Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Laura Smith - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

In remarks given during a conference focused on challenges facing U.S. relations with Latin America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the United States's position on the political situation in Honduras shows that it is committed to helping Hondurans get back to democratic and constitutional order.

“We condemned President Zelaya’s expulsion, we’ve taken concrete steps to demonstrate unequivocally our opposition. But we’ve continued to try to reach out and work with diverse sectors in Honduras, and along with others like President [Oscar] Arias of Costa Rica, to help the Hondurans themselves chart a new way forward for a peaceful negotiated end to this crisis,” she said.

Clinton was referring to the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, sparked by an attempt by the former President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, to change the constitution in order to stay in power.

On June 28, 100 soldiers came into Zelaya’s home and flew him to Costa Rica. On September 21, Zelaya snuck back into the country, but resorted to the Brazilian Embassy.

“The culmination of what was a year long electoral process occurred on November 29, when the Honduran people expressed their feelings and their commitment to a democratic future,” she said.

According to Clinton, the people of Honduras “threw out in effect” both Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, the Speaker of Congress, who was sworn is as the interim President in Zelaya's absence. She also said that

Since then, Clinton added, President-elect Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo “has launched a national dialogue, has called for the formation of a national unity government and a truth commission has set forth among the requirements of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord.

“That is an agreement that the Hondurans themselves reached. We helped to facilitate it but the Hondurans decided they wanted a local resolution. In the days and weeks ahead, we want to be [on] the side of the Honduran people,” Clinton said.