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 TEGUCIGALP 00000843 002 OF 002 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