In a change of position, the de facto president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, announced Wednesday that he is willing to step down, but only if ousted leader Mel Zelaya is not allowed to return to power. This according to the AP who quotes Micheletti saying he was willing to leave office “if at some point that decision is needed to bring peace and tranquility to the country, but without the return, and I stress this, of former President Zelaya.” This proposal, according to Micheletti, has been sent to the OAS in Washington, D.C. but the inter-American body has yet to confirm or deny that they have received the offer. Nevertheless, according to the news agency, the offer is unlikely to resolve the political impasse that has plunged the Central American country into crisis for nearly three weeks. Zelaya was not available to comment on Micheletti’s words on Wednesday but continued to insist that his return is not an item up for negotiation, adding that Hondurans had the right to foment an insurrection against the illegitimate government of Mr. Micheletti. In Honduras, pro-Zelaya forcers connected to numerous labor and social movements in the country marched through the capital of Tegucigalpa on Wednesday, and labor leader Israel Salinas told the crowds that workers at state-owned enterprises were planning a general strike for later this week. No injuries were reported during the mass protests, but government buildings were damaged by protestors wielding rocks, writes a separate AP report. One protest leader said that Zelaya forces would continue in their call for a constitutional assembly and that they were even willing to “burn the Congress.” Citing security worries, the de facto government of Mr. Micheletti reinstated curfew in the city as well yesterday while, at the same time, new numbers from the Gallup Poll conducted earlier this month were released yesterday showing that Mel Zelaya remains more popular that Roberto Micheletti among Hondurans. According to the poll numbers, Mr. Zelaya holds onto a 46% favorable rating compared to just 30% who hold a favorable opinion of Micheletti.
On a side story, related to Honduras, the Washington Post had a fascinating piece yesterday, almost surreal in its details, featuring one-time Central American investor Allen Andersson. The so-called “presidential kingmaker” of Honduras, the Post writes, had an “offstage role” in the 2005 election of the now deposed Mel Zelaya. And speaking to the Post for the first time since the coup against Zelaya, Andersson, a Washington, D.C. resident, described the “shenanigans” he organized so that Zelaya’s wealthy opponent, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo did not win the presidency. Since the early years of the 2000s, the paper reports, Andersson poured money into Central American communities, building over 65 libraries and community centers in Honduras and Guatemala with cash he had made through his investments in a struggling pharmaceutical company. He then set his eyes on a grander prize: bringing democracy to Central America. After calling former Salvadoran ambassador Bob White at the Center for International Policy, the story goes, Anderson was encouraged to spend his money in Honduras. In particular, Andersson targeted businessman Pepe Lobo who he believed was involved in illegal logging operations in the country as the head of the national forestry agency. The American investor soon took over the newspaper “El Libertador,” running stories against Lobo, and he hired private investigators to dig up dirt on Lobo’s logging operations. In the last week of the election, Andersson spent $200,000 against the presidential favorite. Andersson estimates he spent a grand total of $2 million of the course of the whole 2005 campaign, and Mel Zelaya was propelled to victory. With the current crisis in Honduras still alive, the American investor says he has no plans of participating in the upcoming elections, even though his nemesis Lobo is considered a potential candidate. But the story, with other reports on the relationship between former confidants of Bill Clinton and the coup government of Mr. Micheletti, add a very bizarre U.S. twist to the happenings in Honduras.
Also today, the LA Times writes that the U.S. and Colombia are close to a deal that would move U.S. anti-drug operations in the region from a military base in Ecuador to up to three bases in its neighbor Colombia. “We are deepening cooperation agreements that already exist in our common struggle against narco-trafficking and terrorism,” said Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez at a forum on the matter held in Bogota on Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy in Colombia had no comment on the matter, but some analysts have derided the plan, saying it will increase Colombian dependence on the U.S. even more and infringe on Colombian sovereignty. The AP adds to the story saying a fifth round of talks that are set for this month could finalize the move. Senior Colombian military officials, for their part, have said that the deal will make their country the “regional hub for Pentagon operations.”
The Wall Street Journal runs an AP story on drugs and Venezuela. The Government Accountability Office has just released a new report saying the country is quickly becoming a major cocaine trafficking hub in the Western Hemisphere. According to the piece, the report’s findings are sure to raise tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. The details of the GAO study say government corruption is a key factor in increases in cocaine trafficking through the country. From 2004 to 2007, transshipments of the drug jumped four-fold, from 60 metric tons per year to 260 metric tons. “Corruption within the Venezuelan National Guard ‘poses the most significant threat,’ says the report, because the ‘Guard reports directly to President Chávez and controls Venezuela's airports, borders and ports.’” The AP adds that “in some cases, drugs captured by the National Guard and Venezuela's Investigative Police, who are often themselves involved in drug trafficking, aren't destroyed, but are taken by the officials or returned to drug traffickers.” Sen. Richard Lugar, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement Wednesday responding to the GAO findings. “The report's findings require, at a minimum, a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Venezuela,” said the senior Republican.
In other Venezuela news, the AP also reports on new turmoil in the country as a police station in the town of Curiepe, controlled by an anti-Chavez politician, was seized by the pro-Chavez National Guard. The seizure set off protests in the town which injured at least eight individuals. Henrique Capriles, Governor of the state of Miranda, accused the National Guard of acting like a “militia of a political party.”
And, finally this morning, new accusations are being made against an elected official in Mexico in relation to alleged drug cartel ties. Congressman-elect Julio Cesar Godoy is suspected of aiding La Familia cartel members, the violent drug syndicate allegedly responsible for a deadly series of attacks on federal police this week. Godoy, the brother of Michoacan’s current governor, is now a fugitive, says the paper, and nobody has seen him since July 1. He was not even seen on election day when he won victory as a candidate for the chamber of deputies from the PRD.
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