TFH01: MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: TFH01: MEDIA REACTION

"The magic solution."


1. (U) Op-ed by Rafael Delgado Elvir in the San Pedro Sula-based
conservative paper La Prensa (8-19-09): "The circumstances
surrounding the coup d'tat are keeping us in a state of high social
upheaval. Day by day we witness marches and protests that indicate
the existence of deep wounds and in the face of the reaction of the
police and military to calm the country and placate opposition, the
levels of confrontation threaten to increase. Definitively, the
dangers may waylay us before a return to normalcy and an electoral
calendar that allows the election of new authorities. If we talk
about the solution it is important to highlight the attitude towards
the U.S. on behalf of the protagonists. Micheletti feels betrayed
by the country that he considers a natural ally; which he would
expect (to be) much more in his favor. Zelaya asserted that the
solution is in the U.S. and demands more U.S. pressure for his
restitution. In the face of these demands, it is important to
highlight that during Obama's administration it has been said on
several occasions that the U.S. policy is not to continue to defy
the world with unilateral actions towards the international
community because in the end, the solution turns out to be more
expensive in all its dimensions. At least that is the official
version, subject, without a doubt, to pressures and criticisms from
different latitudes, from the Senate, Congress and also from the
strong interests articulated in the political lobby in Washington.
Here in Latin American under-development, we have been saying since
the beginning of the crisis, we continue to demand stubbornly the
arrival of a magical solution through the direct intervention from
the Department of State to bless the coup d'tat or, well, to
reinstall Zelaya. Those who demand that the U.S. shift the balance
in favor of their causes forget that all external U.S. intervention,
independent of the noble values that they undertake, carries
implicit elements(not related) to the interests of the country
subject to the intervention. Definitively, in case it is executed,
it will not be because they are in favor or against a coup d'tat;
simply they would act in function of their geo-political interests
in Latin America. This is the moment to reflect and do
self-analysis. This is the moment to condemn the coup d'tat that
removed a democratically-elect government, but also to search for
viable solutions beyond Zelaya or Micheletti; it is the occasion to
take advantage of the spaces created in the national and Latin
American contexts for all the national political efforts take a path
to return to constitutionality through political agreements and
dialogue. The magic wand, (i.e. the saving intervention of the
U.S.) does not exist, nor is it convenient."

"The country's political crisis."


2. (U) Editorial by TV news program Abriendo Brecha (8-18-09): "This
disgraceful political crisis will put Honduras in history as a case
without genesis, which is known in law as a case without precedent,
because never before has there been anything similar, where there
were accusations from both sides as is the situation that occurred
on June 28. Those who wanted to convoke the Constitutional National
Assembly to impose a new Constitution that would eliminate the
established system in Honduras causing what can be considered the
major evil, and those who believe that the minor evil could have
been the removal of Zelaya through the constitutional succession so
that the rule of law could not be retained. In both cases, the
respective sectors support the assertion that there was coup,
because the effect produced by Zelaya's separation does not
eliminate the cause. A cause that was suicide by which the former
president attempted to launch the famous consultation that was not a
matter of life or death. Why did Zelaya turn it into a crucial
battle, going personally to recover the boxes that contained the
survey material that was then confiscated and stored by instruction
of the Judicial branch and Public Ministry in the Air Forces
warehouse, an action that alerted all the institutions that a
catastrophe in the Honduran State was to come next. Is there anyone
naove enough inside or outside Honduras that will take the bait and
believe that this type of illegal shortcut is a proper way to
conduct foreign policy? That it was nothing other than a coup
d'etat? ... When the antecedents of the projects were known and who
supported it from Venezuela, the reaction in block of all the
institutions was something natural. ... We are then facing a fact
with two faces, because if they are considered coup-makers -- those
who were not in agreement with this coup to our Constitution and
against the nation,-- then coup-makers are also those who wanted to
destroy the Constitution to impose a discretionary President with an

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absolute concentration of power.... In modern democracies it is a
common practice to modify periodically their constitutional texts;
in France for example, since 1992 and only in six years they have
done a dozen reforms, but this review is almost non-stop in almost
all the great countries, including the amendment done to the U.S.
Constitution respecting scrupulously the essential principles and
the basic norms of the established system. .... For now the most
important thing is to avoid that this disgrace we are living with
repeats itself; and for that, we must open bigger spaces for
dialogue to initiate an intensive and extensive work to find
consensus regarding the political changes that Honduras needs,
because in the end, all Hondurans have to admit that we need to
revitalize our democracy to make it more participative and
inclusive."

Henshaw