Honduras Seeks Return to OAS
With Commission to Probe Coup
By Blake Schmidt
(Bloomberg) - Honduran Foreign Minister
Mario Canahuati said a truth commission that
begins operations tomorrow and will study
the circumstances of last year’s coup will
help the country return to the Organization
of American States and reduce investor
concerns over political instability.
The crisis that resulted from the June 2009
overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya reduced
investment and output by the equivalent of
6.6 percent of gross domestic product, or
$930.6 million, Canahuati said in an
interview today from Tegucigalpa.
“We want to do what we can to leave behind
the shock to our economy,” Canahuati said by
telephone. “Our intention is to have friends
and alliances.”
Honduras, the second-poorest country in
Central America after Nicaragua, is setting
up the commission as part of a U.S.-
brokered accord aimed at resolving the
country’s political crisis after former
President Manuel Zelaya was removed at
gunpoint by the military. He was replaced by
interim President Roberto Micheletti, who
ceded power to President Porfirio Lobo after
November elections.
Honduras was kicked out of the OAS after the
coup. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza,
who will attend the inauguration of the
commission tomorrow, has said Honduras
should allow Zelaya’s return from exile.
Brazil and Argentina are among Latin America
countries that have yet to recognize Lobo
because he was elected last in a vote
overseen by the coup- installed government.
The human rights branch of the OAS added
Honduras to its “blacklist” of countries,
which includes Venezuela and Cuba, for the
first time last month. Honduras is seeking
U.S. help to investigate killings of seven
journalists since the beginning of March,
Canahuati said.
Coup opponents such as Andres Pavon, head of
the Honduran Human Rights Defense Committee,
say they fear the truth commission, headed
by former Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo
Stein, isn’t qualified and will whitewash
the coup. |
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