Reports of a Deal in Honduras Are Premature

Posted by Al Giordano - October 30, 2009 at 9:58 am

By Al Giordano

US officials and commercial media organizations are popping champagne corks prematurely over a reported US-brokered “deal” to return Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to (limited) power, but the two sides that reportedly signed the agreement already disagree over what exactly it says.

Reuters reports that coup “president” Micheletti has agreed to step down:

”I have authorized my negotiating team to sign a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the country’s political situation,” Micheletti told reporters on Thursday night.

He said Zelaya could return to office after a vote in Congress that would be authorized by the country’s Supreme Court. The deal would also require both sides to recognize the result of a Nov. 29 presidential election and would transfer control of the army to the top electoral court.

If approved by Congress, Zelaya would be able to finish out his presidential term, which ends in January. It was not clear what would happen to other elements o f the agreement if Congress votes against Zelaya’s restoration.

(Bold type mine, for emphasis.)

But Micheletti’s claim that a Congressional vote to restore Zelaya would require Supreme Court authorization is a flat out lie, according to a source with Zelaya inside his Brazilian Embassy refuge in Tegucigalpa: “That is what the golpistas have put out, but that is NOT the accord… The Supreme Court gives its non-binding opinion to the Congress, but the key is that all of this takes time, time that the golpistas want to keep taking.”

While there is some healthy distrust already over whether Congress will gin up on its end and really vote to restore Zelaya, that probably will be easier to accomplish than many believe. Two words: Pepe Lobo. The National Party candidate for President, Lobo is leading in the polls. He obviously wants very much for the November 29 “elections” to become internationally recognized elections. His party holds 55 of 128 seats in Honduras’ unicameral legislature, just ten short of a majority. There are at least 22 Liberal Party members that have publicly indicated they want Zelaya back as president, plus 11 minor party legislators most of whom are likely to go along with such a deal. Faced with such a patchwork majority, look for most of the 62 Liberal Party members in Congress to fold and go with the flow. The Congressional vote is not likely to prove a stumbling block to implementing this agreement.

The real problem could be the authoritarian Supreme Court. Micheletti’s invention of a non-existent clause in the agreement, one that requires the court’s approval of it, points to where the stalling tactic will come from. This is the same Supreme Court that carried out the coup d’etat on June 28 and has micro-managed the regime’s affairs all summer and fall on a level that would not be appropriate or legal in most countries. Because Honduras’ 1982 Constitution is such a self-conflicted document with many articles that contradict each other, the court has been cherry-picking which laws to discard and which to interpret, often badly.

What the summer of 2009 in Honduras has demonstrated is that democracies need not only worry about excesses of executive branch power. In this case, it is the judicial branch that proved the primary and most dangerous usurper of democracy.

If Micheletti keeps insisting that this so-called “agreement” requires Supreme Court ratification, look for this game to go into extra innings before any resolution can happen.

On the other hand, if Secretary Clinton and her team of negotiation babysitters got their ducks and supreme court members in line ahead of time – reflecting a level of attention to detail that they haven’t displayed all summer long – then, yes, this deal would be likely to succeed.

The devil will be in the details, and their implementation. Until it’s clear that the Supreme Court or Congress won’t stand in the way, there is no deal.

And I’ll repeat: The problem won’t likely come from Congress, but, rather, a continuance of the real problem all along: the despotic, arbitrary and anti-democracy tendencies of the Honduras Supreme Court.

Update: Pepe Lobo weighs in, exactly as we predicted he would:

"We are willing to be cooperative in Congress with the agreement of the negotiators," Porfirio Lobo, a National Party lawmaker who is favored to win the Nov. 29 presidential elections, said Friday. "The best decision for Honduras will be taken."

(And it's worth noting, once again, how embarrassingly clumsy and wrongheaded the La La Land prognostications are from a certain golpista corner of the Ugly American diaspora of the expat community in Honduras. Last night, the anonymous blogger who calls herself La Gringa told her gullible readers: "presidential candidate Pepe Lobo is asking the Nacionalistas to abstain." The sheer stupidity and inability to deduce what is in Lobo's best interests is staggering, but also typical.)

Update II: Statement from the National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'Etat:

1. We celebrate the coming restitution of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales as a popular victory over the cruel interests of the golpista oligarchy. This victory has been won through more than four months of struggle and sacrifice by the people, that in spite of the savage repression unleashed by the repressive corps of the state in the hands of the dominant class has known how to resist and grow in conscience and organization becoming an uncontainable social force.

2. The Dictatorship's signature on the document that establishes "the return of the executive branch to its status prior to June 28" represents explicit acceptance of what in Honduras had been a coup d'etat that must be removed to return to institutional order and guarantee a democratic environment in which the people can make use of its right to transform society.

3. We demand that the agreements that are signed at the negotiating table be ratified expeditiously by the National Congress. In that sense, we alert all our compañeros and compañeras nationwide to join in the pressure actions so that the document is complied with immediatley.

4. We reiterate that the National Constituent Assembly is an absolute aspiration of the Honduran people and a nonnegotiable right for which we will continue struggling in the streets, until achieving the refoundation of society to exist in justice, equality and true democracy.

"AFTER 125 DAYS OF STRUGGLE NOBODY GIVES UP"

Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. 30 de octubre de 2009

(Translated by Narco News.)

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3567/reports-deal-honduras-are-premature

Honduras deal thrown into doubt

Honduras deal thrown into doubt

It was thought that through the deal Zelaya could be returned to power before November elections [AFP] A deal to end the political standoff in Honduras has been thrown into doubt after a negotiator for the de facto government suggested that Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, will not be returned to power. The comments by Arturo Corrales prompted confusion on Saturday as it had been thought Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, Honduras's de facto leader, had reached a deal. The two sides have been at odds for four months over whether Zelaya should be reinstated before presidential elections due to be held in November. It was thought that through the deal Zelaya could be returned to power before elections on November 29, if the measure won support from congress and the supreme court. But Corrales said that since congress would not be in session before the elections, Zelaya would not be confirmed in office. "The congress is not in session, and I understand that it is programmed to return after the elections, because each one of the representatives is, at this very moment, in their respective districts campaigning around the clock," he said. Andres Conteris, a reporter for the US-based public television and radio show Democracy Now, who has been holed up with Zelaya in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital, said the remarks by Corrales went against the agreement. Accord contravention "This is absolutely a contravention of both the spirit and the word of the accord that was signed today," he told Al Jazeera by phone from the embassy in Tegucigalpa. "For the negotiator of the coup regime to say that the legislature is not going to meet until after the election is a contravention because the accord specifically states that no later than November 5, the new constitutional authority of the unified government will be empowered as the new government of Honduras." Zelaya and Micheletti held talks separately on Thursday with Tom Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state, and Dan Restrepo, Washington's special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs. Barack Obama, the US president, had faced criticism from human-rights groups who said Washington should do more to pressure Micheletti. Zelaya remains holed up at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa after re-entering the country in late September, two months after he was forced from the presidential palace and into exile. Zelaya was forced from power on June 28, the same day that he planned to hold a non-binding referendum on the constitution that had been declared illegal by the Honduran congress and supreme court. Opponents of Zelaya say that the public vote was aimed at winning support for an extension to presidential term limits, claims that he has denied. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/200910313171313971.html

The negotiation is in the streets: A day of resistance and repression

The negotiation is in the streets: A day of resistance and repressionhttp://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/2009/10/negotiation-is-in-streets-day-of.html

Running away from tear gas clouds behind them several people carry a woman in shock around a corner to a water spigot someone has found. Her bright yellow shirt is soaked in a mix of sweat, tear gas and water. People gather around her wiping her down and washing out her eyes and their own. Suddenly we hear more shots and the footsteps of the elite cobra commando unit of the Honduran police. As we flee to the top of a hill we run into another human rights observer who reports that several people have been badly beaten and are in the hospital. We find our way to where the resistance has re-grouped in front of the Marriott hotel. A van pulls up with food for the resistance and people form lines to get some tortillas and cheese. As people begin to sit down and eat four large army trucks arrive, slowly driving through the crowd as cobras pour out the back and put on their gas masks. An older woman with an apron on is yelling at them, “why don't you just kill me now?” Without any warning the cobras and army, now several rows deep, begin advancing on the crowd. Within moments and without provocation tear gas is flying in the air and the army and police are chasing after people with batons swinging.

Moments before all this started we were marching under the sun to colorful rhythms of a high school marching band. Not far away, a mother and her small child walked hand-in-hand with smiles so big the sun reflected off their teeth. A couple of people had stopped to buy ice cream from a vendor. An older woman with her whole family were waiting in the shade for the march to continue forward.

The march started with thousands of people gathering early in the morning at the national pedagogical university, preparing to openly defy the de facto government's prohibition of marches and take the streets to demand the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya and a constitutional assembly to re-found the country from below. When we asked the police to speak to the person in charge in order to announce the presence of human rights observers, an officer said, “here the military is in charge, talk to him, over there” and pointed out a military commander at the back of the thick line of authorities. Here in Honduras, the military is in charge.

“The true negotiation is in the streets. When they throw tear gas bombs at us, that is a negotiation. When we march, that is a negotiation. When they beat us, that is a negotiation. The fight in the streets is the real negotiation, not what happens in the talks between the official delegations. We are completely clear that only the people will save the people,” Garífuna leader Alfredo Lopez later told us, just a few hours before de facto Honduran president Roberto Micheletti would for the first time announce a willingness to allow Zelaya's return to power.

On the 124^th day in a row of resistance to the coup d'etat in Honduras, the first demand of the resistance – the restitution of the democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya – appears within reach. Since the military kidnapped him on June 28^th, at least 26 members of the non-violent resistance have been killed. Over 4,000 have been detained. Women have been assaulted and gang raped by police and army officers. Teachers have disappeared only to show up in a morgue or with their body cut all over. This repression has done little more than strengthen the will and deepen the commitment of the resistance. The demand for a new constitutional assembly and the re-founding of the country in the name of participatory democracy and human rights has become universal.

As indigenous leader Berta Cáceres told us, “Honduras used to only be known for its role as a U.S. base hosting the contra operations or as the place struck by hurricane Mitch. Now it is known for the dignity of its people. We have come too far to ever turn back and this struggle is just beginning.”

The Honduran Congress: Good or Bad Faith?

The Honduran Congress: Good or Bad Faith?

Greg Weeks at Two Weeks Notice has posted a translation of the new agreement, as reported in the pro-coup newspaper, La Prensa. As every commentary on this proposed agreement has noted, there is a risk (actually, more than one) for Zelaya. More on this below. At the same time, the question remains whether this agreement is an achievement for the people who have patiently demonstrated in Honduras all these months against the de facto regime.

As Adrienne Pine reminds us, restoral of Zelaya does not go to the basic core of what the Honduran resistance is actually interested in, which is significant constitutional reform that will lead to conditions that never allow such a thing to happen again. I think it is important to note that the reported accord does not block the people from continuing to call for convening of a constituyente, and I expect that the forces of popular support for constitutional reform will not stop their advocacy simply because of this accord. Indeed, it was precisely to allow this point in the accord to be signed by Zelaya without committing the Frente that Juan Barahona removed himself from the Zelaya commission earlier, a move that the Frente underlined did not signal a break with President Zelaya, who the Frente recognizes was operating under more constraints, as noted in the statement we translated.

Now, Bloomberg News has an article quoting a variety of prominent Hondurans making it clear just how far we actually have to go. The Bloomberg report shows that the news is mixed: the Micheletti crowd agreed to a Congressional vote still hoping that it will reject the return to the status quo before June 28:

Marcia Facusse de Villeda, the vice president of Congress and advisor to Micheletti, said Congress may still vote against restoring Zelaya to power.

“Zelaya won’t be restored -- I don’t think so,” Facusse de Villeda said in a phone interview from Tegucigalpa today.

Nor was Marcia Facusse alone in expressing doubt about the outcome of a vote in Congress:

Congress has passed resolutions pledging to support an agreement that comes from talks. Still, opposition lawmakers could filibuster Zelaya’s return until after the elections, Antonio Rivera, the second highest ranking lawmaker for the National Party, said in an interview.

Congress opened an investigation into whether Zelaya was mentally fit to govern before his ouster, voted to disapprove the leader’s violations of the constitution and replaced him with Micheletti after he was ousted.

“I really don’t understand why Zelaya wants to take this to Congress,” Rivera said.

The cynicism here, though, may be disappointed. There is a considerable incentive for the National Party to support the resolution, as their candidate, currently a member of Congress, is running way ahead of the fatally besmirched Elvin Santos. The core group of deputies from the more progressive parts of the other parties never voted for removal in the first place. And unless they perform some sort of rapid reorganization of the Executive Branch, remember that a number of hard-line supporters of Micheletti and the coup left Congress to take up positions in the de facto regime; those hard-line votes are thus out of the picture, replaced by their alternates.
Of course, what the remaining hard line coup supporters in Congress-- for example, Marcia Facusse-- think has been accomplished is all they care about:

“But just by signing this agreement, we already have the recognition of the international community for the elections.”

So let's be clear: a rejection of restoration of President Zelaya may technically be acceptable under the agreement, and will clearly not bother the US (whose representatives say openly in private conversations that the elections will "solve" their problem); but it would be seen by many in Honduras as making a mockery of a resolution.
And the restoral of Zelaya is still critical for the resistance to support elections. Juan Barahona, quoted in the same Bloomberg article, clearly is conditioning support for the agreement not only on restoral of Zelaya, but on it taking place before the November 29 elections:

“On which day will the president be back in the presidential palace?” he asked. “The chronology must still be defined.”

While the National Party may think this agreement paves a smooth path for their return to government, there remains a significant level of potential support for the independent candidacy of Carlos Reyes; the resistance front has learned how to organize and is more committed today to constitutional reform than before; and bad faith by the Congress will only confirm the need for political change.
So as Adrienne Pine reminds us, it is not over. Good outcome for President Zelaya or bad, it is not over.
**************************
Our translation of the accord as described (not to be taken as the text of the accord itself) in La Prensa:

The accord contains the following points:

1-- The creation of a government of unity and national reconciliation

2-- Rejection of amnesty for political crimes, and delay of criminal prosecutions.

3--Renouncing the convening of a National Constituent Assembly or the reform of the Constitution in its irreformable constitutional articles.

4-- Recognition and support for the general elections and the succession of Government.

5-- The transfer of authority over the Armed Forces to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal

6-- The creation of a commission of verification to ensure compliance with the points of the accord.

7-- The formation of a commission of truth to investigate the events before, during, and after the 28th of June of 2009.

8-- Request of the international community the normalization of international relations with our country.

9-- Support a proposal that permits a vote in the National Congress with a previous opinion by the Supreme Court of Justice to return all the Executive Power back to before the 28th of June.

Honduran Congress to Have Final Say on Zelaya Return (Update3)

Honduran Congress to Have Final Say on Zelaya Return (Update3)

By Blake Schmidt

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said he will allow Congress to decide on whether ousted leader Manuel Zelaya can return to power, in a move that may end the country’s four-month political crisis.

“My government has decided to support a proposal that allows a vote in Congress,” Micheletti said in a statement late yesterday, adding it was a “significant concession” on his part.

Zelaya, who was ousted at gunpoint by soldiers in late June, supports the agreement, Juan Barahona, a protest leader and former negotiator for the ousted leader, said in a telephone interview.

Talks to end the country’s crisis had stalled on which state power has the final say on whether Zelaya should be restored to serve the remainder of his term, which ends in January. Zelaya had earlier rejected a proposal by the acting government that would give the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over his return and wanted legislators to resolve the matter.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the “historic” agreement and praised both sides for seeking to resolve the political crisis peacefully.

“I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue,” Clinton, who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, told reporters.

U.S. officials headed by the State Department’s top Latin America diplomat,Thomas Shannon, visited Honduras this week to jump-start the deadlocked talks.

Supreme Court

Under the new accord, Congress would have the final say on Zelaya’s restitution, though not before considering the opinion of the Supreme Court, Micheletti said in the statement.

“This is the beginning of the process of reinstating democracy,” Zelaya told reporters early today, according to an interview broadcast on CNN En Espanol.

Barahona said the question remains whether Zelaya could be restored before Nov. 29 elections, as the U.S., European Union and Latin American countries have demanded.

“On which day will the president be back in the presidential palace?” he asked. “The chronology must still be defined.”

‘Recognition’

Marcia Facusse de Villeda, the vice president of Congress and advisor to Micheletti, said Congress may still vote against restoring Zelaya to power.

“Zelaya won’t be restored -- I don’t think so,” Facusse de Villeda said in a phone interview from Tegucigalpa today. “But just by signing this agreement, we already have the recognition of the international community for the elections.”

The military took Zelaya out of the country on June 28 after he ignored court orders to stop pursuing a referendum that would ask Hondurans if they wanted an assembly to rewrite the constitution. Opponents said Zelaya sought to change rules to allow himself to run for another term as president.

Leaders across the Western Hemisphere, including President Barack Obamaand Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, support Zelaya’s return to power. The ousted leader returned from exile more than a month ago and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Constitutional Change

Zelaya has better chances of returning to office by seeking Congressional approval rather than that of the Supreme Court, Barahona said. The court earlier this year ruled Zelaya’s push for constitutional change was illegal and ordered his arrest.

Congress has passed resolutions pledging to support an agreement that comes from talks. Still, opposition lawmakers could filibuster Zelaya’s return until after the elections, Antonio Rivera, the second highest ranking lawmaker for the National Party, said in an interview.

Congress opened an investigation into whether Zelaya was mentally fit to govern before his ouster, voted to disapprove the leader’s violations of the constitution and replaced him with Micheletti after he was ousted.

“I really don’t understand why Zelaya wants to take this to Congress,” Rivera said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Tegucigalpa atbschmidt16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 11:35 EDT

The UN still considers that there are no conditions for elections in Honduras

The UN still considers that there are no conditions for elections in Honduras

New York (AFP) The UN continues to believe that the conditions to organize credible elections in Honduras are not united, the spokesman said Wednesday the agency's secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.  "Our assessment of the situation at the moment has not changed, we still believe that conditions are not met," he told AFP Michèle Montas, a month before the elections scheduled in Honduras.  The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti has maintained its intention to organize elections scheduled for November 29 despite not having agreed that the constitutional President Manuel Zelaya is restored.  On 23 September last year, Ban Ki-moon announced that the UN electoral assistance retreated to Honduras on the grounds that the situation is not possible to organize credible elections.  The current negotiations are still stalled in Tegucigalpa in the central point of restitution in the power of Zelaya, as required by the international community to endorse the holding of elections.

Insulza rules out that elections can normalize situation in Honduras

BY AFP

WASHINGTON

The OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, said Thursday that the conduct of the elections of 29 November did not normalize the situation in Honduras, where there is still no conditions for these elections are conducted.

Honduran army put at Electoral Tribunal's disposal

www.chinaview.cn  2009-10-30 07:28:11

Print

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti on Thursday disposed the Armed Forcesof the country to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to facilitate the elections of Nov. 29.     During a ceremony held in a military unit in Tegucigalpa, the soldiers gave their support to guard and transport 15,269 voting boxes.     "Fulfilling a Constitutional mandate, I am setting the Armed Forces and the Police to the disposal of guaranteeing the free voting, the guard, transportation and vigilance of the electoral material," Micheletti said at the ceremony.     Honduras will host elections on Nov. 29 to choose a president, 128 deputies for the Congress, 20 for the Central American Parliament and 298 mayors.     The international community has voiced it will not recognize those elections till the political crisis in the country is solved, since it recognized ousted President Manuel Zelaya as the Constitutional president of the country.     Micheletti said during the ceremony that "voting is a social right that can not be perturbed by any internal or external will, it is threat, because simply without elections there is not democracy."     According to Micheletti the elections "have been irrationally objected and conditioned to international political interests, but the elections will be held in the foreseen date and no human will is going to make us change that aim."

Editor: Anne Tang

U.S.: Zelaya return in second stance

Carlos Chirinos

BBC News, Washington

The White House has supported the convictions against the interim government.

On one side is the government of President Barack Obama, along with the rest of the international community, warning that if Honduras is not reached political agreement will be difficult to recognize the outcome of the elections scheduled for November.

The other is a group of House Republicans wondering why the White House would not recognize a process that suggested it would be "cleaner than it was just recognized in Afghanistan."

While the White House has supported all initiatives and convictions against the interim government appointed by Congress, headed by Roberto Micheletti, the Republicans have defended what they consider the legal exit of President Manuel Zelaya of power.

clickU.S.: the answer to Honduras? Opine!

While Republicans acknowledge that their expulsion from the country by the military "was a mistake," insist on saying that the crisis created the deposed president himself, who they accuse of wanting to illegally change the constitution and align with governments like Venezuela , Cuba or Nicaragua.

But the debate no longer seems so focused on the return of Zelaya as President, the legality of his removal from power, or what he would have to motivate these actions, but on what grant validity to the elections scheduled for November in Honduras and how much would be used to definitively resolve the crisis.

"Escape hatch" electoral

This Thursday at a news conference that offered from Tegucigalpa the Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, appeared to struggle to define what will be Washington's position against any elections if deadlock persists between Zelaya Micheletti.

Shannon said that the efforts of Honduras on Wednesday in front of a high-level delegation from the U.S. government, seeking to create an environment for the international community to "accompany the process (...) and ensure that elections can take place in a atmosphere of peace. "

ClickMicheletti demand in Brazil

However, Shannon did not say whether this approach allowed the requirement background Zelaya's return to the presidency, which is what has so far prevented the parties from reaching agreement.

"The U.S., like the rest of the international community, believes that President Zelaya should return to your office," Shannon said, without saying how much restitution was something nonnegotiable.

United States, like the rest of the international community, believes that President Zelaya should return to your office

Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Latin America

"We recognize that we are working in an environment in which the end of the day will be the Hondurans who take their decisions," said Shannon, who drew a comparison with the recovery effort after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The U.S. diplomat said that this "crisis created by man" and "was the product not only of a particular sequence of events, but a larger, fundamental problem in Honduran society that must be addressed by the next administration" .

"Escape hatch" electoral

For Republicans the election is a "clear way out" of the crisis as "the gentleman from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is part of a group of congressmen who requested an investigation into the involvement of the Department of State development of the crisis.

"We have a very good avenue of escape in the elections on 28 November. Why U.S. I will say no to the Honduran people when they want to hold elections? "said Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen.

For this group of House Republicans are certain fears that there will be no guarantees for free and fair elections, as claimed by some governments and human rights groups.

"In Chile, the crisis was more serious, I think it was 17 years of dictatorship, but how it was resolved?, With elections," he told BBC News the Republican congressman from Florida also, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who is considered linked to called Cuban lobby.

"In Cuba we took fifty years of tyranny and what we want are choices. In Spain there were forty years (Francisco) Franco. In this case there has been a dictatorship, has been tracking the constitution to remove a president who was raping "the congressman said.

Diaz-Balart said "the only danger is that President Obama order military action to prevent the elections, but that would be really shameful act," but did not explain the reasons for such suspicion.

Election is not a solution

"We believe that this is not the case of an election that is used to exit from authoritarian rule but serves to consolidate an authoritarian government," he told BBC News, Viviana Krsticevic, director of the Center for Justice and International Law, CEJIL hemispheric organization defending human rights organization based in Washington.

In Chile, the crisis was more serious, I think it was 17 years of dictatorship, but how it was resolved? with elections "

Lincoln Díaz Balart by Florida Republican Congressman

For Krsticevic can not compare past experiences in the region, as this process "will help to consolidate a political plan of a group of people whose aim was to draw the political map to President Zelaya and his project."

Therefore, in the Cejil think that the only solution is the return of President Zelaya in his office and that an election administered by the interim government Micheletti not provide sufficient guarantees.

"Having a process in the context of today, restrictions on freedom of expression, inability to demonstrate, with the arbitrary arrests that have occurred since the coup and under the rule of Micheletti would be a mistake"

Rights groups highlight the several candidates sympathetic to the trend of Zelaya have withdrawn their nominations, so caution that a portion of the population is at risk of not being represented in the election outcome.

Who said what

Shannon's arrival provoked demonstrations in Tegucigalpa

For others the issue is not just political, but consider that there is a complex legal issue that would prevent the return of Zelaya to power.

"I see how businesses can force a change in the decision of the Honduran Supreme Court in the case against Zelaya," he told BBC News, California Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray, noting that the judiciary was deposed that disqualified president, who is the argument people Michelleti

"The executive branch, regardless of international agreements, can not sign an agreement that goes against the decisions of its Supreme Court. We in the U.S.would not allow the president to bypass the Supreme Court "Bilbray said.

Bilbray, Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart and other member of the group of Republican congressmen on Thursday asked the Office of Government Oversight, (GAO, for its acronym in English) to investigate what may have been the involvement of the Department of State in the development of the crisis.

This group not only believe that the White House took "the wrong side in the crisis," but the charge that he promoted the "illegalities" of Zelaya, so requested an official investigation to Congress.

The result of this report may take several months, but whatever the outcome, promises to create more divisions in American political life.