US Senators’ Insolence

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/226550/us-senators-insolence/

US Senators’ Insolence
El Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua
By Esteban Solís
Translated By Maria Tartaglia
16 November 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

I had in mind to draw attention to how the Honduran media, especially the written press, handled by politically and economically powerful groups, have tried to minimize, if not ignore, the campaign of Liberty Party candidate Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Manuel Zalaya, who was ousted by a coup in May 2009. Why the attitude? It’s simple. Several surveys show that she is up in voter preferences, or at least maintains a tie with the ruling government’s candidate, a scant few days before the election.

However, a letter signed by a dozen U.S. senators demanding that “monitors must have unrestricted access to electoral facilities and officials” and which expresses their concern about the government’s ability to conduct free elections, also drew my attention.

The insolence of the letter — signed by, among others, Tim Kaine, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and directed to Secretary of State John Kerry, as if he were the great voter — also notes the legislators’ concern with the rates of violence in the Central American country, which they say has very fragile institutions and a besieged judiciary.

~snip~

Five million three hundred thousand Hondurans are eligible to vote on Sunday, Nov. 24; the Supreme Electoral Court has guaranteed “total transparency.” Twelve thousand local and 700 international observers will follow the process.