U.S. Sending Top Diplomats to Honduras

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune


A team of senior U.S. officials travel to Honduras Wednesday ... Leading the delegation will be the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, and the National Security Council’s director for the Western Hemisphere, Dan Restrepo.

The high-ranking U.S. officials will ask the parties in conflict for “flexibility” and that they redouble efforts to end the crisis, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

Kelly said that the delegation will be in Honduras for a couple of days and going with them will be a representative of the Organization of American States, the Bolivian Victor Rico, an OAS official told Efe.

Read more: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=346286&CategoryId=10718

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Good luck with that!

This website prints the US Gov article as the news:

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US Officials to visit Honduras for urgent resolution of political crisis
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 09:24 Stephen Kaufman US Gov.
http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/world/1230-us-officials-to-visit-honduras-for-urgent-resolution-of-political-crisis-.html


Clinton's decision to send the U.S. delegation came after talks between Zelaya and the de facto government broke down October 23. "It was at that point that the secretary decided to get involved directly and called both Mr. Micheletti and President Zelaya," Kelly said. She decided October 26 that the time was right to send a delegation and have U.S. officials "more directly involved in the process."

The Honduran presidential election is scheduled for November 29, and "this is precisely why we see some urgency in this," he said.

The United States wants an election "to enjoy the kind of international legitimacy that the people of Honduras deserve for their government," Kelly said.

"In order for it to be seen as legitimate and for the authorities down there to conduct a completely open and transparent electoral process ... there needs to be some time."

A senior State Department official speaking on background said "the clock is ticking" .........

Honduras coup ridicules international community, Dominican leaders says
Oct 28 at 1:44 PM - http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2009/10/28/33699/Honduras-coup-ridicules-international-community-Dominican-leaders-says


Santo Domingo. - President Leonel Fernandez on Wednesday said the fact that Roberto Micheletti is still in power in Honduras, four months after the coup which deposed Manuel Zelaya, is proof the international organisms have become nonfunctional.

“It’s inconceivable that after such a condemned coup Roberto Micheletti’s de facto government is still in power. So what are those organisms good for if their mandates aren’t fulfilled?” the chief executive said, adding that the standoff has placed the international community has in a “ridiculous situation.”

Fernandez, speaking in the conference “30 years of democracy in Latin America” being held today and tomorrow in the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, summed up democracy’s history and virtues and vices in the hemisphere.

In the activity participate the ex presidents Ernesto Samper of Colombia, Omar Torrijos, of Panama, and other dignitaries of the hemisphere.

Source: reuters

TEGUCIGALPA — Three top US officials were due in Honduras Wednesday in a new push to end the crisis set off by the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya exactly four months ago.

The latest crisis talks between Zelaya envoys and those of de facto leader Roberto Micheletti collapsed last week, as the ousted leader remains holed up in the Brazilian embassy.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to send the new US delegation, after speaking to representatives of both sides at the weekend, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday.

Kelly said "the clock was ticking" for a deal to be reached restoring Zelaya to power ahead of November 29 elections.

The rival factions have been unable to agree on if and how Zelaya would be allowed to complete his mandate, before a new president is sworn in early next year.

The mustachioed leader was bundled out of the country in his pajamas on June 28 by a military-backed coup, backed by courts, businesses and congress, but secretly returned to the country last month.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has led efforts for a peaceful resolution to the sometimes violent crisis, but Washington, the country's key partner, has stepped as pressure mounts ahead of the elections.


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gXKnmzgw6qD7rC0EIm-aajJllmaw

Hillary and Obama's men in black arrive in Tegucigalpa (Note the bulge in the back of the suit of the second man from the left.)

Micheletti is quoted today in the golpista press as saying that restitution of Zelaya to the presidency will NOT happen.
08:55am
Tercería. "No hay restitución. Nosotros podemos hablar del tema de una tercería, de una sustitución constitucional, de la apertura para todos los temas", dijo el presidente interino.


Goriletti also said that any political solution to the crisis will NOT happen until the Nov. 29 elections, now 33 days away.
08:16am
Elecciones. El presidente interino, Roberto Micheletti, expresó que no se discutirá ningún arreglo a la crisis "si no es posterior a las elecciones", pues a 33 días es el tema fundamental en Honduras.


So it could be that Shannon, Kelly, and Obama's Restrepo may be going back to Washington with their efforts to resolve the crisis squashed by a two-bit dictatorship.

All the easier to kill political enemies?

the names and phone numbers of all known members of the resistance to the army.

And they should know that!!

:shrug:

in which Shannon announced that their visit to Tegucigalpa would be extended for another day.

This indicates:

1. U.S. efforts to resolve the problem IS making headway.
2. U.S. efforts to resolve the problem IS NOT making headway.

It will be highly embarrassing if they return to Washington tomorrow empty handed.

Seems more like they wanted to change the US stance, now that it seems they cannot restore Zelaya.

HOUSE GOP PRESS CONFERENCE
SUBJECT: U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN HONDURAS POLITICAL SITUATION
PARTICIPANTS: REP. MIKE PENCE; HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE CHAIR; REP. AARON SCHOCK (R-IL); REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (R-FL); REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (D-CA); REP. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (R-FL); REP. MARIO DIAZ-BALART (R-FL); REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R-CA); REP. DAN BURTON (R-IN); REP. THADDEUS MCCOTTER (R-MI)

1:52 P.M. EDT, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009

REP. SCHOCK: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here.

The purpose of today's news conference first is to make available to members of the media a letter that has been signed to the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, by a long list of our delegation asking for an investigation into the actions taken by our State Department and members of the ambassador's cabinet down in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, preceding the removal of former President Zelaya as well as the establishment of the interim government of Micheletti. ..............

Preliminary Deal on Honduras Crisis Denied
Escrito por ivette - 29/10/09 Time 07:07 p.m.
http://www.radionuevitas.co.cu/web_english/news/world_291009_1.asp


Preliminary Deal on Honduras Crisis DeniedTegucigalpa, Oct 29 (Prensa Latina) Representatives of Honduran constitutional President Manuel Zelaya denied on Thursday stories by the de facto regime on the existence of a preliminary agreement to solve the crisis caused by the coup.

"This is a move by the putschist regime. We have reached no agreement," said Victor Meza, head of Zelaya's delegation to the talks.

He explained that in the informal meeting both sides held with the US Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, Thomas Shannon, there was no deal, the parties simply presented their viewpoints.

To the constitutional government, the talks finished last week, when de facto President Roberto Micheletti refused to accept Zelaya's return to power.

...........

are meeting (as write this) in the Marriott hotel trying to work out a deal. Scuttlebutt is that the gorilettis have agreed to let the national Congress decide on the restitution of Zelaya, which Zelaya had proposed weeks ago and the gorilettis had turned down. Looks like it will be a long session tonight.

It seem to be another delaying tactic on the part of the gorilettis and a dangerous risk for Zelaya if he accepts, because it was the same Congress that voted his ouster by a show of hands the night before the coup.


In case the coup fails, we have the option of going to Miami with Posada Carriles.

O, pueden trabajar en el jardin del Sen. DeMint!

CAUTION: = Miami Herald

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Library of Congress stands by report on Honduras coup
By LESLEY CLARK - McClatchy Newspapers - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1307368.html

WASHINGTON -- Congress's law library is rebuffing calls from the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that the lawmakers charge is flawed.

The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove deposed President Manuel Zelaya from office.

.....
Republicans amped up their criticism Thursday of the Obama administration's Honduras policy, asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate the State Department's role in the crisis in Honduras. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said members of the Honduran congress told visiting members of Congress that the U.S. ambassador to Honduras was trying to put "Zelaya cronies" into government posts.

"There seems to have been a pattern of aggressive involvement by our ambassador to actively try to violate the law and the constitution," he said.............

decide the restitution of Zelaya.

Micheletti just spoke at news conference at 10 p.m. Honduras time.

No word yet whether Zelaya will accept.

Live on

http://www.globotvhonduras.com/

If you are still around, more details on the Latin America forum.