Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists
By GINGER THOMPSON and RON NIXON
Published: October 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — First, depose a president. Second, hire a lobbyist.

In the months since soldiers ousted the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government and its supporters have resisted demands from the United States that he be restored to power. Arguing that the left-leaning Mr. Zelaya posed a threat to their country’s fragile democracy by trying to extend his time in office illegally, they have made their case in Washington in the customary way: by starting a high-profile lobbying campaign.

The campaign has had the effect of forcing the administration to send mixed signals about its position to the de facto government, which reads them as signs of encouragement. It also has delayed two key State Department appointments in the region.

Costing at least $400,000 so far, according to lobbying registration records, the campaign has involved law firms and public relations agencies with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain, a leading Republican voice on foreign affairs.

It has also drawn support from several former high-ranking officials who were responsible for setting United States policy in Central America in the 1980s and ’90s, when the region was struggling to break with the military dictatorships and guerrilla insurgencies that defined the cold war. Two decades later, those former officials — including Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Daniel W. Fisk — view Honduras as the principal battleground in a proxy fight with Cuba and Venezuela, which they characterize as threats to stability in the region in language similar to that once used to describe the designs of the Soviet Union.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/world/americas/08honduras.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[Wilms]

1. The Times names names! Read the article! n/t

[harmonicon]

2. Ooohh.... you dirty liberal media!!

Ok, ok, I already knew that something like this would be in there, but critic =/= adversary: "the Honduran president is an ally of Mr. Chávez, America’s biggest adversary in the region." That's that famous liberal NY Times for ya.... no right-wing propaganda going on there at all.

[L. Coyote]

3. Zelaya Followers Sentenced To House Arrest For Sit-In In Honduras

My guess, the sentence runs until just after the campaign ends!

===================
Zelaya Followers Sentenced To House Arrest For Sit-In In Honduras
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/october/08/centralamerica-091008-01.htm

TEGUCIGALPA - 49 Honduran peasants were sentenced to house arrest for their sit-in protest against the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The peasants, who said to protest for 90 days in a public building, were evicted by police from the National Agrarian Agencylast week and sent to jail.

According to the sentence, they will have to report regularly to the authorities instead of serving jail terms and will be unable to leave the country.

[roody]

4. Usually peasants cannot afford to leave the country.