Update 11: Honduras Share This /

Last Wednesday, the Organization of American States led a delegation of top officials to Honduras to commence a dialogue between the de facto Micheletti government and ousted President Manuel Zelaya. One day later, the OAS top officials, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, left Honduras. While reports did not indicate a breakthrough in negotiations, the members of the delegation characterized their visit as "a positive step even though the rivals appeared as far apart as ever." Over the weekend, Micheletti announced a new decree that threatens broadcasters with closure for airing reports that "attack national security," despite his announcement that he would repeal the decree suspending important civil liberties early last week. Here is today's update on the situation in Honduras, which covers the past few days.

• Last week, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley commented on Assistant Secretary Thomas Shannon's trip to Honduras with the OAS delegation at a Foreign Press Center briefing:

  Tom Shannon, as the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, is doing what we’d expect him to do. Today, you have a very important mission by the Organization of American States to Honduras. The United States has been very supportive of this mission, and it is appropriate that the United States should be a part of this mission.

• Micheletti told the OAS delegation on Wednesday that "the elections will take place on November 29th, the only way they can be stopped is if they attack us or invade us." Micheletti also told the OAS diplomats that "We are not afraid of the United States, nor of the State Department, nor of Mexico or Brazil. But we are afraid and panicked when it comes to Zelaya."
• Negotiators for ousted President Zelaya insisted last week that an agreement be found by October 15th, or they would risk "a delay in the late November presidential and legislative elections."
• On Thursday, the OAS delegation in Honduras released a statement which outlined the agenda for dialogue and the necessary conditions for dialogue to take place. The three agenda items agreed upon were:

  a) The signing of the San José Accord; b) The establishment of commissions for the purpose of conducting a detailed discussion and of proposing changes and updates to points in the San José Accord on which there is agreement, and to establish a timeline for their implementation. c) The proposal and design of a methodological approximation of a new Political and Social Pact for Honduras.

  The three conditions for dialogue were:

  1) The reestablishment and permanency of all constitutional guarantees; 2) The restitution of all press media whose functions were interrupted; and 3) That normal access and consultation of President Zelaya and his representatives be allowed in the Table of Dialogue.

• On Friday, the United Nations working group on mercenaries "voiced concern at reports that former paramilitaries from Colombia had been recruited to protect wealthy people and property in Honduras" after the coup d'etat, reports Reuters. The joint statement made by the working group urged "the Honduran authorities to take all practical measures to prevent the use of mercenaries within its territory and to fully investigate allegations concerning their presence and activities."
• On Saturday, Micheletti imposed a new decree, under which "the frequencies of radio or television stations may be canceled if they transmit messages that incite national hate and the destruction of public property." The decree also allows government officials to monitor and control broadcast messages that "attack national security."
• According to the New York Times, the de facto Micheletti government has spent at least $400,000 on a lobbying campaign in Washington. The Washington Post cites the lobbying costs at at least $600,000.
• Two Republican members of Congress, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) and Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) continue to express their support for the de facto regime in Honduras and pressure the Obama administration to recognize the November 29th elections. On the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen spoke about her recent trip to Honduras, while Senator Jim DeMint published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Here are excerpts from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's remarks:

  I have just returned from Honduras, where I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes what is happening on the ground there. Let me tell you, Madam Speaker, it's very quiet on the streets of Tegucigalpa. Despite the efforts of the pro-Zelaya camp to create the impression that chaos is reigning in Honduras, there are no tires burning in the streets, there are no massive protests urging Manuel Zelaya's return, no collapse of democratic order or institutions. ... The people of Honduras do not want Manuel Zelaya back in office. The Honduran people do not want outside actors infringing upon and determining their democracy and their rule of law. For the Honduran people, the November 29 elections are the solution, they are the way forward, and I couldn't agree with them more. ... Madam Speaker, I'm concerned that if we in the U.S. continue along this misguided path and continue to impose this misguided Zelaya-centric policy, that the goodwill and the respect and the admiration that the U.S. currently enjoys in Honduras will now start to dissipate. We can't afford for that to happen. The United States has always been the beacon of democracy. How can we take this undemocratic way forward for Honduras?

  Excerpts from Sen. DeMint's op-ed:

  While in Honduras, I spoke to dozens of Hondurans, from nonpartisan members of civil society to former Zelaya political allies, from Supreme Court judges to presidential candidates and even personal friends of Mr. Zelaya. Each relayed stories of a man changed and corrupted by power. ... As all strong democracies do after cleansing themselves of usurpers, Honduras has moved on. ... America's Founding Fathers—like the framers of Honduras's own constitution—believed strong institutions were necessary to defend freedom and democracy from the ambitions of would-be tyrants and dictators. Faced by Mr. Zelaya's attempted usurpations, the institutions of Honduran democracy performed as designed, and as our own Founding Fathers would have hoped. Hondurans are therefore left scratching their heads. They know why Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega and the Castro brothers oppose free elections and the removal of would-be dictators, but they can't understand why the Obama administration does.