It’s been just one day shy of 7 months since Honduran President Mel Zelaya was kidnapped from the presidential palace and sent out of the country by the Honduran military. But today, a new president, Porfirio Lobo, will take office (albeit under what Honduran papers are calling “extreme security”) on what would have been the end of Mr. Zelaya’s term in office. As various reports have indicated, Lobo has been trying his best to clean up the pieces of the June coup in the last weeks—all an attempt to regain favor with members of the international community who condemned the ouster of Mr. Zelaya. The AP’s coverage this morning says the inauguration of Lobo “ends months of turmoil and the quest by ousted leader Manuel Zelaya to return to power.” Lobo (along with the the DR’s Leonel Fernandez and Guatemala’s Alvaro Colom, allegedly) will, in fact, be escorting Zelaya from Brazilian Embassy that he has called home for almost four months to the Tegucigalpa airport on Wednesday. From there Zelaya will be on his way to the DR as a “private citizen.” Zelaya has told his supporters who have stood with him for months that he desires a quiet exit, going so far as to tell backers not to stage protests or show up at the embassy as he prepares to leave Wednesday. Nevertheless, many leaders of the Resistance have continued their calls for a constitutional assembly and reform.
Pepe Lobo was also busy pushing the newly installed Honduran Congress to pass a political amnesty measure late last night. He got his wish, although as RAJ and RNS at Honduras Coup 2009 write, the approved amnesty covers only “political and common crimes,” not “acts of corruption” nor human rights violations. The two—an indispensable source of Honduras information over the last months—write:
“Of these [crimes covered by amnesty], traición, delitos contra la forma de gobierno, abuso de autoridad, and usurpación de funciones (treason, offenses against the form of government, abuse of authority, and usurpation of functions) are the specific crimes included in the petition against President Zelaya submitted to the Supreme Court, which should mean that the original arrest warrant against him is now moot.
But these are also the most likely crimes with which the de facto regime and other coup participants could have been charged. So the bill passed by Congress actually is at least as much about protecting the authors of the coup as about achieving some sort of reconciliation.”
The Supreme Court did its part in protecting a few of the coup’s architects yesterday as well, dismissing charges by Honduras’s public prosecutor against the military high command for forcibly sending Mr. Zelaya into exile on June 28.
Among those who will be attending the installation of Lobo today are representatives of 19 countries including the US and now even Spain. Reports indicate that the United States’ top diplomat for the region, Ass’t. Sec. of State, Arturo Valenzuela will be heading the U.S. delegation, alongside US Ambassador Hugo Llorens and Mr. Valenzuela’s deputy and Tegucigalpa frequent flier, Craig Kelly. AFP reports that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is also publicly backing the new Lobo government and has arranged face time with the new Honduran president Friday. And the OAS, in a statement late last week, said it too will seek Honduras’s re-integration into the inter-American system. Sec. Gen. Insulza admitted that the Tegucigapla-San José Accord “would not be met,” but said “at least, as President Zelaya himself has said, we have a dignified solution to his situation he is willing to accept.”
So what’s next in Honduras? Much of the reporting on today’s events would have you believe that the crisis has indeed come to an end. Not so, writes Adrienne Pine, a senior fellow at COHA and a professor of anthropology at American Univ. Pine—who’s also been writing on the coup for months now—says Lobo’s installation is “another disaster for Central American democracy, waiting in the wing.” “Just days ago," Pine argues, “[Lobo] proposed a neoliberal “national plan” for the next 28 years”—a plan which she believes will not take into consideration the serious social and economic divisions that lie beneath the June coup. From the perspective of U.S. policy toward Honduras, Pepe Lobo said yesterday that “With the United States, starting tomorrow, everything will be normal.” But the D.C.-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, among others, is telling U.S. officials, not so fast. CDA writes that before the U.S. normalizes relations:
“The Lobo administration must commit to implementing the San Jose Accords, establishing a truth commission, and creating conditions in Honduras under which a national dialogue can take place in which all citizens can freely and fully debate what steps are needed to reform their nation’s institutions without interference from their government.”
We’ll have to wait and see what’s next on all these fronts. But for now, most analysts and commentators agree that U.S. policy on Honduras has been far from a success.
In other news today:
· In Haiti, Der Spiegel adds to reporting about the relationship between UN Brazilian forces and US troops in the country. The magazine writes that “behind the scenes…Washington and Brasilia are quietly competing for influence and power in Haiti.” This comes as reports from the Washington Post and others, say Brazilian troops fired tear gas on a group of Haitians seeking food and water from relief workers yesterday. Officials are calling the incident “regrettable,” but the incident illustrates the significant aid distribution problems that continue to exist. The New York Times’ Haiti coverage looks at how youth, who make up 45 percent of Haiti’s population, have been impacted by the quake. Reports indicate that some $61 million was raised during last weekend’s Haiti Telethon, watched by 83 million people. The Hope for Haiti album that came out of the event is projected to top the Billboard 200 this week. It would be the first time an album that can only be downloaded online reached #1 on the music charts. Also confirmation today that Venezuela—one of Haiti’s largest creditors—has written off the country’s oil debt. The exact amount of debt that will be waived is not yet known, EFE writes, but at a meeting of ALBA member states, President Hugo Chavez also added that the bloc would implement an aid plan for Haiti that includes an immediate donation of $20 million to the country’s health sector, and the creation of a reconstruction fund that will be at least $100 million, "for starters."
· In Guatemala, former President Alfonso Portillo has been found and arrested by Guatemalan authorities. He’s wanted by US authorities on money-laundering charges and his extradition to the US was approved by a Guatemalan court last Friday. Also, former Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega, is set to be extradited to France on similar charges. Noriega has been living in a Florida jail on drug charges for 17 years and wanted to return to Panama upon his release. That wish has not been granted, however. A French courtroom (which convicted Noriega in absentia in 1999) will instead be his next stopover.
· The Nuevo Herald says a new report, written by Sen. Richard Lugar and his top Latin America aide, Carl Meachem, argues that the OAS has been unsuccessful in stopping the erosion of democracy by elected leaders in Latin America. According to the paper, the findings could put the re-election of Sec. General José Miguel Insulza in jeopardy.
· On Cuba, the Havana Note highlights a recent Miami Herald piece saying USAID efforts in Cuba may be suspended indefinitely.
· On Venezuela, Human Rights Watch has a new statement out on the recent RCTV closure. HRW says “The Chávez administration should not abuse its authority to compel broadcast of presidential speeches that promote the government's political agenda.”
· And, finally, some interesting numbers from a recent Gallup poll about “socialism” and Latin America. Via Two Weeks Notice, the numbers appear to indicate that, on the whole, Latin Americans continue to desire a strong state role in the economy.
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