Tomorrow is the date set for the fake elections being held by the Honduran coup régime that overthrew legitimately elected President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya for various alleged “crimes”, but really for daring to raise the minimum wage in a country whose wealth is so unevenly distributed that just a dozen families — ten of which support the coup — control almost all of its business activity.

The golpistas, or coup leaders, are so fond of democracy and constitutional freedoms — or at least their versions thereof — that, in addition to constant sonic LRAD and other attacks against the Brazilian Embassy where President Zelaya is currently living under siege, they have all but shut down any media that doesn’t back them to the hilt (and have issued an Executive Order giving themselves the authority to keep doing what they’ve already been doing); what’s more, they apparently boast about doing so. They are also pushing wild and everchanging numbers for both the total Honduras population and for the total number of persons eligible to vote. And the occasional teacher and resistance member keeps turning up dead:

The campaign of terror carried out by the dictatorship agaist the popular sectors is going forth just as Andrés Pavón, president of CODEH, stated it would a couple weeks ago. The attack perpetrated using military arms against the politician and businessman from Olancho, Ulisis Sarmiento, was just the beginning.

Today the body of professor Gradis Espinal, teacher with the resistance, is buried in the south of the country. His body was discovered yesterday, hands bound and executed, after having been reported as disappeared by his family members. Witnesses testify that he was captured by police and military elements in one of the many search operations being carried out throughout the country.

The coup and its leaders, as well as their fake elections, are the target of international condemnation. So why is the Obama Administration — after making a strong stand against the coup early on — letting the coup leaders get away with all of this? On the one hand, there’s the Lanny Davis Effect: The good friend of current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also a paid lobbyist for the golpistas. On the other hand, there’s the Jim DeMint Effect: The far-right knuckledragging Senator from South Carolina, who of course just loves the bloody-handed golpistas, has been holding key Obama Administration nominations hostage as a means to keep the White House from intervening effectively against the coup.

For more on what’s been happening in Honduras, see RAJ of Honduras Coup 2009’s brilliant summation.