More news this morning detailing the breakdown of negotiations that would have allowed Mel Zelaya to leave Tegucigalpa for Mexico City on Wednesday. Reuters writes that Zelaya refused to sign a letter (available here) written by the de facto government, spelling out the terms of the deposed president’s exit. Namely, the conditions included Zelaya dropping his case for being reinstated. Speaking to Radio Globo yesterday, Zelaya elaborated further.
“There was a letter that they wanted me to sign, and I refused to sign it. It was to renounce the mandate which the people gave me to be president until Jan. 27.”
“I told them, ‘Don't waste your time sending your attorneys here because no one will receive them.’ I will not sign such papers.”
According to Miami Herald reporting, Mr. Zelaya also claimed that the decision to go to Mexico came out of discussions with “various presidents and governments,” adding that “the U.S. itself agreed” to his temporary relocation to Mexico. The U.S. Embassy in Honduras, however, rejected that claim on Thursday. State spokesman, PJ Crowley also addressed the matter in his daily press briefing. “[T]he decision as to whether President Zelaya decides to stay at the Brazilian Embassy or eventually accept the opportunity to move to another country, that's ultimately his decision.” For its part, Mexico has said it got involved in talks about giving Mr. Zelaya refuge at the ousted president’s request. And, judging by Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa, the Mexican government was anything but happy about the conditions the coup regime were imposing on Zelaya’s exit. Quoted in the LA Times, Espinosa said: “The status with which a foreign national is admitted to a country is exclusively a decision of the country admitting him.”
Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim agreed was, arguing it was “unacceptable to impose conditions on Mr. Zelaya’s departure. Amorim also blamed the United States for being too tolerant of the de facto government, reports say. And this morning, the AP writes that Mr. Zelaya continues his search a new residence, outside the Embassy, telling Globo TV that he’ll be out by Jan. 27.
For more, RAJ/RNS, as usual, have an excellent short-round-up of all the happenings around the failed move:
“Why is this a roadblock? Porfirio Lobo was given homework by Oscar Arias and Ricardo Martinelli on Tuesday, which included getting Roberto Micheletti to step aside, since it will be fatal to Lobo's case for international recognition for Micheletti to be the one handing over power. Micheletti has more than once said he won't resign until and unless Zelaya also renounces as president. Stalemate.”
Finally, there seems to be frustration and irritation amongst coup backers regarding the continued presence of outside officials like Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias in negotiations. In La Tribuna’s “Minuto a Minuto” section, Micheletti advisor Rafael Pineda Ponce lashes out at Arias for continuing to involve himself in Honduran affairs, saying he should “dedicate himself to governing his own country well, and respect the his constitution.” The words come after Pepe Lobo met with Arias and Ricardo Martinelli of Panama earlier in the week and was convinced to continue implementing the “Tegucigalpa-San José Accord” and promote amnesty for all parties to the coup crisis. U.S. Ass’t. Sec. of State Arturo Valenzuela also spoke with foreign press recently, saying the U.S. is urging “Central American” solution to the on-going crisis.
In other news today,
Inter American Court of Human Rights Rules on 2001 Female Killings
In the LA Times, a report that the Inter American Court of Human Rights has ordered the Mexican government to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the families of three women killed in a wave of killings in Ciudad Juarez. The Court says Mexico violated human rights conventions by not properly investigating the 2001 killings which took the lives of some 350 women and girls. According to the LAT report, “Activists said that the 156-page decision strikes a blow for justice in a circumstance in which many of the dead were impoverished young factory workers.”
Venezuelan Drug Smuggling Case, Cemetery Vandalization
The Miami Herald has news on a USG investigation that has allegedly detailed a Venezuela drug smuggling operation that linked a powerful trafficker, accused of supplying weapons to the FARC, with a prominent Venezuelan businessman. The investigation centers around Walid Makled whose family owns Venezuela's leading airline, Aeropostal.
Also, in the New York Times, a report on a spike in grave robberies in the country. “Accompanying Venezuela’s soaring levels of murders and kidnappings, its cemeteries are the setting for a new kind of crime wave.” Apparently grave robbers are in search of human bones, “answering demand from some practitioners of a fast-growing transplanted Cuban religion called Palo that uses the bones in its ceremonies.” According to Venezuelan anthropologist and CUNY professor Fernando Coronil, “The cemetery has become an iconic emblem of our national tragedy. In our daily struggle to maintain a civil order against multiple transgressions against property and propriety, not even the dead can now rest in peace.”
Ecuador says US Aided 2008 FARC Attack
The Times also writes this morning that: “A report by Ecuador’s government said American military personnel stationed at an air base in Manta helped with intelligence to plan the 2008 attack by Colombian forces on an encampment of Colombian rebels in Ecuadorean territory.” No comment yet from the United States Embassy in Ecuador.
DOS LatAm Policy Fact Sheet, Latinobarometro.
DOS just released a “fact sheet” about its “partnership and shared responsibility” in the Western Hemisphere. With growing discontent about U.S. handling of the Honduras crisis, along with an increased military presence in Colombia, the timing of the release is somewhat interesting.
Also, the Economist looks at some of the results from this year’s Latinobarometro survey. And Boz comments.
Don’t Finance Haitian Elections
And lastly, an opinion in the Miami Herald by Brian Concannon Jr. an OAS election observer and U.N. human rights officer in Haiti and currently the director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and Ira Kurzban, U.S. legal counsel for the Haitian governments under presidents Préval and Aristide from 1991-2004. The two argue the U.S. should not support February/March legislative elections after Fanmi Lavalas candidates were removed from the election ballot. They write:
“If the Council does not change course, President Préval's allies may control Parliament, but Haiti's streets will be filled with angry protestors confronting U.N. troops and blaming the United States for supporting yet another undemocratic regime. Social unrest will stall development projects and scare investors.
Americans and Haitians deserve a better return on their money spent to stabilize and develop Haiti. The Obama administration can guarantee a better return by immediately cutting off all funding for the electoral charade and insisting that it will neither finance, nor recognize, elections that are not fair and inclusive.”
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