Excerpts:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- The Obama administration has backed away from its call to restore ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power and instead put the onus on him for taking "provocative actions" that polarized his country and led to his overthrow on June 28.
The new position was contained in a letter this week to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that also rejected calls by some of Zelaya's backers to impose harsh economic sanctions against Honduras.
While condemning the coup, the letter pointedly failed to call for Zelaya's return. "Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting any particular politician or individual," said the letter to Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The new U.S. position is likely to undercut diplomatic efforts to bring about Zelaya's return, analysts said.
While condemning the overthrow of Zelaya and his pre-dawn expulsion, the Aug. 4 letter said that Zelaya, who's allied with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was largely to blame for his plight.
"We also recognize that President Zelaya's insistence on undertaking provocative actions contributed to the polarization of Honduran society and led to a confrontation that unleashed the events that led to his removal," said the letter, signed by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Richard Verma.
"I think this could open the door for an alternative option as president," said Jorge Yllesca, a political consultant based in Honduras, meaning that interim President Roberto Micheletti might try to end the political crisis by stepping aside, not for Zelaya but for the president of the Congress or the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1175112.html?storylink=mirelatedMeanwhile, in Mexico, President Felipe Calderon and the Mexican Congress were furious with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya for screaming in a conference of failed leftist Mexican Presidential candidate Lopez Obrador that "it is better to feel like the President instead of being one". This statement opened a major wound in the Mexican political system because Lopez Obrador (PRD Party) accused Felipe Calderon (P.A.N. Party) of stealing the 2006 election, won by Calderon by about one-half percent of the vote.
The Mexican State Department ordered Zelaya to expedite his exit from their country to continue on his Latin American Diplomatic tour and was escorted to the airport without allowing him to talk to the Press who wanted him to clarify his position about Lopez Obrador.
Excerpt;Translated by Google (and me)
Manuel Zelaya came to a glass door that separated him from the press. He wanted to make statements, to say goodbye. The Presidential General Staff, who works directly for the chief executive of Mexico, did not allow it. With signs, he was seen thorugh the crystals, intimated to reporters that he would go to the main door to dialogue, but the security staff did not allow him once again. And so, in silence, half with the tail between the legs and no more gestures, he left the country. Before his departure, the deposed President of Honduras spoke with Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa, to deny he had supported "a former presidential candidate." "He dismissed the statements of how," said Mexican diplomacy in a statement. On Wednesday he said, referring to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who "sometimes it is better to feel like a President than being one," after being invited to Mexico for two days by President Felipe Calderón. Zelaya, is recognized by Mexico as the head of the government of Honduras, but he could be accused of interference because of what he said. Is recorded everywhere. Zelaya was being accused of involvement in internal affairs of the country. But he was shown the door to leave, and a crystal door to boot....
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/columnas/79475.html
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