TFH01: MEDIA REACTION US VISA SUSPENSION, OAS VISIT AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000843

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL CVIS SMIG HO
SUBJECT: TFH01: MEDIA REACTION US VISA SUSPENSION, OAS VISIT AND
POLITICAL CRISIS

"Visas and migration"


1. (U) Editorial in the Tegucigalpa-based liberal newspaper
(8-26-09): "The U.S. government suspended the issuance of visas
starting August 26, for non immigrants and non emergency cases,
which implies almost the (entire) totality of these documents for
Hondurans that want to travel to the U.S. Sources from the
Department of State explained that this measure will be applied
practically to all visas, because it affects all the permits that
are given for tourism, business, exchange, students, and journalism,
among others. The emergency cases, like people who need urgent
medical assistance in the U.S. or have to attend a funeral, will
receive special treatment. According to the latest statistics
available in the Department of Homeland Security, 75,000 Hondurans
entered the U.S. with tourist and business visas in 2006, two of the
categories affected by the restriction taken today by the
government. We said a while back that in the measure that this
political crisis gets worse, many people will search to get out of
the country. And because of this, we foresee that the migration
wave towards the U.S. will be unstoppable. ... In the measure that
the legal possibilities of access to a visa and travel are closed,
surely they will look for a way to do it, entering the U.S. as
illegal immigrants. All of it despite the hostile campaign over
there against Hispanics and the more drastic measures to detect
illegal immigrants capture them and deport them. ... If the strikes
continue and the country is unable to move, -- also, product of the
crisis, -- there will be a time in which many compatriots will spend
their savings, and without possibilities here, the pressure will be
bigger to search for a life elsewhere."

"Damaging Honduras"


2. (U) Op-ed by Ramon Villeda Bermudez, (former) Honduran Ambassador
to the U.S. in La Tribuna (8-26-09): "Few times in our republican
life have we had such a level of polarization as today; it has
separated and caused a dangerous confrontation among Hondurans. ...
The opposition or sympathies for a person, should never serve to
distort the truth and the facts, much less to move national
interests to an inferior level, to the extent as to allow an embargo
against Honduras. Lies must stop. Micheletti did not look for the
position he is now carrying, nor did he deserve to have insults
hurled at him commensurate with the level of Chavez' education. The
fact that Honduras did not have a vice-president, in the moment that
article 239 of the constitution was violated; the presidency had to
be assumed by whoever had the Congressional position. That is how
the Constitution orders it. So if any of the congressional
vice-presidents had been acting as the president of Congress at that
time, so any one of them would have to take such responsibility.
... At this time it is not very helpful to blame what happened to
the bad advisors or to the stubbornness of the president at that
time. Let's say it again: Manuel Zelaya would still be president if
he had listened to the advice not to go on the path of illegality.
For the nations that do not know of constitutional order, it is
difficult for them to understand what happened in Honduras. When
there is an earthquake, the attention is focused on the visible
damage, in the fallen buildings and little attention is given to the
buildings that remain standing because they had a solid foundation.
The words coup d'tat, even if improper, have a louder effect than
the phrase 'we respected our judicial order.' On the other hand,
few ambassadors in Honduras have given an objective and professional
report on what happened. If they had, then draconian measures would
not have been taken against Honduras. The majority of Ambassadors
are accustomed to not sending true monthly analysis to their foreign
ministries. It is common that these diplomats prefer to defend the
government in the country where they are credentialed because of the
affective contact developed with the people in place. Because of
this possible affection, many countries change their ambassadors
after three years of service. Let's add this to the lack of
objectivity of those compatriots, who exercise the information
profession, who hide or justify the great delinquent acts committed
before June 28. Micheletti had to remind the OAS visitors that the
damage done by those who kept silent before the biggest
administrative felony in the history of Honduras; and the injustice
of condemning Honduras without hearing first those who were
repairing the damage. For those irresponsible people who (try to
prevent us) from returning to normalcy through elections, Micheletti
said that Honduras will go to elections whether they recognize them
or not; and if they insist on an embargo, then they (de facto

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government) will continue forward. We can foresee that they will
try to pressure us more, but Honduras cannot be asphyxiated. ... But
those who proceed responsibly love and defend Honduras (and) are the
majority. Anarchy has only served these days to unify all the
healthy sectors of the people. The true civic resistance is to fight
for the implementation of the Constitution and for democratic
elections. "

"Final stage"


3. (U)Editorial in the San Pedro Sula-based liberal paper Tiempo
(8-26-09): "With the OAS ministers visit to Tegucigalpa to promote
the approval of the San Jose Agreement as the best way for a
peaceful solution to the political crisis created by the coup d'tat
on June 28, this diplomatic effort has entered, definitively, its
final stage. The OAS ministers' commission concluded that there
still is no disposition for the full acceptance of the San Jose
Agreement by Mr. Micheletti and the sectors that support him, and
regret that they did not achieve support for this agreement this
time. ... The first reactions from the last negative response of the
de facto government to the San Jose Agreement - after they played
hide and seek for a month- correspond to the foreseeable (aspect) of
the final stage, which began with the increase of isolation in the
international community, through migration measures and selective
policies, and will become harder with the necessarily drastic
financial, economic and commercial dispositions. ... The next few
days will be difficult for Hondurans, here and abroad. An unfair
price to pay for the irresponsibility, ambition and arrogance of a
handful of coup-makers that believe to be the absolute owners of
Honduras, including in that group the leaders of the parties, that,
after all, have been playing with the existence of the century-old
political institutionalism."

"Peace and Unity"


4. (U) Op-ed by Billy Pena in Tiempo (8-26-09): "OAS mission arrived
last Monday... The Mission is searching for a diplomatic solution to
the institutional crisis that divides and makes all Hondurans
suffer. They also want the Zelaya and Micheletti delegations to
accept the Arias Plan. There is optimism and pessimism on the
achievements from the OAS ministers' mission. Those who doubt that
the ministers can achieve a happy ending to the crisis due to the
provisional government; besides being rejected internationally and
receiving deplorable evaluations from the Human Rights
Inter-American Commission, does not accept the return of Zelaya and
that is what the Arias Plan and the international community demand.
Due to the government's intransigency, who won the qualification of
coup-makers, the OAS ministers will not be able to progress and
achieve any solution. We do not believe that peace and unity will
return to Honduras because the members of the current government
will always be remembered as coup-makers... the people won't be able
to forget what happened on June 28. The OAS ministers are wasting
their time in Honduras; it doesn't help to have meetings with
religious, business, union and Armed Forces people, when the
government already dictated that Zelaya's restitution is not
negotiable. ... Baltazar Garzon's visit to Honduras, in our modest
opinion, can only signify that the International Court of Justice
from The Hague has fixed its attention on the protagonists of the
coup. Judge Garzon cannot -- by himself -- detain anyone in
Honduras, because he would be intervening in the country's internal
affairs; however, he has the necessary influence and power to
denounce the violations to human rights and report them to the
international courts and those (courts) do have the power to call
anyone to present themselves before justice. Surely he can study
and analyze who violated the Constitution, if (it was) Zelaya or the
de facto government. Both Garzon and OAS ministers are searching
for the return of peace and unity to Honduras. Case closed.
Impossible."

Henshaw