Update 8: Recent events in Honduras Share This /

Today Honduras entered the fifth day of restrictions on fundamental human rights, despite national and international condemnations of the decree issued by de facto President Roberto Micheletti on Sunday. Here is today's update on the situation in Honduras:

• The UN Human Rights Council endorsed a proposal calling for an immediate end to all human rights violations in Honduras. The Council also requested an exhaustive report from UN High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay on human rights violations since the coup d'etat in Honduras.
• A delegation of six Brazilian parliamentarians arrived in Honduras last night to verify the situation in the country as well as in the Brazilian embassy. While in Honduras, the delegation will meet with the Board of the National Congress, leaders of Honduran political parties, human rights organizations, representatives of the Supreme Court and members of the Brazilian community. They have said they do not hope to be mediators in the conflict, but hope to contribute a solution to the crisis.
• U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) will travel to Honduras on Monday to conduct an "evaluation on the situation in the country and the state of North American interests as a result of the Administration's poorly conducted focus on Zelaya." Rep. Ros-Lehtinen plans to meet with de facto President Micheletti, members of his government, Cardinal Osacr Andres Rodriguez, representatives of Honduran community groups and American business leaders living in the country.
• The Organization of American States has confirmed that an advance mission will arrive in Honduras on Friday, "with the goal of paving the way for the visit of a Delegation of Foreign Ministers and the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, which would arrive in Honduras next week."
• An article by Andres Oppenheimer in the Miami Herald suggests that the Honduran presidential candidates may play a larger role in finding a negotiated solution to the current political crisis, "because nobody would want to be president of a country that would not have diplomatic recognition from any country." A senior Obama administration official told Oppenheimer that the candidates "are a pressure point, not the solution." And OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said, "What I'm trying to do is getting representatives of Zelaya and Micheletti to sit on the same table, alongside the presidential candidates and other forces, to try to narrow down their differences along the lines of the San Jose agreements. We are trying to make that happen next Wednesday, during a scheduled visit by foreign ministers."