Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has agreed to mediate the conflict between ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya and the interim government of Roberto Micheletti. The announcement was made yesterday by U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, writes the Washington Post, just after the Secretary held a private meeting with Zelaya in Washington, D.C. Zelaya will now travel to San Jose, Costa Rica to meet with Arias and Micheletti on Thursday. After Zelaya’s failed return to Honduras on Sunday, U.S. officials said their efforts turned toward finding a respected third party that might broker a negotiated deal. On Tuesday morning, Clinton called Oscar Arias to see if he might be interested in playing such a role, the paper reports. Zelaya, in turn, spoke with Arias by telephone while Micheletti had apparently already talked with the Costa Rican president on Monday about the prospect of serving as a negotiator. “The United States seized the opportunity to take away the whole Honduran crisis from the palpable influence of the South Americans, i.e., Chávez, Kirchner, Correa, and put it under regional arbitration,” remarked Cresencio Arcos, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras, after the announcement was made Wednesday. Nevertheless, the U.S. position still includes restoring Zelaya to power in order that he finish out the remaining months of his term in office—a demand made most vocally by other Latin American leaders. The LA Times report focuses on the inability of the OAS to secure a deal between the two parties, writing “the new initiative represents the second diplomatic effort to resolve the dispute, after the failure of an attempt last weekend by an Organization of American States delegation to find a compromise.” While the Wall Street Journal says reaching an agreed upon settlement may still be difficult. “Honduras's acting president, Roberto Micheletti, applauded the designation of Mr. Arias and said, ‘We are ready for dialogue,’ but added, ‘Only if it's about President Zelaya's surrendering himself to the tribunals of justice, and not about his return.’” And the New York Times adds a bit of light-heartedness to its reporting. After rhetorically asking Ms. Clinton what Latin American leaders had learned from the crisis in Honduras, Mr. Zelaya responded saying, “To sleep with our clothes on and our bags packed.”
Several other reports this morning add analysis of the situation on the ground, in Honduras and beyond, writing that social divisions remain deep, and, in some cases, appear to be growing after the events of June 28. The NYT writes how two diplomats, one the Honduran ambassador to the UN and the other the Honduran ambassador to the U.S., came down on opposite sides of the coup, injuring a long friendship the two men had previously enjoyed. Even Zelaya and Micheletti’s wives, now ex-friends, have lost the friendship they had shared prior to June 28. The AP in the Miami Herald examines Mel Zelaya’s hometown of Lepaguare where similar divisions are quite evident. A man who lives just down the road from Zelaya’s ranch there tells the AP that “The people of Honduras are not comfortable with the extreme left. Even the poor only want to see it go so far. People like Mel. They also are afraid of him.” Others in the same town express different opinions, however. “‘We are waiting for him to come back every day," said Veronica Mejia, a resident eating on the tumble-down porch of a Lepaguare home that doubles as a cafe. "If he doesn't, I don't know what will happen to this country.’” Another Lepaguare resident adds, “All of the poor worked for them and saw what they [the Zelaya’s] were like. His father was noble. How could his son not be like him?” And in the Caribbean as well, there is unrest and division about the direction some countries are turning. The MH writes from the CARICOM conference currently being held in Guyana, saying a tightening alliance between Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and some countries of the English-speaking Caribbean is causing worry amongst some heads of state in the region. Trinidad and Tobago’s President Patrick Manning said the addition of three Caribbean countries to the Chávez-led ALBA alliance, and the potential of more joining soon, is “a development that has to be examined.” The former foreign minister of Guyana added his preoccupations as well, remarking that he “personally has many reservations about ALBA,” and some of its “ideological dimensions which may not be shared in the region.”
In other news, the MH also reports on Bill Clinton’s first visit to Haiti as a UN special envoy. The paper says the ex-president visited the city of Gonaives to have a first-hand look at the still visible destruction from last year’s hurricanes. He praised reconstruction efforts there but said there is still much work to be done. Clinton, with President Rene Preval, added that with the support of international aid, the government of Haiti hopes to create some 150,000 to 200,000 new jobs over the next two years.
Finally, two opinions. Robert Weiner, former spokesman for the White House’s National Drug Policy Office, and Zoe Pagonis of the Smith School of Business, argue in the MH that the U.S. can reduce the flow of illicit drugs north by passing an FTA with Colombia. The two believe that the creation of new jobs outside of the drug trade and a reduction of the “export of these lethal products” will accompany a trade deal with the Andean country. And the LAT writes that the victory of the PRI in Mexico on Sunday could be one sign that many in Mexico are longing for the return of a one-party state. “While the impulse to ‘throw the bums out’ is natural, the risk is that public disappointment with the PAN will turn into disillusionment with democracy itself. Turnout in Mexico has been declining, with more than half of registered voters abstaining from the most recent election and an additional 5% responding to a campaign to deface their ballots in protest against bad government,” writes the paper.
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