Honduran Vigil for Zelaya's Restitution

[struggle4progress]

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 ...

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

[struggle4progress]

1. Honduras Congress not yet called back into session

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ (AP) – 40 minutes ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The leadership of Honduras' Congress will meet Tuesday to begin consideration of an accord that could reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, but no date has been set for bringing the issue to the floor.

Congressman Carlos Lara Watson told HRN Radio late Monday that he and other legislative leaders would decide when to submit the measure to the full Congress for debate. He said the leaders also would consult the courts and prosecutors.

Under the U.S.-brokered pact, lawmakers must decide 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.

Congressional president Jose Alfredo Saavedra said earlier Monday he would not be rushed despite calls from diplomats not to delay the vote. He said he wanted to consult first with the Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya's June 28 ouster ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9BNQDBG4

[struggle4progress]

2. Honduran House mulls Zelaya return

TEGUCIGALPA: Lawmakers in Honduras on Monday studied a deal to end the Central American nation's four-month crisis, including the crucial issue of whether to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

If the parliament approves the deal, it will win international recognition for a November 29 presidential vote seen by many as the only exit to the stalemate.

A suspicious Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since secretly returning home in September, called Monday for politicians to avoid playing "dirty games" when discussing the accord, which was finalized Friday with a push from US envoys ...

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Honduran+House+mulls+Zelaya+return&NewsID=44061

[struggle4progress]

3. U.S. urges Honduran Congress to promptly implement agreement

10:47, November 03, 2009

The United States urged the Honduran Congress on Monday to promptly implement a political agreement signed between the de facto government and ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The Congress was studying the agreement, reached Thursday night, to decide whether Zelaya would be restored to power. It would announce its decision after hearing the opinion of the country's Supreme Court of Justice.

"It is important that the entire world fulfils the agreement with good faith and precision," said U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, as quoted by local press.

Llorens said the Nov. 29 elections were essential to solving the long-pending crisis in the country following a June 28 coup that deposed Zelaya ...

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6801906.html

[struggle4progress]

4. Calling a Coup a Coup (Foreign Policy)

U.S. conservatives' Honduras revisionism is misguided and dangerous.
BY CHRISTOPHER SABATINI, DANIEL ALTSCHULER | NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Events in Honduras took a dramatic turn last week as an agreement was finally reached that could defuse the country's long-running political crisis. But the coup's defenders in the United States will likely maintain the dangerous stance they have adopted since late June. Ambassador Otto Reich's Oct. 27 article on ForeignPolicy.com perfectly captured the ideologically driven revisionism that conservatives have peddled since the coup that replaced Honduran President Manuel Zelaya with de facto president Roberto Micheletti. Reich vigorously defended Micheletti's assumption of power as the victory of the rule of law and a stand against Latin American leftists.

Although only a narrow segment of U.S. policymakers shares this view, it has consistently attacked the regional and international consensus around the events of June 28 as well as the only appropriate solution to the political crisis. Now, with the agreement on Zelaya's return awaiting the Honduran Congress's approval, Micheletti's apologists will likely depict Zelaya's return as a cowardly concession to another would-be Hugo Chávez. Once again, they will miss the mark. The deal struck last week offers a responsible, democratic exit from the four-month political crisis in Honduras.

In recent months, U.S. conservatives have argued that Barack Obama's administration should recognize the Nov. 29 elections in Honduras as a way out of the political crisis. They made the case that in the democratic transitions that swept the hemisphere in the 1980s, the United States recognized elections held by previous authoritarian regimes to facilitate transitions to democracy; doing the same in Honduras, they contended, would offer a way out of a seemingly endless political deadlock.

This comparison is as dangerous as it is wrong. Allowing a government that came to power through unconstitutional means to ride out an interim period to the next election and then transfer power would set a perilous precedent for U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and beyond. Honduras in 2009 is neither emerging from a civil war nor struggling to end years of authoritarian rule. Instead, the country suffered a coup -- an unconstitutional disruption to its democratic order -- that requires a different remedy ...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/02/calling_a_coup_a_coup

This may indicate where the foreign policy establishment is on the issues

[Judi Lynn]

5. Honduran Congress to seek opinions before vote (stretching out the coup)

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

[Judi Lynn]

6. Spaniard found guilty of sedition in Honduras released ahead of new trial

Spaniard found guilty of sedition in Honduras released ahead of new trial
By m.p. - Nov 4, 2009 - 12:51 PM


Antonio Porta maintains his innocence and says he was only in the country to meet a woman he had fallen in love with on the Internet

The Cádiz man found guilty of sedition after his arrest in Honduras during protests in support of the deposed President, Manuel Zelaya, has been released from prison ahead of a new trial which is due to take place.

Antonio Porta, from Chipiona, travelled to Tegucigalpa on 17th November to meet up with a woman he had met over the Internet and had fallen in love with. He was arrested the following Tuesday, for allegedly taking part in the protests held, near his hotel, outside the Brazilian Embassy where Manuel Zelaya had taken refuge.

The 41 year old has always defended his innocence and, indeed, his family claims that he knows absolutely nothing about politics. He is understood to have a mental disability after suffering brain injuries during a traffic accident.

As part of his release conditions, Antonio must remain in Honduras and report to the police station in Tegucigalpa every Monday until his new trial comes up. Another condition, Diario de Cádiz reports, is that throughout that time he must be placed in the charge of a Honduras resident. That responsibility has been taken on by a fellow Spaniard, a businessman who is based in the Honduras capital and who is also from Andalucía.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_23773.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

7. Honduran lawmakers put off vote on Zelaya's return

November 04, 2009 09:36 AM
Honduran lawmakers put off vote on Zelaya's return
By Mario Naranjo and Fiona Ortiz

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Honduran lawmakers on Tuesday put off a vote on whether to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya and asked the Supreme Court for its view, bucking outside pressure to quickly end a four-month political crisis.

Their inaction leaves the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti in place and risks losing international support for a Nov. 29 presidential election, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to the poor coffee- and textile-producing nation.

A board of 13 top lawmakers met and decided not to call a special session of Congress, currently in recess, until they receive non-binding opinions from the Supreme Court and the attorney general.

No timeline was established for a vote, throwing fresh uncertainty over the implementation of a U.S.-brokered deal signed last week to end the worst political upheaval in two decades in Central America.

"The majority voted to send the matter to the Supreme Court, but there were votes against that idea, from those who want to immediately vote on Zelaya's restitution," congressman Marvin Ponce of the Democratic Unification Party told Reuters.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=452260