As representatives of Roberto Micheletti and Mel Zelaya prepare to head back to the negotiating table on Tuesday, there is news this weekend that new media restrictions (mentioned briefly last week) have now gone into effect in Honduras. According to the AP, the latest Micheletti decree “threatens broadcasters with closure for airing reports that ‘attack national security,’” and comes after the OAS released a statement last week calling on the de facto government to allow the operations of two media outlets (Radio Global and Canal 36) to resume. The new measures also come after a Mr. Micheletti revoked a more far-reaching order which had suspended civil liberties in the country after Mel Zelaya’s return to Tegucigalpa. “We thought that when the (civil liberties) decree was revoked, the equipment would be returned, but that has not happened,” Yesenia Herculano, an activist with Honduras' Committee for Free Expression, told the AP last week.
Many Zelaya backers have already said the new measures could negatively impact the on-going “Guaymuras Talks” which have made some positive progress in recent days. AFP talks with one Zelaya representative, Juan Barahona, who has indicated advances have been made on important issues of debate. “There’s been progress, for example there will be no amnesty [a major component of the “San Jose Accords”]…and we’ve agreed to create a national unity government,” reports Barahona. Meanwhile, Honduras’s Tiempo and others report that agreement on these major points represents “60%” consensus on the topics under debate, up from just 25% agreement earlier last week. But, rejecting amnesty and agreeing to create a unity government still remain dependent on the reinstatement of Mel Zelaya to the presidency, says Barahona, “the central issue of the conflict,” as he calls it. According to another leader of the National Resistance, Rafael Alegría, if there is no agreement on the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya by October 15, the anti-coup organizing committee plans to “call for civil disobedience” against the Micheletti regime and “reject the electoral process completely.”
In other major news late last week, a group of UN experts expressed their worries about “the increased use of mercenaries in Honduras” since the June 28 coup, an issue Colombia’s El Timepo had reported on a number of weeks ago. CNN reports the following: “the U.N. panel said it received reports that 40 former Colombian paramilitaries had been hired to protect properties and individuals in Honduras since the June 28 coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The panel also heard reports that 120 mercenaries from various Latin American countries had been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as president hours after Zelaya's removal.” [Micheletti denied that paramilitaries were being contracted by the government from Colombia for such tasks, says El Heraldo.] The U.N. group also accused the Honduran government of indiscriminately using “sound-generating devices against Zelaya and his supporters at the embassy,” while Amnesty International demanded the Micheletti regime “allow opposition journalists to broadcast” during the on-going negotiation process.
Also, while the lead OAS negotiator in Honduras, John Biehl, adds his voice to those speaking with much optimism this weekend, Reuters has an interesting piece that examines the effectiveness of the OAS, in general, in the wake of the Honduras crisis. According to the Dialogue’s Michael Shifter, the organization’s “condemnation of the coup was positive, because the OAS had remained silent in many other situations. But at the moment of seeking a solution and overcoming the crisis, [the OAS] showed its weaknesses that are basically a reflection of the disorder in the Latin American political landscape.” In the pro-Micheletti El Heraldo a weekend piece says that current talks between Micheletti and Zelaya representatives may be fracturing into three camps as many Zelaya backers still demand a constitutional assembly to rewrite the Honduran constitution. In opinions/editorials this weekend, the New York Times writes that Roberto Micheletti is “listening to the wrong people,” and the Times declares: “President Zelaya must be reinstated to office. Nothing else will do.” And after giving a spot to lobbyist Lanny Davis last weekend, the Wall Street Journal gives Sen. Jim DeMint an opportunity to write about his Honduras trip on Saturday. DeMint reports: “After visiting Tegucigalpa last week and meeting with a cross section of leaders from Honduras's government, business community, and civil society, I can report there is no chaos there. There is, however, chaos to spare in the Obama administration's policy toward our poor and loyal allies in Honduras.” It gets better. “As all strong democracies do after cleansing themselves of usurpers, Honduras has moved on… In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya's ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.” And finally, a priceless photo from AFP of Mel Zelaya’s Brazilian Embassy office, cowboy hat included.
Around the region this weekend:
· The AP reports that the Argentine Senate overwhelmingly approved a new, and somewhat controversial, media law which was quickly signed into law by President Cristina Kirchner. The AP writes: “The new law preserves two-thirds of the radio and TV spectrum for noncommercial stations, and requires channels to use more Argentine content. It also forces Grupo Clarin, the country's leading media company, to sell off many of its properties.”
· The Washington Post reports from Venezuela on President Hugo Chávez’s campaign against the sport of golf in his country.
· The New York Times has a piece on the Chevron vs. Ecuador pollution case which gets more bizarre by the week. “Ever since the oil giant released videos in August that were secretly taped by two businessmen who seemed to have the ambition of feasting off the expected $27 billion in damages sought, Ecuadorean officials and Chevron have accused each other of gross improprieties, including espionage.”
· Spain’s El País reports that the election of 3 Supreme Court judges in Guatemala has been annulled after the U.N. raised questions about the transparency of the election process. Also in Guatemala, another round of attacks on security officials took the life of one police officer and wounded six others.
· The LA Times features a fascinating story this morning on “narco lawyers” in Mexico (those who defend drug lords in Mexican courts), increasingly the target of rival drug gangs.
· Finally, a few opinions. In the WSJ, Mary O’Grady speaks with former Sec. of State George Schultz about his problems with drug interdiction. And in the MH, Bernard Aronson attacks Sen. Jim DeMint’s one-man blockade of Latin American diplomats in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He writes: “Neither nominee [Valenzuela or Shannon] can take office, however, because a single senator, James DeMint of South Carolina, has put their nominations on indefinite ‘hold’ because he disagrees with the administration's policy toward Honduras.”
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