Mediator Proposes Path Out of Honduras Showdown

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

The chief negotiator in Honduran crisis talks on Saturday proposed reinstating ousted President Manuel Zelaya at the head of a national reconciliation government, early elections and a general amnesty as a way out of a deadlock over a coup.

Many of the proposals made by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at U.S.-backed talks have already been rejected by one side or the other in the dispute over Honduras' June 28 military-backed coup, which has become a key test for democracy in Latin America and for U.S. diplomacy in the region.

''These agreements must be adopted as soon as possible because each day that goes by increases the weight on the shoulders of an innocent people,'' said the Costa Rican president in a statement distributed to reporters.

Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping end Central America's wars, said that under his seven-point plan Zelaya would return to Honduras' presidency but cede control of the armed forces to an electoral court a month before elections, which would be moved forward a month to late October. The unity government would include representatives of Honduras' main political parties.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/18/world/AP-LT-Honduras-Coup.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. Zelaya accepts Arias' proposal, but golpistas reject it

according to Madrid's daily El Pais:

Zelaya acepta encabezar un Gobierno de concentración como propone Arias

El Gobierno interino de Honduras rechaza de plano el plan del presidente de Costa Rica

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Zelaya/acepta/encabezar/Gobierno/concentracion/propone/Arias/elpepuint/20090718elpepuint_7/Tes

Zelaya accepts to head a Government of unity as proposed by Arias. The interim government of Honduras rejects outright the plan by President of Costa Rica.

[cal04]

7. thanks for the update IndianaGreen

I just found it here
Zelaya says yes, interim government says no to Arias' mediation proposal
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/19/content_11730536.htm

[billyoc]

2. I'll be disappointed if Hillary's golpistas aren't lined up and shot, but it's not my country.

[EFerrari]

3. They must feel pretty good about Honduras because they started in on Correa today,

with a video "found on a laptop" showing a FARC commander claiming he gave to Correa's campaign.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Don't forget the other laptop, the one the golpistas claimed belonged to Zelaya

and that showed that Zelaya was planning to rig the referendum.

Two laptops in two days. I can't wait for tomorrow's laptop.

[billyoc]

5. Man, I'm hiding my laptop.

:scared:

[EFerrari]

6. Laptops Gone Wild!

:rofl:

[David__77]

19. I'll second that.

The coup plotters should face justice.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Honduras' Zelaya accepts unity government proposal (Reuters)

Honduras' Zelaya accepts unity government proposal

Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:43pm EDT

By John McPhaul and Ana Isabel Martinez

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya agreed on Saturday to give his enemies a share of power if he is allowed to return to office, but they rejected any deal that puts him back in the presidency.

Zelaya, who was toppled in a military coup on June 28 and is in exile in neighboring Nicaragua, backed the proposal for a government of national reconciliation put forward by the mediator in talks aimed at ending Honduras' political crisis.

Zelaya also said in an interview with a Honduran radio station that he would return to Honduras in the coming days despite warnings by the de facto government that he would be arrested.

<snip>

But a spokesman for Micheletti's interim government again insisted it will not allow Zelaya's return to power.

The Honduran army was on maximum alert and boosted its presence in Zelaya home region of Olancho, where about 100 of his supporters gathered on his ranch, and other places seen as possible points of return, an army source said.

The coup triggered the worst political crisis in Central America since the Cold War and poses a challenge for President Barack Obama as he tries to improve U.S. relations with Latin America.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1749101420090718

[IndianaGreen]

9. Micheletti rejects agreement for immediate return of Zelaya (TeleSUR)

Micheletti rechaza acuerdo inmediato para vuelta de Zelaya

TeleSUR _ Hace: 14 minutos

El Gobierno de facto de Honduras que preside Roberto Micheletti rechazó este sábado los puntos planteados en Costa Rica para la reinstalación del jefe de Estado constitucional, Manuel Zelaya, al poder.

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/54324-NN/micheletti-rechaza-acuerdo-inmediato-para-vuelta-de-zelaya/

Micheletti rejects agreement for immediate return of Zelaya

TeleSUR _ Hace: 14 minutes

The Government de facto of Honduras that Micheletti Robert presides over rejected this Saturday the points raised in Costa Rica for the reinstallation of the constitutional Chief of State, Manuel Zelaya, to power.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Sorry, this article relates to El Salvador. I didn't catch it until after posting.

El Salvador: body of missing activist found with signs of torture

Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 16:53. On July 8, DNA tests confirmed that a body found in a well in Cabañas department, El Salvador, on June 30 is that of prominent community activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera. The body was found by community members who had organized a search for Rivera, missing since June 18. Witnesses reported that the body exhibited signs of torture techniques generally tied to targeted political assassinations. However, initial reports coming from the National Civilian Police (PNC) state that gang members were responsible for the murder.

The victim's brother, Miguel Rivera, dismissed the gang violence explanation. "Saying that my brother died at the hands of gang members is an unbelievable story and becomes a mockery for my family. My brother was tortured. He was alive for nine days after his disappearance. His trachea was broken by a nylon cord that strangled him, pushing his arm up to his face. This is not an act of gang members. It is torture."

Rivera was director of the Casa de Cultura in San Isidro, and was active in social justice and environmental struggles. Friends and family members report that he received many threats in response to his public denunciations of San Isidro Mayor Ignacio Bautista of the ARENA party. Rivera was vocal in his stance against attempted fraud in the municipal and legislative elections of Jan. 18, which led community members to shut down the town's voting centers, forcing a make-up election to be held the following week. Rivera was also active in the national movement against mining projects that threaten El Salvador's principal watersheds.

Civil society organizations Coordination for Peace, Dignity, and Social Justice (CPDJS), the Foundation for the Study of the Application of Law (FESPAD), and the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining all denounced the murder as politically motivated, and called on the PNC and Attorney General to carry out an exhaustive investigation to determine the intellectual authors of the crime. In a joint press conference, the groups stated: "Marcelo was being threatened by members of the ARENA party in San Isidro and by those that impose death projects in the area , which Marcelo always opposed, and for this he was defamed and denigrated."

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7601

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



.Global Spotlight
AJWS Calls for Justice in the Murder of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, of Grantee ASIC in El Salvador

Gustavo Marcelo Rivera was a well-respected and devoted community leader, teacher, environmental rights and democracy activist in the municipality of San Isidro, Cabañas in northern El Salvador. In order to serve the educational, health and cultural needs of his community in one of El Salvador’s poorest areas, Rivera founded and led Asociación Amigos de San Isidro (ASIC), a grassroots community-development NGO and AJWS grantee.

http://www.ajws.org/

[IndianaGreen]

11. There is a whiff of School of Americas graduates in this story

Why hasn't Obama closed the SOA?

[Judi Lynn]

12. Have read multiple times the people who started the violent gangs there

were members of death squads earlier, and were paid to maim, torture, murder people.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Honduras Crisis Required an Examination of Controversial U.S. Military Training School

Honduras Crisis Required an Examination of Controversial U.S. Military Training School
July 18, 11:27 AM3

The June 28 coup in Honduras was carried out by the School of the Americas (SOA) graduates Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of the of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran military and by Gen. Luis Prince Suazo, the head of the Air Force. The leadership of SOA graduates in the coup follows a pattern of anti-democratic actions by graduates of the SOA (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, WHINSEC). The Pentagon claim -- that the institute instills respect for democracy and civilian leadership while teaching combat skills to Latin American soldiers -- has once again been disproved by the actions of the institute's graduates.

SOA-trained Honduran Army Attorney Col. Herberth Inestroza justified the military coup and stated in an interview with The Miami Herald “It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That's impossible.'' Inestroza also confirmed that the decision for the coup was made by the military. Another SOA graduate, retired General Daniel López Carballo, told CNN that the coup was warranted because Venezuelan President Chávez would be running Honduras by proxy if the military had not acted.

The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for a nonbonding opinion poll that was supposed to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to enter into a process to modify their constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, SOA graduate General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez. The heads of all branches of the Honduran armed forces quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez remains in control of the armed forces.

Vasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous SOA. According to information that SOA Watch obtained from the US government through a Freedom of Information Act request, Vasquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.

The head of the Air Force, General Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996. The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran coup. When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them. Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.

Former Representative Joe Kennedy stated, "The School of the Americas...is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."

More:
http://www.examiner.com/x-16503-LA-County-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m7d18-Honduras-Crisis-Required-an-Examination-of-Controversial-US-Military-Training-School

[cal04]

14. Negotiator: Zelaya's Side Accepts Honduran Plan,de facto leaders have shown no willingness

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/18/world/AP-LT-Honduras-Coup.html

A negotiator for ousted President Manuel Zelaya says his side has accepted in principle the points proposed by a mediator to end the Honduras coup crisis.

But negotiator Enrique Flores says the interim government of Roberto Micheletti has rejected the central point of allowing Zelaya to be reinstated, leaving the talks stalemated.

Flores says ''in principle we accept all the points, to later discuss them in detail.''

But he says the Honduras' de facto leaders have shown no willingness to accept Zelaya's return, adding that if there is no progress ''we will declare the talks a failure.''

[Wednesdays]

15. K&R

:kick:

[Rhiannon12866]

16. LAT Link: Proposal aims to mend Honduras

Zelaya would resume office and elections would be moved up.

July 19, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City -- Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, seeking a solution to the Honduran coup crisis, on Saturday proposed reinstating ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya as president and holding early elections as part of a power-sharing plan for a new government.

Zelaya said he accepted Arias' plan in principle, but the de facto government in Honduras continued to insist that Zelaya not be allowed to return to the presidency. Zelaya has threatened to make his way back into Honduras as early as today if a deal to restore him to power was not reached in Saturday's negotiations.

Arias, the mediator of the negotiations at his home in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, urged patience. More talks may take place today.

"The use of force caused this problem, and it will never be the solution," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-honduras19-2009jul19,0,3579375.story

[autorank]

17. Bad idea even if accepted by Zalaya but maybe he can make it work

Just change this

"that under his seven-point plan Zelaya would return to Honduras' presidency but cede control of the armed forces to
an electoral court a month before elections,"

to this

"that under his seven-point plan *Obama* would return to *the United States* presidency but cede control of the armed
forces to an electoral court a month before elections,"

So the Army is rewarded for violating the tenets of a real democracy and gets to be in charge right after Zalaya
comes back. The Army an dopposition to democracy get a 'snap election' a month early. What's that about?

Arias really blew this one.

Our Ambassador to Honduras refused to talk to the Army usurpers rght after the coup telling them they were not the legitimate government and Obama did pretty much the same choosing diplomacy rather than military action. Arias needs
to get real in terms of recognizing Honduras as an existing state rather than autonomous factions dominated by
superior force, i.e., the military.

But, hey, if Zalaya takes it, fine. He has a lot of confidence in the election or is running a smart gambit
(that the Army won't accept it) to look reasonable.

In any case, it's better than a bloodbath.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. This is a gambit and it is making the Micheleti faction LOOK BAD

in front of LatAm... more sanctions on the way...

And this is not so much situation normal it is not even funny

[autorank]

20. here you go;)

Honduras talks stall 07/20/2000


SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Talks on resolving Honduras' leadership crisis have ended after negotiators failed to compromise on ousted President Manuel Zelaya's return to power.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias says he'll continue to mediate between the two sides for another three days in search of a solution.

But the two camps are far apart in their positions.

Carlos Lopez, a representative of the interim government, says it is "unacceptable" for Mr. Zelaya to return to the presidency, as proposed by Mr. Arias.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09201/985093-82.stm#ixzz0LlwDAFID

AND

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) - - There were fears civil war was brewing Monday in Honduras after weekend talks between the country's rival governments collapsed over ousted President Manuel Zelaya's demand he be returned to power.

"We have started organizing internal resistance for my return to the country," Zelaya told reporters in Nicaragua, where he has been based since his forced exile on June 28 by the Honduran army.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias warned Honduras was at the brink of "civil war and bloodshed" following the failure of talks he was mediating between representatives of Zelaya and of the new, de facto government in Honduras.

Zelaya's negotiators ended those discussions late Sunday after the de facto government's team rejected as "unacceptable" a proposal by Arias that Zelaya go back as president at the head of a "reconciliation" government.