MEDIA REACTION: BRAZIL'S ROLE IN HONDURAS

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000068 SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR IIP/R/MR WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC OIIP BR XM XR KMDR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: BRAZIL'S ROLE IN HONDURAS Missed the Bus but Paid the Fare Article in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (1-28) by Eliane Catanhede says: "The Brazilian reaction to the...coup [in Honduras] was fast and decisive, in defense of the principle that an army cannot take democratically elected presidents from their homes and cast them out to other countries overnight. From defending principles to seeking to become a protagonist was a leap. Or a shot in the dark.....Brazil should have given shelter [to Manuel Zelaya] under the condition of asylum, per international norms, and should have established limits. But it didn't do any of these. The result is that Brazil assumed only one side of the issue, isolated itself and stood on the opposing side of Latin America by refusing to accept the election of the new president as a way out of the crisis. This way the Honduran bus reached its final stop with the new destination of national unity...and all passengers that mattered were on it [including the U.S]....But the Brazilian government was not....Zelaya received four months of food, housing, phone usage and a free stage in the Brazilian Embassy....And what did Brazil get? Or even so, did it get anything out of this? No, it only paid the bill." White