TFH01: MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000847 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL HO 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 TEGUCIGALP 00000847 002 OF 002 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