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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Clinton Defends U.S. Involvement In Honduras
By Laura Smith – University of New
Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
In remarks given during a conference focused
on challenges facing U.S. relations with
Latin America, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said that the United States’s
position on the political situation in
Honduras shows that it is committed to
helping Hondurans get back to democratic and
constitutional order.
“We condemned President Zelaya’s expulsion,
we’ve taken concrete steps to demonstrate
unequivocally our opposition. But we’ve
continued to try to reach out and work with
diverse sectors in Honduras, and along with
others like President [Oscar] Arias of Costa
Rica, to help the Hondurans themselves chart
a new way forward for a peaceful negotiated
end to this crisis,” she said.
Clinton was referring to the 2009 Honduran
constitutional crisis, sparked by an attempt
by the former President of Honduras, Manuel
Zelaya, to change the constitution in order
to stay in power.
On June 28, 100 soldiers came into Zelaya’s
home and flew him to Costa Rica. On
September 21, Zelaya snuck back into the
country, but resorted to the Brazilian
Embassy.
“The culmination of what was a year long
electoral process occurred on November 29,
when the Honduran people expressed their
feelings and their commitment to a
democratic future,” she said.
According to Clinton, the people of Honduras
“threw out in effect” both Zelaya and
Roberto Micheletti, the Speaker of Congress,
who was sworn is as the interim President in
Zelaya’s absence. She also said that
Since then, Clinton added, President-elect
Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo “has launched a
national dialogue, has called for the
formation of a national unity government and
a truth commission has set forth among the
requirements of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose
Accord.
“That is an agreement that the Hondurans
themselves reached. We helped to facilitate
it but the Hondurans decided they wanted a
local resolution. In the days and weeks
ahead, we want to be [on] the side of the
Honduran people,” Clinton said..
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