OAS plans to reincorporate Honduras and lift sanctions next week

[L. Coyote]

Source: MercoPress

OAS plans to reincorporate Honduras and lift sanctions next week

The Organization of American States, OAS, is planning an extraordinary general assembly for next week to approve the reincorporation of Honduras in anticipation of the country’s presidential election November 29th, according to Chilean minister of Foreign Affairs, Mariano Fernández.

“Most probably towards the end of next week we should be holding an extraordinary general assembly to reorganize the comeback of Honduras to OAS”, said Fernandez who none the less admitted so far “it has been informal contacts”.

“The idea is that Honduras can return to OAS as soon as possible and that the election of November 29th can evolve with normality and with legitimately” he added anticipating that this would also mean lifting all sanctions against the de facto government.

Last October 30, representatives from ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the head of the de facto government Roberto Micheletti reached an agreement, sponsored by OAS and the US, to end the institutional crisis which includes naming a national reconciliation government and ensuring the November 29th election.

Read more: http://en.mercopress.com/2009/11/03/oas-plans-to-reincorporate-honduras-and-lift-sanctions-next-week

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This may be premature, and likely is also intended to pressure the Hondurans to complete the bargain in timely fashion.

[L. Coyote]

1. Big Gun: US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Heads to Honduras Tuesday

Big Gun: US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Heads to Honduras Tuesday
Posted by Al Giordano - November 2, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Al Giordano - http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3577/big-gun-us-labor-secretary-hilda-solis-heads-honduras-tuesday

With the agreed-upon November 5 deadline for restitution of Honduras President Manuel Zelaya approaching, the White House has just sent in a big gun. US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis - arguably the most progressive member of the Obama cabinet - was appointed today to be one of four members of the "Verification Commission" that is charged with making sure all sides comply with last Friday's agreement signed in Tegucigalpa to end the coup d'etat.

The agreement's timeline is clear as day:

October 30, 2009

1. Signing and entrance of the Accord into effect.

2. Formal delivery of the Accord to Congress for the effects of Point 5, “Regarding the Executive Power.”

November 2, 2009

1. Formation of the Verification Commission.

After the signing of this Accord and no later than November 5

1. Formation and installation of the National Unity and Reconciliation Government.

Other members of the verification committee are former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, President Zelaya's UN Ambassador Jorge Eduardo Reina Idiaquez and coup regime lackey Arturo Corrales Alvarez, who will no doubt be outnumbered by the other three if he tries to join the anti-democracy extremists of the coup regime in stalling implementation of the agreement.

Lagos is a particularly interesting addition to the Verification Commission. In 1972, Chilean President Salvador Allende nominated him as ambassador to the Soviet Union and Congress refused to vote on his nomination. After the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile he was forced into exile to Argentina and then the United States. He returned to Chile to lead the resistance against the coup regime of General Augusto Pinochet, including the successful "vote no" referendum of 1988 that brought down the then fifteen-year-old coup regime.

............

[karynnj]

7. Solis is a very interesting choice for Obama to send

Wikipedia says her parents were immigrants from Mexico and Nicaragua. I couldn't find any comments from her on Central America. It is interesting that it was not someone from the State Department which has been to the right of Obama on this.

[L. Coyote]

8. Sending a Cabinet-level participant signals the importance placed on the situation.

Plus, sending one of the highest-ranked Latinos with great language skills also is a signal of the importance placed on the events to follow from this, like the Truth Commission.

Now to start a Truth Commission in the USA!

[karynnj]

9. All good points nt

[L. Coyote]

2. Honduras Congress not yet called back into session

Honduras Congress not yet called back into session
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ (AP) – 2 hours ago - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9BNN4980


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The head of Honduras' Congress said Monday that he has yet to decide when to call lawmakers back into session to debate whether ousted President Manuel Zelaya should be reinstated.

Jose Alfredo Saavedra said he and other congressional leaders have begun analyzing the contents of Friday's U.S.-brokered pact that calls on Honduran lawmakers to vote on whether Zelaya should serve the remaining three months of his term, a decision that could end the country's debilitating, 4-month-old political crisis.

But Saavedra said he has yet to call Congress to meet and will not be rushed despite calls from diplomats not to delay the vote. He said he will first consult with the Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya's June 28 ouster.

"Once congressional leaders understand the reach of the pact, once they understand its dynamics, then we'll decide what path to follow," Saavedra told HRN radio.

While the legislature backed Zelaya's ouster, congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that ends Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimizes a presidential election planned for Nov. 29.

.................

[L. Coyote]

3. Honduran Vigil for Zelaya's Restitution

Honduran Vigil for Zelaya's Restitution
http://www.cadenagramonte.cubaweb.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1078:honduran-vigil-for-zelayas-restitution&catid=3:world&Itemid=14


Tegucigalpa, Nov 2.- Members of the National Front against the Coup d'Etat in Honduras will start Monday permanent vigil in front of the Congress headquarters until restitution of legitimate President Manuel Zelaya is approved.

According to agreements signed on Friday between the constitutional government and the de facto regime, the legislative organization has to decide the statesman's return, prior consultation to the Justice Supreme Court.

"We will be there until achieving our objective," said Juan Barahona, leader of the Resistance Front, comprised of union, indigenous, rural, academic groups and other sectors.

People's organizations denounced the possibility that the Parliament, which backed the June 28 coup, resorts to dilatory tactics to extend putschists' presence in power.

They still do not know what the Congress voting result will be, but do know that the National Party's stance is decisive, because it has 54, of the 128 seats in the Legislature and could vote en bloc.

The Liberal Party, to which Zelaya and the de facto regime chief Roberto Micheletti belong, has 62 legislators, but their stances are divided, while the rest of the seats are distributed in three minority parties.

Zelaya asserted that the Congress has a moral obligation to restore the democratic order .....................

[L. Coyote]

4. Panel prepares to oversee Honduras power-sharing strategy

Panel prepares to oversee Honduras power-sharing strategy
Monday 02 November 2009 - http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/82716


US Labour Secretary Hilda Solis and former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos are ... part of a commission that is to monitor the creation of a power-sharing government in Honduras.

Representatives from Honduras's two major political parties will make up the rest of the four-member commission, which is also tasked with ensuring that all sides recognise the November presidential elections and that the military is put under the command of electoral officials to safeguard the vote's legitimacy.

As part of the accord inked by representatives of President Manuel Zelaya and coup chief Roberto Micheletti on Friday, the commission will monitor the creation of a truth commission assigned to investigate the June 28 coup that ousted Mr Zelaya.

Congressional president Jose Alfredo Saavedra is expected to receive the accord tomorrow.

Mr Saavedra will then have to call MPs back into session to debate it and, if they back the deal, Honduras will win international recognition for the November 29 vote.

[L. Coyote]

5. Honduras politicians study deal

12:04 GMT, Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Honduras politicians study deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8339995.stm


The leadership of the Honduran Congress is set to start considering an accord ...

Leaders in Congress have yet to say when they will put the deal to a vote.

....

Speaking on Monday, Congressional leader Jose Alfredo Saavedra said he would not rush Congress' vote on the accord, despite calls from foreign diplomats not to delay........

Mr Saavedra also said he wanted to consult the country's Supreme Court, which is expected to give a non-binding opinion on the deal.

Supporters of Mr Zelaya demonstrated outside the Honduran congressional building on Monday, threatening to boycott the election if he is not reinstated immediately ........

[L. Coyote]

6. Honduran Newspapers Deliver Photo Images of Resistance Participants to Police

Honduran Newspapers Deliver Photo Images of Resistance Participants to Police
Freedom of the Press Acquires New Definitions
By Belén Fernández
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
November 1, 2009 - http://www.narconews.com/Issue61/article3913.html


As if the ethical nature of the photographic practices of pro-coup Honduran newspapers has not already been sufficiently negated by the use of Photoshop to erase blood from anti-coup victims of military and police repression, evidence of even more incriminating tactics has now emerged. According to a source with intimate knowledge of the goings-on at one of the leading Tegucigalpa dailies – who spoke on condition of anonymity in the interest of personal safety – Honduran papers have also responded to the June 28 coup against President Mel Zelaya by delivering photos of Resistance marchers to the police.

Andrés Pavón, president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), confirmed that the presence at marches of photographers from the daily El Heraldo had not resulted in extensive photographic coverage of the events in the paper itself, causing him to question the real purpose of the images. Speaking at the Burger King outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where Zelaya continues to be confined, Pavón defined newspaper contributions to police archives as journalistic terrorism – a different take on the media terrorism that coup president Roberto Micheletti had accused Channel 36 of on September 21 for reporting that Zelaya was in Tegucigalpa and not in a Managua hotel.

El Heraldo, La Prensa, and La Tribuna – essentially interchangeable mouthpieces for the Honduran coup government – appear on the list of members of the Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA), whose mission according to the organization’s website includes “defend press freedom wherever it comes under threat in the Americas.” Ricardo Trotti – Press Freedom Director for the organization representing newspaper owners throughout the hemisphere – responded over the phone to a request for the definition of “press freedom” utilized by the IAPA, his first response being that he did not understand the question; his second was that the Declaration of Chapultepec, adopted by the Hemispheric Conference on Freedom of Expression in Mexico City in 1994, provided some aspects of the definition but that press freedom was an abstract rather than a concrete concept.

Trotti refrained from invoking the concept’s abstract nature when I asked whether the practice of Honduran IAPA members passing images of Resistance protesters along to the police would qualify as press freedom. He explained that he could not offer a judgment on the matter without knowing the facts but said that the IAPA would investigate the claim if they received a formal complaint.

The likelihood of such an investigation is cast into doubt by the fact that the Honduran coup government, which commands the content of the aforementioned papers, has already violated virtually all of the principles contained in the Declaration of Chapultepec. The document’s 10 principles include prohibitions on threatening, kidnapping, and otherwise persecuting journalists, ..........

[L. Coyote]

10. Honduran lawmakers to set Zelaya vote timeline

Honduran lawmakers to set Zelaya vote timeline
By Fiona Ortiz - Nov 3, 2009 10:51pm IST - http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-43650520091103?sp=true


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Leading Honduran lawmakers were to meet on Tuesday to set a date for a Congress vote ....

OAS head Jose Miguel Insulza said that, despite vague timing in the accord, its spirit is to reinstate the leftist.

"It is time that they leave off the rhetoric... Naturally the Honduran Congress will decide, but I believe the only road to peace is to reestablish President Zelaya because of the short time that is left to his presidency," Insulza told a Chilean radio station on Tuesday.

CONGRESS COULD DRAG FEET

Some experts said Congress could delay a vote for some time. "The accord is not at all favorable for Zelaya, it does not assure his restitution and it sets no date," said Luis Cosenza, who was presidency minister for former President Ricardo Maduro.

The 128-seat unicameral Congress is in recess and many lawmakers are busy campaigning out in their districts, waiting to see whether the board of top lawmakers and party heads who meet on Tuesday call them in for a special session.

.....

The opposition National Party, with 55 seats in Congress, is seen as key to whether or not Zelaya is reinstalled. Its candidate for the November election, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, has a double digit lead in opinion polls.

Analysts said he and his party are weighing whether or not to support Zelaya in Congress. If they smooth the way for a Zelaya return they could win international support for an eventual Lobo government, yet they could also scare away some Honduran voters who are anti-Zelaya. ....

[Judi Lynn]

11. Honduran Congress to seek opinions before vote (one more way to eat up the clock)

Nov 3, 4:42 PM EST
Honduran Congress to seek opinions before vote

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- A Honduran lawmaker says congressional leaders will seek the opinions of several government entities before convoking the full legislature to vote on reinstating ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Ramon Velasquez says the leaders decided Tuesday to consult the Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya's June 28 ouster, the Attorney General's Office and Honduras' commissioner on human rights. They were given no deadline.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos arrived to monitor implementation of a U.S.-brokered pact that calls for lawmakers to vote on Zelaya's reinstatement.

Governments have threatened to not recognize Nov. 29 elections if Zelaya is not returned to power.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_HONDURAS_COUP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-11-03-16-42-44

[L. Coyote]

12. This is a non-surprise move in keeping with all the delays to date to hold on to power and

consolidate the junta.

The junta is taking advantage of the peaceful nature of the opposition to stay in office.

[rabs]

13. The restitution of Zelaya became mired today

Honduran Congress is in recess. A group of deputies named the "directiva" takes care of congressional business when it is in recess.

Today, the "directiva" sent the accord for revoew to the Supreme Court, the Procuradia General (Attroney General's office) and the Ministerio Publico (another legal body that I am not sure what it does.)

So the restitution of Zelaya by the Congress, which is purely a POLITICAL process, has now been bogged down by review of three JURIDICAL bodies. No date was set by the "Directiva" for an opinion by the three legal bodies so this could drag out for who knows how long.

The verification commission (Solis, Lagos, the gorileti rep and the Zelaya rep) was to have been sworn in this afternoon. But there is nothing to verify. Solis is schedule to leave tomorrow.

What amazes me is that Hillary's man Shannon and Obama's man Restrepo did not foresee that the pro-golpista Congress could mess up thing so much. I wonder if Shannon and company even knew Congress was in recess.

The accord calls for a government of "national reconcilation" to be established by this Thursday. At this moment there does not seem any way that will happen, so after Thursday, the Shannon-brokered accord could become null and void. If that happens, Hillary will have to take back her premature congratulations of last Thursday. Stay tuned.

[L. Coyote]

14. Or, they are making sure no one complains later. National reconciliation works best if

all parties are on board.

I remain suspicious however about the motives of the junta's supporters, of course.