Glimmers

Mel Zelaya

Time reported, or more accurately, asked, Is the US softening its opposition to the Honduran coup?

"A number of well-placed sources in Honduras and the U.S. tell TIME that officials in the State Department and the U.S.'s OAS delegation have informed them that the Obama Administration is mulling ways to legitimize the election should talks fail to restore Zelaya in time. "We're suddenly hearing from them that the one may no longer be a [precondition] for the other," says a Western diplomat in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where Zelaya is currently holed up in the Brazilian embassy."

One US State official told TIME: "But the elections are going to take place either way, and the international community needs to come to terms with that fact."

A sensible plan from former Secretary of State James A. Baker − A Fair Plan For Honduras, A Lesson from Nicaragua Could Solve This Crisis − is reportedly being considered by US State officials.

Baker points out: "Non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign country is a cardinal principle of the U.N. Charter. In keeping with it, we should defer to the Hondurans' interpretation of their constitution."

A New York Post opinion piece asks, 'Saving' Democracy, By destroying it in Honduras?, and points out the irony of supporting countries who use faux-democratic means to become de facto dictators, such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Iran, while taking a hard line against little Honduras, which is not operating under a dictatorship and only wants to move on with democratic elections.

Many have pointed out that to not recognize countries who have had coup d'etats would mean that many of the countries of Central and South America would not be recognized by world governments. Compromises were made. Why can't they be made for Honduras?


Miami Herald reported "Zelaya's Resistance losing steam as vote nears".