MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Honduras Santos/Chavez brokered deal was on request from Central America and Mexico
Colombian Foreign Affairs minister Maria Angela Holguin revealed details of how the Honduras case was addressed Central American countries and Mexico requested Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos to help reconcile positions with Southern Cone countries so that former president Manuel Zelaya could return to Honduras, revealed Colombian Foreign Affairs minister Maria Angela Holguin in an interview with Bogotá’s El Espectador.
“We worked in the Honduras issue because Central American countries and Mexico asked President Santos to help bring positions closer, particularly in the Southern Cone”, said Holguin who added that Santos spoke with his Venezuelan peer Hugo Chavez about the issue on several occasions and together they finally brokered the deal.
“In Paraguay I met with the Foreign ministers from Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Argentina” and “I also was in contact all the time with Venezuelan Foreign minister Maduro to keep him in touch of discussions, so finally we were all talking about the Honduras problem”.
Last Saturday Ministers Holguín and Maduro were standing next to former president Zelaya when he returned to Honduras and was greeted by thousands.
On Wednesday the Organization of American States, OAS, will be holding an extraordinary general assembly in El Salvador when besides the calling issue, internal security in the region, the Honduras case and its reinstatement will be on the table.
Zelaya was ousted as president by a military in June 2009, following a ruling from the Supreme Court, supported by Congress when he tried to amend the constitution. Honduras was then forced out of OAS. Zelaya had been living in the Dominican Republic before his return on Saturday.
The incident was first condemned by all OAS members but cracks surfaced when some countries wanted to punish those involved in the ousting led by Brazil and Venezuela, while another group, with the US, Colombia and some Central American countries, opted for a constructive approach since the new Honduras government was legitimately elected and following the country’s electoral calendar.
“We worked with Maduro (Venezuela supported all along Zelaya and wanted his immediate reinstatement) and with Honduran president Porfirio Lobo, first on what we agreed and then on disagreements, all was done by mail, chat or phone”, said Minister Holguín.
Finally we went over 25 drafts “and I decided to travel to Honduras. The same did Maduro and we spent a whole day discussing, Zelaya was in Caracas, and only last week did we reach a deal”.
“This represent a milestone to help consolidate national reconciliation in Honduras”, said Holguín.
On Saturday night following the political rally in Tegucigalpa, President Porfirio Lobo hosted Manuel Zelaya, family and delegation in Government House with a welcome banquet.
Now it’s up to the OAS assembly to decide on reinstatement with a special majority which apparently exists.
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Read all comments“The incident was first condemned by all OAS members but cracks surfaced when some countries wanted to punish those involved in the ousting led by Brazil and Venezuela, while another group, with the US, Colombia and some Central American countries, opted for a constructive approach since the new Honduras government was legitimately elected and following the country’s electoral calendar.”
May 31st, 2011 - 12:23 am 0Ha, f*** off, Mercopress! The elections were held under a coup regime, and a large part of the population, specially the poor, were precluded from going to vote by the military and the police! How legitemate is that, how constructive is taking such a fake elections at face value.
After the coup, repression against the opposition and attacks against journalists, both native and foreign, have been common - in fact, even more frequent than under the coup regime. That speaks volumes about the current Hondurean regime, and how legitemate it is.
Then it is sort of appropriate that the deal was negotiated by one 'Flawed Democracy' and a 'Hybrid Regime'. That also speaks volumes !
May 31st, 2011 - 03:04 am 0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
As I've said before - just a bunch of tin-pot Dictatorships and banana Republics. Can't figure why the Falkland islanders don't wish to join :-)
Let's see who else is a Flawed Democracy: Italy, France, every-western-right-winger-pet Israel, and potential superpower India. Also potential superpowers Russia and China are on the Hybrid Regime and Authoritarian Regime sections respectively. Are they all tin-pot Dictatorships and banana Republics? So who is not a banana republic or a dictatorship? Who's a decent country? Those who adopt each “article de foi” of the petit bourgeois liberal dogma behind the modern conception of democracy - even if those modern Decent Full Democracies don't respect human rights outside their own country? (In some cases, they don't respect that not even within their own borders; see US persecution of Wikileaks.) Well, people will give different definitions of what makes a country 'Decent' as opposed to being a banana republic. I myself would rather be Chinese than American or British. For me China is a much more decent country than immoral, hypocritical, and bankrupt western powers.
May 31st, 2011 - 04:12 am 0By the way, I see some bitterness in your comment. Are you trying to compensate for the comment made by some Argentinian who's pointed out rather brashly how much of a decaying, bankrupt power the UK is? Well, since you announced yourself in no mean terms, I'll also put moderation aside: the UK is not only all those things I said above, but it is also a... banana republic. Worse yet, a banana monarchy. The UK behaves as nothing but a an arm of US power in the European continent. It doesn't even look like a sovereign, independent nation. Well, you must now that this - subservience to foreign interests - is part of the definition of banana republic.
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