No agreement on the agreement

Mel Zelaya
Photo: AP

Everyone knows that Mel refused to provide his nominations for the Unity and Reconciliation Government, being insulted that the "golpista" Minister of the Presidency dared to request the names, a perfectly reasonable response according to OAS's Jose Insulza. Has anyone pointed out that if the OAS 'for show' members, President Lagos and US Labor Secretary Hilda Solís had only stuck around longer than 24 hours, we might not have had this mess? It made no sense to me that they left the day before the first deadline.

President Roberto Micheletti did his best to comply by consulting with the various political parties and civic groups as required by the Accord and came up with a list of nominations agreed upon by all by the November 5 deadline. He did not announce the names, indicating that the cabinet must be approved by the Verification Commission. (prior article: Honduras Accord did not fail)

As a result, pro-Zelaya Channel 36 began saying that golpistas violated the Accord by not installing the unity government by the deadline, therefore the Accord is null and void. (Sorry, I'm only reporting the zelayista thinking.) Of course, they do not mention that Mel Zelaya began renouncing the Accord within 24 hours of its signing. Zelaya has since thrown around terms like fraud, cheat, trap, slap in the face, manipulation, blah, blah, blah, as well as issuing more ultimatums, including one to Barack Obama telling him that he expected a quick response to his letter.

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In order to comply with Item 5 of the Accord (the executive power) a committee of the National Congress asked for a consultation with the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Public Prosecutor, and the Commissioner of Human Rights regarding the restitution of Mel - completely in accordance with item 5 of the Accord which states in part: "in consultation with relevant bodies that they consider pertinent, such as the supreme court of justice."

This is widely reported outside of Honduras as 'dithering' but had the congress met immediately and made a quick decision not to reinstate Zelaya, no doubt there would be outraged reports that the congress did not comply with the Accord by considering the opinions of others. If you can't win (in the media or with the "international community") no matter what you do, you might as well do it your own way.

The Honduran Supreme Court is expected to pronounce tomorrow regarding the restitution of Mel Zelaya. The Attorney General will submit his report next week. He said that their report will be based on the law. The other requested reports have been received by the congress but have not been made public. Today's La Prensa wrote that Congress will convene a session the day after all of the reports are received, however, on the noon news, it was reported that Congress will convene on Wednesday, December 2, three days after the elections. Heheheh.