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Caribbean-Latin America
Honduras Officials Meet for Second Day of Peace Talks
2009-07-11
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Honduran officials representing deposed President Manuel Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti met for a second day in Costa Rica today, after the two leaders avoided a face-to-face discussion yesterday. The delegations are talking with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at his residence in the capital, San Jose, to try to resolve the nearly two-week stalemate and prevent more violence in the country. Arias called for patience and perseverance, even as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said talks were "dead."

"The two sides are very far apart and these things take time," Arias said yesterday. "I've always said that dialogue can produce miracles, but not immediately unfortunately."

A settlement may take time as both sides accuse the other of violating the Honduran constitution. Zelaya, 56, was put on a plane at gunpoint by the Honduran military on June 28 and sent to Costa Rica after ignoring court orders to reinstate the military chief. The general had refused to help organize a poll seeking changes to the constitution.
The Bloomberg reporter ignores that the poll was illegal, that the Honduran Supreme Court had told Zelaya not to do it, that the military refused to help him do it, and that Zelaya had had the ballots printed in Venezuela.
The delegation representing Micheletti plans to leave the country at 5 p.m. New York time today and neither side has shown much flexibility, Rodrigo Arias, minister to the president's office, told reporters.

Chavez today became the first president in the hemisphere to openly criticize the talks and said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shouldn't have supported them. "It was a grave error," Chavez told reporters in Caracas. "It's turned into a very dangerous trap for democracy that sets a very grave precedent."
Like how you could be ousted and have trouble talking your way back in ...
Arias will continue with talks and take any criticism from Chavez as a "compliment," said Robert White, a former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador who now heads the Center for International Policy in Washington. Other than Chavez, most Latin American leaders realize that Zelaya is a "bull in the China shop" and may be difficult to support, White said in a telephone interview.
That's the interesting thing, isn't it: most people in Latin America, and especially most of the citizens of Honduras, understand Zelaya. His supporters support him precisely because he's in the Chavez mold, and his opponents oppose him for the same reason. There's no real disagreement on what he is. It's only Bambi and the rest of the gringo world that don't seem to get it.
Zelaya and Micheletti, both dressed in dark suits with red ties, met separately with Arias yesterday on the condition that they wouldn't have to meet face-to-face, Costa Rican Information Minister Mayi Antillon told reporters.

"We've begun talks and the only thing remaining is a personal meeting between the two, but it's not yet the moment," Antillon said.

Micheletti, who left Honduras for the first time since being sworn in as interim president, said he was "totally satisfied" with the talks and returned home yesterday.
Since nothing happened, and every day nothing happens Micheletti and his country enjoy the benefits of possession.
Zelaya arrived in the Dominican Republic this morning to meet with that country's President Leonel Fernandez.

It appears that the two leaders have left behind teams to negotiate without having created a "good" framework for a solution, Jose Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, said today on Chile's Radio Cooperativa.
Because there is no 'good' framework. Zelaya wants back in, the Hondurans want to keep him out.
"It's one of those things where the protagonists come, talk and go and leave behind their negotiating teams, who it turns out aren't really negotiating," he said. "I don't expect to see white smoke."

Solutions to the stalemate including a government of national unity and amnesties need to be negotiated with the return of Zelaya to Honduras, Insulza said.

The leaders remained entrenched in their positions. Zelaya said he must be reinstated as president and Micheletti said his government would hold previously scheduled presidential elections on Nov. 29, backing away from his comment last week that he would be willing to hold early elections.
My guess is that Micheletti ran that up the pole, and since no one saluted he ran it back down. I don't see him offering that again.
In their absence, Honduran officials including Zelaya's foreign minister Patricia Rodas, ex-foreign ministers Milton Jimenez and Carlos Lopez and the former president of the Supreme Court Vilma Cecilia Morales will look to reach an accord.

While the interim government in Honduras has institutional support from the Supreme Court and Congress, it is facing international pressure after the Organization of American States voted to remove Honduras as a member and the U.S. cut military aid to the Central American nation.

"It's difficult to talk about a successful negotiation that doesn't involve the restitution of Zelaya as president," Arias said. "The dialogue has to continue and eventually it will have to be them two that reach a deal."
Posted by:Steve White

#1  You don't try to come back, and you'll stay alive, end of disussion.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2009-07-11 04:37  

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