News from Honduras

The new president and government will take power on Jan. 27 and no doubt in spite of the fact that Micheletti seems to have no plans to resign or form a govt. of national unity involving Zelaya the US will find it in its heart and interest to restart aid both military and other. The US has been trying to arrange another deal with Zelaya behind the scenes but the coup govt. does not seem ready to give an inch and never has. Why should it? The US is a pushover when it comes to a coup that it sees in its own interest.
Interestingly some in the military may face trial when they were in effect doing exactly what the coup leaders wanted. This may make for some bad blood between the politicians and the military although perhaps the military may not need to worry that much. The courts after all were against Zelaya so they can probably find enough extenuating circumstances to spare the military from any punishment. This is from hondurascoup. Note that the government is still repressing opposition media.

Saturday, January 9, 2010
Honduras is Broke
Eighteen days after Porfirio Lobo Sosa takes office, the country of Honduras will run out of cash and be unable to pay its debts without the help of international aid, says Gabriela Nuñez. The only way the country has survived the last six months is by living off its cash income and paying its debts off in a prioritized fashion, or rather, not paying some of them. "The most important thing is to comply with the priorities," she said, "even if there are pending payments that remain....its a work from week to week."
Posted by rns at 4:25 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: Gabriela Nuñez
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Supreme Court Assigns Judge in Military Case
The Supreme Court, after meeting as a whole today, assigned the Chief Justice, Jorge Alberto Rivera, to hear the case presented by the Public Prosecutor against the 5 generals of the military high command and to decide whether the case has merit and can proceed, according to El Heraldo's Minute by Minute column. On Tuesday, the Public Prosecutor, Luis Rubi, filed a complaint with the court accusing the generals of the military high command of "abuse of authority" in forcibly exiling President Manuel Zelaya on June 28. Today lawyers for the generals requested that the court not issue arrest warrants for them since they would be willing to come before the court whenever it requests their presence. Rivera will have six days to review the filing and make a finding.
Posted by rns at 2:32 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Supreme Court
De Facto Government Can't Make Payroll for January
The Finance Minister for the de facto government, Gabriela Nuñez announced today that she does not currently have access to sufficient funds to pay government employees for January. It all boils down to cash flow. She said she has access to about 400 million lempiras, and needs a total of about 1,500 million lempiras. In addition, she noted that the government has run up large debts with suppliers, including 450 million lempiras for medical supplies, and a further 700 million lempiras owed to road construction and paving contractors. She noted that the priority of the de facto government is to pay employees, and creditors will just have to wait. Nuñez expects that when the sales tax payments are received in mid-January, there might be enough for the government to pay its employees. Micheletti previously had assured us that they had sufficient funds to last through March.
Posted by rns at 2:03 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Gabriela Nuñez
Government Silences Opposition Radio Station
Reporters Without Borders today stated their belief that it was the de facto government of Honduras that silenced the community radio station "Galuma Bimetu" (also known as Radio Coco Dulce) in Triunfo de la Cruz over the weekend. The Garifuna station was broken into, equipment removed, then the building was burned. Reporters Without Borders said "the punishment of the authors of this crime will constitute a test for the government to be inaugurated on January 27." The attack "confirms the consistent danger that the independent media, known for their opposition to the coup against Manuel Zelaya, are under." Reporters Without Borders did not discard the possibility that the station was attacked because of its opposition to the development project known as the "Bahia de Tela", a project which expropriated Garifuna community lands to build a multinational resort in Triunfo. However, they noted that the station has been subjected to previous attacks by the de facto government, including the arrest of the station director, Alfredo Lopez, in August for "being a member of the resistance against the coup."
Posted by rns at 12:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Galuma Bimetu, Reporters Without Borders
Lopez Contreras: US Will Resume Aid
The Foreign Minister of the de facto government, Carlos Lopez Contreras, who yesterday assured us that the conversation between Craig Kelly and Roberto Micheletti did not touch on Micheletti resigning, today assures us that Kelly told Micheletti that US aid to Honduras would resume with the inauguration of Lobo Sosa, unconditionally. This contradicts the public statements of Lobo Sosa, who said that Kelly wanted Micheletti to resign by January 15 to facilitate the formation of a government of reconciliation, a requirement of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. Lopez Contreras said Micheletti's resignation was not discussed, and that the purpose of the meeting was for Kelly to tell Micheletti that the US would accept the results of the November election and resume aid to Honduras after Lobo Sosa's inauguration. Kelly left Honduras yesterday without making any public statements about his mission, or its results.

Today the US Embassy in Honduras put out a press release which reads in part:

"Mr. Kelly congratulated "Pepe" Lobo for his election and expressed the will of the United States to work with the new government of President Lobo to help confront the challenges once the Accord has been implemented....Mr. Kelly observed that the punctual implementation of the pending elements of the Accord are the best way to restore the position of Honduras with the international community."
Posted by rns at 8:58 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Craig Kelly, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, Roberto Micheletti, Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord

On the Honduran deal

The news media are simply ignoring what has happened in Honduras. One would think that critics would be all over Obama for his obvious siding with the coup leaders and silence on the fact that Micheletti has not even brought the agreement before the HOnduran Congress and probably will not before the presidential election at the end of November. All the talk about democracy in this article is a little bit of Disneyland since Honduran democracy involved basically a choice between two parties representing the elite. The transition to democracies from military governments in Central America was done in a manner that was meant to ensure as far as possible continued elite rule although to some degree in countries such as Nicaragua some degree of reformism seems to be winning out. The US is facing opposition not just from countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia but also to some degree from Brazil, Uruguay, and even Argentina. The position of the US on Honduras will renew Latin American suspicions about US motives. The US already seems to be using Colombia as a base and a proxy for operations in South America. Don't be surprised if countries such as Panama and Colombia recognise the upcoming Honduran elections as legitimate.

This is from the Huffington Post.

Bob OstertagComposer, historian, journalist, and Professor of Technocultural Studies and Music at UC Davis

The World's Original "Banana Republic" Strong-arms the World's "Last Remaining Superpower?"

The deal to reinstate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya unraveled this week, leaving the Obama administration as the only government in the western hemisphere willing to let the recent military coup there stand. What can you say when the "world's only remaining superpower" gets strong-armed by the world's original "banana republic"?

This is not "bold leadership." It isn't even status quo, for it has been years since Latin America has seen a military coup like those that plagued the region for much of the twentieth century. There were none, for example, during George W. Bush's time in the White House.

Honduras is one of the smallest, poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It has about the same population as New York City. It is the country where the term "banana republic" was coined. For one hundred years it has been dominated by agribusiness giants like United Fruit which grow bananas and compliantly corrupt governments there with equal success. In the political turmoil that engulfed Central America in the 1980s, with major civil wars in all of its neighboring countries, Honduras played the role of Washington's doormat in the region, with the US training a proxy army along the Nicaraguan border, running secret air missions over El Salvador, and running enough spies and spooks to keep the internal politics of Honduras on complete lock-down.

This corrupt, compliant, inept doormat of an army is what hustled the country's elected president out of bed at gunpoint and on to a plane out of the country five months ago. And now the Obama administration is left as the only government in the western hemisphere that can't find the cajones to stand up to this doormat military?

Could the problem have something to do with the $400,000 the illegal Honduran government has paid to lobbyists with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton? Hey wait a minute, wasn't Obama the guy who was going to run the lobbyists out of Washington?

Two weeks ago, Clinton spent 30 minutes on the phone with the leader of the illegal government, and announced that she had secured a deal that would put the elected president back in office, a deal she called a "big step forward for the inter-American system and its commitment to democracy." But no sooner had the deal been announced than the Honduran regime reneged on it, with the apparent blessing of US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon Jr., while the rest of Latin America sputtered about the "mixed messages" coming from Washington that were undermining Honduran democracy.

Wait a minute. The US is the only country in the hemisphere backing a military coup? Who is in the White House again?

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has announced he is resigning in the face of "mixed messages" from Clinton about Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which could leave Israel and the US to deal with Hamas as the sole organized voice of the Palestinian people. Nice work Hillary. Say, aren't you the one who wanted me to vote for you because you were "Ready to be Commander in Chief from Day One?"

With such high stakes in the Middle East, what's the big deal about Honduras? The coup there comes at a point in history when it seemed like Latin America was at long last done with military coups. Democracy has spread throughout the region in recent years as military dictatorships which came to power through coups fell and democratically elected governments took their place. Tens of thousands of people died as the direct result of these coups, in many cases while enduring the sorts of ferocious torture the US has recently been accused of at Guantánamo. In almost every case, the military governments were supported by the US.

Some of today's democratically-elected Latin American governments are hanging on by a thread in face of real threats of military coups. Just two days ago Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fired the commander of Paraguay's armed forces amidst loud rumors of an impending military coup. There is open talk of a coup against Bolivian President Evo Morales, the country's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish conquest. A coup in Bolivia would be a catastrophe for Latin America. Blood would flow. You can bet your last dollar that the generals and businessmen who are the subjects of coup rumors in Bolivia, Paraguay and elsewhere have been watching Washington's response to the coup in Honduras with intense interest.

When Barack Obama was elected President of the US, there was no place in the world where his rousing call to democracy fell on more receptive ears than in Latin America. The new American president was going to face tough going in many parts of the world, but not Latin America. The troubled relationship between the US and its southern neighbors appeared to be on the brink of a new era.

So when the military coup happened in Honduras, I was incredulous. I thought to myself, "These guys don't know what century they are in. What a bunch of fools!" I mean, had these guys been asleep? Didn't they notice the change that had just happened in the US? They would be gone in a few days, no doubt about it. Yet there they are, five months later, in power and going nowhere. And it looks like the upcoming elections there will be recognized by no government in the western hemisphere except mine.

So I ask you: who is the fool now?

US sending envoys to try to end crisis in Honduras

There seem to be splits within the government on Honduras but even those opposed to the coup have been rather half-hearted about cracking down on the regime. They have cut off some aid and cancelled some visas but refrained from further pressure. Indeed, they have yet to declare the coup a military coup. The sending of envoys may be another fruitless efforst as Micheletti has spurned every effort at negotiations from the very beginning and in effect insulted the OAS and thumbed its nose at the US. Unless the pressure within Honduras for Micheletti to compromise is stronger than it has been so far nothing much will happen. This has been surprising to me all along since if Zelaya did come back it would be with reduced powers and for only a short period and there would be an amnesty for coup leaders. In a short time things would be back to normal with the elite in firm control.

U.S. Sending Envoys to Try to End Crisis in Honduras
by GINGER THOMPSON
Published: October 26, 2009
WASHINGTON — Senior Obama administration officials are scheduled to travel to Honduras this week in an effort to resolve a political crisis that began nearly four months ago when soldiers detained President Manuel Zelaya and forced him into exile.


President Manuel Zelaya has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
This will be the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. The stepped-up pressure comes after months of apparently fruitless talks about whether Mr. Zelaya will be returned to power.

The new effort began on Friday, officials said, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made calls to both Mr. Zelaya and the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti.

In those calls, officials said, Mrs. Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” in the United States and Latin America over the deteriorating situation in Honduras, the hemisphere’s third-poorest country. She reserved her toughest comments for Mr. Micheletti, officials said, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.”

“During the call, he spent a lot of time talking about the past,” a State Department official said. “She wanted to talk about the future.”

Among other things, Mr. Micheletti has refused to accept any political deal that would allow Mr. Zelaya to return to power. He has demanded that the international community declare Mr. Zelaya’s ouster a legal transition of power. And, with the help of lobbyists in Washington, he has tried to pressure the United States to agree to recognize the outcome of presidential elections scheduled for next month.

Most Latin American countries have said that they would not recognize the elections unless Mr. Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, is first restored to power. The United States has threatened to do the same.

A senior administration official said Mrs. Clinton spoke to Mr. Micheletti on Friday for more than half an hour.

“The purpose was to remind him there were two pathways to the elections,” the official said, “one where Honduras goes by itself and the other where it goes with broad support from the international community.”

The coup in Honduras has threatened to become a sore point between the Obama administration and the rest of Latin America, where an increasing number of leaders have accused the United States of failing to put sufficient pressure on the de facto government to force it to compromise and stop its repression of journalists, human rights activists and pro-Zelaya demonstrators.

The issue has also created political headaches for President Obama in Congress, where a few Republicans have held up key State Department appointments as a way of pressuring the administration to reverse its condemnation of the coup. The Republican group, led by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, has said Mr. Zelaya’s opponents had no choice but to oust him because he had tried to illegally extend his time in power.

Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has called on the administration to stand firm in condemning the coup. Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, said Monday, “It should be perfectly clear to Mr. Micheletti that the coup, and his martial provisions to shut down media outlets, harass and arrest politicians, and influence the elections are unacceptable, and will not succeed.”

Zelaya conditions talks to his reinstatement.

These negotiations have been a farce from the beginning. From the very start the premise was that the negotiations would set conditions for Zelaya's return to the presidency. Also from the start Micheletti and the coup govt. has made it clear that on no conditions would they agree to Zelaya's return. The negotiations were a complete waste of time. However, the negotiations did waste so much time that the presidential elections will soon take place in November. The coup government is banking on many in the international community simply giving up on Zelaya and recognising the results of the election. Micheletti et al may very well be correct and there are some signs that the elections may be recognised by the U.S.
This is from Presstv.


Zelaya conditions talks to his reinstatement

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya will return to talks only if his rivals agree to reinstate him first, his advisers say. The Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday called for a push to restart dialogue as a solution to the crisis appeared ever more distant, with both sides stuck on the issue of Zelaya's return to office before the elections next month. Stalled talks this week represent the latest setback since the June 28 military-backed coup, which took place following a dispute over Zelaya's plans to change the constitution. Critics saw the move as a bid to extend term limits. "Zelaya will return to dialogue if it is to sign his restitution," his adviser Rasel Tome told AFP. The de facto regime, led by Roberto Micheletti, wants to push ahead with the presidential polls set for November 29 to resolve the crisis, as Zelaya remains holed up in the Brazilian embassy. Zelaya's term expires in January. Meanwhile, in an increasingly polarized Honduras, Zelaya's supporters planned new protests, despite a continued clampdown after the lifting of curbs on civil liberties imposed by the de facto regime, union leader Juan Barahona told AFP on Thursday. Zelaya's ouster was backed by the country's courts, Congress and business leaders, and came after he swerved to the left and aligned himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Costa Rica eyes fresh Honduran mediation talks.

This allows more time for the coup government to settle into power. Given that the two sides are at complete loggerheads it could be that no solution is ever reached. Negotiations will drag on and the coup government will set new presidential elections as soon as possible. Zelaya is not eligible to run and probably Marchetti would not run either. Once a new president is elected the Honduran government can claim that now an elected president is in power everything is hunky dory. The government will be in control of the electoral process but then the system is designed to ensure that the right sort of people get in anyway. Zelaya was originally one of them but sometimes people turn against their own class as happened in Zelaya' case.
If the negotiations are successful it will probably be for Zelaya to return as president but with limited powers. He will be a lame duck president until the elected president takes power in January. No one involved in the coup will face any punishment.



Costa Rica eyes fresh Honduras mediation talks
By Gustavo Palencia Gustavo Palencia
– TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Mediator Costa Rica said on Monday it may call Honduras' interim government and ousted President Manuel Zelaya's negotiators within 8 days for fresh talks aimed at defusing the country's political crisis.
The talks began last week and stopped after two days, making scant progress. Zelaya insists on his reinstatement and Roberto Micheletti, installed as interim president by Honduras' Congress after the June 28 coup, is adamant that he cannot return to power under any circumstances.
"Unofficially, we've been told that we'll be invited to Costa Rica on Saturday by President Oscar Arias to continue the talks," Micheletti told reporters.
Micheletti made the statement after swearing in his lead negotiator, Carlos Lopez, as new interim foreign minister. Lopez said he would continue to head the caretaker government's delegation at the talks.
In Costa Rica, a spokesman for Arias confirmed the mediator, who is Costa Rica's president and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, intended to issue a fresh invitation to the two sides.
"The president is thinking of inviting the parties within a period of eight days," the spokesman, Esteban Arrieta, told reporters in San Jose, but he could not give a precise date for the restart of the talks.
No foreign government has recognized Micheletti as president, and the United States and the Organization of American States have called for Zelaya to be restored to office after the coup in the impoverished Central American country.
Time appears to be on the interim government's side, said Mark Ruhl, a Honduras specialist at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.
"The longer this goes on, the better it is for Micheletti. The downside is if the United States decides to squeeze the government financially. But if you were Micheletti, why would you leave?" he told Reuters.
Honduras, which exports bananas, coffee and textiles, has a long history of coups, only returning to democracy in 1980s after 20 years of mainly military rule.
Micheletti on Sunday held out the possibility of an amnesty for Zelaya if he returns home quietly and faces justice.
Outside the public prosecutor's office in Tegucigalpa on Monday, protesters held up banners that read "No amnesty for Mel's government," referring to Zelaya by his nickname.
TEST OF DIPLOMACY
Micheletti reaffirmed that Zelaya would not be allowed to return to power "under any conditions," arguing he had contravened the constitution by seeking to illegally extend his rule through the lifting of presidential term limits.
Zelaya, now traveling the Americas to shore up his support, ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez. He took office in 2006 and had been due to leave power next year.
Chavez has called the mediation talks in Costa Rica "dead before they started," and Zelaya has vowed to return to Honduras at any moment.
The Honduras crisis has also drawn in U.S. President Barack Obama, who faces a tricky diplomatic test after vowing a fresh start with Latin America, where Washington has in the past been accused of backing coups and dictatorships that served its interests.
The Obama administration was quick to strongly condemn the Honduras coup as illegal.