John Negroponte

In March, 2001, George W. Bush nominated John Negroponte for U.N. Ambassador. This is a further step to bring back the Iran-Contra figures, and those on the periphery of that dark period of our history when we were heavily involved with Latin American countries against the will of their people, in an attempt to gloss over the participation of the first Bush, whose pardon of Iran-Contra figures such as Elliott Abrams and Caspar Weinberger right before their trials may, according to many people, be the reason that the Elder Bush was never criminally prosecuted.

In early 1981, then ambassador Jack Binns, Carter-appointed to Honduras, made numerous complaints about human rights abuses by the Honduran military. Reagan then replaced Carter, and in response to Jack Binns' complaints and concerns about murders and disappearances, called him home and replaced him with John Negroponte.

Negroponte served as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, a period during which U.S. military aid to Honduras grew from $4 million to $77.4 million. Accusations abounded against the U.S.-backed military regime for violations against human rights in Honduras. Reports suggest more than 100 people disappeared, with a special intelligence unit called Battalion 316 at the center of the controversy. The question senators have for Negroponte is why he didn't raise concerns. Negroponte denies having knowledge of any wrongdoing. It has been suggested that the vast amount of evidence and testimony supporting the human rights violations would have required that Mr. Negroponte live in total isolation not to have noticed the crimes that had so disturbed Jack Binns. Later, the Honduras Commission on Human Rights accused Mr. Negroponte himself of human rights violations.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has been holding the hearing off until they received classified documents from that period. We the people have no idea what is in those classified documents but have no reason to feel that they will match the testimony of people who witnessed the area. We are here presenting the information we have on John Negroponte's role in those dark days of the eighties when, by accusing any leftist government of being "communist," some on the far right felt they had free rein to do whatever was necessary to remove the opposition.

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We ask for help in exposing records, accusations and testimony against John Negroponte. If you can join this campaign, write to us at:

Negroponte Campaign

The Case Against John Negroponte

A Letter of Testimony - Sister Laetitia Bordes worked in El Salvador for almost a decade in the 1980’s and 90’s. She is the author of the book Our Hearts Were Broken. In this letter, Sister Bordes recalls a meeting with John Negroponte in 1982, when she was sent to Honduras on a fact-finding mission regarding the disappearance of women who had fled El Salvador after the assassination of Archbishop Romero. Thirteen years later, Ambassador Binns reported that the women, after savage torture, had been taken up in helicopters and thrown to the ground. In this letter, Sister Bordes explains a bit about the roles of The School of the Americas and Battalion 3-16, designed in part for the murder of Nicaraguan Sandinistas, who had overthrown the U.S. backed dictator Somoza in 1979.

"Fatal Secrets" - "When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty. Was the CIA involved? Did Washington know? Was the public deceived? Now we know: Yes, Yes and Yes." (by Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, Staff of The Baltimore Sun, whose article was originally published on June 11, 1995.) This article is lengthy and full and hard on the heart, but the cause of honesty requires that it be made available. This is the kind of knowledge with which we must arm ourselves if we are determined to never again permit such atrocities to take place under the eyes of our own government. One must ask oneself whether these are the kinds of abuses that would be permitted by a man who would nominate a man like John Negroponte to be our country's human rights spokesman.

What Message is Bush Trying to Send? This short article by Duncan Campbell for The Sun-Herald of Sydney, Australia, asks that question and mentions the very disturbing information that "Some members of the battalion [316] lived in the US, but were deported just as Mr. Bush's selection of Mr Negroponte was announced." What DOES this say about the current administration's "honor and integrity"?

The Purpose of These In-Your-Face Appointments - Mary McGrory, in the July 8, 2001 edition of The Washington Post comments that "Choosing Abrams makes laughable Bush's promise of increased civility and bipartisanship. Ditto his claims of being 'a uniter, not a divider'." This article does not hold back in presenting the far-from-honorable character of Elliott Abrams, whom Bush has already - with no requirement for congressional approval - been able to reinstall in the White House. But the fact that Negroponte may appear to be more of a "gentleman" than the snarling Elliott Abrams in no way justifies Negroponte as being fit in any fashion to be a representative for human rights. Why? Why is Bush making these outrageous nominations and appointments? The author suggests that "Cuban Americans who helped the president in the great fight for Florida are getting what he feels is their due. Bush owes them big time."




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