By Leah Valencia – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that U.S. intervention in the Honduran elections is punishing American commercial and economic interests in the region.

“During my recent visit to Honduras I was struck by the harmful effect U.S. policy is having on American interests and citizens in that country,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

Conflict began in Honduras earlier this summer when President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and removed from the country on June 28 after he defied a ruling of the Supreme Court to cancel a constitutional change that was deemed illegal.

Following Zelaya’s ouster, Interim President Roberto Micheletti took over, causing conflict with those who supported Zelaya and perceived his removal to be a military coup.

U.S. officials and other countries have said that they will not recognize the results of the upcoming Nov. 29 elections in Honduras until the conflict is resolved and Zelaya is returned to power.

However, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said that the elections are imperative to improving the country’s conditions.

“Since when does the U.S. not support free, fair, transparent and constitutionally mandated elections?” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement last week. “It makes no sense that the U.S. would side with Manuel Zelaya and his ALBA buddies at the expense of Democracy.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent three top U.S. delegates to Honduras Wednesday to attempt to negotiate a solution to the political crisis ahead of elections.

Guillermo Perez-Cadalso, former Foreign Minister and Honduran Supreme Court Justice, says that in the midst of all the media has failed to seperate the issue of President Zelaya’s removal from the country versus his proper removal from office under the terms of the Honduran Constitution. He highlights the fact that Zelaya was “legally and constitutionally removed from office.” (0:18)

 

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U.S. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) says Honduran President Manuel Zelaya refused to listen to his nation’s Supreme Court as well as its Congress. He says Zelaya is a man who tried to “undermine the legislature, the judiciary, the Attorney General” and many others, including his own party. Mack also says the illegal referendum ballots that he seized and distributed “had Hugo Chavez’s fingerprints all over them.” (0:39)

 

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By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

By attempting to run for reelection, did ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s violate his country’s constitution? On Friday, representatives from seven Latin American organizations testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee to discuss the question.

Certain members of the committee were adamant in their view that Zelaya’s actions had, in fact, crossed constitutional boundaries.

“I think it was clear that virtually all major Honduran political institutions and actors opposed President Zelaya’s efforts. Not only were the Supreme Court, Congress, and Zelaya’s own Attorney General against him, even members of his own political party and the influential Catholic Church were hostile to Zelaya’s efforts to change the constitution,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y).

Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Washington Office on Latin America, noted that Zelaya’s actions should serve as a “wake-up call” that further progress to advance democracy in Latin America is still needed.

Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), the committee’s ranking member, said, “It seems to me that the more we look at Mr. Zelaya, the more we find a man who believes he is above the law, untouchable, and clearly a man who has no respect for democracy.”

Guillermo Perez-Cadalso, former Foreign Minister and Honduran Supreme Court Justice, said he believes the international community rushed to judgement over the coup before evaluating all the facts. He testified under the title of “Concerned Honduran Citizen” rather than using his official government title.

Perez-Cadalso argued that Zelaya was “legally and constitutionally removed from office,” and that the “military is not in charge of Honduras; the consitutional order of [the country] remains intact.”

The U.S. State Department headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has endorsed a dialogue process with the Organization of American States. On that subject, Perez-Cadalso noted, “I am optimistic that this situation can be resolved through the dialogue. This process will be successful if both sides refrain from emotional personal reactions and stick to constructive discussions about the issues.”

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Latin American experts gathered in Washington on Thursday to deplore the blatant lack of democracy that currently exists in Latin America, magnified by the recent coup in Honduras.

Some of those who testified, such as Jim Swigert, Senior Associate and Regional Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs at the National Democratic Institute, criticized the military for its forceful action, explaining that “I think those who decided to turn to the use of force to resolve the political dispute only exacerbate the situation [because] the military was engaged in the political process as the arbiter, as the enforcer.”

Adolfo Franco, Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at the Direct Selling Association, said that despite the international community condemning the coup, the world should also know that ousted President Manuel Zelaya should bear much responsibility for the crisis.

Franco defended the military’s role, saying “It [the referendum proposed by Zelaya] wasn’t against the will of the legislator, it was a violation of the Constitution of Honduras as that judicial body, the Supreme Court which is empowered to make those decisions, rendered a correct decision and issued a warrant for his arrest.”

Zelaya was forced out of power by military forces in Honduras after the former President scheduled a vote in late June asking the population whether a constituent assembly should re-write the Honduran Constitution. Zelaya declared that the constitution’s imperfections were the source of current national social issues.

Franco clarified that the events that occurred in Honduras should be no surprise as Honduras has been following the same pattern as its left wing homologues in the region.

“The model now in Latin America is don’t do coups; [instead] you get elected and you dismantle systematically democracy,” said Franco, adding that Zelaya had been an “increasingly anti-democratic president trying to use the mechanisms of democracy to destroy those [democratic] institutions and to perpetuate himself to power.”

By Celia Canon-Talk Radio News Service

On Tuesday, experts from the Inter-American Dialogue warned that Honduras would continue to be unstable as long as ousted President Manuel Zelaya was not allowed back into the country.

“Zelaya is the elected President… If things degenerate further you won’t have good elections,” said Peter Hakim, President of Inter-American dialogue.

Hakim advised the international community to pursue “open negotiations involving [the] interim government.” Once an agreement is reached among the global community, Hakim advised Honduras to hold an election but warned that the quality of these elections depends on the stability of the country.

On June 29th, the Honduran military led a coup to overthrow President Manuel Zelaya. Armed forces intervened hours before a national referendum was due to take place to determine whether the constitution could be modified to allow the President to assume a second term, rather than the single term outlined in the country’s constitution. Zelaya was replaced by interim-President Roberto Micheletti.

Though the future of Honduras is nothing short of uncertain, many actors, including the international body Organization of American States, have gotten involved in the reestablishment of peace and stability in the Central American country.

“The OAS could take a strong position but then [it could be better to] not put the de facto Honduran government against the wall,” Hakim said

Genaro Arriagada, a Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, added that besides the obvious necessary changes that should be brought to the Honduran government and constitution, further changes should involve the OAS 2001 democratic charter which was adopted by member states in order to ensure the presence of democratic institutions in all countries of the Americas.

The Charter needs to be reconsidered, explained Arriagada, “because it gives protection to the government but not to the opposition to the government.”

Human rights attorney Robert Amsterdam gives a brief summary of what caused Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, to be overthrown by the military. Amsterdam attributes the cause to fundamental differences between the “Chavez line” who favor “constitutional editing” and the “institutional elite” who do not believe that changing the constitution should be decided through a referedum. (0:30)

 

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Attorney Robert Amsterdam describes recently overthrown Honduran president Manuel Zelaya’s last term in power. In particular, Amsterdam cites the President’s surprising switch from his Liberal party to a Chavista school of thought; a change that may have brought Venezuela and Honduras closer, and could justify President Hugo Chavez’s recent declaration that he may intervene militarily in Honduras. (0:29)

 

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When asked what he believes President Barack Obama’s reaction to the military overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya should be, human rights attorney Robert Amsterdam insists that Obama should have “no major role” in the situation. Amsterdam says Obama will keep his distance because of the instability of the situation. (0:37)

 

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