Honduras awaits new crisis talks

Source: BBC NEWS

11:12 GMT, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:12 UK

Senior diplomats from across the Americas are due to arrive in Honduras in the latest attempt to resolve the political crisis.

They are hoping to set up talks between interim leader Roberto Micheletti and deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who is in the Brazilian embassy.

......

Mr Zelaya has said that he will only meet Mr Micheletti if an agreement is made beforehand under which he is allowed to return to power.

This high-powered diplomatic team is expected to include foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers from about 10 countries in the region, as well as Jose Insulza, chief of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8294413.stm

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UPDATED LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE OAS MISSION:
http://media-newswire.com/release_1101668.html

(Media-Newswire.com) ... list of the members of the mission from the Organization of American States ( OAS ) that will arrive in Honduras ...
with the purpose of promoting dialogue and the restoration of democracy in this country.

... OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza; the Foreign Ministers of Costa Rica ( Chair of SICA ), Bruno Stagno; Ecuador ( Chair of UNASUR ), Fander Falconí, El Salvador, Hugo Martínez; Guatemala, Haroldo Rodas; and Mexico, Patricia Espinosa; the Ministers of State of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Peter Kent; and Jamaica ( CARICOM ), Ronald Robinson; the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affaire of United States, Thomas Shannon; the Vice Ministers of Foreign Relations of Panama, Melitón Arrocha; and the Dominican Republic, José Manuel Trullols; the Spanish Secretary of State for Ibero-America, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia; and the permanent representatives to the OAS of Argentina, Rodolfo Gil; and Brazil, Ruy Casaes.

Likewise, the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs of the United Nations ( UN ), Óscar Fernández Taranco, will join the mission.

The Secretary General Insulza will be assisted by OAS high officers John Biehl, Víctor Rico, Adam Blackwell, Gustavo Fernández and Jorge Miranda.

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Previous LATEST NEWS:
Honduran Government Ends State of Siege
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4092111

Diplomats head to Honduras, hoping to end crisis
BEN FOX (AP) – 24 minutes ago - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9B6943O0


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Diplomats from throughout the hemisphere were converging Wednesday on Honduras to resolve a standoff that has left the impoverished Central American country with two presidents, a capital scarred by protests and a bitterly divided population.

Micheletti .... "To consolidate political stability and normalize our country's relations with the international community, I believe the time is right to intensify the national dialogue," he said in the brief speech.

Micheletti did not go into specifics, but said two crucial issues would be discussion of the "powers of the state" and amnesty ......

.........

Zelaya, for his part, warned Wednesday that the interim government would seek to persuade the delegates, who include a number of foreign ministers, to pursue a new plan to avoid having to adopt the San Jose Accord.

"We warn the ministers that the de facto regime is planning to stay in power longer and to deepen the crisis by preventing the return of the elected president and continuing the repression of the people," Zelaya said in a statement.

........... Marcia Facusse repeated that the interim president had offered to step down if Zelaya agreed to renounce his claim to the presidency ....."From there we can find a place to start the dialogue because the conflict would cease to be about two men and become a search for what's best for the country," Facusse told HRN radio.

Then again many of the statements made by LA and SA leaders are made for internal consumption and do not translate well in terms of culture and language.

The more they paint him as evil and criminal, the greater the glory of Zelaya. If they were conciliatory in their words, then Zelaya is doing something wrong.

And for this amusing tidbit...

"...Marcia Facusse repeated that the interim president had offered to step down if Zelaya agreed to renounce his claim to the presidency .....'From there we can find a place to start the dialogue because the conflict would cease to be about two men and become a search for what's best for the country,' Facusse told HRN radio." (LOL!)

The Associated Pukes are outdoing themselves, in their subtler fascist tactics, by saying that the crisis has "left Honduras with two presidents." Honduras does NOT have "two presidents." It has only one--the one who was elected! The coup (and AP) views this "crisis" (THAT THE COUPSTERS HAVE CREATED) as a sort of royalty contest (Zelaya should "renounce his claim" to the crown) because that's how they view government. Elections don't matter to them. Democracy is irrelevant. Who's the biggest dick? Who's the Big Honcho? Who's the king? They view "the People" as slaves, peons and cannon fodder.

To them, it is "about two men." But what is most amazing about this situation--in addition to Zelaya's courage and that of his wife and cabinet members and others immediately around him--is the courage, persistence and dramatic growth of the resistance movement within Honduras among ordinary Honduran citizens, in the face of brutal repression and isolation. The coup smashed up the media, and only allows pro-coup broadcasts. They have killed, beaten, tortured, raped, threatened and oppressed many people--for holding meetings and protests and trying to communicate with each other. In spite of this--as NarcoNews reports today--an officially certified polling group in Honduras shows 60% opposition to Micheletti and the coup!

That is an amazing accomplishment, in these circumstances. And it is one of the chief reasons WHY the junta has finally agreed to talk to the OAS.

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The OAS delegation is quite interesting, and a positive development in many ways. The Junta had barred OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza from entering Honduras. They've backed down on that. A quick read through the list...

The good guys
(those who want real democracy for Honduras and not the "ten families" oligarchy fake-democracy)

Insulza and his several OAS officers
Fander Falconí, Ecuador (chair of UNASUR, the newly formed South American "common market")
El Salvador, Hugo Martínez;
Guatemala, Haroldo Rodas
Argentina, Rodolfo Gil;
Brazil, Ruy Casaes (Brazil a very important player in all this)
Óscar Fernández Taranco (UN)

The bad guys
(probably colluders in the coup)

Peter Kent (Canada)
Thomas Shannon (US)

Not sure about the reps from...

Spain (even with leftist gov't, sometimes plays a two-faced game in Latin America)
Mexico (corrupt, rightwing, US-dominated gov't--but Mex has something of an independent streak)
Jamaica (corrupt, rightwing, US-dominated gov't)
Dominican Republic (corrupt, rightwing, US-dominated gov't)
Costa Rica (deserves a paragraph of its own, see below).

Note: All of the rightwing Latin American reps have some regional pride and/or desire to maintain at least formal democracy--and some might even fear the plebian (leftist) elements in their militaries, and their overwhelmingly leftist populations. They might be more inclined than the US and Canada to want the democratic order restored in Honduras. The US--I don't care who is president--doesn't give a fuck what happens to the people of Latin America or to Latin American democracy. Our true rulers--the global corporate predators such as Exxon Mobil and Monsanto, and the war profiteers--want Latin America's oil and other resources, and a labor force stripped of all rights. And Canada's present gov't, the same. So, we can be pretty sure that Shannon and Kent will be maneuvering to keep the Honduran juntaists in power but moved to the background. For one thing, they may try to rush the elections--keep them on schedule for Nov., or even move them up (as the US originally proposed thru Oscar Arias/Costa Rica), to prevent any effective leftist political organizing for the vote. Thousands of leftists (union leaders and members, community organizers, human rights groups and "liberation theology" (pro-poor) church activists--have been threatened, beaten, arrested--some tortured and killed--by the Honduran junta, and all opposition or neutral media has been shut down since June. The left needs sufficient time to overcome these enormous handicaps. Any reasonable proposal would put the election off until January, and restore Zelaya (who can't run) to full presidential power in the meantime.

Expect the US to push for the election to be in Nov., to side with the Junta on restricting President Zelaya's power, and also to support immunity from prosecution of the Junta members (in which they will likely be joined by Brazil, which apparently agreed to this "bargaining chip" to get the talks going--if I'm reading the news right on this). The US will also oppose the popular demand for a Constitutional Convention. (It was never Zelaya's idea alone--it was coming from the teachers' union and other grass roots groups.)

Costa Rica: Depending on what history may one day tell us (hard to know at present), Costa Rica was the US operative for saving Mel Zelaya's life, and for seeking an ultimately more democratic (but not fully democratic) Honduras, in the face of a Bushwhack plot to assassinate Zelaya and end Honduran democracy (turn it into even more of a lie than it was before, with the "ten families" and the US-funded military running everything)--a plot that Obama/Clinton disagreed with, and had trouble stopping--OR, Costa Rica was the US operative for a completely hypocritical US response to the Honduran junta, and this bad US policy was defeated by, a) the Honduran people and their amazing resistance movement, and b) solidarity among Latin America's mostly leftist leadership against the coup. I don't know which it is, and thus it is hard to predict what role Costa Rica will play in the current OAS negotiation--or, indeed, where Obama/Clinton have ended up, on this matter, and what Shannon's orders are. (He was appointed by Bush and had some very dubious dealings previously--but is now Obama's appointee for head of Latin American affairs, and I believe that the Pukes in Congress are holding up his nomination because of Obama/Clinton's opposition to the coup--and whether Obama/Clinton are sincere or not, I simply don't know for sure.)