Honduras spurns OAS, vows to close Brazil embassy

In the September 27, 2009 article "Honduras spurns OAS, vows to close Brazil embassy," Patrick Markey and Gustavo Palencia report:

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – The de facto government of Honduras denied entry on Sunday to an Organization of American States delegation and threatened to close Brazil's embassy, where ousted President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge.

The group of OAS officials had hoped to help broker a solution to Honduras' political crisis but was turned back at Tegucigalpa's international airport, a move likely to further isolate the government headed by Roberto Micheletti.

Hours earlier, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would ignore a 10-day deadline set by Micheletti to decide what to do with Zelaya, who is holed up with his family and some supporters in Brazil's embassy in the capital.

"Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup mongers," Lula told reporters at a summit of African and South American leaders in Venezuela.

Lula also demanded an apology from Micheletti, who issued a harsh statement late on Saturday warning that his government would be forced to take action if Brazil does not define Zelaya's status soon.

Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup on June 28, but on Monday he returned from exile, sparking a tense standoff with the de facto civilian government that has promised to arrest him on charges of treason.

Brazil has said Zelaya can stay as long as necessary, but Micheletti told the South American heavyweight to either grant the deposed leftist political asylum or hand him over to Honduran authorities to be prosecuted.

"We urge the Brazilian government to define the status of Mr. Zelaya in a period of no more than 10 days," the government said in a statement. "If not, we will be obliged to take additional measures."

Carlos Lopez, the de facto government's foreign minister, said Brazil would lose its right to have an embassy in Honduras if it ignores the deadline. But he stressed that the government would respect the sovereignty of the compound and has no plans to storm the building to arrest Zelaya.

"There has been no discussion of raiding Brazil's compound," Lopez said at a news conference in Tegucigalpa where he faulted Brazil for escalating the crisis by agreeing to house Zelaya in its embassy.

"The Lula government is to blame," he added.

Since Monday, hundreds of soldiers and riot police have surrounded the embassy where protesters have mounted almost daily marches to demand Zelaya be reinstated.

"If they enter by force, they will be committing an act that contravenes all international norms," Lula said of the security forces outside the building.

ZELAYA URGES "FINAL OFFENSIVE"

Zelaya, a logging magnate who is rarely without his trademark cowboy hat, urged his followers to descend on the capital to pressure for his return.

"I call on you to mobilize throughout Honduras, and that everyone who can come to Tegucigalpa to fight in the final offensive," he said in a statement on local Radio Globo.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned harassment of the Brazilian embassy. Brazilian officials say food and supplies have only occasionally been allowed in and troops have blasted the building with high-frequency sounds.

Zelaya upset conservative elites by allying himself with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez. He demands to be restored to power, but the de facto government says presidential elections in November will resolve the crisis.

The showdown in Honduras is shaping up as U.S. President Barack Obama's first diplomatic test in Latin America, a region where Washington's influence has waned in recent years.

Obama has cut some U.S. aid to Honduras since the coup and pushed for Zelaya's return, but several Latin American leaders say he has not done enough to broker a solution.

Brazil, which has sought to assert itself as a regional leader under Lula, has backed Zelaya from the outset but was reluctant to take a leading role in a crisis outside its traditional sphere of influence in South America.

Soldiers toppled Zelaya at gunpoint and sent him into exile in his pajamas after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest. His critics say he broke the law by pushing for constitutional reforms they saw as a bid change presidential term limits and extend his rule. Zelaya denies wanting to stay in power.

His return stoked tensions in Honduras, a coffee and textile producing nation. One man was shot and killed in a clash between police and Zelaya supporters last week as pressure mounted to let him return to office.

The United States, European Union and Organization of American States have urged dialogue to bring Zelaya back to office. But the Micheletti government insists he must face justice at home.

Honduran businessmen at center of coup dispute

In the September 26, 2009 article "Honduran businessmen at center of coup dispute," Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson reports:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Die-hard supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya are increasingly turning their anger toward the country's wealthy business elite, a small but powerful cadre believed to solidly back the interim government that removed him at gunpoint three months ago.

The capital is now covered with graffiti demanding "Turks out!" — apparently a reference to the Central American country's large number of business people of Middle Eastern descent — and on Saturday pro-Zelaya marchers lashed out at the elite's dominance over wealth in a country where millions are poor.

"They own almost the whole country," pro-Zelaya protester Arnoldo Pagoaga, a medical doctor who marched in his white uniform, said Saturday. "They're terrorists. ... They own the army, and sic it on us."

Fellow demonstrator Rafael Alegria complained that Honduras "has a large immigrant community that owns everything: commerce and industry."

"We don't really have our own economy," Alegria said. "We have to set that right."

Meanwhile, reports emerged that the business community's firm support of interim President Roberto Micheletti might be faltering somewhat amid intense international economic and diplomatic pressure — and the coup's substantially negative impact on the economy.

"There are people who say that it was a businessman" who helped Zelaya sneak back into Honduras, Micheletti told The Associated Press in an interview late Friday. He added, however, that "there are so many theories that nobody knows" if it is true.

Zelaya has said he made a 15-hour, cross-country overland journey using various vehicles to slip into the country undetected Monday. But the Spanish newspaper La Nacion reported Friday that the scion of a local media and banking family, attorney Yani Rosenthal, had lent him a helicopter to whisk him to Honduras.

Rosenthal emphatically denied the report Saturday.

"I don't even have a helicopter, much less one to lend to somebody," he said.

He did acknowledge, however, that there are divisions within Honduras' elite.

"There are differences in the upper class, just as there are in the middle class and the lower class," he said, though he added that he doesn't think they have led to a significant reduction in support for Micheletti.

While the rich haven't suffered as much as the country's impoverished majority from the near-daily curfews and cutoff of international aid, industrial and retail interests are starting to feel the pinch.

"There has been significant damage to the economy ... especially from the curfews," Rosenthal noted. Another curfew was reinstated Saturday at 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Sunday.

Some members of the business community have had their U.S. visas revoked, several business people told the AP on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens told foreign journalists Friday that the visas of key supporters of the de facto regime had been revoked.

Nonetheless, Micheletti says he has received no pressure from the business community to show more flexibility in talks with Zelaya, who is holed up at the Brazilian Embassy along with supporters and demanding to be reinstated as president.

Also Saturday, about 2,000 Zelaya backers marched through downtown Tegucigalpa in a daily show of support for the ousted leader and to protest what they claim was the release of toxic gas inside the Brazilian Embassy compound. Zelaya said that the unidentified gas caused headaches, nosebleeds and nausea among about 65 of his supporters inside.

Francisco Catunda, the charge d'affaires of the Brazilian Embassy, confirmed Saturday that some sort of gas had affected those at the Embassy.

"Yes it was released," he said in a rare interview outside the Embassy. "One of our officials felt it, felt symptoms."

Catunda added that some people "had throat problems, but I don't want to get into details."

Negotiations to resolve the country's political standoff are at a standstill. Zelaya has said that an envoy of the interim government with whom he met Wednesday night took "an extremely hard" stand and he called the government's positions "totally outside of any possibility of agreement."

Hopes for international mediation also faded Friday when Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated previous talks, announced that Micheletti's government had rejected a visit by a commission of foreign ministers meant to help break the stalemate.

Government spokesman Rene Zepeda said interim leaders wanted Arias to visit Honduras first so they could explain the situation to him, and that the ministers would be welcome next week.

In Friday night's interview with the AP, however, Micheletti suggested the whole thing had been a misunderstanding. He said both the foreign ministers and Arias were now welcome to come to Honduras. None of them arrived Saturday.

Previous negotiations moderated by Arias broke down after Micheletti's government refused to accept a plan that would allow Zelaya to return to the presidency with limited powers and prohibit him from attempting to revise the constitution.

Zelaya was removed by the military at gunpoint on the morning of June 28 after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest on charges of treason and abuse of authority for repeatedly ignoring court orders to drop plans for a referendum on rewriting the constitution.

But the coup has drawn international condemnation, including from the United States, and world leaders have insisted that Micheletti restore Zelaya to the presidency and let him serve out his term, which ends in January.

Micheletti has refused, saying that presidential elections in November will bring an end to the crisis. He has pledged to arrest Zelaya if he leaves the Brazilian Embassy but his government has promised not to enter the compound to go after him.

Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya waves to supporters from inside Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 21, 2009. Zelaya said he returned to Honduras Monday to reclaim his presidency, defying threats of arrest and summoning supporters. (AP)

In the September 22, 2009 article "Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest," Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas reports that Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras to reclaim his presidency:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya made a dramatic return to Honduras' capital Monday, taking shelter from arrest at Brazil's embassy and calling for negotiations with the leaders who forced him from the country at gunpoint.

The interim government initially ordered a 15-hour curfew, but then extended it to a 26-hour shutdown of the capital, but thousands of Zelaya supporters ignored the decree and remained outside the embassy, dancing and cheering.

Others in the capital rushed home, lining up at bus stands and frantically looking for taxis. Electricity was cut off for hours at a time on the block housing the embassy and in areas of Tegucigalpa where news media offices are located — something that happened the day of the coup that ousted the leftist leader.

Security Vice Minister Mario Perdomo said checkpoints were being set up on highways leading to the capital to keep out Zelaya's supporters from other regions, to "stop those people coming to start trouble." Later, Defense Minister Lionel Sevilla said all flights to Tegucigalpa had been suspended indefinitely.

Without giving any specifics, Zelaya said he snuck into the country by traveling for 15 hours overland in a series of vehicles — pulling off a homecoming that created a sharp new challenge for the interim government that had threatened repeatedly to throw him in jail if he returned.

Chants of "Yes we could! Yes we could!" bellowed from the crowd outside the Brazilian Embassy.

Zelaya told The Associated Press that he was trying to establish contact with the interim government to start negotiations on a solution to the standoff that started when soldiers flew him out of the country June 28.

"As of now, we are beginning to seek dialogue," he said by telephone, though he gave few details. Talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have been stalled for weeks over the interim government's refusal to accept Zelaya's reinstatement.

He also summoned his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protests and urged the army to avoid attacking his supporters.

"It is the moment of reconciliation," he said.

The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti, who took power after Zelaya's ouster and has promised to step aside following a presidential election scheduled for November, said the curfew would continue until 6 p.m. (0000 GMT) Tuesday. It first declared a curfew running from 4 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The government said in a statement the army and police were ready to "guarantee the safety of people."

The shifting orders reflected the surprise of Zelaya's arrival, which caught the interim government off guard. Only minutes before he appeared publicly at the embassy, officials said reports of his return were a lie.

Zelaya's presence could revive the large demonstrations that disrupted the capital following the coup and threatens to overshadow the presidential election campaign.

Teachers union leader Eulogio Chavez announced that the country's 60,000 educators would go on strike indefinitely Tuesday to back Zelaya's demand to be reinstated.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged both sides to look for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

"It is imperative that dialogue begin, that there be a channel of communication between President Zelaya and the de facto regime in Honduras," Rodham Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session in New York.

The U.S. State Department announced Sept. 4 that it would not recognize results of the presidential vote under current conditions. The coup has shaken up Washington's relations with Honduras, traditionally one of its strongest allies in Central America.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, called for calm and warned Honduran officials to avoid any violation of the Brazilian diplomatic mission. "They should be responsible for the safety of president Zelaya and the Embassy of Brazil," he said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said neither his country nor the OAS had any role in Zelaya's journey before taking him in.

"We hope this opens a new stage in negotiations," Amorin said. He also warned: "If something happens to Zelaya or our embassy it would be a violation of international law," which bars host countries from arresting people inside diplomatic missions.

Honduras' Foreign Relations Department criticized Brazil, saying it was violating international law by "allowing Zelaya, a fugitive of Honduran justice, to make public calls to insurrection and political mobilization from its headquarters."

Micheletti urged Brazil in a nationwide radio address to turn Zelaya over to Honduran authorities.

In the days following the coup, at least two of the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets were killed during clashes with security forces. Thousands of other Hondurans demonstrated in favor of the coup.

The country's Congress and courts, alarmed by Zelaya's political shift into a close alliance with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba, backed Zelaya's removal.

He was arrested on orders of the Supreme Court on charges of treason and abuse of power for ignoring court orders against holding a popular referendum on reforming the constitution.

Micheletti said Zelaya sought to remove a ban on re-election — grounds for immediate removal from office under the Honduran constitution. Zelaya denies any such plan.

International leaders were almost unanimously against the armed removal of the president, alarmed that it could return Latin America to a bygone era of coups and instability. The United States, European Union and other agencies have cut aid to Honduras to press for his return.

Zelaya said he had "evaded a thousand obstacles" to return, traveling 15 hours by land in different vehicles. He declined to give specifics on who helped him cross the border, saying that he didn't want to jeopardize their safety.

His staunch supporter, Chavez, described the journey: "President Manuel Zelaya, along with four companions, traveled for two days overland, crossing mountains and rivers, risking their lives. They have made it to Honduras."

Sevilla, the defense minister, told reporters that Zelaya allegedly entered Honduras from Nicaragua in a car licensed in a South American nation that "is not Venezuela."

If the interim administration attempts to imprison Zelaya, protesters who have demonstrated against his ouster could turn violent, said Vicki Gass at the Washington Office on Latin America.

"There's a saying about Honduras that people can argue in the morning and have dinner in the evening, but I'm not sure this will happen in this case," said Gass. "It's been 86 days since the coup. Something had to break and this might be it."

Why Obama Won't Use the M-Word for Honduras' Coup

In the September 5, 2009 TIME article "Why Obama Won't Use the M-Word for Honduras' Coup," Tim Padgett explains the timid U.S. response to the coup in Honduras:

The Obama Administration tried again this week to take on the coupsters of Honduras. With more than two months passed since Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was exiled in a military ouster — and less than three months to go before his impoverished Central American nation holds new presidential elections — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jabbed harder at the coup leaders to get them to let Zelaya back into Honduras and finish his democratically elected term. The U.S. cut all non-humanitarian aid to the de facto government, about $32 million; revoked the visas of all civilian and military officials who backed the June 28 coup, and threatened not to recognize the results of the Nov. 29 elections unless Zelaya is returned to office.

The measures could move de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti to sign on to the San Jose Accord, brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, which stipulates Zelaya's restoration and immunity for the coup participants. They may also help restore President Obama's standing among Latin American leaders, who have unanimously condemned the coup, as Obama has, but who have questioned the U.S. President's commitment to matching his rhetoric with action. U.S. officials called the latest sanctions "a strong signal" that Obama has reversed Washington's historic tendency to abide if not back coups carried out against its foes (the leftist Zelaya is a critic of the U.S.) and that he's defending democratic process in the hemisphere.

But the Administration also sent a significant mixed signal. It didn't use the m-word: Military. Its lawyers have determined that while Zelaya's overthrow was a coup d'etat, it was not technically a military coup. The main reason: even though soldiers threw Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint, in his pajamas, he was not replaced with a military leader. Instead, Micheletti, a civilian who headed Honduras' Congress, was made President. Other "complicating factors," as the U.S. calls them, include lingering questions about which Honduran institution — Congress, the Supreme Court or the Army — actually ordered Zelaya's removal after he openly defied a high court edict not to hold a non-binding referendum on constitutional reform.

The legal semantics matter. If the State Department labels a coup "military" — the most brutal and anti-democratic kind of overthrow — it automatically triggers a suspension of all non-humanitarian and non-democracy-related U.S. aid. In the case of Honduras, State Department officials insist that those measures have already been taken without the military-coup tag. But critics, who fear Obama is keeping the Honduras coup designation downgraded to mollify conservative Republicans, argue that further steps, like freezing Honduran bank accounts in the U.S., are still available to the Administration.

Either way, foreign policy analysts say Obama is setting a precarious precedent by trying to have it both ways. In the future, restless militaries in other countries may look at the U.S.'s Honduras ruling and decide coups are worth chancing as long as they don't install a guy wearing epaulettes in the president's chair. In that scenario, a full-bore U.S. aid cut-off won't kick in by default — and there's always the possibility, they'll reason, that the White House won't adopt enough punitive steps to make them cry uncle in the end.

The U.S.'s non-military coup rating is especially dicey given that two of Honduras' neighbors, El Salvador and Guatemala, recently elected leftist presidents who could also find themselves in the crosshairs of their countries' overweening generals. "I think the armies and the business elites they back in those countries are watching the Obama Administration's moves on Honduras very closely," says Vicki Gass, a senior associate at the independent Washington Office on Latin America. While Gass applauds Clinton's threat to reject Honduras' November election results as a "very positive step that shows the U.S. is serious again about multilateral effort in Latin America," she fears the U.S. has "created risks in other countries" by not designating Honduras' putsch as military.

The Obama Administration has political reasons for eschewing the m-word. The most important is that calling an overthrow a military coup requires certification by Congress — where Obama and Clinton foresee a fight they'd rather avoid. Conservative Republicans are angry at Obama's support of Zelaya, who they insist was trying to remove presidential term limits in Honduras and usher in a socialist government like that of his oil-rich left-wing ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As a result, they're blocking a number of the White House's State Department appointees, including Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's pick to oversee western hemisphere affairs.

But in a Los Angeles Times op-ed last week, Democratic Representative Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that whatever Zelaya's alleged infractions, they should have been addressed legally, not militarily. "It's time to call this bird what it is," a military coup, and move on with whatever tougher sanctions that might mean in order to get the Micheletti regime to back down, Berman wrote. Obama and Clinton still feel a negotiated settlement in Honduras can be reached. But the Micheletti regime, which human rights groups say has cracked down violently on many Zelaya supporters (a charge it denies), has so far indicated it won't be swayed by the latest U.S. sanctions.

A negotiated settlement is indeed the preferred solution. But the problem is that the U.S. loses leverage in that process when, by not calling Zelaya's ouster a military coup, it gives coup leaders the impression that what they did was merely second- or third-degree coup-mongering instead of the first-degree military kind. When the military hauls away a democratically elected president, it's a military coup, period, regardless of who takes power afterward. It's a rule that needs to apply not just in Honduras, but whenever the U.S. has to take on coupsters.