Yesterday, the New York Times published a letter signed by Ana Pineda, former assistant to the golpista human rights commissioner Ramón Custodio and current Minister of Human Rights. Pineda, who was assigned to the newly-created position by Pepe Lobo to make it look like his government was doing something about human rights while ignoring the demands of all the legitimate long-standing human rights organizations—or her handler/ghostwriter (most high-placed people have them, I know, I've ghostwritten NYT letters myself)—takes issue with the New York Times' use of the word "impunity" in the recent article Honduras Faces Criticism Over Journalist Killings After a Coup, based on the claim that some arrest warrants have been issued and one criminal trial is underway.

I don't need to go into detail about why this argument is fallacious. Performing an individualized theater of legality in a wholly anti-democratic coup government context, in which the system that put itself into power against the will of the people it purports to represent investigates itself and finds its hands clean (using high rates of "common crime" as a smokescreen), is not convincing anyone. More important than the weak argument signed by Pineda is the fact that it got published, evidence of an ongoing PR strategy begun by Lanny Davis; Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates; WOLA, and others in conjunction with key actors in the State Department. Questions: Who wrote the letter? Who pulled the strings to make sure it got published? What NGOs are involved and how are they coordinating with the State Department and Lobo?

Part of the strategy is the good cop approach of trying to co-opt the Comisión de Verdad, the committee created to oppose Lobo's (and the U.S. State Department's) coup-whitewashing Comisión de la Verdad, which has as members UNAH rectora Julieta Castellanos and a Canadian mining company lawyer, among other more extreme characters. This is being done by tugging on the weaker links of the Comisión de Verdad, in order to divide and debilitate its member organizations, channel its agenda in a much more (neo-)liberal direction, and make use of the legitimacy that the Platform of Human Rights enjoys to help achieve recognition for the current golpista regime.

Case in point: a joint appearance with Andrés Pavón of Codeh, Ana Pineda, and Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez, one of the worst government violators of human rights Honduras has had in decades, having inherited his uncle Gustavo Alvarez Martinez's revulsion for the people. Another thing to keep an eye on is the Letelier-Moffitt award, to be given this year to the Honduran Human Rights Platform. On the one hand, it's a prestigious award and a great opportunity for the Plataforma to get press, lobby, and seek out more resources. But on the other hand, awards, like grant money, are often control mechanisms. They give legitimacy to the award giver by linking it to legitimate radical causes, and they simultaneously attempt, and often succeed in deradicalizing the recipients. Award acceptance speeches that are too provocative for the crowd, which spans the liberal DC Latin America policy scene, are edited by the award committee to something that suits their reformist taste (as was the case last year with the highly deserving award recipients from La Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería Metálica en El Salvador), and recipients are prohibited from veering from their script. Also, in the case of the award being given to the Plataforma, the odd stipulation has been given that representatives from only two of the six organizations will be invited to receive the award.

At the same time, as Annie Bird points out in a recent article, the State Department, having failed at its arm-twisting to get Lobo's Honduras readmitted to the OAS, is also "softening" its stance (in the "soft power" sense, which of course, is not really soft at all). María Otero was sent to Honduras last week as the good cop, and though she made clear that a change in the human rights situation is not a precondition for Honduras's entry into the OAS, she has made overtures to the resistance. Although these overtures were roundly rejected (for better or worse), it is significant and a welcome sign that the FNRP is finally beginning to be recognized by the U.S. government as a legitimate actor. And just as high-level U.S. policy NGOs are working on bringing the Plataforma into line, State's main tactic for taming the Frente is the same as it has been since November: bring a few representatives into Lobo's "National Dialogue" under his (read State's) terms and conditions. Hence, the new push to put a legitimate resistance member on Eduardo Stein's whitewashing Truth Commission.

So far, these old tricks have not been very successful. If I had to bet on it, I'd say that eventually, State will win out on getting Honduras into the OAS. They've got Lobo meeting with Calderón, Santos, and other Latin American presidents to negotiate recognition. They're continuing their old arm-twisting strategies with presidents who are slower to convince. But forcing OAS recognition of Honduras, after so many successful blocks by the resistance movement in Honduras working together with people, nations, and elected leaders internationally to reject the coup government, will be a hollow victory for the U.S. State Department.