[GreenYouth] Honduras Updates

[Sukla Sen]

[Honduras is now faced with a stalemate.

Zelaya lacks the strength to overthrow the new regime installed through a
military takeover by means of popular insurrection.
The regime, already internationally ostracised, is in no position to subdue
persistent popular protests nor gain legitimacy with the world beyond.

The as yet fruitless and protracted "negotiation" is aptly reflective of
that.
Evidently, it can't go on indefinitely.
This is an unstable equilibrium.
This is an unstable equilibrium.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/world/americas/19honduras.html?_r=2&ref=wo

July
19, 2009
Mediator Proposes Reinstating Honduran LeaderBy ELISABETH
MALKIN

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The mediator in talks seeking to break the deadlock
between the deposed Honduran president, Manuel
Zelaya,
and the de facto government that exiled
him
urged
both sides on Saturday to agree to a plan that would return the ousted
leader and grant a general amnesty for political offenses.

The seven points proposed by the mediator, President Óscar Arias of Costa
Rica,
during a second round of negotiations at his house in the capital, San José,
would require the political elite of
Honduras
to
recognize Mr. Zelaya as the country’s legitimate president, which they have
yet to do. Rixi Moncada, a representative of Mr. Zelaya, said Mr. Arias
proposed during the afternoon session that the ousted president be
reinstated by Friday.

The two sides ended talks at 8:45 p.m. Saturday (10:45 p.m. Eastern time)
and are to resume Sunday. The delegation for the de facto government asked
for time to consult with officials in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

Mr. Arias said that there were still many differences between the sides and
that he had asked them to make one last effort to be flexible.

But there appeared to be signs of movement. As the talks ended for the day,
Carlos López, a member of the delegation for the de facto government, said
he hoped that Mr. Arias could announce good news on Sunday.

Outside the negotiations, though, both sides took a combative stance,
appearing to play to their hard-line supporters.

Mr. Zelaya promised to return to Honduras soon, in defiance of promises by
the de facto government to arrest him.

The government of Roberto
Micheletti,
who was named president by Congress after the military forced Mr. Zelaya
onto a plane to Costa Rica three weeks ago, threw up a raft of legal
objections to the idea of letting him return under an amnesty.

Although Mr. Arias’s plan would restore Mr. Zelaya, it would also sharply
curtail his powers and focus much of the country’s political energy on an
early presidential election.

Mr. Zelaya’s delegation nevertheless said it had agreed in principle to all
seven points. But one of Mr. Micheletti’s negotiators, Vilma Morales, a
former Supreme Court president, told local radio on Saturday that it was up
to the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and election authorities to decide
on most of the points.

As the talks went on, Mr. Zelaya, who was in neighboring Nicaragua, told
Honduran radio that he might return home as soon as Monday.

His wife, Xiomara Castro, leading protesters in Tegucigalpa on Saturday,
said he would return within hours, “no matter the bayonets and machine guns”
his supporters might face.

Those statements could heighten tensions in Honduras, which has been
paralyzed by strikes and protests since the June 28 coup. Mr. Zelayatried to
fly into the Tegucigalpa
airport
two
weeks ago on a small plane provided by the Venezuelan government, but
military vehicles parked on the tarmac blocked his approach. One supporter
was killed when soldiers pushed back those who had come to greet him.

As the talks began Saturday about 11 a.m., Mr. Arias warned both sides that
Honduras was facing increasing isolation. Mr. Zelaya has been recognized as
the legitimate president by the United
Nations,
the Organization of American
States
and
the Obama administration.

The Arias proposal would 

[GreenYouth] Honduras Updates

[Sukla Sen]

I/II.http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56K5WX20090722?sp=true

Honduras' Zelaya urges U.S. to step up sanctions
Tue Jul 21, 2009

By Simon 
Gardner

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya called on
the United States Tuesday to impose tough new sanctions against the de facto
government that toppled him in a coup last month.

Zelaya said he wrote to U.S. PresidentBarack
Obama and
asked him to step up the pressure against Honduras' coup leaders.

The army rousted Zelaya from his bed and sent him into exile in his pajamas
in a pre-dawn raid on June 28, after accusing him of violating the
constitution by trying to extend presidential term limits

Obama's administration has condemned the coup, cut $16.5 million in military
aid and threatened to slash economic aid, but Zelaya said more was needed.

"All this has been insufficient," he said from exile in neighboring
Nicaragua, urging new measures against the individuals who ordered and
carried out the coup, and have joined the interim government.

Talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to resolve the crisis
collapsed over the weekend but he asked both sides until Wednesday to find a
breakthrough.

With negotiations deadlocked and Zelaya vowing to return to Honduras within
days, some Latin American leaders fear Central America's worst crisis since
the end of the Cold War could flare into violence.

The U.S. government Tuesday threw its weight behind Arias' proposal which
calls for Zelaya's reinstatement to set up a coalition government. It also
stipulates that he abandon his bid to overhaul the constitution, which was
opposed by the military, Congress and Supreme Court.

"We're in constant contact with a number of countries in the hemisphere
regarding the situation in Honduras, and we believe the Arias mediation is
the right way to go, and the time is now to ... resolve this issue," State
Department deputy spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters.

Zelaya said he would give Arias the 72 hours he had requested, but if no
deal was reached he would return to Honduras as early as Thursday despite a
standing threat from the de facto government to immediately arrest him.

He made a failed bid to return in a Venezuelan plane earlier this month.
Soldiers blocked the runway and at least one protester was killed in clashes
with the army.

TEST FOR OBAMA

The crisis is testing President Barack
Obama as
he seeks to improve U.S. relations with Latin America, where a growing bloc
of leftist leaders that includes Zelaya has challenged Washington's
influence in recent years.

He faces pressure from Latin American heavyweight Brazil and other countries
in the region who want more pressure on Honduras' de facto government but at
home some Republicans in Congress feel Obama is showing too much support to
Zelaya.

Rivals of the ousted president say he was seeking to turn the traditionally
conservative coffee and textile exporting nation into a satellite of
Venezuela's firebrand leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has been a vocal supporter of Zelaya, putting his troops on alert
soon after the coup and rallying regional support around the deposed leader,
who has been touring the region and visiting Washington.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim called U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton last week to complain that talks were dragging on too long
and that Zelaya should be reinstated without conditions, a Brazilian
diplomat said.

"The negotiations must not reward a coup, which could in turn encourage
other coups," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Zelaya's supporters hope the United States -- Honduras' No. 1 trading
partner -- will ultimately force interim leader Roberto Micheletti to back
down.

"We think we are close to a deal, because there is international pressure
for the coup-mongers to talk," said Juan Vazquez, 35, an indigenous leader
who joined around 500 Zelaya supporters in a march in the capital
Tegucigalpa Tuesday.

"Zelaya will get all the support he needs from the people to get him back
into the presidency," said Jose Israel Estrada, 60, as he listened to
Zelaya, sporting his trademark cowboy hat, speak from Nicaragua over a dusty
radio outside the ranch owned by the ousted leader in the central province
of Olancho.

The Swedish European Union presidency said the bloc would continue to
restrict political contacts with Micheletti's government and "consider
further targeted measures."

The interim government remained defiant Tuesday, saying it has no intention
of allowing Zelaya to retake power.

It also gave the staff at Venezuela's embassy 72 hours to quit the country,
but they said they would refuse to leave.

(Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Ivan Castro in
Managua; Sean Mattson in Lepagu

[GreenYouth] Honduras Updates

[Sukla Sen]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20090809_Turbulence_in_Honduras_must_be_allayed_quickly.html
Posted on Sun, Aug. 9, 2009


Turbulence in Honduras must be allayed quickly

By Maurice Lemoine

The reaction was unanimous - from the Organization of American States to the
United Nations, from the European Union to President Obama. Everybody
condemned, without qualification, the June 28 coup that deposed Honduras'
head of state, Manuel Zelaya, and removed him by force to Costa Rica.

Miguel d'Escoto, president of the U.N. General Assembly, called for Zelaya
to be reinstated without delay in the office and functions to which he had
been appointed by the will of the people; no other option would be
acceptable to the international community.

Doubts had been expressed about Zelaya's legitimacy. Some claimed that he
had sought, unconstitutionally, to amend the country's 1982 constitution so
he could seek another term of office in the presidential elections coming in
November.

But this was not true. The constitution remains in force until further
notice, and the head of state cannot stand for reelection. With 400,000
signatures to support him, Zelaya had planned only to organize a voluntary
survey on election day to find out whether Hondurans wanted a Constituent
National Assembly to be convened at some point.

A peculiar feature of the present constitution is that it contains a number
of articles that are effectively set in stone, including Article 4, which
prohibits reelection of the president and which cannot be amended under any
circumstances - a curious rule to impose on the people, who are supposedly
the source of all state powers. Zelaya was ousted not for seeking
reelection, but merely for contemplating reform of the basic charter.

Zelaya made three big mistakes:

>From a base in the center-right Liberal Party, he severed his ties with
Honduras' ruling political and economic elite.

He increased the minimum wage 60 percent.

He joined the Bolivarian Alliance, which includes Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador,
Venezuela, and other governments that advocate breaking with neoliberalism.

Through this coup, the right has simply attacked the weak link in that
organization.

President George W. Bush supported the attempt to overthrow Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela in April 2002. Obama joined the condemnation of the man who led
the Honduran putsch, Roberto Micheletti. But while Obama declared that
Zelaya alone is president of Honduras, his secretary of state, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, suggested that Costa Rica's president, Oscar Arias, act as
mediator - keeping the left and center-left Organization of American States
out of the picture.

Powerful anti-Zelaya forces are at work in Washington. The Pentagon has a
strategically important military base in Honduras, in Palmerola. It has
already lost its base in Manta, Ecuador, which was closed at the request of
the president, Rafael Correa.

Hugo Llorens, the U.S. ambassador to Honduras appointed by Bush in September
2008, was director of Andean affairs at the National Security Council in
2002 and 2003, covering Venezuela at the time of the coup. Just before June
28 in Honduras, Llorens attended meetings with "military officials and
opposition leaders."

Zelaya has rejected Arias' proposed national-reconciliation government -
which would reinstate Zelaya as president, but without any real power. So
has Micheletti, to the annoyance of Clinton, who offered him a chance to
emerge from the crisis in pole position. Was this Washington duplicity or a
difference between the White House and the State Department-Pentagon
partnership?

If order is not restored, and if Honduras succumbs to violence, Obama's
standing will be seriously impaired in Latin America, where he had been
welcomed with sympathy and hope.

--
Maurice Lemoine is a journalist and an expert on Latin American politics. He
can be contacted atlemo...@agenceglobal.com. This article was translated by
Barbara Wilson and distributed by Agence Global.



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