IDEALS

WASHINGTON, (Aug. 12, 2009) IPS/GIN – A letter sent last week by
the U.S. State Department has caused many to question the Obama
Administration position on reinstating ousted Honduras President
Manuel Zelaya.

In an Aug. 4 letter to Senator Richard Lugar – the ranking
Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – signed by
Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Richard Verma,
the U.S. condemned the coup, though said Zelaya was to blame for
his ousting and did not call for his return.

“Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting
any particular politician or individual,” said the letter. “We also
recognise that President Zelaya’s insistence on undertaking
provocative actions contributed to the polarisation of Honduran
society and led to a confrontation that unleashed the events that
led to his removal.”

Vicki Gass, a Honduras specialist at the Washington Office on Latin
America (WOLA), said the letter highlighted U.S. support for a
democratic government and the rule of law in Honduras, not
necessarily support of Zelaya.

“The U.S. hasn’t supported Zelaya,” she told IPS. “They support
democratic order, which means his return, but that doesn’t mean
they like him.”

Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Foreign Relations Committee
chairman, Senator John Kerry, said Friday that the senator was
worried the letter “risks sending a confusing signal” about U.S.
commitment to restoring Zelaya to power.

Some speculate the letter was a response to a Jul. 30 letter from
Lugar to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asking her to explain
U.S. policy in Honduras.

“I request that the Department provide interested Members a
detailed clarification of the steps that it has taken, and intends
to take, in response to the events that transpired in the run-up
to and period after the forced removal of President Manuel Zelaya
from Honduras,” Lugar wrote to Clinton.

Critical of the U.S.’ lack of decisive action about Honduras,
Republican senators have put a hold on the confirmations of two
Obama nominees to key diplomatic posts – Arturo Valenzuela, for
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and
Thomas Shannon, for Ambassador to Brazil.

Gass said lack of leadership posed by the empty positions was being
felt in the State Department, and the letter may have been a move
to please Republicans and get the nominees confirmed.

There is a split in Congress over how the Honduran situation should
be resolved. Democrats support Zelaya’s return to the presidency,
though with limited powers, while Republicans disagree. They have
argued that Zelaya’s removal saved democracy from a populist
dictatorship in the mode of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – a
Zelaya ally.

The U.S. has revoked diplomatic visas for five Hondurans associated
with the defacto government of Roberto Micheletti. It suspended
anti-drug operations from the U.S. military base in Honduras,
withheld 16 million dollars in defence aid and warned that it might
not disburse the final 10 percent of funds due to Honduras under
a 250 million dollar aid program there.

The U.S. also has strongly supported the mediation efforts of Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, who has proposed a compromise plan to
reinstate Zelaya with limited powers – the San Jose Accord.

The U.S. has rejected calls for economic sanctions, the letter
said.

Gass said the U.S. response has been inconsistent.

“[The U.S.] needs to be more forceful in condemning the coup and
more consistent within the state department,” said Gass.

She said the U.S. needs to “send a stronger message to the coup
government,” by initially cancelling their and their families’
visas and freezing their bank accounts.

The State Department letter angered Latin American leaders, who
have also been critical of the U.S.’s lack of action in Honduras.
There have been protests outside of the U.S. embassy in Honduras.

Last Friday Obama told reporters that he continued to support the
return of Zelaya, but that he could not do so single-handedly. “I
ca not press a button and suddenly reinstate Mr. Zelaya.”

At the North American Leaders Summit Monday, Obama slammed critics
who said the U.S. had not done enough to bring back Zelaya.

“The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened
enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we’re always
intervening, and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You
can’t have it both ways.”

“If these critics think that it’s appropriate for us to suddenly
act in ways that in every other context they consider
inappropriate, then I think what that indicates is that maybe
there’s some hypocrisy involved in their approach to U.S.-Latin
American relations that that certainly is not going to guide my
Administration’s policies,” Obama said.

Though the White House has made no comments about the letter,
Robert Wood, White House spokesman, defended U.S. efforts in
Honduras and reiterated that the U.S. stood behind Zelaya, at a
press briefing Monday.

“We’ve made very clear what our position is,” he told reporters.
“We are a strong supporter of President Zelaya. We want to see him
returned. We’ve made that very clear. There should be no doubt
about that.”

A delegation of foreign ministers, led by Secretary General Jos‚
Miguel Insulza, from the Organisation of American States (OAS) -
which does not support the coup government and suspended Honduras
from the organisation – announced plans to visit Honduras in the
next few days to convince Micheletti to accept the San Jose Accord.
The Accord calls for Zelaya to serve out his term, which ends in
January 2010, and for political amnesty for the coup plotters and
de-facto regime.