September 4, 2009 / New York TIMES U.S. Terminates $22 Million in Aid to Honduras By GINGER THOMPSON
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, responding to calls to increase pressure on the de facto Honduras government, announced the termination on Thursday of about $22 million in United States aid that was suspended immediately after President Manuel Zelaya was deposed. “Restoration of the terminated assistance will be predicated upon a return to democratic, constitutional governance in Honduras,” said the State Department announcement. The announcement came after Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with Mr. Zelaya, who had called on the United States to match its tough words on his ouster with action. United States trade and assistance are the lifeblood of the Honduran economy. The State Department also announced that it was revoking the visas of several people who had been identified as members or supporters of the current Honduran government. And officials said that, as matters stand, the Obama administration would not recognize the upcoming Honduran presidential elections. Mrs. Clinton took these actions “recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras,” Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a spokesman, said in a statement. The accord, brokered by the Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, provided for Mr. Zelaya to resume his presidency in advance of the elections, to be held in November. In addition to the terminated $22 million in aid, officials said as much as $200 million in Millennium Challenge funds was at stake. The board of the fund, whose chairwoman is Mrs. Clinton, will discuss its grants to Honduras in a meeting next week. Mr. Zelaya said Wednesday, after a speech at George Washington University, that he appreciated the numerous statements President Obama had made in his defense since June 28 when Honduran soldiers rousted him from bed and loaded him, dressed in his pajamas, onto a plane leaving the country. Yet without tougher actions, he said, Mr. Obama’s statements had begun to ring hollow, hardening the intransigence of those who deposed him, and signaling to Latin America that the United States put politics above democratic principles. “He’s risking his prestige in Latin America,” Mr. Zelaya said. “We are not asking him to intervene. We are asking him to be consistent with democratic principles. And if he does that, Latin America will applaud.” A senior State Department official rejected Mr. Zelaya’s criticism on Wednesday, saying that the United States had exerted more pressure than any other country to restore Honduran democracy. “I would contest that this situation can be resolved with easy formulas,” the official said. “This situation is complex. If it weren’t it would have already been resolved.” So far, the reviews of Mr. Obama’s handling of the Honduras crisis have been mixed. Initially, the administration won praise throughout the hemisphere for condemning the coup in no uncertain terms and collaborating with other countries in the region to resolve the crisis rather than taking unilateral action. But with talks on restoring Mr. Zelaya at an impasse, there have been charges that the United States was sending mixed messages, publicly saying that it supports Mr. Zelaya’s return but refusing to use all its economic influence in Honduras to force the de facto government to resign. “If they can’t get the cast of characters in Honduras to behave the way they want them to,” said Julia E. Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, “how are they going to deal with Afghanistan or Iran?” The longer the political crisis in Honduras continues, the more of a conundrum it threatens to create for Mr. Obama. A handful of Congressional Republicans, backed by a well-connected group of lawyers and lobbyists, have mobilized in support of the de facto government, accusing Mr. Zelaya of illegally trying to change the Constitution so that he could run for another term. [horrors! will Honduras become like Colombia?] They have held up crucial State Department appointments to pressure the administration not to impose sanctions against Honduran leaders. A clash also appears to be brewing between the administration and some Latin American countries over whether to recognize the Honduran election scheduled to take place this autumn. Several countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Chile, have said they would not recognize an election overseen by the de facto government. The United States, Canada and Caribbean countries have so far not taken a formal position, saying that an election may be the only peaceful way to end the conflict that has polarized Honduras. Presidential campaigning began on Tuesday there, and in a televised address the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, said the contest would show the world that democracy was alive and well in Honduras. “This process will serve to categorically show that we appreciate democracy, that we are a people who want to live in harmony,” Mr. Micheletti said, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Micheletti, who is not a candidate, added that an election was the “only and definitive solution to the political crisis.” But Mr. Zelaya said the coup undermined Hondurans’ faith in democracy and in the rule of law. “Any elections without my presence would not end the crisis in my country,” he said. “They would only deepen the crisis.” Officials close to both Mr. Zelaya and Mr. Micheletti said that although formal negotiations seemed to be going nowhere, informal talks between Mr. Zelaya and his opponents had begun, raising hopes that a settlement could be reached. -- Jim Devine / "laugh if you want to / really is kinda funny / cause the world is a car / and you're the crash test dummy" -- Devil Makes Three. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
