Clinton Defends U.S. Involvement In Honduras

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.

House Republican Says U.S. Involvement In Honduras Is Harmful

By Leah Valencia - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that U.S. intervention in the Honduran elections is punishing American commercial and economic interests in the region.

“During my recent visit to Honduras I was struck by the harmful effect U.S. policy is having on American interests and citizens in that country,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

Conflict began in Honduras earlier this summer when President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and removed from the country on June 28 after he defied a ruling of the Supreme Court to cancel a constitutional change that was deemed illegal.

Following Zelaya's ouster, Interim President Roberto Micheletti took over, causing conflict with those who supported Zelaya and perceived his removal to be a military coup.

U.S. officials and other countries have said that they will not recognize the results of the upcoming Nov. 29 elections in Honduras until the conflict is resolved and Zelaya is returned to power.

However, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said that the elections are imperative to improving the country's conditions.

“Since when does the U.S. not support free, fair, transparent and constitutionally mandated elections?” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement last week. “It makes no sense that the U.S. would side with Manuel Zelaya and his ALBA buddies at the expense of Democracy.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent three top U.S. delegates to Honduras Wednesday to attempt to negotiate a solution to the political crisis ahead of elections.

Has The World Rushed To Judgment On Honduran Coup?

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

By attempting to run for reelection, did ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s violate his country's constitution? On Friday, representatives from seven Latin American organizations testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee to discuss the question.

Certain members of the committee were adamant in their view that Zelaya's actions had, in fact, crossed constitutional boundaries.

“I think it was clear that virtually all major Honduran political institutions and actors opposed President Zelaya’s efforts. Not only were the Supreme Court, Congress, and Zelaya’s own Attorney General against him, even members of his own political party and the influential Catholic Church were hostile to Zelaya’s efforts to change the constitution,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y).

Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Washington Office on Latin America, noted that Zelaya's actions should serve as a “wake-up call” that further progress to advance democracy in Latin America is still needed.

Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), the committee's ranking member, said, “It seems to me that the more we look at Mr. Zelaya, the more we find a man who believes he is above the law, untouchable, and clearly a man who has no respect for democracy.”

Guillermo Perez-Cadalso, former Foreign Minister and Honduran Supreme Court Justice, said he believes the international community rushed to judgement over the coup before evaluating all the facts. He testified under the title of “Concerned Honduran Citizen" rather than using his official government title.

Perez-Cadalso argued that Zelaya was “legally and constitutionally removed from office,” and that the “military is not in charge of Honduras; the consitutional order of [the country] remains intact.”

The U.S. State Department headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has endorsed a dialogue process with the Organization of American States. On that subject, Perez-Cadalso noted, “I am optimistic that this situation can be resolved through the dialogue. This process will be successful if both sides refrain from emotional personal reactions and stick to constructive discussions about the issues.”

To Be Democratic, Or Not To Be? That Is The Question Facing Honduras

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Latin American experts gathered in Washington on Thursday to deplore the blatant lack of democracy that currently exists in Latin America, magnified by the recent coup in Honduras.

Some of those who testified, such as Jim Swigert, Senior Associate and Regional Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs at the National Democratic Institute, criticized the military for its forceful action, explaining that “I think those who decided to turn to the use of force to resolve the political dispute only exacerbate the situation [because] the military was engaged in the political process as the arbiter, as the enforcer.”

Adolfo Franco, Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at the Direct Selling Association, said that despite the international community condemning the coup, the world should also know that ousted President Manuel Zelaya should bear much responsibility for the crisis.

Franco defended the military's role, saying “It [the referendum proposed by Zelaya] wasn't against the will of the legislator, it was a violation of the Constitution of Honduras as that judicial body, the Supreme Court which is empowered to make those decisions, rendered a correct decision and issued a warrant for his arrest.”

Zelaya was forced out of power by military forces in Honduras after the former President scheduled a vote in late June asking the population whether a constituent assembly should re-write the Honduran Constitution. Zelaya declared that the constitution’s imperfections were the source of current national social issues.

Franco clarified that the events that occurred in Honduras should be no surprise as Honduras has been following the same pattern as its left wing homologues in the region.

“The model now in Latin America is don’t do coups; [instead] you get elected and you dismantle systematically democracy,” said Franco, adding that Zelaya had been an “increasingly anti-democratic president trying to use the mechanisms of democracy to destroy those [democratic] institutions and to perpetuate himself to power.”

Latin American Experts: Zelaya Must Be Allowed Back Into Honduras

By Celia Canon-Talk Radio News Service

On Tuesday, experts from the Inter-American Dialogue warned that Honduras would continue to be unstable as long as ousted President Manuel Zelaya was not allowed back into the country.

“Zelaya is the elected President... If things degenerate further you won’t have good elections,” said Peter Hakim, President of Inter-American dialogue.

Hakim advised the international community to pursue “open negotiations involving [the] interim government.” Once an agreement is reached among the global community, Hakim advised Honduras to hold an election but warned that the quality of these elections depends on the stability of the country.

On June 29th, the Honduran military led a coup to overthrow President Manuel Zelaya. Armed forces intervened hours before a national referendum was due to take place to determine whether the constitution could be modified to allow the President to assume a second term, rather than the single term outlined in the country’s constitution. Zelaya was replaced by interim-President Roberto Micheletti.

Though the future of Honduras is nothing short of uncertain, many actors, including the international body Organization of American States, have gotten involved in the reestablishment of peace and stability in the Central American country.

“The OAS could take a strong position but then [it could be better to] not put the de facto Honduran government against the wall,” Hakim said

Genaro Arriagada, a Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, added that besides the obvious necessary changes that should be brought to the Honduran government and constitution, further changes should involve the OAS 2001 democratic charter which was adopted by member states in order to ensure the presence of democratic institutions in all countries of the Americas.

The Charter needs to be reconsidered, explained Arriagada, “because it gives protection to the government but not to the opposition to the government.”