General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez and the Gobierno del Reino: 
Theocracy in Honduras?

General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez is part of the group that ousted the legitimate president Zelaya of Honduras on June 28, 2009. He has a checkered past which includes a stint as a car thief (see Honduras Coup General Was Charged in 1993 Auto Theft Ring  7/4/2009 NarcoNews and General golpista Vásquez fue detenido por robo de carros en 1993  7/12/2009 Cuba Debate).

He also has a history of involvement with Dominionist Christians who seek to install theocracies in their governments. Gen. Vasquez was a star attraction at the 2008 II Congreso MIGAPartners in Paris, France. He was scheduled to present at the 2009 conference in Miami on 7/25/09, but apparently did not make it.

Velasquez' evangelical bent recalls that of Rios Montt in Guatemala, who supervised the massacre of over 250,000 Native Americans in the '80s. Hillary Clinton herself, as some of the articles below reveal, is well linked in to the US theocracy movement, very popular in 17th century New England and still wielding considerable influence. That movement also presided over a great genocide of Native Americans in New England, one known as King Phillips's War in 1676.

Leva Cabrera Libre: Romeo Vásquez  10/21/2009 Habla Honduras!: "El Golpista Romeo Vásquez ha ordenado al gobierno de facto de Roberto Goriletti, por medio de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, que ponga en libertad a varios reclusos amigos suyos que tendrían que purgar penas perpetúas en cárceles de Honduras… En febrero de 1993 la Dirección Nacional de Investigación (DNI) capturó a Leva Cabrera y a Romeo Vásquez Valásquez por dirigir la “Banda de los Trece” y bajo los cargos de robo de automóviles en El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras. A la semana de ser capturados por los agentes de investigación, Vásquez Velásquez salió libre de la Penitenciaría Nacional. En tanto, Leva Cabrera se escapó de la cárcel. El huyó a El Salvador y más tarde a Nicaragua. En 1999, efectivos de la policía de ese país lo detuvieron en un hotel de Granada, Nicaragua, cuando participaba en una reunión familiar. Más tarde, autoridades de ese país lo extraditaron a Honduras… Los juzgados hondureños lo condenaron a 80 años de prisión por una serie delitos, entre los cuales destacan, robo de carros, tráficos de armas, narcotráfico y falsificación de documentos."

Honduras Coup General Was Charged in 1993 Auto Theft Ring  7/4/2009 NarcoNews: "General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, who appeared on stage this week with Honduran coup “president” Roberto Michiletti, and who ordered the kidnapping and forced deportation of P resident Manuel Zelaya last Sunday, was charged with grand auto theft in 1993, Narco News has learned. On February 2, 1993, the front page of the Tegucigalpa daily El Heraldo included this headline: “Eleven Members of the Gang of 13 Go to Prison”: “Eleven individuals arrested for their alleged participation in the theft of 200 luxury automobiles… were sent to prison yesterday… (including) Colonel Wilfredo Leva Caborrea and Major Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, accused as alleged participants…”"

Articles

Honduras

Honduras Tilts Toward Revolution  9/21/2009 Consortium News: Honduran Filmmaker Óscar Estrada describes the split in Honduras' ruling class and discusses the hard right religious bent of the coup regime.

Micheletti vs la “Bestia”  9/8/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "Al condenar desde el Parlamento hondureño al “lépero” Miranda, el hoy golpista Michiletti retomaba religiosamente las maldiciones proferidas por la jerarquía católica en contra de los seguidores de Miranda por tatuarse el diabólico signo 666 en el cuerpo.  El arzobispo de Tegucigalpa, cardenal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez, hoy partidario del golpe de estado, había denunciado al líder satánico que encabeza la secta Creciendo en Gracia, por promover manifestaciones callejeras."

Creciendo en Gracia, una secta en campaña agresiva en Iberoamérica  9/7/2009 Zenit, Rome: Zenit es un periodico catolico en Roma - "En estos últimos años se ha puesto de actualidad una secta de origen cristiano denominada "Creciendo en Gracia", que se caracteriza por un proselitismo agresivo y sus ataques a la Iglesia católica y a otras confesiones religiosas. Fundada por un puertorriqueño que se hace llamar "Jesucristo hombre" y el Anticristo, está extendida por todos los países de habla hispana. Por eso publicamos este estudio, realizado por Luis Santamaría del Río, sacerdote de la diócesis de Zamora y miembro de la Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las Sectas (RIES)."

El golpe de estado en Honduras y los aparatos clericales  8/28/2009 ADITAL: por Helio Gallardo Martínez, Teólogo del DEI (Departamento Ecuménico de Investigación). Profesor de la Universidad de Costa Rica -- "Por el contrario, la ruindad ventajista de las palabras del Cardenal no hizo sino confirmar que al menos él sí sabía que se había producido un golpe de Estado y que políticamente un eventual retorno de Zelaya tornaría más vigorosa la resistencia interna de la población que se oponía a los golpistas. Puesto que tuvo a la mano una mejor y coherente opción para debilitar la posición de Zelaya (a quien probablemente odia por razones personales) su aporte personal, además de ruin, puede considerarse estúpido. Que se haya reparado poco en ello se deriva exclusivamente de que, como cardenal, la gente ve en él y escucha en sus palabras, algo sagrado."

Catalyzing a New Movement - The Coup and Honduran Women  8/26/2009 Counterpunch: "One of the things that provoked the coup d'etat was that the president accepted a petition from the feminist movement regarding the day-after pill. Opus Dei mobilized, the fundamentalist evangelical churches mobilized, along with all the reactionary groups," he explained."

Honduras … Left behind?  7/23/2009 Mex Files: "I keep wanting to spell “Prophet” as “Profit”… and maybe for good reason. Setting up the Kingdom Government costs money. Profeta Chavez’ group… MIGA Partners seeks “partners” willing to pony up a thousand to five thousand U.S. Dollars in return for which Profeta Chavez will bless your region, nation or economic zone… or something like that. Outside the Kingdom are the Garifuna, the afro-indigenous people of Honduras. If you’ll remember, the “rationale” still being used to justify the coup was to prevent a referendum on a constitutional convention that might (not would) lead to a new consitution, that would probably have incorporated new trends in Latin American political theory that don’t bode well for the old power elite … who apparently, being already blessed on this earth, are the logical heirs to the Kingdom."

Grupo "evangelico" anuncia presencia del general golpista Vásquez en Miami  7/23/2009 Aporrea: "El General golpista Romeo Vásquez, quien secuestró y expulsó de Honduras al Presidente Constitucional Manuel Zelaya, estaría en Miami este de 22 de julio para participar en un encuentro convocado por un tal "profeta" Jaime Chávez en el Centro de Convenciones de esa ciudad norteamericana. La presencia en territorio de Estados Unidos del jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras fue anunciada por los organizadores del "IV Congreso MIGApartners" que tendría lugar bajo el tema "El Gobierno del Reino en Miami"." Jean Guy Allard

Honduran Coup Leader joins Prophets & Apostles in Miami Saturday; He Should Be Arrested  7/23/2009 Daily Kos 

Honduras Gets "Left Behind"™ as Top Coup Leader Bails for Miami Weirdo Conference  7/22/2009 BoRev.net 

Hillary Clinton moves State Department to the right of Condoleezza Rice  7/21/2009 OnLine Journal: "It was then announced that Clinton’s presidential campaign adviser Lanny Davis, a consummate Washington, DC, slime merchant and ardent Zionist, became a paid shill for the pro-Honduran junta Honduran Chamber of Commerce, CEAL. Davis is reportedly coordinating his activities with Republican members of the Congress who support the junta, including Cuban-American reactionary Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), as well as Otto Reich, George W. Bush’s Cuban-American Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs who worked overtime to overthrow Chavez in Venezuela and Morales in Bolivia… Mrs. Clinton has always seemed to have an affinity for fascists and their fellow travelers. She has written of “The Family” Christian cult leader Doug Coe, who provides housing on C Street on Capitol Hill for a number of conservative Republican and a few Democratic congressmen and senators, as “a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God.” However, Coe’s record shows that the only people he wants to “deepen his relationship” with are a number of tinhorn dictators around the world, including past military junta leaders in Honduras, Guatemala, and other Latin American countries."

WHAT JOHN ENSIGN, HILLARY CLINTON & THE HONDURAN RIGHT WING HAVE IN COMMON  7/15/2009 Wayne Madsen Report: "It is not only the Fellowship's involvement with the Ensign and Sanford sex scandals that has raised eyebrows but also Secretary of State Clinton's milquetoast response to the military coup in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, a progressive. The National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the Fellowship, has, in the past, attracted the right-wing elite of Honduras, including Zelaya's predecessor, Ricardo Maduro, who was backed by the same Christian evangelical forces that forced Zelaya from power. WMR also previously reported on another link between the Fellowship and Honduras's right wing through the DeMoss Foundation, which is linked to Fellowship ministry operations: The DeMoss Foundation is anti-gay, anti-abortion, and favors close links between church and state. Arthur [DeMoss] dropped dead of a heart attack at age 53 while playing tennis at his ritzy Main Line estate in Bryn Mawr, outside of Philadelphia. In addition to supporting [Charles] Colson's [Prison Fellowship] group, the foundation gives generously to the American Center for Law and Justice, the legal group run by Pat Robertson. DeMoss also supports the Plymouth Rock Foundation, an extreme right-wing Christian Reconstructionist movement that advocates the imposition of Biblical law in the United States and the death penalty for adulterers, homosexuals, heterosexual sodomists, non-Christians, and witches."

The Fellowship, Governor Mark Sanford’s Secretive Christian Landlords On C Street  6/25/2009 Guanabee: "1984 The Fellowship brought former Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova to the prayer breakfast. In 2002, Casanova was found liable for the torture of thousands of civilians in the 1980s. Casanova attended the breakfast along with Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, then the head of the Honduran armed forces. Alvarez, later linked to the CIA and a secret death squad, became an evangelical missionary before he was assassinated in 1989."

Hillary's Prayer Circle, The Family AKA Fellowship, Doug Coe  4/27/2008 YouTube: "Today, the Family's members includes dictators from around the world. One Honduran death squad organizer, Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, was convicted in a Miami court of torturing over 1000 Hondurans."

Meet 'The Family'  6/13/2003 Global Network: "GNN: What are the connections between the CIA and the Fellowship? SHARLET: A lot of their key men in a country would be the intelligence officers in the American embassy. Throughout their correspondence, that's the kind of guy they would like to have involved. They always had a lot of Army intelligence guys involved, Pentagon guys. Doug Coe in the early 70's was touring the frontlines in Vietnam with intelligence officers and South Vietnamese generals. That's the level of connections they are talking about, like the Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova [convicted by a Florida jury for the torture of thousands] and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez [a minister also linked to the CIA and death squads]. They are the people who brought those people in. They said you need to meet this person. That's how it works. Their diplomacy can affect some good things, like the truce in Rwanda. They had a lot of connections with the South African [apartheid] regime, where they were generally a moderate, even a progressive force. But it's kinda hard to name a nasty regime around the world that doesn't have really well-documented connections to them. Franco was a hold-out. So they started winning over a bunch of ministers in the Franco regime and then they went to Franco and said this is a good group, we can do business with them."

Showing Faith in Discretion  9/27/2002 LA Times: "The Fellowship also has brought controversial figures to Washington, where they have met with U.S. officials either at the prayer breakfast or other venues. Among them are former Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who in July was found liable by a civil jury in Florida for the torture of thousands of civilians in the 1980s. He was invited to the 1984 prayer breakfast, along with Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, then the head of the Honduran armed forces. Alvarez, later linked to the CIA and a secret death squad, became an evangelical missionary before he was assassinated in 1989. "The people that are involved in this association of people around the world are the worst and the best," Coe said. "Some are total despots. Some are totally religious. You can find what you want to find."


Mexico

Mexico: Agresión perpetrada por parte del grupo religioso evangelista contra adherentes de La Otra Campaña en ejido Mitziton: 1 muerto y 4 heridos  7/21/2009 CMI Chiapas: "Un muerto y cuatro heridos de lo cuales uno muy grave, son el saldo de la agresión perpetrada contra poblador@s del ejido Mitziton (en el municipio de San Cristóbal de las Casas), adherente a La Otra Campaña. El ataque ha sido llevado a cabo por el grupo religioso evangelista “Alas de Aguila”, conocido como “Ejército de Dios”, que opera con estructura militar incluyendo comandantes, tenientes y soldados."


United States

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush  8/11/2009 Council for Secular Humanism: "Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.” This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.” After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn’t comply with Bush’s request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal. Dr. Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel. Jehovah vows to smite them savagely, to “turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,” and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, the mystical book of Revelation envisions Gog and Magog gathering nations for battle, “and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”"

Hillary Clinton's secret gov't prayer group: The Fellowship  5/22/2008 YouTube: "The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes -- knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs." [click on more info on the upper right, under AntiConformist911]

Doug Coe, The Fellowship, Hillary Clinton and Why You Should Care  4/14/2008 Religion and Spirituality: "Doug Coe, a man Hillary Clinton has called a “genuinely loving spiritual guide and mentor for many” has been caught on tape praising the personal relationships shared by Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler. In the same speech Coe expressed admiration for the dedication of Chinese soldiers who, according to Coe, were forced to chop off the heads of their mothers as a demonstration of their commitment to the People’s Republic of China."

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate  3/19/2008 The Nation: "At the heart of The Family's American branch is a collection of powerful right-wing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe and Rick Santorum. They get to use The Family's spacious estate on the Potomac, The Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by The Family's young women's group. And, at The Family's frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already powerful. Clinton fell in with The Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the Senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, The Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."

Dysfunction in the Fellowship Family  9/1/2007 Ben Daniel: "The Fellowship Foundation is an organization that goes by many names, but members mostly call it “the Fellowship,” or just “the Family.” It is a loose, worldwide affiliation of mostly wealthy, mostly powerful, mostly men, using the Mafia as an organizational model. Preaching a simple gospel of “Jesus plus nothing,” and, being adverse to institutionalized forms of Christianity (even shunning the name “Christian”), the Fellowship eschews organized churches, choosing instead to build strong relationships in the community of small cell groups. Each year the Fellowship hosts the National Prayer Breakfast and hundreds of prayer breakfasts worldwide, and through the relationships developed in these cell groups and prayer breakfasts, the Fellowship quietly exerts great influence within our nation’s corridors of power. For years, the Fellowship has operated without accountability, oversight, or restraint, in ways that are cult-like in the spiritual, emotional, and personal control that is exerted over members."

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics  9/1/2007 Mother Jones