Letter on Honduras urges U.S. to stand firm vs. coup
The peace, justice and labor communities no doubt are very pleased at your appointment to the commission monitoring the power-sharing arrangements and presidential elections this month in Honduras.
As one who recently interviewed President Manuel Zelaya for The Nation and has visited Honduras before, I wish to communicate a few observations.
The first is that the golpistas are unlikely to accept the latest agreement voluntarily. According to the interpretation of pro-Micheletti Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O"Grady, it is "quite likely" that President Zelaya will be refused both the presidency and amnesty by the Honduran parliament and Supreme Court. When he steps out of the Brazilian embassy, she adds, it is "fully expected" that he will be detained. Even despite such refusals and his detention, she emphasizes, the coup government expects to receive hemispheric recognition of the elections.
It is inconceivable [to myself] that the U.S. government and the OAS would lend themselves to such a dangerous debacle. But the coup regime seems determined to preserve through high-stakes diplomacy what they think they achieved through force on June 28.
The U.S. message should be that no presidential elections will be recognized as legitimate without the return of President Zelaya to serve what remains of his term and without recognition of the new reality of a vast social movement of Hondurans demanding a real voice in the future of their country.
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