EXCLUSIVE-US ends some Honduras aid but does not find coup
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has decided to terminate some U.S. aid to Honduras but has not determined that a military coup took place on June 28 in the poor Central American nation, a source familiar with the decision said on Thursday. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSWAT013722
U.S. ends some Honduras aid, silent on military coup
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that it was terminating a broad range of assistance to the Honduran government but remained silent on the question of whether a military coup took place on June 28.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE58257A20090903
US ends some Honduras aid but does not find coup
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has decided to terminate some U.S. aid to Honduras but has not determined that a military coup took place on June 28 in the poor Central American nation, a source familiar with the decision said on Thursday.
"We are terminating assistance to Honduras but she is not making the determinaton that a military coup has taken place," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has yet to be announced.
The source did not specify how much assistance would be terminated. U.S. officials previously said it was expected to be about $18 million -- most of it military aid -- that the United States had already suspended after the coup.
The decision appeared designed to raise pressure on the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti to step down.
The source spoke as Clinton was scheduled to meet with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was forced into exile aboard a military plane while still in his pajamas.
U.S. cuts more than $30 million in aid to Honduras
By Arshad Mohammed and David Alexander
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it would cut more than $30 million in aid to Honduras in an effort to pressure the de facto government to step down and allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power.
The U.S. State Department also moved to revoke the U.S. visas of some of the government's supporters and said it could not, for now, regard as legitimate Honduran elections scheduled for November because of Zelaya's June 28 ouster.
The United States did not, however, address the question of whether Zelaya was removed by the military despite the fact that he was arrested by soldiers while still in his pajamas, put on a army plane and flown into exile against his will.
Zelaya was ousted after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army, which has longstanding ties to the U.S. military, by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.
The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.
"Today's action sends a clear message to the de facto regime that the status quo is unacceptable and that their strategy to try to run out the clock on President Zelaya's term of office is unacceptable," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.
"There's a sense that the de facto regime was thinking if we can just get to an election that this will absolve them of all their sins," he added. "That is not the case."
U.S. officials said the aid cut-off included $9.4 million from the Agency for International Development, $8.96 million from the State Department, including funds for arms sales and military training, and $1.7 million in security assistance.
Roughly $11 million from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, which aids countries with a track record of sound governance and economic policy, would also be terminated.
ZELAYA PLEASED, MICHELETTI UNMOVED
Zelaya welcomed the U.S. moves after a more than hour-long meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and he suggested that the members of the Organization of American States were united against the de facto government.
"They are not going to recognize a regime wrapped in illegality to call elections that will bring impunity to the coup regime," Zelaya told reporters.
Micheletti, the country's de facto leader, suggested he had no plans to step down.
"We have been, are and will continue to be friends of the United States," Micheletti said in a televised address. "But at the same time we are firm, determined and stronger than ever in defending our democracy and our freedom."
Clinton's action to terminate the aid was consistent with U.S. law barring aid other than humanitarian and pro-democracy funds "to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
U.S. officials said they shied away from determining that a military coup occurred in part because so many actors were involved in the coup, including the country's supreme court, Congress and the military.
"It's not your garden-variety military coup," Crowley told reporters.
Honduras watchers who have criticized the Obama administration for being "ambivalent" on Honduras said the measures were a step in the right direction, but not enough.
"The State Department is responding to pressure, but it's still not clear if the Obama administration is serious about dislodging the coup regime," said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Some Latin American leaders have suggested Washington apply more pressure but some U.S. Republican lawmakers believe it has already done too much for Zelaya, an ally of Venezuela's socialist and anti-American president, Hugo Chavez. (Editing by Kieran Murray and Anthony Boadle)
Powerful lawmaker urges U.S. aid cutoff for Honduras
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should formally declare a military coup took place in Honduras and cut off most aid to the government that replaced ousted President Manuel Zelaya, an influential U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday.
Howard Berman, who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, made the case in an opinion piece published before a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Zelaya at 12:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Thursday.
Zelaya, forced into exile on June 28 aboard a military plane while still in his pajamas, was accused by opponents of trying to change the constitution to extend presidential mandates beyond a single four-year term.
The State Department has dragged its feet on making the formal determination of whether a military coup took place in the hopes that a diplomatic solution could be found to restore Zelaya to power in the impoverished Central American coffee and textile exporter.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, Berman argued that "our patience is not without end" and called on Clinton to formally determine that Zelaya was removed in a military coup.
"This one looks, walks and quacks like a duck. It's time to stop hedging and call this bird what it is," the California Democrat Berman wrote.
"And if, for whatever reason, the State Department lawyers do not conclude that this was a coup, Congress should examine other ways by which it can directly affect the flow of aid."
LEGITIMACY OF NOVEMBER ELECTION
Washington has already suspended about $18 million that would be formally cut if the determination is made because of a U.S. law barring aid "to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
U.S. officials said the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government corporation that gives funds to poor countries with sound policies, had about $135 million in aid for Honduras that would have to be scrutinized and could be in jeopardy.
Despite worldwide condemnation of the June 28 coup, the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti has said it will not be pressured into stepping down.
Micheletti has rejected proposals by mediator Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, that would have allowed Zelaya to return to power before November elections.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Zelaya said he trusted the international community would not recognize the election or its winner if he is not restored to office before the vote is held.
"How can legitimate, transparent and democratic elections be held?" Zelaya told a news conference, citing political repression of his followers by the de facto government.
While the Organization of American States condemned Zelaya's ouster and suspended Honduras' membership, some countries in the hemisphere now believe the election of a new government in November might be the best way out of the Honduras stalemate.
Zelaya hopes the U.S. government will step up pressure for his reinstatement with stiffer sanctions.
"No matter what we think of Zelaya (and I don't think highly of him) and his actions to change the Honduran Constitution, it is a fact that his mandate to govern was gained in a fully transparent election," Berman wrote.
"The longer it takes to right this wrong, the less legitimate the November elections will be, and the climb out of this hole will be all the steeper for the entire region."
(Editing by John O'Callaghan)
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