US suspends military aid to Honduras before talks

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

* U.S says suspended $16.5 mln in military aid to Honduras
* Ousted president wants coup leaders to give up power
* Rivals seem far apart ahead of talks
* Arias has tough job as mediator (Updates with U.S. suspending military aid, details)

The United States said on Wednesday it had suspended $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras following last month's coup, and ousted President Manuel Zelaya demanded his rivals hand power back to him in 24 hours.

The announcements came on the eve of talks scheduled for Thursday in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, where Zelaya was due to meet leaders of the coup that toppled him on June 28.

Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was due to mediate the attempt at a dialogue to solve the Honduran political crisis, which has stoked tensions in Central America.

Arriving in Costa Rica on Wednesday, Zelaya repeated his position he would only discuss his return to office in the poor Central American country.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07351400.htm

[EFerrari]

1. Money is the only thing those people understand.

Good for Obama.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Freeze Honduran assets in US banks and that will get their attention!

Socialism: Change You Can Count On!

[EFerrari]

3. Block remittances. They'll get it right away.

That could have been done a week ago and yes, I do want this pony. :)

[Poll_Blind]

4. I was under the impression they'd already done this last week...

...but if they didn't, it's good they're doing it now.

I am a big supporter of IG's comment elsewhere in this thread that their assets should be frozen until a the legitimate government can be restored.

PB

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Last week they threatened to bring out the stick, as they brought out the carrots

this is not situation normal by the way.

Perhaps this is the end of Empire.

Smile, with a whimper.

But the play book is not the usual one

Oh and they did, here is the meat of the article

The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa said Washington suspended $16.5 million in military assistance programs to Honduras following the coup, in a move that appeared aimed at putting pressure on Micheletti's interim government.

It added that a further $180 million in U.S. aid for Honduras could also be at risk, but said humanitarian assistance to the Honduran people such as food aid, AIDS prevention and help for children, would continue.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. My my, the stick... and I can read damn tea leaves

Game theory comes to mind in this instance. It does in all diplomacy to be exact, but this is a damn new game book.

[earcandle]

7. Fresh!

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. It is beyond fresh

perhaps Gore Vidal got it right (as well as the rest of us) we cannot afford empire any longer. So we need to find a way to keep some control over our area of influence... but Monroe is probably under deep revision.

Oh and don't expect this to be so freaking obvious to most people.

[Grinchie]

8. Hey Obama, Lingle is firing half the Goverment workers

How about you send some of that funny money over there to save some jobs and health services?

[endarkenment]

9. About time.

This should have happened as soon as the coup happened. But I'll accept 'now' as better than 'later'.

[L. Coyote]

11. Reuters SUCKS as usual "in the poor Central American country"

Dufus morans! You know Zelaya did not put it quite like that!

Besides, Costa Rica is the rich Central American country.

[CynicalObserver]

13. You are uninformed.

Panama is the rich central american country.. How are your savings in CR Colones from 1985 doing, btw?

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. It turns out Panama and Costa Rica have an equal GDP per capita

(using PPP exchange rates) according to the CIA Factbook:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html?countryName=Costa%20Rica&countryCode=CS®ionCode=ca#CS

I can't see a Central American country above them.

[CynicalObserver]

15. I have not been to CR in several years. A few comments

1) not sure how much the huge immigration into panama from more developed countries as well as Venezuela has skewed the GDP number. There is no way the government can keep up with it accurately. There is large immigration from Russia, Europe, japan (!) here, not to mention US expats retiring here.

2) Cost of living and/or any devaluation of the Colon in CR (and devaluation of the dollar, for that matter, in Panama). I don't know where they stand, relatively, anymore.

Last time I was in CR, I asked directly and avg. monthly laborer salary was notably lower than that of panama (which is about 250/month$). The minority of higher-salary people can skew that, but based on direct observation, both in the interior and san jose, economic quality of life looked lower in san jose compared to panama.

Just for what it is worth. If my comments are ambiguous, it is because I don't have definitive answers. A lot of the numbers we rely on to compare are churned out of bureaucratic monstrosities that cannot balance their own budgets, or even explain where the money is spent. Why believe them, vs. one's own eyes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Those are Purchasing Power Parity figures

which allow for the cost of living in each country (which for countries with wildly differing economies can't always be an accurate comparison, but for similar countries can work quite well - it doesn't suffer from the fluctuations in currency values, for instance).

The thing about you 'own eyes' is that you can't get everywhere in a country (or 2 countries) to get a reasonable sample of people's lives. It takes a team, such as a "bureaucratic monstrosity".

[Wednesdays]

12. K&R

:kick:

[Flaneur]

17. So...when is Zelaya being restored to the presidency?

It looks like the US-backed mediation has taken all the oomph out of the effort to return him.