Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BOGOTA2360
2009-07-24 23:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bogota
Cable title:  

TFHO1: HONDURAS UPDATE FROM COLOMBIA

Tags:  PREL PINR AMGT HO PGOV CO XK XM 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHBO #2360/01 2052330
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 242330Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9928
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 9049
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 2549
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JUL 0230
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 7846
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 8542
RUEHTG/AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA PRIORITY 2352
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE PRIORITY 5828
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNFB/FBI WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 002360 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/24/2019
TAGS: PREL PINR AMGT HO PGOV CO XK XM
SUBJECT: TFHO1: HONDURAS UPDATE FROM COLOMBIA

Classified By: Ambassador William R. Brownfield
Reasons 1.4 (b and d)

SUMMARY
-------
C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 002360

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/24/2019
TAGS: PREL PINR AMGT HO PGOV CO XK XM
SUBJECT: TFHO1: HONDURAS UPDATE FROM COLOMBIA

Classified By: Ambassador William R. Brownfield
Reasons 1.4 (b and d)

SUMMARY
--------------

1. (C) President Uribe met on July 20 with acting Honduran
Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez and other representatives of
the de facto Micheletti government. Lopez stirred
controversy by telling Colombian media that Uribe had
expressed sympathy with the Micheletti regime, but the GOC
quickly clarified that it supported both the constitutional
process in Honduras and the mediation process led by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias. Uribe old the Ambassador on
July 23 that the Hondurans had requested the meeting. Uribe
said Lopez asserted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was
behind most of deposed President Zelaya's activities. Uribe
added that he had stressed to Lopez Colombian opposition to
extra-constitutional regime change and that he unsuccessfully
tried to elicit ideas to resolve the presidential crisis from
the delegation. The GOC was annoyed but unsurprised that the
Hondurans had gone public with the elements of the meeting.
End Summary.

HONDURAN DELEGATION CLAIMS URIBE SUPPORT
--------------

2. (U) Colombian media reported on July 22 that President
Uribe had met with acting Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos
Lopez and other representatives of the de facto Micheletti
government in Bogota on July 20. Hours later, Lopez caused a
stir by saying in a Colombian radio interview that Uribe had
expressed "sympathy" for the Micheletti regime and that the
Honduran delegation had come because they see both Honduras
and Colombia as victims of external aggressors like
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The GOC quickly distanced
itself from Lopez's comments, stressing that the meeting was
"informal" and took place in the context of the mediation
process led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The GOC
added that it did not endorse Lopez's statements about "third
countries."

URIBE SAYS HE IS JUST LISTENING--LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS
-------------- --------------

3. (C) President Uribe told the Ambassador on July 23 that
the Micheletti regime had approached the GOC a few days
before the meeting to request the meeting. German Castaneda
of the Colombian MFA told us separately that the GOC believed
the Hondurans were testing the diplomatic waters by seeking
support from regional governments they believed might be
sympathetic to their cause--or at least hostile to Chavez.
Uribe said Lopez asserted during the meeting that Chavez was
behind most of the external and internal machinations around
Zelaya and was providing Zelaya with significant resources
and assistance. Lopez concluded that the Hondurans were
seriously worried about this role, and Uribe said he
expressed a similar worry. (Note: Venezuelan Archbishop of
Merida Baltazar Porras, a friend of the Honduran Cardinal,
also told the Ambassador that Chavez was involved and was
playing a destabilizing role. End Note). Uribe told the
Hondurans he was sympathetic to their decision to remove
Zelaya from office, but was not sympathetic to their having
done so by extra-constitutional means.


4. (C) Uribe recounted that he asked the delegation if there
was any solution that could involve Zelaya returning to
Honduras. They could not guarantee that the Honduran legal
system would not prosecute Zelaya for constitutional and
legal offenses if he came back. Uribe probed them on whether
the possibility existed to seat a president who was neither
Zelaya nor Micheletti, but the Lopez delegation stated
emphatically that in the absence of a constitutional
vice-president, Micheletti was next in line for the office.
Uribe called President Arias on July 21 and briefed him on
the conversation. The Ambassador asked if Uribe had any of
his own ideas on how to break the logjam; he had none.

GOC NOT PLEASED WITH HONDURAN DIPLOMACY
--------------

5. (C) Presidential Communications Director Jorge Mario
Eastman told us on July 24 that the GOC was extremely annoyed
with Lopez and the Honduran delegation for going public with
the contents of what was supposed to be an informal private
discussion. He said the GOC had tried to keep the meetings
quiet out of a desire for discretion, not secrecy, but
conceded that President Uribe had been somewhat "naive" to
believe the Hondurans would refrain from trying to use the
meetings to generate public support. Eastman reiterated the
GOC's public statements opposing extra-constitutional regime
changes. He also recognized that Arias' stature in the
region gave the GOC--and other countries--little choice but
to support his efforts.
Brownfield