Romeo Vasquez led the military coup in Honduras.  According to SOA Watch, Vasquez graduated from the U.S. military training facility at Fort Benning, Georgia, School of the Americas (SOA), now "WHINSEC," the school that trains participants to commit war crimes that human rights defenders oppose as a patriotic, moral duty.

Forty-seven percent of Los Angeles residents are Latino or of Latino origin. Most sought refuge in the City of Angels and other American cities due to first-hand experience of human rights violations in their homelands: unfair trade, military coups, torture and assassinations of friends and family members rooted in the U.S., much at School of the Americas. This seldom recognized history of the wave of immigrants on the U.S. southern border and root causes are provided in a short, animated Cannibol.com video, Borders.

In opposition to peace, justice and rule of law, Honduran military personnel kidnapped the Chavez-style, democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya and took him to the air force base just hours before he was to hold a lawful referendum that would have enabled extending his term in office.

Zelaya flew to neighboring Costa Rica for political asylum. Speaking on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica, he stated that the soldiers fired guns and threatened to kill him if he resisted.

The military applied Electronic Warfare tactics on Hondurans, cutting their state television, electricity in the capital, Tegucigalpa, telephones, cellphones and internet access to halt communications in and out. The military took over Government institutions.

Ignoring “stay-home" warnings, hundreds of Zelaya and democracy supporters flooded onto streets of Tegucigalpa shouting, "We want Mel!" (Mel is the president's nickname.)  Some protesters lay down in the streets to prevent military vehicles from passing, according to AFP. 

Hugo Chavez commented that today's coup appears like CIA activity.

After days of mounting pressure, Zelaya had told an El Pais reporter that “unknown people from the US government" had “made some phone calls” and that “"If I'm sitting here today in the President's office, it's thanks to the U.S."  This begs the question: Is the fact that Zelaya is not in the Honduran President’s office today due to the U.S.?

Only "looking forward" invalidates many living the past each day

"The U.S. Army School of the Americas... has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world," according to U.S. Congressman Joseph Kennedy.  SOA Watch reports that SOA produced at least eleven Latin American dictators.

US government paid scholarships for soldiers from South and Central Americans enables them to learn to torture and oppress their own people, according to the documentary, On The Line, featuring work of SOA Watch.

SOA Watch has been a forceful education leader in the fields of human rights and accountability of US DoD SOA graduates. According to the human rights group, SOA graduates have suppressed Latin American democracy through persecution, torture, assassinations and military coups, documented in The Real News video, Past is Present in Latin America.

SOA human rights violations and its breach of international law are nothing new to Hondurans. SOA Watch reported that "Honduras’s first-hand experience with bloody work of School of the Americas graduates and SOA trained military dictators" include:

• In 1975, SOA Graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. 
• From 1980-1982 SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia headed the dictatorial Honduran regime and intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared of all Latin America death squads.
• Honduran SOA graduates, with help of Argentine SOA graduates, founded Battalion 3-16.
• José Valle, SOA graduate, admitted torturer, member of Battalion 316 stated, "[I took] a course in intelligence at the School of the Americas [in which I saw] a lot of videos which showed the type of interrogation and torture they used in Vietnam. Although many people refuse to accept it, all this is organized by the U.S. government," highlighted in the PBS video,  Inside the School of Assassins.

The Costa Rica President is calling for international solidarity for Honduran democracy.  European Union called for Zelaya's release. President Obama said he was deeply concerned, requested Hondurans to “respect democratic norms,” and validated that  Zelaya is still the country's president.

SOA Watch members asks Americans to call the State Department (202.647.4000 or 1.800.877.8339) and the White House (202.456.1111, Switchboard: 202.456.1414) and demand that they call for immediate reinstatement of Honduran President Zelaya.

Learn, act, and keep asking "Why?": Patriotic disenters Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Fr. Roy Bourgeois plus Confessions of an Economic Hitman author, John Perkins present illuminating connections between SOA and the dark side of American foreign policy in the video, On the Line. Learn why the Honduras Independence Day in September is ultra-important to Hondurans. Visit SOA Watch and Presente! for updated information.  Watch TeleSur in Spanish for live updates in Spanish. View LA professional peace worker, Frank Dorrel's documentary, What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policies The War Against the Third World.