Conditions for a negotiated resolution to the crisis in Honduras have drastically worsened as the de facto regime in Tegucigalpa began to retaliate against international organizations and governments that it believes are unlawfully aiding President Mel Zelaya. The New York Times reports this morning that four OAS diplomats have been expelled by the Roberto Micheletti-led government, and El Salvador’s El Faro reports that Brazil will lose its right to an embassy in the Honduran capital within 10 days if it continues to give shelter to Mr. Zelaya. Additionally, the Times writes that “the government issued a decree Sunday that banned unauthorized gatherings and allowed the authorities to shut down broadcasters and arrest anyone deemed to pose a threat to their lives and that of others.” According to the AP, however, many Zelaya supporters pledged to continue taking to the streets, even amidst the suspension of constitutional liberties, after Mel Zelaya called on backers to launch a “final offensive” against the coup government to mark the three-month anniversary of his ouster. The OAS officials restricted from entering the country by Honduran security forces—two Americans, a Canadian, and a Colombian—were all members of an advance team, planning the visit of an official foreign minister’s delegation, originally scheduled for late last week but postponed by the Micheletti government until later this week (one Chilean diplomat, John Biehl, was apparently allowed to enter). The reason for their arrest, according to Honduran foreign minister, Carlos Lopez Contreras: an early arrival. “They fell on us by surprise,” Lopez Contreras said Sunday. For its part, the OAS and its Sec. General, José Miguel Insulza called the arrests “incomprehensible, since it was the very same de facto government of Honduras that had agreed to the visit.” Meanwhile, Brazilian President Lula da Silva responded to weekend threats that his country would lose its embassy in Tegucigalpa in 10 days, saying “Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup-mongers.” Honduras also said it would not automatically accept back diplomats from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela while the Wall Street Journal writes that some local media outlets in Honduras are reporting that Mr. Micheletti’s own daughter, Siomara, may soon be assigned as a diplomat to Washington, D.C.
There are also reports in various media outlets of rights abuses, including deaths, likely attributable to the Micheletti government’s crackdown on protest. AFP and EFE say Fr. Andres Tomayo and other anti-Micheletti forces report the death of a university student (and asthmatic), Wendy Elizabeth Ávila, after being sprayed with “toxic gases.” (In the Miami Herald, Roberto Micheletti says allegations that security forces have used particularly “toxic” gases against protestors and the Brazilian embassy are false. CEJIL rejects this claim, confirming their use in a communiqué this weekend that also urged the Red Cross to enter the area around the Brazilian embassy). AFP also reports that “two gunmen on a motorcycle” shot and killed a candidate for deputy, Marco Antonio Villatoro, a member of the PINU social democratic party. The government denied that the killing had anything to do with anti-coup protests. Also, there was news late last week in the pro-Micheletti El Heraldo, that the IMF, in fact, deposited some $163 million, not with the de facto regime, but rather Mr. Zelaya’s Minister of Finance and Central Bank president in late August.
In other news this weekend, the New York Times reported Friday that an aide to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez said last week that his country was aiding Iran in the detection of uranium deposits in Venezuela. “Iran is helping us with geophysical aerial probes and geochemical analyses,” Rodolfo Sanz, Venezuela’s minister of basic industries and mining, told reporters outside a meeting of Latin American and African leaders in Porlamar, Venezuela. On Saturday, however, the AP says the story changed when Venezuela’s minister of science and technology insisted such cooperation was only occurring with Russia, not Iran.
The statements came as Venezuela hosted an African-South American summit, intended to bolster relations between the two continents. Reuters reports that Brazil’s Lula da Silva summed up the event’s central them best, saying “We have to construct a new alliance, discover opportunities and help ourselves mutually.” On substantive matters, leaders from both regions discussed ways to cooperate in mineral and oil development.
In the Miami Herald, Tyler Bridges reports on how Latin American countries are already recovering from the global financial crisis. “A year after the global financial crisis exploded, most Latin American countries are putting the tough times in the rearview mirror during the final three months of 2009. Brazil, the region's giant and the world's ninth largest economy, is leading the way, along with such other market-friendly countries as Peru, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Panama,” Bridges writes. But some countries continue to struggle, he adds. “The slow economic recovery in the United States is holding back Mexico and most Central American nations, with drug violence and swine flu also battering Mexico,” while arguing that “Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Argentina are lagging -- in part because their leftist populist leaders have scared away investors and unsettled consumers with policies that have included nationalizing companies or private assets.” Among the reasons for the economic recovery: improved trade relations with China, writes Bridges.
From the Washington Post, William Booth writes on a new Cuban agricultural policy that allows private farmers to use state land to make a profit. The Post writes that “Castro's government says it has lent 1.7 million acres of unused state land in the past year to 82,000 Cubans in an effort to cut imports, which currently make up 60 percent of the country's food supply.” Meanwhile, the Miami Herald this morning has a good summary of the various pieces of Cuba-related legislation circulating through the U.S. Congress right now, related to trade and travel specifically.
Finally, three opinions. In the Herald, Andres Oppenheimer calls Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) blockade against the confirmation of Latin American diplomats “irresponsible.” As DeMint himself tells Oppenheimer, “I will not lift the hold on these nominations until the United States works out an arrangement with the Honduran government to recognize the outcome of the [planned Nov. 29] elections in Honduras and restores the U.S. foreign aid that has been cut by the Obama administration.” The Senator goes on. “They [the Obama administration] continue to use the misguided rhetoric that what happened in Honduras was a military coup, when it's obvious by the facts and the documentation that the Honduran government acted according to its own constitution.” Also in the Miami Herald this weekend, José Miguel Insulza and Sen. Robert Menendez co-author a piece on the “Inter-American Social Protection Network -- a hemispheric partnership that promotes opportunity, inclusion and prosperity.” First implemented in Latin America, the idea is now being imported in New York City, the program “fights inequality through smart social programs and it leaves behind undisciplined and ineffective handouts in favor of strategic and disciplined investments,” the two write. And in her Monday WSJ column, Mary Anastasia O’Grady brings us back to Honduras. She says the U.S. demand that Mel Zelaya be reinstated is “destructive.” And she goes on to attack Brazil for violating its own principle of “non-intervention” in the case of Honduras.
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