US envoy heads to Honduras in bid to jumpstart talks

Source: AFP

US envoy heads to Honduras in bid to jumpstart talks
(AFP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — A top US diplomat for Latin America headed Tuesday for Honduras to renew contacts with all parties and try to defuse the lingering political crisis, a State Department official said.

Craig Kelly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was en route back to the Central American country, Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a spokesman for Latin American affairs told AFP by phone.

............

Zelaya said in an interview with AFP that a negotiated settlement maneuver would have Micheletti resign from the presidency on Friday in Congress, in exchange for the ousted leader's agreement to lead a transition government.

"There are a lot of options on the table," Luoma-Overstreet said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gNs_IvaUebUZauuwdhRtNIOILoSg

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Here we go again, same old, same old stall, stall, stall, and keep the coup in place during it all.

Previous LATEST compilation: Ousted president Zelaya accuses US of providing cover for coup
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4147533

Parallel thread: S.C. Senator Jim DeMint forces U.S. change on Honduras stance on elections
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4147749

Honduran Congress will rule on Zelaya after vote
By FREDDY CUEVAS (AP) – 18 minutes ago - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9C1G6F82


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduran lawmakers will not decide whether to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya until after upcoming presidential elections, the congressional leader said Tuesday, a decision that could undermine international support for the vote.

Congress will meet Dec. 2 — three days after the Nov. 29 election — to decide whether Zelaya should be returned the presidency to finish his constitutional term, which ends in January, congressional president Jose Alfredo Saavedra told local HRN radio station.

Several Latin American countries have warned they will not recognize the outcome of the election unless Zelaya is restored beforehand. But the United States has not ruled out restoring diplomatic ties with a newly elected Honduran government even if Zelaya remains out of power through the vote.

Zelaya warned over the weekend that he would not return to the presidency if Congress votes to restore him after the elections, saying doing so would legitimize the June 28 coup.

.................

"“I would not accept any return to the presidency, under those conditions, which would thus mean accepting what happened on June”."

Zelaya claims US and Micheletti are involved in “laundering” the coup
November 17th 2009 - 7:04 pm UTC - http://en.mercopress.com/2009/11/17/zelaya-claims-us-and-micheletti-are-involved-in-laundering-the-coup


Honduran ousted president Manuel Zelaya claims the United States in partnership with de facto leader Roberto Micheletti are involved in an operation to “launder” the coup d’etat of June 28th.

The operation consists in having Micheletti step down as caretaker president before the Honduran Congress and then accepts to join a transition cabinet.

“This is what is going to happen next Friday in Congress. If I accept to join the transition cabinet, he resigns and I legitimize the coup. It’s a maneuver I will not play into”, warned Zelaya who is holed in at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since September 21st since his clandestine return to the country

Zelaya said that was the reason why he sent a personal letter to US president Barak Obama saying that from that date, whatever the circumstances, “I would not accept any return to the presidency, under those conditions, which would thus mean accepting what happened on June”.

“The US has been pressing me to allow Micheletti to form a transition cabinet which would then open the door for my return but I don’t trust coup mongers even when they are praying, and in this case the sole objective is to launder the situation”.

From Washington US Secretary of State spokes-person Ian Kelly confirmed that US diplomats are in permanent contact with ousted President Zelaya.

“We don’t ignore him. We talk to him, ......................

http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/state-dept-s-ian-kelly-aint-nobody-gonna-be-answering-mels-letters-and-i-dont-have-to-explain-why/

Originally posted to DU by Downwinder in the LatAm forum.

Honduran Crisis Outfoxes US Attempts at Negotiation
By Tom Hayden - November 16, 2009 - http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/hayden


The four Hondurans, traveling overnight after four months of street resistance and state repression, displayed the diversity of the new social movement born in the wake of the June 28 coup. Their first meeting was hosted by Carecen, an agency long supportive of Central American immigrants.

Marvin Andrade, executive director of Caracen, was sharply critical of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the Honduran crisis. Clinton claimed earlier this week that an historic breakthrough had been achieved, only to realize, no sooner than the ink was dry, that the agreement failed to restore President Manuel Zelaya to power, even temporarily.

No other Latino political or labor leaders were present to welcome the Honduran delegation. The reason suggested by one source close to the delegation was "not wanting to be critical of the Obama administration."

The four delegates gave brief and pointed testimony against the coup and any US plan to extend legitimacy to the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November 28.

Iris Munguia, born on a Chiquita banana plantation and now an organizer the Honduran banana workers union, denounced the presidential election, predicting electoral fraud because the coup regime controls the ballot boxes. ......................

Lets get ALL the dirty linen out. Shall we start with Lanny? Or NED. And now we have Harris Corporation.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x26559#26563

They always seem to enjoy testifying before Congress.

Resistance in Honduras calls for abstention from elections
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/noviembre/mar17/Resistance-in-Honduras.html


TEGUCIGALPA, November 16.— The National Front against the Coup in Honduras has reiterated its call to abstain from voting in the November 29 elections, because it considers them an attempt to legitimize the coup regime dictatorship.

According to Prensa Latina, members of the Resistance once again carried out a sit-in in Plaza La Merced, adjacent to the Legislative Palace, to demand the restoration of constitutional order and of the legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya.

Juan Barahona, the Front’s general coordinator, insisted that the elections, organized by those who have usurped power via arms, are illegal and fraudulent.

Barahona affirmed that street mobilizations will continue until democratic order is restored, Zelaya is returned to power, and a national constituent assembly has been convened.

Since early November, members of the Front’s popular and political forces have been organizing daily demonstrations in front of Congress, ........................

IT could be handled, after all they left the Bill of Rights out in Philadelphia. On the other hand, if you cant handle a coup with a script, you might have problems in an open convention.

( http://www.economist.com/node/14802313 )"The agreement requires Mr Zelaya to drop his plan for a referendum on constitutional reform, which his foes saw as a bid to allow him another term."

It would interfere w/ their power grab.

in the face of the Coupsters statement that they would jail anyone calling for a boycott of the election.

in the resistance.

and not allowed him to return to campaign, so he's not on the ballot.

The election is not an open, democratic one, due to repressive measures by this gov't against their own people.

From an article in The Economist, "But the crucial question of Mr Zelaya’s reinstatement has been left to Honduras’s Congress, which shows no sign of discussing it soon. This week Mr Zelaya was still trapped in the Brazilian embassy, where he has been since sneaking back into the country six weeks ago. The de facto government still says it will arrest him if he ventures outside."

"The United States, which has already reopened its visa office in Tegucigalpa, the capital, appears willing to recognise the elections whether or not Congress votes to restore Mr Zelaya. But most of Latin America is unlikely to follow suit unless Mr Zelaya is reinstated before the ballot—especially since the head of the electoral tribunal says that anyone calling for a boycott will be jailed."

It would be easier if posts were a bit more aggregated by country and issue.

It is also useful to link compilation threads chronologically.

That's a colossal insult: we're being forced to spend hard-earned money on a sham event.

EVERYONE has known how this would turn out: they're waiting for the election and will pretend the people phave spoken, even though the bastards have broken the arm of the major leftist candidate and put him in the hospital through a thorough beat-down from the Honduran coup-controlled police.

They have jailed leading Zelaya supporting activists, tortured many, and have simply called for curfews at their whim, forcing many people who have to shop daily since they have no refrigerators and must buy fresh food each day, to either go out and risk being beaten and imprisoned, or to stay home, with their families suffering fopr lack of food.

THIS is no way to conduct the campaign season, and who doesn't know it?
ave
In the meantime, oligarchy supported candidate bill boards are all over the place, and the radio and tv stations and newspapers which serve the coup were allowed to stay in business and have carried extensive advertising for them.

Who on earth would believe a coup government which has committed so many human rights abuses, has been condemned by every other country (other than the USA) in the world, by ALL human rights groups, would even CONSIDER running a clean election? Please!

So we are financing yet another bogus show of "diplomacy" and we'll go through the very same routine. We know it's a lie, they know we know.

Thanks to L. Coyote, for the news that they DARE to pu

That's a colossal insult: we're being forced to spend hard-earned money on a sham event.

EVERYONE has known how this would turn out: they're waiting for the election and will pretend the people have spoken, even though the bastards have broken the arm of the major leftist candidate and put him in the hospital through a thorough beat-down from the Honduran coup-controlled police.

They have jailed leading Zelaya supporting activists, tortured many, and have simply called for curfews at their whim, forcing many people who have to shop daily since they have no refrigerators and must buy fresh food each day, to either go out and risk being beaten and imprisoned, or to stay home, with their families suffering for lack of food.

THIS is no way to conduct the campaign season, and who doesn't know it?

In the meantime, oligarchy supported candidate billboards are all over the place, and the radio and tv stations and newspapers which serve the coup were allowed to stay in business and have carried extensive advertising for them.

Who on earth would believe a coup government which has committed so many human rights abuses, has been condemned by every other country (other than the USA) in the world, by ALL human rights groups, would even CONSIDER running a clean election? Please!

So we are financing yet another bogus show of "diplomacy" and we'll go through the very same routine. We know it's a lie, they know we know.

Thanks to L. Coyote, for the news that they DARE to put this over on us again.

The false flag operation of the grenade bomb that missed is being ever-so-transparently lied about.
They must think we "people of a leftist tendency" are as dense as their own wingnut brigades! :rofl:

========================
Honduras: more candidates join election boycott
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 19:03.
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7958


In a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua, on Nov. 13, the mayor of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, confirmed that he was no longer running for another term in general elections scheduled for Nov. 29. "The people don't believe in this process, because these are elections where absolutely nothing is going to get elected," Mayor Rodolfo Padilla Sunceri said. A member of the center-right Liberal Party (PL), Padilla joined a growing number of candidates who have withdrawn from the race in order to protest the control of the process by a de facto government put in place after a military coup removed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office on June 28. Padilla was the frontrunner in polls taken before the coup. The Nov. 29 general elections are intended to elect the president, the 128 members of the National Congress, 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and members of the country's municipal governments.

Independent presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes officially withdrew from the race on Nov. 9. A former unionist with strong links to the grassroots movement against the coup, Reyes was third in a field of six candidates, according to polls. The frontrunner is Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo of the right-wing National Party (PN); Liberal candidate Elvin Santos trails him by 15-20%, according to political analyst Gustavo Irías. Santos is badly damaged by a split in the PL between supporters of President Zelaya and supporters of de facto president Roberto Micheletti Bain; both are members of the party.

The mayoral candidates boycotting the election include Heber Iván Gómez Mendoza, PL candidate in Morolica, Choluteca department; Luis Alberto Posadas Alfar, an independent candidate in Danlí, El Paraíso; and Gladys Gloria Ebanks Campell, an independent candidate on Roatán island, Islas de la Bahía department. The small leftist Democratic Unification (UD) is badly split, with presidential candidate César Ham planning to continue in the race while many other candidates want to withdraw; the party will lose its place on the ballot and government matching funds if too many candidates drop out. The Party of Innovation and Social Democratic Unity (PINU) is also split. The leadership supports the coup, but many candidates for Congress oppose it and may withdraw, so that this party too could lose its ballot position. (EFE, Nov. 13; Comun-Noticias, Nov. 13 via Honduras Laboral; La Jornada, Mexico, Nov. 14)

Who is behind explosive attacks?
During the night of Nov. 12 an explosive device was detonated in a Tegucigalpa residential neighborhood without causing any damage or injuries. The police and the media originally said an airplane flew over the city and dropped a bomb on a location where ballots were being stored for the Nov. 29 elections, even though no damage was reported there. The airplane turned out to be a commercial flight from Guatemala. Later an RPG-1 grenade-launching device was discovered in the area, and the military announced that unidentified persons had attempted to hit the storehouse but had overshot it. "We have preliminary information about some actions which people who are from the left are carrying out," Armed Forces head Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez said at a Nov. 13 press conference. "We know where these artifacts come from," said Gen. Miguel Ángel García Padgett, the army's commander. "hey cross over the border and are artifacts of Russian or Chinese origin, and they are precisely the ones used by people of a leftist tendency."

The Municipal Politics of the Honduran Crisis
November 17, 2009 - by Daniel Altschuler - http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1073


Since the June 28th coup removed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti has vigorously defended the upcoming elections as the way out of the political crisis. In recent weeks, the central question has become whether the international community will recognize the upcoming presidential elections. With the breakdown of negotiations and Zelaya’s recent declaration that he will not accept restitution from the Congress (itself increasingly unlikely), the Organization of American States (OAS) will almost certainly not send election observers. Conversely, Panama, Colombia and the United States have indicated they will recognize the elections, which undermines the previous international consensus on the Honduran crisis.

Meanwhile, last week, independent presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes pulled out of the race because President Zelaya had not yet been restored. Cesar Ham, the other pro-Zelaya candidate, will decide this week whether to end his presidential bid, as well.

But the other major story last week was that Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri, mayor of San Pedro Sula (the country’s second-largest city and commercial hub), has pulled out of his re-election race. This serves as an important reminder that these elections will determine—in addition to the President and the 128 members of Congress—the mayors of all 298 Honduran municipalities. Padilla Sunseri’s resignation reveals the importance of municipal politics a lens for understanding the last five months in Honduras. Honduran municipalities aligned with Zelaya have been hit hardest by the coup, and their plight reflects the political divisions within the country, the duplicity of the Micheletti regime and the difficult decision facing pro-Zelaya candidates.

Micheletti Freezes Transfers, Violates Law

Since June 28th, approximately 60 mayors (roughly 20 percent) nationwide have declared themselves in Resistencia. They have protested in their municipalities and Tegucigalpa, demanded Zelaya’s restitution and threatened to boycott the elections. ....................

Rumors Of Coups And War: U.S., NATO Target Latin America
by Rick Rozoff - Global Research, November 18, 2009 - http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16161


There is no way of overestimating the challenge that the emergence of ALBA and the overall reawakening of Latin America pose to the role that the U.S. arrogates to itself as lord of the entire Western Hemisphere. The almost two-century-old Monroe Doctrine exemplifies Washington's claim to exclusive influence over all of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean Basin and its self-claimed right to subordinate them to its own interests. Never before the election victories of anti-neoliberal forces throughout Latin America over the past eleven years has the prospect of a truly democratic, multipolar New World existed as it does now.

It is in response to those developments that the U.S. and its former colonialist allies in NATO are attempting to reassert their influence in the Americas south of the U.S. border.


November 28 will mark five months since the coup led by U.S.-trained commanders deposed the president of Honduras, the next day will see a mock election in the same nation designed to legitimize the junta of Roberto Micheletti, and the day following that will be a month since Washington signed an agreement with the Alvaro Uribe government in Colombia for the use of seven military bases in the country.

While intensifying a full-scale war in South Asia, continuing occupation missions in Iraq and the Balkans, maintaining warships off the coasts of Somalia and Lebanon, and deploying troops and conducting war games in most parts of the world, the United States and its NATO allies have not neglected Latin America.

Central and South America and the Caribbean are receiving a degree of attention from the U.S. and its partners not witnessed since the Cold War and in some ways are the targets of even more intense scrutiny and intervention.

Nearly five months since the June 28 coup d'etat against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya led by General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, a graduate of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of the Americas, Washington has not used its substantial - decisive - leverage with the illegal government and its military supporters to reverse the armed takeover of power. Instead it has conspired with the junta to drag out deliberately futile negotiations and has thrown its weight behind the November 29 election which, occurring without the previous reinstalling of President Zelaya, will be a travesty of law and international protocols and is in fact intended to lend false credibility to the current regime.

.............

Daily Press Briefing
US Department of State - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/nov/132114.htm

Ian Kelly
Spokesman
Washington, DC
November 18, 2009

...............

QUESTION: Ian, on Honduras, the parliament seems to have put off until after the election a decision on whether Zelaya will be restored. What does that do for the possible credibility of these elections?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, let me give you kind of an update of where we are. Craig Kelly, of course, has been in Tegucigalpa. He’s been down there to help support the implementation of the accord. He held a series of meetings down there to support the OAS efforts to have it fully implemented. He’s met with President Zelaya and he met with the de facto leader Mr. Micheletti. He told us that these were very frank and open talks.

Regarding the reports on the Honduran lawmakers will not decide on whether or not to restore Zelaya until after the elections, according to the accord, the – it called for the national congress to issue a pronouncement on the restoration of a democratically elected authority, Mr. Zelaya. As you know, it never stipulated a timetable for the congressional action. All along, we’ve called on the congress to act expeditiously in the spirit of the accord. We believe that steady steps towards the implementation of the accord will enhance the prospects for transparent, free, and open elections that will ultimately resolve this crisis and allow Honduras to rejoin the international community of nations.

Another one of these important steps towards the implementation of the accord and resolving this crisis is the formation of the – of a government of national unity. So that’s also an important component to this.

But since the accord never actually gave any kind of deadline by – to have this vote by the national congress, scheduling the vote on December 2nd doesn’t necessarily – isn’t necessarily inconsistent with the accord.

QUESTION: What – I’m sorry. That’s – you’ve just opened your – this is – they’re going to have a field day with this. So it’s okay with you if five years from now, they go and come back and say, all right, yeah, Zelaya can go – he’s restored, when you can’t – you can’t be restored after you’re voted out of office if you’re not – he’s not even running.

MR. KELLY: That’s right. I mean, he – his term ends the end of January.

QUESTION: Yeah. And so it’s okay – so it’s okay with you, and you’ll – it will be all right and you’ll accept the results of the election, if they – even if they don’t put him back in when you --

MR. KELLY: Well, he’s not running. He’s not running for the election.

QUESTION: Yeah, but he’s going to be out – he’s effectively out of office. I mean, talk about – that’s the lamest of lame ducks. He’s not – he is – I’m confused. You no longer think that he has to be restored before he is voted out of office?

MR. KELLY: Well, it has been a very strong principle of ours that in order for the country to be reconciled, there has to be a restoration of the democratically elected president. That implies that he has to be restored before the end of his term, okay?

QUESTION: So basically --

QUESTION: All right. So 10 minutes – 10 minutes before the end of his term?

QUESTION: December – until the end of January it can be.

MR. KELLY: Look, I mean, clearly, he has to be restored in a timely way. And I don’t think we’ve ever said anything but that.

QUESTION: Well --

MR. KELLY: But what we’re focused on is the implementation of the accord. I mean, that’s – and – I think that’s what everybody has to be focused on is. And that’s what Craig Kelly was down there for to make sure that it’s done step by step. And there are a number of steps that have to take place. Now, the national congress has set a date to pronounce on this, to pronounce on this issue of the – what – I mean, the accord calls it a pronouncement on the reversion of the executive branch, a pronouncement on the – whether or not Mr. Zelaya should return.

This is a – this is basically – it’s a – we have a lot of interests, obviously. This is – the Organization of American States have a – has a lot of interest in having a government down there that reflects the will of the people and having reconciliation between the Zelaya camp and the Micheletti camp.

QUESTION: Am I correct in thinking that there’s --

MR. KELLY: And the accord is the best to do this.

QUESTION: Am I correct in thinking that there is no way to guarantee that this pronouncement will even restore him to office?

MR. KELLY: It’s up to the congress.

QUESTION: They could come –

MR. KELLY: The both sides --

QUESTION: -- back and say no, he can’t come back and --

MR. KELLY: They could come back. I mean, that is --

QUESTION: Well, what happens then?

MR. KELLY: Well, we’ll – let’s see then.

QUESTION: Then you walk into --

MR. KELLY: It’s now. It’s not then.

QUESTION: Ian, will the election --

MR. KELLY: It’s a Honduran crisis. And we want to make sure that --

QUESTION: Well --

MR. KELLY: -- the Hondurans are able to sit down --

QUESTION: -- you inserted yourself into it --

MR. KELLY: We have.

QUESTION: -- quite – so it’s no longer just a Honduran crisis. You’re involved.

MR. KELLY: Of course, we’re involved. We are involved because we want to be involved, because it’s important for us to be involved. We’re involved because they want us to be involved.

QUESTION: Ian, the election will enjoy international support, including that of the United States, even if at the time they vote the Congress hasn’t decided?

MR. KELLY: It all depends on how the vote is conducted. It depends on how the campaign is conducted. We will decide how to pronounce on the election when we see how it is conducted.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Honduran Congress to vote on Zelaya fate after poll
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4150629