Jul 22 2009

HeistWatch - Day 1

Posted by Jacquita in All Post
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Day 1 after the Washington Times reported that the chief of staff to impeached Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, Enrique Flores Lanza, may have stolen millions of dollars in cash from the Central Bank of Honduras, three days before Zelaya himself was arrested for treason…

So far, I have found only one newspaper that has even so much as mentioned the charges: the Miami Herald — which, for obvious reasons, has a greater interest than most in reporting stories connected to Red Cuba and Baja America. But even the Herald only gives it a single, cursory sentence:

In addition, Zelaya’s chief of staff, Enrique Flores Lanza, is accused of abuse of power and misuse of public funds for withdrawing about $2.2 million [sic] in cash from the Central Bank on June 24.

(The “sic” above denotes that the Washington Times in fact reported that Lanza withdrew a total of $2.75 million — not $2.2 million.)

One might expect a newspaper to wonder: If the chief of staff of the current president — a president attempting to do an end-run around a constitutional prohibition on a referendum to extend his rule — “is accused of… withdrawing about $2.2 million in cash from the Central Bank”…is it possible that chief of staff might have done so under orders from his boss? Perhaps to pay for the referendum — or to buy votes. Isn’t the question at least worth investigating?

So far, the answer is “Yes, it isn’t even worth investigating;” not even by a newspaper that does not stand in lockstep with Fidel and Raul Castro, Oogo Chavez, and Daniel Ortega. I find that sad, very sad.

Once and future Zelaya posts on Big Lizards and Hot Air’s rogues’ gallery: