The situation in Honduras turned evermore surreal on Sunday as a plane carrying deposed President Manuel Zelaya was prevented from landing in Tegucigalpa by Honduran soldiers who blocked the runway. Zelaya’s plane made two passes over the airport, the New York Times writes, while crowds of supporters gathered below. Zelaya spoke to the throng from his airplane by way of loudspeakers but flew on to Nicaragua and then El Salvador after being physically stopped from making his return to the country. The Honduran leader was accompanied by the UN General Assembly president, Miguel d’Escoto and reporters from Telesur while the presidents of Paraguay, Argentina, Ecuador, and the OAS Secretary General followed Zelaya in a separate plane, saying they would land only after Zelaya was given permission to reenter his home country. Nevertheless, just a day after the OAS suspended Honduras, the inter-American continued to seek a way towards negotiations the inter-American with de facto president Roberto Micheletti. The OAS moved away from its prior strategy of prohibiting its diplomats from talking with Micheletti directly, indicating that direct channels with the former head of parliament were being set up. And U.S. officials indicated that they too were stepping up diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, “in coordination with the OAS.” However, Honduran officials remained steadfast in their commitment to not allow Zelaya back into power. Micheletti’s foreign minister, on a television program in Honduras this week, added that Honduras doesn’t attribute any importance to the words of the OAS or “other little groups that are moving around here.” The foreign minister also told Spanish President José Luis Rodriguéz Zapatero to “go back to making shoes,” an interesting diplomatic style by a country almost completely isolated from the international community. The Washington Post adds to the reporting on Honduras saying riot police acted violently against those Zelaya supporters who awaited their president at the airport. The Red Cross says at least 30 were injured and the AP reports that at least one was killed when he was shot in the head. In another Post article, the paper adds that the U.S. misread how Zelaya’s close relationship with Hugo Chávez had so deeply antagonized many in the Honduran military and elite class. “Zelaya increasingly spoke of the two nations of Honduras, one hopelessly poor, the other wealthy and uncaring. He began to argue for ‘people power,’ a kind of direct popular democracy,” says the paper in describing the ousted president’s leftward shift. And in yet another Post report, an interesting quote by former ambassador and U.S. special adviser for the Summit of the Americas, Jeffrey Davidow, who indirectly speaks out against Zelaya saying, “the threats against democracy in Latin America, and I don't in any way minimize what's happened in Honduras . . . are not those coming from military coups, but rather from governments which are ignoring checks and balances, overriding other elements of government.”
Also this morning, voting in Mexico’s legislative elections has wrapped up and the opposition PRI appears to have scored a significant victory over the ruling PAN. The PRD finished a distant third. The Wall Street Journal leads by saying the results will likely lead to more gridlock in the Mexican political system while Reuters writes that voters were punishing the PAN for economic woes and “rampant crime.” With nearly a third of the votes officially tallied, the PRI had approx. 35% of the vote to the PAN’s 27%. The PRD won just 12% and as many as 7% of ballots were left blank or were intentionally nullified. Also, the Mexican Green Party picked up about 7% of the vote. In a rather hopeful sign, voter turnout was estimated at 43%--to be sure, a very low percentage but higher than some analysts expected.
And the LA Times had an interesting report over the weekend about how the car industry, particularly GM, is booming in Latin America. While the U.S. auto giant closes facilities in the U.S. and Europe, Latin American operations are likely to “escape the ax,” according to one auto analyst. That is largely due to an increasing demand for GM vehicles in Latin America (GM sales rose by 3% in Latin America last year while falling 23% in the U.S.). Indeed, 2009 sales are expected to still be even with those 2008 numbers even as the global economy continues to falter. GM has major plants in Brazil and in Mexico.
In other news, the NYT has a briefing on the state of media outlets in Venezuela. Simon Romero says the licenses of some 240 radio stations will be revoked by the government of Hugo Chávez. Chávez’s top aide said this was due to incomplete tax and regulatory filings but also said the “spectrum use” needed to be “democratized,” away from elite families in the country.
Finally, this morning a series of opinions. The Miami Herald writes that Honduran coup plotters continue to lose credibility after acts of repression and an inability to keep their stories straight. Some coup backers are now saying Zelaya chose exile instead of facing a trial and jail, contradicting earlier statements. In addition, “Human Rights Watch complained of ‘excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and acts of censorship’ by the Honduran authorities. The emergency decree that suspends fundamental rights remains in effect and could become a cover for further abuses,” says the paper. The WSJ’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes a recap of what brought the hemisphere to this difficult point, beginning her chronology in 2004 when the international community approved Hugo Chávez’s referendum vote without being allowed to audit electronic voting machines. And, on Colombia, the LAT praises Obama for noting human rights progress in Colombia and instructing his USTR, Ron Kirk, to begin looking for ways to sign an FTA with Colombia. “The lure of the trade agreement has yielded positive results [in Colombia], which Democrats should acknowledge not by continuing to dwell on Colombia's grim history but rather by approving a pact that is in the interest of both nations,” the paper editorializes.
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