a young 19 year old, was not from a military caliber. The report reveals that the direction the young man died does not coincide with the trajectory of the direction of the bullet from the armed forces.

Ramón Custodio: army used rubber bullets

The National Commissioner of Human Rights, Ramón Custodio, said this Monday that the military did not cause the death of the young man that passed away yesterday during the disturbances that happened at the airport in Tegucigalpa.

“Whoever shot wanted this person to die”, said the Commissioner of Human Rights Ramón Custodio and adding that the military elements used rubber bullets to drive away protesters who caused destruction in the international airport.

The Macedonian trick used against the chariot depended on understanding horse psychology.

He really screwed up marching through Baluchistan.

His temper was so bad that he murdered more than a few of his friends — regretting it after the fact.

Probably works for Xe.

This issue of re-election has much, much more significance in Latin America than in the US. At least by an order of magnitude.

The best example is the Mexican revolution of 1910. Porfirio Diaz, the long reigning strongman made the mistake of telling a journalist “of course” he would allow free elections in 1910. A naive son of the northern bourgeoisie, Francisco Madero, took the old man at face value. He wrote a book calling for a prohibition against re-election and started a presidential campaign. Once this campaign became credible it was subjected to the state repression and Madero was arrested. Diaz won breathtaking majorities and Madero escaped to Texas to proclaim the revolution.
(The purist Madero refused to take power after Diaz resigned – he waited an interminable 6 months, with a Diaz appointee as interim president, for another proper *by the book* presidential campaign and election to take office. He was overthrown by a military coup backed by the U.S. …)
The revolutionary condition lasted for 20 years, sometimes subsiding when a president was selected, but invariably re-emerging as each president in turn, (Carranza and Obregon), succumbed to the temptation to attempt to have themselves re-elected. Only the corrupt agreement in 1929 between the various revolutionary jefes ended the cycle of violence – each president would retain the right to nominate his successor.

Coups de etat against Latin American presidents attempting to be re-elected are a longstanding tradition and have generally been regarded as the best protection for a small republic to maintain independence against the United States and other powers. Apparently Chavez wants to take our place as the hemisphere’s premier imperialist …

Zemaya’s attempt to perpetuate his presidency is a clear threat to the principles of 20th century Latin American reformism. This is one conflict that the US ought to be very, very careful about meddling in. It might be useful to offer a neutral venue for arbitration, but, unfortunately, the administration has already taken a side in this profound Honduran constitutional crisis.

It seems some people don’t believe in the rule of law.

I got banned over there also – it was 2001, I think – 2002 at the latest. No explanation, but I’m pretty sure it was my running into a sacred cow as well. I miss it still – I came over with a pile of folks who used to post regularly @ Lucianne.com… I have’t been to FR in years now.

Like the Twitter idea, and the meet-up thing, but it’s a long way to Houston from here.

Triton