HONDURAS UPDATE AUGUST 18 2009

By Emile Schepers

1. COUP REGIME TRIES AND FAILS TO KICK OUT ARGENTINE DIPLOMATS. The de-facto regime of Roberto Micheletti announced that it is expelling Argentina’s diplomats in Tegucigalpa, in return for Argentina not recognizing the coup regime’s ambassador in Buenos Aires. Like the Venezuelans before them, the Argentines refuse to comply as they categorize the order as coming from an illegal regime. Argentine foreign minister Jorge Taiana said that no such order has been received from the Honduran government that Argentina recognizes, that of Manuel Zelaya, and that there is no more to be said on the subject. Taiana is one of the OAS foreign ministers who is part of an on again-off again delegation that is supposed to go to Honduras.

2. PLAN OF FURTHER PROTESTS WORKED OUT. The umbrella group organizing protests against the coup regime has laid out plans for continuing their demonstrations until Manuel Zelaya is restored to the presidency. According to Prensa Latina, at a general meeting of the National Front Against the Coup d’Etat, held in the beverage workers’ union center, it was announced that the Front is presenting evidence of violations of human rights by the coup regime to the visiting delegation of the Commission on Human Rights of the OAS, which is in Honduras this week. Already several members of the resistance have appeared before the Commission to testify about violence to which they were subjected by the coup regime for peacefully protesting. The Federation of Teachers’ Organizations (teachers union) has decided to teach classes for the first three days of every week, after having been on strike since the coup, so that children will not fall behind. The union also resolved to teach the children about the need for constitutional order to be restored in Honduras.

3. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DENOUNCES ABUSES BY COUP REGIME IN HONDURAS. Tomorrow the London office of Amnesty International will issue a report. The report will stress attacks on peaceful demonstrators and especially on women, as well as repression of freedom of the press.

4. MICHELETTI MUGS TALK TO STATE DEPARTMENT IN D.C. An “unofficial” delegation of representatives of the de-facto Micheletti regime was in Washington this week, talking to officials of the OAS. They also met with the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, at the Pan American Union Building (OAS HQ). The meeting was closed to the press, but a spokesman for the State Department, Ian Kelly, stated that the meeting took place in the context of the planned visit of OAS foreign ministers to Honduras, adding that the U.S. would definitely not recognize the Michiletti regime. According to the BBC the State Department had contacted the pro-Zelaya embassy of Honduras in DC to get their view of such a meeting. The BBC says a representative of the embassy suggested that, as the US is trying to get the San Jose mediation process going on; it made some sense for these individuals to be met with.

5. ARMANDO VALLADARES GOES TO HONDURAS. The Cuban daily GRANMA is reporting that Cuban exile celebrity Armando Valladares is now in Honduras, after being accused of large scale fraud in Spain. According to the Cuban government, Valladares had been a policeman in Cuba under the Batista regime, was jailed by the revolution, then became an instant poet in jail, and was appointed by Ronald Reagan as US representative to the UN commission on Human rights. It is not clear why he is in Honduras. Vacation? Beach? No, wrong time of the year.

That’s all for now, more tomorrow.