The State Department announced Thursday that it was cutting “a broad range of assistance to the government of Honduras as a result of the coup d’etat that took place on June 28.” According to State Dept. press release, “the Secretary already had suspended assistance shortly after the coup,” and there are varying reports regarding what exactly the new cuts meant. Beginning in the New York Times, Ginger Thompson writes that the U.S. will “formally suspend nearly $30 million in aid,” while adding, “the United States might not recognize the country’s elections this fall if the ousted president was not returned to power by then.” [Note: the exact wording of the DOS release on the latter point is: “[the November] election must be undertaken in a free, fair and transparent manner. It must also be free of taint and open to all Hondurans to exercise their democratic franchise. At this moment, we would not be able to support the outcome of the scheduled elections. A positive conclusion of the Arias process would provide a sound basis for legitimate elections to proceed. We strongly urge all parties to the San Jose talks to move expeditiously to agreement.”] DOS officials called the new measures a “powerful signal,” writes the NYT, but those outside the administration are much more skeptical. “They are doing these piecemeal steps to see how the de facto regime responds,” says WOLA’s Vicki Gass. “And each time the de facto regime remains intransigent, they up the ante, but it takes them way too long.” Very interestingly, the Sec. of State, meeting with Mel Zelaya on Thursday, also said she was still not prepared to label the events of June 28 a “military coup,” rejecting calls from House leaders like Dem. Howard Berman who penned an opinion piece in the LA Times on Thursday. Such a designation would have led to further aid cuts, and, according to the Times, “required certification by Congress.” The Washington Post highlights the fact the U.S. may not recognize November elections. State Dept. spokesman Phillip Crowley says the de facto regime in Tegucigalpa must “sign on to the San Jose accords to get out of the box” in which it currently find itself. Some analysts are critical of the U.S.’s new position on this point. The U.S. statement on November elections “limits our options, a violation of the first law of diplomacy, by taking off the table the one means by which the crisis could naturally be resolved,” says Eric Farnsworth, a Latin America expert at the Council of the Americas. And, finally, the Post also adds that DOS will examine revoking more visas of particular Honduran officials who have supported the regime. The AP asserts that Thursday’s announcement on aid cuts constitutes the suspension of “all aid to the Honduran government.” The wire service goes on to say such money consists of $31 million in non-humanitarian assistance, which includes $11 million of $200 million MCC program funds [in other words, it does not appear that “all aid” has indeed been cut]. Moreover, the AP writes: “Washington's action, announced as Clinton was meeting with Zelaya, makes permanent a temporary suspension of U.S. assistance put in place after he was deposed in June.” If true, the Thursday announcement would seem to really mean very little. The AP adds that Brazil also took new steps against the Honduran regime Thursday, reinstating rules that require Hondurans traveling to the country to obtain a visa before arriving. Brazil has already suspended energy accords with Honduras and has removed its ambassador. Reuters reports some of the details about what constitutes the $30 million cut in aid, writing, “U.S. officials said the aid cut-off included $9.4 million from the Agency for International Development, $8.96 million from the State Department, including funds for arms sales and military training, and $1.7 million in security assistance.” And while Mel Zelaya welcomed the State Dept. announcement after meeting with Ms. Clinton, as the Wall Street Journal writes, “the actions are unlikely to please either Mr. Zelaya's friends or his foes.” The paper continues, reporting that “His supporters were hoping the U.S. would take much stronger action, such as freezing assets and bank accounts of officials and backers of the interim Honduran government. His opponents say the U.S. is misguided in insisting on the return of Mr. Zelaya, who they view as a continuing threat to Honduran democracy.”
In other news around Honduras, Prensa Latina reported (and CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot comments on in the Guardian) earlier this week that while other international funding agencies (including the IDB and World Bank) have cut aid to Honduras, the International Monetary Fund has provided some $150 million in aid to Honduras since the June 28 coup. And speaking in Rio de Janeiro, the primary negotiator of the crisis thus far, Costan Rican President Oscar Arias, made some interesting statements. EFE reports that the president told a Brazilian newspaper that elections scheduled for November could put an end to the current crisis, in spite of international calls saying such elections would not be recognized.
Meanwhile, policy changes vis a vis Honduras were not the only ones being made in Washington on Thursday. The Post also reports that the Treasury Dept. lifted “nearly all U.S. restrictions on family travel to Cuba on Thursday, along with limits on how much money families can send to relatives on the island.” Regulations prohibiting telecommunications linkages to the island from the U.S. were also eased, as were licensing requirements on agricultural goods and medical supplies. The changes are the final [and very slow] implementation by cabinet departments of a new policy toward Cuba that President Obama announced last April. “It's about time!'' Maria Brieva, owner of Machi Community Services, which sends packages to Cuba, tells the Miami Herald (which also spells out the new rules in detail).
And finally this morning, more reports on the deadly shooting at a drug rehab center in Juarez two days ago. The AP says 17 were killed while the LAT puts the number at 18. In any case, the details are quite horrific as “attackers on Wednesday broke down the door of El Aliviane center in Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire.” There are still no immediate suspects or information on the victims. The LAT is skeptical that the case will ever be resolved. “Odds are that the slayings, like hundreds of others in the border city, will never be solved.” On Latin America day at the U.S. Treasury, the department also froze the assets of six Mexicans connected to a drug company that had diverted methamphetamine to a Mexican trafficking cartel. The individuals included two executives of the company Productos Farmaceuticos Collins.
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