Yet another proposal was put forward by negotiators in Costa Rica on Wednesday, and yet again a compromise on the Honduran crisis could not be reached. The Miami Herald has coverage of these “last-ditch crisis talks,” writing that the 11-point “San José Proposal,” put together by Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias, did not differ significantly from the 7-point plan he forwarded over the weekend. However, once again, de facto leader Roberto Micheletti maintained his position that deposed President Mel Zelaya would never be allowed back to the country as president and the Honduran courts held steadfast to their view that they will not offer Zelaya any form of amnesty, “effectively killing the deal,” in the paper’s words. Following Wednesday’s proposal, Micheletti asked for more time to put together yet another proposal while Zelaya’s team of negotiators said they had had enough, walking away from the table. The LA Times has a slightly different take, focusing on this last part of Wednesday’s talks by saying Zelaya walked away from negotiations because he refused to accept conditions on his return to Honduras. The paper adds that the San José Proposal also included provisions to lift economic and political sanctions imposed on Honduras by some countries after the coup. Meanwhile, on the streets of Honduras, tens of thousands of pro-coup backers came out to support the government of Roberto Micheletti. Dressed in white and chanting “It wasn’t a coup,” many said they were there to “defend democracy and tell the international community that they do not want their interference.” For his part, Mel Zelaya remained in Nicaragua but has pledged to move to the Nicaragua-Honduras border today and cross over tomorrow. “I will go back unarmed, pacifically so that Honduras can return to peace and tranquility. “My wife and kids will accompany me and the military will be responsible for any harm,” Zelaya told reporters at a news conference yesterday in Managua. Offering opinions on the events as they unfold, Andres Oppenheimer writes in the Miami Herald that the Honduran crisis is creating a fierce partisan split on Latin American policy in Washington, D.C. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is now holding up the confirmation of new U.S. Amb. to Brazil, Tom Shannon, and Asst. Sec. of State, Arturo Valenzuela over the Obama handling of the Honduras situation. According to Oppenheimer sources, “the 3-week-old conflict in Honduras could make it difficult to come up with bipartisan U.S. policies on Latin America.” Eduardo Gamarra and Diana Prado provide very interesting poll numbers on Zelaya and opinions of democracy from the last few years in Honduras, which seem to show the deposed leader having very high levels of approval throughout his tenure, something I, for one, was unaware of. “In 2006, his approval rating was 50 percent; in 2007, it was 61 percent; in 2008 it fell to 52 percent; in April 2009 his rating climbed to 62 percent,” write Gamarra and Prado. Meanwhile more than 60% of Hondurans rejected the “meddling” of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez in internal Honduran affairs, what the writers call the “only issue where Hondurans appear to agree.” Their partial conclusion: “The rejection of the coup, the desire to see Zelaya tried for violating the constitution and the condemnation of the role played by the international community show a people that, despite approving the performance of Zelaya in office, fears the possibility of an unconstitutional extension of his mandate that might lead to the installation of a Chávez-like regime. Hondurans appear to prefer representative democracy with all of its flaws to any other type of government.” And Mark Weisbrot writes in the LA Times on Washington insiders, Lanny Davis and Bennett Ratcliff, who have been lobbying Washington for pro-Micheletti business groups in the country. [For more on this story, I recommend Roberto Lovato’s piece in The American Prospect this week.]
Also today, the New York Times’ Simon Romero has a piece on the new U.S. plan for an increased military presence in Colombia. Romero writes that the decision is creating even more tense relations between Colombia and its neighbors, particularly Venezuela, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. Hugo Chávez has called the proposal “new aggression against us,” but Colombian officials have called the new accord an “internal affair.” The U.S. currently has 250 military personnel stationed in Colombia, according to U.S. ambassador William Brownfield. That number is expected to rise with an expanded presence in the country.
The Washington Post reports from Mexico, writing that groups of Mormons in the country are increasingly becoming targets of drug gangs for their relative wealth. Telephones now frequently ring with threats of extortion, the piece says, and children and clan elders are often the target of such violence. Earlier this month, the leader of one Mormon community, Benjamin LeBaron, was killed for denouncing drug gang violence in the country. His killers left a note after his death, warning “this is for the leaders of LeBaron who didn't believe and who still don't believe.” Also today, the AP reports that four suspects have been arrested in the killing of 12 federal agents in Michoacan last week. All are believed to be affiliated with La Familia, the notorious drug cartel that operates in the state.
And finally, speaking in Brazil yesterday, Israel’s controversial foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Latin American’s largest nation can play an important role in preventing Iran from developing nuclear capabilities. “I think that Brazil more than other countries can try to convince Iranians to stop their nuclear program and, of course, to convince the Palestinians to start direct talks,” noting the South American nation’s good relations with many countries in the Muslim world. For a region once seen as tertiary to such global negotiations, these are certainly interesting words. President Lula da Silva had no comment for reporters after his meeting with Israel’s top diplomat.
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