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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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U.S.
Confirms Recognition of Honduras
Presidential Elections
TEGUCIGALPA – The U.S. deputy assistant
secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
Affairs said here Wednesday at the end of a
visit to Honduras that Washington supports
the country’s Nov. 29 presidential election
and the accord meant to resolve the crisis
sparked by the June 28 departure of former
President Manuel Zelaya.
“Nobody has the right to take from the
Honduran people the right to vote, to elect
their leaders,” Craig Kelly said, asking
that violence be avoided during the process
and emphasizing that the United States
maintains its “commitment to continue
working to implement the accord.”
During his two-day visit, Kelly met
separately with Zelaya and the head of the
current government, Roberto Micheletti, to
analyze the implementation of the pact
signed by representatives of both sides on
Oct. 30.
Zelaya pronounced the pact dead early this
month after Micheletti pressed ahead on
schedule with formation of national unity
government – which was mandated by date in
the pact. Zelaya's side in the dispute put
forward no candidates for the unity
government, insisting that the Honduran
Congress had to vote on his return first.
According to the agreement, Congress is to
decide whether Zelaya should be reinstated.
But the text does not lay down a timeframe
for that congressional vote and the
congressional leadership has put off a
debate, choosing instead to first seek an
advisory opinion from the Supreme Court,
which had already ruled to remove Zelaya
from power for violating the constitution in
an earlier ruling.
Zelaya currently enjoys the support of only
about a fifth of the legislators, and
Congress had before his ouster already
opened an investigation into whether he was
mentally fit to govern, voted to disapprove
his violations of the Constitution and
replaced him with Micheletti after he was
ousted. The Supreme Court already ruled back
in June that Zelaya was replaced as
president on June 28 because he violated the
Constitution.
Critics say the Micheletti government was
emboldened when Kelly’s then-superior,
Thomas Shannon, said early this month that
Washington would recognize the winner of the
Nov. 29 election regardless of whether
Zelaya was reinstated for the roughly two
months left in his term.
While a broad sector of the international
community continues threatening not to
recognize the elections if Zelaya is not
reinstated, the United States feels that “an
important part of the solution for peace for
the future are the Honduran elections,” said
Kelly in remarks he read to reporters.
To date, only the United States and Panama
have expressed support for the Honduran
elections, while the Supreme Electoral
Tribunal has announced that some 250
international observers, including several
former presidents of Latin American
countries, will monitor the vote.
The head of the Organization of American
States, Chile’s Jose Miguel Insulza, ruled
out sending OAS election observers to
Honduras under the current circumstances.
And most members of the OAS and the Rio
Group, a hemispheric club that excludes the
United States and Canada, have indicated
they will not recognize the elections as
valid without Zelaya’s reinstatement
beforehand.
Kelly urged Hondurans to “make gestures to
advance reconciliation in the country” and
he insisted that “it is very important for
the authorities to respect human rights.”
The U.S. diplomat also said that “it is
important that all actors avoid
provocations, calls to violence, because
what the country needs is calm, an
environment of peace, to move toward that
date that is so important.”
Kelly emphasized that “an important part for
the United States, in implementing the
accord, is the principle of restoration of
the democratic constitutional order
following the coup d’etat that occurred on
June 28.”
“We’re going to continue working with our
Honduran friends to achieve important
objectives under the accord,” said Kelly.
On Tuesday, leaders of the Honduran Congress
scheduled a debate on Zelaya’s reinstatement
for Dec. 2, after the election to choose his
successor and less than two months from the
end of the ousted incumbent’s term.
“The intention of the National Congress is
not to support reinstatement, at least among
a large part of the deputies, not of all,”
Zelaya told Radio Globo.
However, “We’re going to see, in the first
place, what the result of the election is
... and what the political forces are that
arise in this process, which are also going
to have the power to express an opinion
after Nov. 29,” he said.
Meanwhile dozens of members of the
Resistance Front organized in response to
the coup on Wednesday staged a new sit-in
protest in front of Congress.
Zelaya said last week that the coming ballot
in Honduras could not be free because “there
are thousands of citizens repressed” by the
de facto regime, which has killed a dozen
coup opponents and jailed hundreds more.
In the eyes of Constituional scholars and
most Hondurans, Zelaya’s ouster was not a
coup. The soldiers who escorted Zelaya from
the presidential palace were enforcing a
Supreme Court order after Zelaya refused to
comply with their earlier order banning his
planned referendum on revising the
constitution to allow for unlimited
presidential terms. The Constitution calls
for immediate disempowerment of any official
who does so.
Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution
says “Any citizen who has already served as
head of the Executive Branch cannot be
President or Vice-President again. Whoever
violates this law or proposes its reform, as
well as those who support such violation
directly or indirectly, must immediately
cease in their functions and will be unable
to hold any public office for a period of 10
years.”
In August, the U.S. Congress Law Library
issued a report that calls the
disempowerment of Zelaya, with the exception
of the removal of Zelaya from the country,
constitutional under Honduran law.
According to report author Norma Gutiérrez,
the Honduran Congress has the power to
"disapprove of the conduct of the
president".
The Congress "implicitly exercised its power
of constitutional interpretation in the case
of Zelaya when it decided that its power to
'disapprove' the president's actions
encompassed the power to remove him", the
report says.
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