Honduras: Why the resistance will boycott the November 29 election; Zelaya on accord

By Felipe Stuart

Robert White, once a prominent US diplomat, says that the collapse of the Guamuras (Tegucigalpa-San Jose) Agreement between the Honduran coup regime and President Zelaya (exiled in the Brazilian embassy) now makes it possible *to reconstruct with a fair degree of accuracy how the Obama administration turned an imminent diplomatic triumph into a negotiated defeat.*

I concur with White that the latest manoeuvre executed by Thomas Shannon on behalf of the State Department became a fiasco -- but mostly because the standoff in Tegucigalpa exposes its concerted efforts to cover up its real involvement and complicity with the coup. The intellectual authors of the coup do not live in Honduras. They are housed in Washington and work in the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. Some believe that Obama was not in on the coup from the beginning and had his arms twisted to go along. Hence the application of what Eva Golinger calls "Smart Power" -- displaying opposition to the coup in the OAS and before world opinion, while putting in motion a strategy to scuttle and delay real initiatives to force the restitution of the Constitutional government and president of the country.

This "smart" strategy has worked so far, but at enormous cost. It leaves Honduras in an enormously unstable situation, and with a weakened ruling class faced by a strengthened and more sophisticated, experience, and united popular movement -- organized in the National Resistance Front. Most importantly, the US Obama's with Honduran adventure now stands exposed and the democratic emperor, viewed from the perspective of Latin-Indo America, has come up nude. When this fiasco is added to the provocation of turnintg Colombia into a gigantic US aircraft carrier, or a South American Israel, has exposed the fraudulent nature of Obama's claim to want to make a new start in US relations with nations south of the Rio Bravo. So too has the re-affirmation and solidifying of the economic and financial blockade against Cuba.

An enormous media campaign has been unleashed up and down the continent to savage the governments of all the ALBA countries, expecially Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. In contrast to them, Brazil and Chile are painted as being "democratic left" regimes more acceptable to the oligarchic and imperialist rightwing forces. The old tactic of divide and conquer is alive and well.

White's analysis is evacuated of substance because he assumes that Obama really wanted Zelaya back in power. That was not Washington's preferred option. They procrastinated, hoping to let time erode Latin American ire, and escort Honduras through the November election campaign. But the fact that the elections have little chance of legitimacy either nationally or internationally (will Obama be caught with only Israel and a few Oceanic semi-colonies on side regarding this issue?) does make the situation a real fiasco not just for Washington but also for the Honduran ten ruling families.

The reason for the fiasco is that any scam, sooner or later, risks being exposed for what it was or is. Victims of a scam have long memories, and the scam set up by Hillary Clinton and Oscar Arias, with Obama's support, backfired. Its very success is also Washington's new headache.

Latin Americans now know two things. The claim that the age of military coups is over is sheer myth, a fake and a fraud. Second, the US arsenal moves its coup option from front to back burnder with ease, but never turns off the gas.

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Honduras Revisited

By Robert White

<http://alainet. org/active/ show_author. phtml?autor_ apellido= =White&autor_ nombre=Robert>

*- Robert White is a former United States ambassador to Paraguay and El

Salvador (1980-1981), where he was instrumental in the investigation of the

rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen by Salvadorean death squads. He is

currently the president of the **Center for International

Policy<http://www.ciponlin e.org/>
------------ --------- ---------

by Robert White

*It is now possible to reconstruct with a fair degree of accuracy how the

Obama administration turned an imminent diplomatic triumph into a negotiated

defeat.*

On October 20, Senator Jim DeMint stated that he had met with Assistant

Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and that he was pleased that the

Department of State finally understood "that it is essential that these

elections [in Honduras] go forward and are recognized." As a result, DeMint

said he was "anxious" to release the holds he had placed on the nominations

of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of state for Western

Hemisphere affairs and Thomas Shannon, the present assistant secretary, to

be ambassador to Brazil.

As Shannon well knew, this impending change of policy would give away the

principal leverage the United States could bring to bear to persuade the de

facto government to permit the prompt return of President Zelaya.

On October 28, a diplomatic delegation headed by Thomas Shannon arrived in

Tegucigalpa to jump start the negotiations between the de facto regime and

President Mel Zelaya. At a press conference, Shannon stated that the return

of Zelaya is "central" to the concerns of the United States and the

international community. Yet, he refused to say that his return was an

essential component to any deal.

It is legitimate toinfer that at this point de facto president Roberto

Micheletti knew that the State Department had made a commitment to Senator

DeMint that the United States would recognize the November 29 elections as

valid regardless of whether Zelaya had been returned to office.

Under these circumstances any journeyman diplomat would immediately

recognize that the only chance to achieve a lasting agreement would be to

inform President Zelaya of the change in U.S. policy. Armed with this

information, Zelaya could have insisted on a date certain for his return.

With the backing of the U.S. delegation, there would have been a fighting

chance that Micheletti would have agreed because time was running out.

It was, of course, possible, even probable, that negotiations would have

failed, but that result would have been infinitely preferable to the charade

where Zelaya signed an agreement under the illusion the United States would

ensure his prompt reinstatement to power.

The result of this cynical and amateurish diplomacy could hardly have been

worse.

The secretary of state triumphantly announces a breakthrough in Honduras.

Micheletti responds that he has not yet agreed to the restitution of the

elected president, and a deceived Zelaya states the agreement is dead. The

diplomatic fiasco is complete.

There is still room for diplomatic maneuvering. For example, at the OAS, the

United States could state that while it will recognize the outcome of the

elections, it will support an OAS decision not to send hemispheric observers

to certify the elections. This would almost surely result in the immediate

return of Zelaya, for the United States would have restated its resolve not

to be separated from its hemispheric partners.

Unless the Obama administration acts quickly to rescue this bungled outcome,

Zelaya will take the only road open to him and call for his supporters to

boycott the elections.

Most nations of the hemisphere will support him by refusing to recognize the

elections and the crisis will drag on.

It is sad to contemplate how the Obama administration has botched a

challenge in which it had the support of the entire hemisphere. No wonder

President Lula of Brazil has accused President Obama of going back on his

promise of a new relationship with Latin America.

*- Robert White is a former United States ambassador to Paraguay and El

Salvador (1980-1981), where he was instrumental in the investigation of the

rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen by Salvadorean death squads. He is

currently the president of the **Center for International

Policy<http://www.ciponlin e.org/>

**.*

* *

Source:

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