"[Honduran President Xiomara] Castro has deemed the forum, called the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, to be an illegitimate usurpation of Honduran sovereignty and has hit upon an elegant solution: She has taken steps to withdraw Honduras from ICSID."
"At issue are so-called ZEDEs created by previous governments of Honduras. The law that established ZEDEs — short for Zone for Employment and Economic Development — effectively carved out portions of Honduras and turned them over to American investors, who operate as effective sovereign governments."
"So to put the ZEDEs in context: The radical 'free market' intervention was only jammed into law as the result of a military coup and the stacking of the Supreme Court. The ZEDEs were then enacted and implemented for the benefit of U.S. investors by two narco-governors."
"Castro quickly and successfully moved to repeal the ZEDEs law in the face of intense bipartisan U.S. pressure to maintain them. The American response has been to repudiate the very idea of Honduran democracy and sovereignty, with investors using the World Bank’s ICSID to force the new Honduran government to respect the policies carried out by the former president now sitting behind federal bars."
"In its case before the ICSID, Próspera retained a top lobbying firm, employing former Democratic lawmaker Kendrick Meek, to pressure Honduras to pay up."
New Podcast: Ryan Grim on The Squad vs. the Israel lobby and Students for Justice In Palestine vs. Columbia University
First, Ryan Grim talks about his new book where he reports on the fight between the squad of progressive Democrats in Congress and Israel lobby organizations AIPAC and DMFI. We also hear from a student organizer at Columbia University about the school’s suspension of pro-Palestine groups.
I responded to this fundraising email from @theintercept and asked them to be more active on fedi and encouraged #RyanGrim to cross-post here. People & orgs with followings are not hapless victims of this internet moment, they can help drive traffic away from facebook by reporting their own moves toward better platforms. The path is made by walking...