Vilma Morales: A deal is a deal

Vilma Morales, former President of Honduran Supreme Court
Photo: La Tribuna, Honduras

Yesterday, in a terrific noon press conference held by Honduras' own little ball of fire, Vilma Morales, former president of the Supreme Court and Guaymuras negotiator for the Micheletti government, stated in no uncertain terms that the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord is not open for negotiation or renegotiation, as many, including US Ambassador Hugo Llorens have called for. [google translation]

She said that all Hondurans are familiar with the expression "Un trato es un trato" and even translated it to English for the gringos: "A deal is a deal." "The deal does not break because one side [Zelaya] refuses to comply."

Morales said the agreement was signed in good faith and that both parties must comply with the spirit and the meaning of the Accord, point by point, letter by letter. She specifically asked the US and OAS (Organization of American States) to respect and comply with the Accord, which was signed in free will by Zelaya's own negotiators. She even respectfully asked Secretary-General Insulza to re-read the agreement and reminded him of the several occasions in which he "encouraged the signing of the agreement, stating that the OAS would respect any agreement reached between the parties".

Vilma Morales stressed that Verification Commission's duty was to ensure strict compliance with all of the points of the agreement, not to reopen the negotiations.

Furthermore, she stated that the condition of member of the Verification Commission is personal, and that members cannot be substituted or delegated − likely referring to the substitution of the for-show-only OAS members after the absence of Ricardo Lagos and Hilda Solis − since their one day visit ended last Wednesday and wasn't even long enough for either to learn the correct pronunciation of the names of the parties involved (Lagos mispronounced 'Mickeletti' and Solís mispronounced 'Ze-lay-ah' instead of 'Ze-lie-ah'). Morales also may have been referring to the intromission of US Ambassador Hugo Llorens, as well as other members of the US government arriving today.

Reportedly, these OAS members are strongly pushing for the restoration of Zelaya − which is not the role of the Verification Commission. Remember when I said this commission would be 3-1 against Micheletti's sole representative, Arturo Corrales? (photo: El Heraldo) In fact, it appears to be even worse than that with several others meddling in the process as well.

Thankfully, Arturo Corrales is a "gallo" according to Ardegas at Nacer en Honduras and has been holding his own so far. Note that both Morales and Corrales have represented the Micheletti government since the beginning in Costa Rica while Zelaya has changed representatives numerous times.

Morales respectfully urged the National Congress to make their decision as soon as possible. She also urged Verification Commission representative Jorge Arturo Reina, withdrawn by Zelaya, to comply with the agreement and return to the work table.

And finally, Morales concluded that it would be astonishing for an organization who purportedly looks after the principles of democracy [the OAS] to not recognize an electoral process organized, directed, and supervised by an autonomous and independent board (the TSE). Today in an emergency OAS session, José Insulza proposed just that: "There are no conditions for sending an electoral commission to Honduras".

During the media question session, when asked about former President Ricardo Lagos' several statements to the media that the main purpose of the Accord was to restore Zelaya, Vilma Morales asked all of the OAS representatives to maintain neutrality and to respect their role on the Verification Commission as defined in the Accord. See this CNN (Español) video with the extremely biased comments by "impartial" Lagos.

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Has anyone pointed out that the Unity and Reconciliation Government will serve for only slightly more than two months, until January 27, 2010, when, according to the constitution, the newly elected president will appoint his own cabinet? What difference does it make who is on this cabinet? They will barely have time to find the bathrooms, look at some reports, and meet the people who work for them....unless, that is, the OAS has other plans for Honduras − like forcing the appointment of a third party president from that cabinet (in violation of Honduras' constitution) and delaying elections until, say, next year, and, oh, possibly combining that with a requirement for a constitutional assembly.

What do you think?

Zelaya in June 25 video

Mel Zelaya whips the crowd into a frenzy (video)

On June 25, Mel Zelaya declared that the court has committed a coup d'etat against him by ordering the restitution of General Romeo Vásquez Velasquez. The court said that the general could not be fired for refusing to follow an illegal order. The court also ordered the illegal election materials to be confiscated.

In the above video, Zelaya says the court is only for the powerful, the rich, and the bankers. He declares the court to be illogical, illegal, and illegitimate and says that the court is an embarrassment for Honduras. He accuses the court of interfering in other powers of state

Zelaya accuses the court of associating with the other barbarians in the congress "who don't represent anyone". He says that the court has decided that the military can govern themselves and that they don't defend the President anymore. He says that they are violating the rule of law.

He tells the crowd that "right now we are going to board the buses to go on a mission to guarantee the law." "No one is going to stop the poll on Sunday!"

"In every country the president is the head of the armed forces. When the military rebels, we are returning to the darkest moments in the history of Honduras (of military rule). I'm making a call to the joint chiefs of the armed forces: don't play this game of the media and economic oligarchy of Honduras."

From the Presidential Palace, the crowd boarded buses, trucks, and cars and went to the military base, broke open the gates and stole the ballots.





President Zelay leads a mob (video)

In this video, you can see the mob led by Zelaya to steal the confiscated election materials. He describes it as the public exercising their constitutional rights. Against the court order, General Prince turned over the election materials to the mob to avoid violence.

Mel Zelaya did propose reelection

Article 239 of the Honduran constitution states that the President can only serve one term and that anyone who proposes to reform this disposition, directly or indirectly, immediately ceases in his position and is ineligible for any public function for 10 years.

A favorite defense of pro-Zelaya forces is to say that Zelaya never proposed reelection. Well, yes, he did.

In this video, which I believe was from sometime the week before June 28, you will hear Mel Zelaya complains that congressmen, judges, and others can be reelected and the only one who can't be reelected is the president but "reelection will be the theme of the next constitutional assembly".

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Update: Reader Allen provided a complete translation of the video:

[Zelaya speaking] "Here, judges are re-elected, fiscal officers are re-elected, mayors are re-elected, congressmen are re-elected, the − the commissioners on human rights are re-elected. The only one who is not re-elected in Honduras − the only one who is not re-elected in Honduras − is the President [points with both hands to himself in the video].

"But re-election is [a/the] topic of the next National Constitutional Assembly." [Cheers from the crowd.]

"There will be an opportunity − [turning to the person next to him, apparently someone related to a previous president] − leader, there will be an opportunity for your ex-father-in-law to return.

[Everyone laughs − someone in the crowd shouts "That guy won't return" and others in the crowd boo "Nooo."].

"Because we will open the opportunity for him in the next National Constitutional Assembly.

"Callejas − will come back, correct. [More boos of "no, no"] And I already told him that if − no, I already told him, 'Look, Rafael Leonardo, if we make it to the World Cup, I'll think about my vote, but you have to take our Honduran team to the World Cup.' But if he doesn't take us to the World Cup, then he can't complain to me. You understand?" [Callejas is a former president, currently president of the National Autonomous of Soccer of Honduras.]

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[Allen continues...] So, he talks about re-election of the President, and specifically mentions at least one former president coming back, just to make it sound fair, to make it sound like he's being altruistic by proposing such a thing, to make it sound like he's not in it for himself. Of course he plays to the crowd by bringing up presidents he knows they hate, so they all know he's really talking about opening up the possibility for himself.

In the face of this, anyone want to dare say Zelaya never proposed, discussed, incited or intended to change the Constitutional rules about presidential re-election?

Thank you for providing the translation, Allen.

Honduras Accord did not fail

Midnight announcement by Roberto Micheletti
Photo: El Heraldo, Honduras

Just barely meeting the November 5 deadline, Honduran President Roberto Micheletti reported to the country in a national broadcast by television and radio that the cabinet of unity and reconciliation had been formed, despite the fact that Manuel Zelaya refused to provide any nominations for the new cabinet. Surrounded by dozens of smiling members of political parties and civic groups, Micheletti appeared pleased and concluded his speech with 'Viva Honduras!' three minutes before midnight.

During his speech, Micheletti explained that at the beginning of the week, nominations were requested from the principal political parties, the presidential candidates, sectors of the civil society, and Manuel Zelaya. He said that all nominations were carefully considered and that the final list represents the broad range of ideological and political interests, strictly in compliance with the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord.

Micheletti did not announce the individual names as they must be approved by the Verification Commission, although the proposed cabinet already "enjoys the most ample participation and approval of the different sectors of society and political parties". Additionally, he left it open as to whether the 'zelayistas' could send their nominations after the deadline.

Earlier in the day, Micheletti's ministers all offered their resignations to make way for the newly selected cabinet, though it is expected that some individuals may continue. Micheletti's existing cabinet includes members of both major parties as well as several cabinet members who had been named by and served under Zelaya previously. The two largest political parties expressed their confidence in Micheletti by suggesting that he was at liberty to name the persons that he considered suitable to continue with his responsibilities.

Rafael Pineda Ponce, Minister of the Presidency, personally delivered a letter to Zelaya earlier this week respectfully asking for his nominations for the Unity Government. Zelaya proclaimed that action to be "an aggression, an offense" and refused to reply with any nominations, insisting that he must be restored to office before the unity government could be formed.

Yesterday, an OAS representative stated that "there is no climate for ultimatums". Previously, former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos (official OAS representative to the commission) confirmed that the formation of the unity government was the first step to reconciliation and separate from the question of the restoration of Zelaya. Lagos also suggested that this is the time to put aside differences and look to the future of Honduras for Hondurans.

The commission continued to wait for Zelaya's nominations throughout the deadline day well into the night. During the 9 p.m. channel 5 news, it was announced that US Ambassador Llorens and OAS representatives left the meetings to go the Brazilian Embassy in an attempt to obtain nominations from Zelaya. They were not successful.

Today, international headlines everywhere read that the pact "failed", "fell apart", or "collapsed". I don't agree with that conclusion at all. The media seems to be relying almost exclusively upon statements of Zelaya and his followers.

Not even the terribly biased and ineffective OAS can allow Zelaya to single-handedly sabotage the Accord while everyone else is making heroic efforts to comply with it. Zelaya could have participated and worked toward reconciliation of Honduras. Instead he and his followers chose to issue demands and deadlines not provided for in the agreement using offensive and divisive language.

Can the future of a country be held hostage by one man who obviously only has his own personal interests in mind? I don't think so.

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However − though I am loathe to quote these unreliable sources − Zelayista-funded CholusatSur TV and Radio Globo report that today US Ambassador Hugo Llorens has said that the parties must return to the dialogue table regarding the restoration of Zelaya. CholusatSur TV and Radio Globo have been issuing false information for four months, and particularly since the Accord was signed, including even blatantly mistranslating a US State Department press briefing for their audience.

If true, this is a very, very strange and contradictory comment coming from a high level official of the US government which has already stated its support for the signed Accord. Since it has already been agreed − at Mel Zelaya's request! − that the Congress is responsible for that decision, to imply that renegotiation is needed indicates that the US does not respect the Honduran solution after all.

If the OAS and US do continue to support the celebrated Accord for which which they issued lavish congratulations to each other, it is time for them to issue clear and concise statements to the zelayista media and to make a call for a stop to the disinformation campaign.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, issued a statement today indicating that he "deplored the disruption to the process of implementation of the Agreement reached in Tegucigalpa on October 30. “The measures approved in the Agreement are clear and were signed by the parties of their own free will. I hope they will be met without further subterfuges to reestablish democracy, institutional legitimacy and peace among Hondurans,” Insulza stated."

That is NOT a clear statement and has already been used by these unethical media sources as official OAS condemnation of Micheletti. Insulza has never hesitated to direct his condemnations to the "de facto government". It is now time to make it clear that Zelaya is the person who is disrupting the process of reconciliation. To do otherwise is irresponsible and the OAS should be held responsible for any further destabilization of the country.

Failure of the OAS and US to issue clear statements is causing severe discord and discontent in Honduras. Previously Ambassador Llorens found it completely acceptable to publicly chastise Radio Globo for antisemitic comments. Surely the current situation and potential for violence merits the same attention.

More on the Zelayista position later...

AP idiot experts

I ran across this in an AP article:

"I think it was sort of assumed that there was a deal with Congress to reinstate him," said Dana Frank, a historian at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But the U.S. negotiators may have underestimated the sheer nutso chaos of Honduran politics."

No....the only chaos is in the international media who continually publish speculation and biased or flatly untrue reports and among "diplomats" and other "experts" who do not know what they are talking about. And it should be eminently clear to all by now that the only 'nutso' in Honduras is Zelaya, who puts his own selfish interests above all other interests of his country.

President Roberto Micheletti, the vast majority of the National Congress, the Supreme Court, the churches, the civic groups, the business community, the presidential candidates, former presidents, and the majority of the people of Honduras have been absolutely 100% consistent from June 28. Zelaya was removed constitutionally, he is a criminal, a corrupto, and a traitor, and they don't want him back in office under any circumstances.

"Institutional democracy" does not need to be restored in Honduras. Institutional democracy was threatened by Manuel Zelaya several times over the past years and that was corrected on June 28. Honduran democracy has since been threatened by many outside forces, especially those charged with protecting it, such as the OAS and UN, but Honduras remains strong and united.

To all: If what has been happening in Honduras doesn't make sense to you, it is because you do not understand that people are strong and determined when they know they are right! Honduras is united standing up for truth, democracy, and their sovereignty − maybe an unusual concept, but maybe everyone should try it.

OAS's Insulza: persona non grata, says Honduran civic group

Armida López, President of Alianza de Honduras
Photo: La Tribuna, Honduras

In a noon press conference, it was announced that a large Honduran civic group has just declared OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza persona non grata in Honduras!

Alianza por Honduras en Paz y Democracia (Alliance for Honduras in Peace and Democracy) President Armida López read the press release to the media. Lopéz referred to Insulza's interventionism in Honduras, his abusive comments in violation of the Accord, and Chavez's influence over Insulza.

Please read the rest of my article at Pajamas Media.

Shannon clarifies the Accord; Zelaya disputes it

Update: The CNN video did not work so I replaced it with the same video on YouTube.

In this CNN (Español) video from yesterday, November 3, you will hear US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon clarify that the restoration of Zelaya to the presidency is not guaranteed by the Guaymuras-Tegucigalpa-San José Accord and that it is a decision to be made by the Honduran National Congress. He states that installation of the National Unity Government is a separate matter from the restitution. He also states that the US and the OAS will accompany Honduras to their elections.

Shannon denies both media reports about deals with Zelaya and presidential candidate Pepe Lobo. He qualifies them as "lies".

Shannon confirms that both leaders took a risk in signing the Accord but they must accept the results of the Congressional vote. "At the end of day, the solution .... must be resolved by Hondurans." The interviewer asks, "So, for the US, to terminate the crisis .... the theme is: what happens, happens?" "Yes, exactly," responded Shannon.

The interviewer asks about Zelaya's interpretation of the Accord (that it requires his restoration by November 5). Shannon replies that he understands and respects Zelaya's opinion, but .... it is a decision of the Congress.

Zelaya's reaction

This interview upset Zelaya tremendously and he sent a letter to Hillary Clinton asking for a clarification of the US position. The letter accuses Washington of not respecting the Accord. [google translation]

Zelaya and his supporters have been spreading the disinformation that the Accord requires the restoration of Zelaya to the presidency by November 5.

The Zelayistas have been lied to beginning with Zelaya himself and his close supporters and extending to Zelaya controlled media (Radio Globo, Channel 36, El Tiempo). They have explained the lack of action by saying that the golpistas were doing dirty tricks and violating the Accord.

Most shameful of all, even the Verification Commission press conference was used to spread propaganda by Jorge Arturo Reina who gave a completely inappropriate and divisive speech, to the shock of many. US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís was sitting next to him and a couple of times appeared very uncomfortable with his vitriolic rhetoric.

Reina told the audience that the agreement was to reverse the coup and that the Accord ordered the National Congress to reinstate Zelaya. His language was harsh and insulting. This was completely inappropriate since the Verification Commission's task is precisely to decide any issues of disagreement of interpretation of the Accord, and after all, the main purpose of the Accord is to promote peace and unity in Honduras.

I think that it is telling that Zelaya chose a representative to the Verification Commission who was not on his original negotiation team, unlike Micheletti. I have not heard any statements by Zelaya's three Guaymuras negotiators disputing the interpretation of Micheletti's negotiators that the National Congress is free to decide the issue.

Recall that while Micheletti insisted that restoration of Zelaya was a legal matter which should be decided by the court, Zelaya claimed that the issue was political and demanded that it be decided by the Congress. Ultimately Micheletti made a concession and agreed to Zelaya's demand. Now Zelaya is trying to renege.


Note: The embedded video doesn't seem to be working for me. If you don't see it, please click the link in the first sentence to view the video at CNN.com.