TFHO1: PDAS KELLY PRESSES BUSINESS LEADERS TO URGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEGUCIGALPA 001183

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PREL ECON HO
SUBJECT: TFHO1: PDAS KELLY PRESSES BUSINESS LEADERS TO URGE
MICHELETTI TO STEP DOWN BEFORE ELECTIONS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR HUGO LLORENS FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D.


1. (C) Summary: During a November 18 meeting, business
leaders Amilcar Bulnes and Norman Garcia told Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Craig Kelly and the Ambassador that they had attended a
meetings the week before at which leading Hondurans had urged
de facto president Roberto Micheletti to stay on until after
the November 29 presidential election. Bulnes and Garcia
said that they shared the view that Micheletti should not
step down until after the election, given widespread fear
among Hondurans of instability in his absence. PDAS Kelly
and the Ambassador told the business leaders that
Micheletti's resignation before the elections would
significantly enhance the likelihood that they would be
widely recognized. They asked Bulnes and Garcia to pass this
message to Micheletti and his inner circle, which they agreed
to do. End summary.


2. (C) On November 18, PDAS Kelly and the Ambassador,
accompanied by the Economic Counselor, met with Amilcar
Bulnes, President of the Honduran Private Enterprise Council
(COHEP),and Norman Garcia, a leading businessman and former
Ambassador to the U.S. who serves as an advisor to Bulnes.
PDAS Kelly said that the credibility of the November 29
presidential elections would be significantly enhanced by a
gesture by the de facto leadership to restore the democratic
process. Bulnes said that he and Garcia had attended a
meeting at the Casa Presidencial, the residence of de facto
leader Micheletti, during the week of November 9 to discuss
the situation. A number of leading Hondurans had taken part,
including Jose Alfredo Saavedra, who took Micheletti's place
as president of Congress; Attorney General Luis Rubi, who
served under President Zelaya and stayed on under Micheletti;
de facto Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras; and leaders
of the armed forces. Micheletti had told the group that, if
he was an obstacle to the resolution of the political crisis,
he would resign. While there was consensus among
participants in the meeting that he should step down before
the January 27 Presidential inauguration, the group had urged
him to stay on until after the election, citing the
widespread fear among Hondurans that chaos would erupt if
President Zelaya returned to power. Bulnes said that he and
Garcia shared the opinion that Micheletti should stay on
until after the election. According to Bulnes, Micheletti
plans to leave the country on vacation during the elections
in order to enhance the credibility of the process.


3. (C) PDAS Kelly said that no leader is indispensable, and
Micheletti is no exception. Honduras's institutions are
strong enough for the country to survive without him. The
Ambassador said that he understood that Micheletti may have
not taken over because of personal ambition but instead
because it was his perception that this was in the country's
best interests, even though the U.S. strongly disagreed and
condemned the coup. He expressed the hope that Micheletti
would, in the same spirit of decisiveness, agree to step down
before the elections. PDAS Kelly said that U.S. perceptions
of the credibility of the elections were only one part of the
picture. Other countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, are
looking for a signal of commitment to the restoration of
democratic order that would allow them to recognize the
elections. He and the Ambassador urged Bulnes and Garcia to
send this message to Micheletti and his inner circle. Bulnes
and Garcia agreed to do so.

LLORENS