Peter Kent in Honduras: No good news for ousted President Zelaya

Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign affairs, is in the thick of it in Honduras today, with an Organization of American States (OAS) mission to end the deadlock in Honduras over the ousting of the country's president. In a conference call with journalists (including thestar.com) late this afternoon, his prognosis (although framed in optimism) wasn't good. It's a question of what the delegation can get for Manuel Zelaya at this point. He was hustled onto a plane out of the country at gunpoint during a military coup last June. Currently, he's holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa with de facto president Roberto Micheletti essentially refusing to budge on the arrest warrant for Zelaya and Zelaya supporters facing armed opposition from the military in the streets.

Kent said the delegation's goal is to reinstate Zelaya as president, admitting that it would be "a symbolic reinstatement" at this point, with presidential elections scheduled for November 29. (Zelaya can't run again and Micheletti is only filling in for the coup leaders as interim president.) 

Kent couldn't give a time line for talks between Micheletti and Zelaya representatives, along with officials for candidates in the upcoming election, noting: "We are realistic." He couldn't say if it would be "one day, two days, or even a week." It may be a question of now-you-see-him-now-you-don't if Zelaya is reinstated.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar again criticized Canada's approach, calling on Ottawa to impose economic and military sanctions against the de facto government. Said Dewar:

Canada is lacking the diplomatic will to defend the rights and freedoms of the Honduran people

Kent said he is "optimistic" about meetings that began Wednesday,  calling them a "significant step forward." To date, there has been little progress - apart from Zelaya's daring move back into the country under Brazilian protection and facing arrest. He said one of the points of discussion is to put the "perceived political crimes of both sides behind us . . . in a general amnesty. . . and move ahead." What that amnesty means must be worked out in the discussions. Asked whether there's balance between anything Zelaya may have done and the actions of military coup leaders who deposed a president in the middle of the night, Kent noted the Supreme Court and other Honduran institutions called efforts by Zeleya to run for re-election "offenses against the constitution." Such actions were cited in the warrant for his arrest.

Kent stressed Canada opposed the coup from the beginning and called for Zelaya's reinstatement. Zelaya's "unacceptable removal" came almost at the end of his term, he said, but OAS representatives don't consider it to be acceptable "under any conditions."

Kent said it "means a great deal" to Latin American nations who have been "traumatized by military coups" to see the president resinstated. In recent conversations he's had with Zelaya, he said, the ousted president indicated he "simply wanted to finish the term to which he'd been democratically elected."

Kent urged Zelaya and Micheletti camps to entreat their supporters to accept a negotiated settlement. There must be time, he said, for the OAS and other organizations to bring in oversight teams in order to ensure November elections that are "free and fair worthy of international recognition."

At this point, it appears all the cards are in Micheletti's hands. Kent appears to be doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt by Ottawa's position on Honduras. Still, it's seems farcical to watch talks to squeeze out a few hours in the presidential palace for Zelaya, while nobody talks about the elephant of coup leaders who will get nothing more than a slap on the wrists - if that. It may be a new definition of a coup, but it's a bad precedent.

Meanwhile, the situation for Honduran citizens remains extremely precarious.

Comments

[John Smith]

So Zelaya was preparing a socialist takeover of Honduras through documented fraud in a referendum intended to change the Constitution and allow him to run forever, like Chavez in Venezuela (proof of the prepared fraud was found in his palace after his ousting). As in Chile in 1973, common sense people in the military decided that enough was enough and kicked the commie out. The presidential elections will take place as scheduled and the interim government seems eager to restore civil liberties as soon as the extreme-left calms down. Why would Canada support a guy like Zelaya?

[Nicolas Gonzalez]

What this biased reporter forgets to mention the removal of Zelaya from power was a legal impeachment from a democratically elected Congress. In fact, the removal of Zelaya was deemed legal by the US State department and has widespread support among many Latin Americans who abhor "Chavismo"...the phenomenon in which a President upsets the Constitution, changes the rules in his favor, gets control of the army, Congress, judicial system and becomes President for decades, like in Venezuela or Cuba, all justified by XXI century socialism, which in the century was called Marxism-Leninism...

...And what Zelaya was trying -unsuccessfully thankss God - to achieve in Honduras.

[WG Radlein]

Events in Honduras are following a well known script. First, a south american or carribean president , possibly one allied with the posseding class of the copuntry gets an acute of conscience (or conciousness) and tries to address the social inequilalities in his country. He is overturned after his erstwhile friends and his driven into exile by the local "army". The US protest officially but the putchists, surprisingly, are immune, barely affected by any effective actions by the US and easily survive the storm of protests and toothless "sanctions. Matters drag until they drown in political boredom until the deposed president's term expires. The new president is expired, a person who is from the possessing class and who will restore the status ante. The situation resumes and continues until the next coup. The depredation continue for a few more years. Depressing.