honduras

Obama's preparing for his first State of the Union speech, and we're wondering if once again he's going to try to be all things to all people. After all, on the campaign trail he dismissed talk of a spending freeze, only to adopt that language a year into his administration, and with the economic team he's still using, he's starting to remind us of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton--who may have slashed the deficit, but did so on the back of his "welfare reform.

The U.S. has decided to recognize the result of the recent elections in Honduras despite ongoing reports that the elections were boycotted and that the people consider them an extension of the coup. But will the coup in Honduras create larger problems for Latin America? What will its effects mean for the rest of Latin America, a region trending leftward in recent years? Nation contributor Greg Grandin and Sujatha Fernandes, Queens College professor join us in studio to discuss.

The recent election in Honduras was boycotted by supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Both candidates in the presidential race were supporters of the coup d'etat, and the victors quickly declared the election free and fair, and claimed 65 percent popular support. Yet as this video from The Real News Network shows, the truth is much more complicated.

The School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia, has long been a training facility for Latin American military officers, many of whom have gone on to be involved in gross human rights violations. We look back at the effects of US intervention in Latin America and connect the patterns to the current situations in Afghanistan and Iraq with Nation contributor Christian Parenti, the Rev.