A Good Antidote to the NYT Article: Fidel says Honduras Talks a US Stall Tactic

[magbana]

This is an article about Fidel's latest reflection. I don't think the reflection has been translated to english yet, but here's the URL if you care to read it in Spanish: http://www.cubadebate.cu/reflexiones-fidel/2009/07/16/lo-que-debe-demandarse-a-estados-unidos/

"Fidel Castro says Honduras talks a US stall tactic
Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:45pm EDT

HAVANA, July 16 (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the United States is backing the coup leaders in Honduras and that the U.S.-backed peace talks in Costa Rica are a ploy to keep them in power.

Castro, in a column published on the Internet on Thursday, said talks are a stalling tactic aimed at exhausting opposition to the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya on June 28.

"It is obvious that each day of delay has a cost for the constitutional president and tends to dilute the extraordinary international support he has received," Castro wrote.

"The Yankee maneuver does not increase the possibilities of peace, but completely to the contrary, it diminishes them and the danger of violence grows, " he said, referring to the

United States."

The United States has condemned the military takeover and President Barack Obama has said the democratically elected Zelaya should be returned to power. The United States said it proposed the Costa Rica talks as a way of finding a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Castro said U.S. ambassadors in Honduras and other Central American countries knew of the coup before it took place and have backed it. He repeated a previous accusation that a U.S. military base in Honduras is helping the coup.

Envoys representing Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti met last week and are scheduled to meet again on Saturday, with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias mediating.

Micheletti has said Zelaya was deposed lawfully because he violated the constitution by seeking to remove limits on presidential terms in office.

Zelaya has said he was toppled by Honduran elites intent on seizing power in the impoverished country. Zelaya angered his country's ruling elite and military by increasingly allying himself with leftist Venezuelan President Hugh Chavez, who is also a friend of Castro.

"The correct thing in this moment is to demand that the United States government cease its intervention, stop its military support to the coup leaders and remove its (military) force from Honduras," Castro said.

Castro, 82, ruled Cuba for 49 years before his brother, Raul Castro, replaced him as president in February 2008.

He writes columns regularly for Cuba's state-run media, which has covered the Honduras crisis extensively.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Doina Chiacu) "
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USB54828520090717

[flamingdem]

1. He's partially right

Delaying means the golpistas win.

My bet is that Micheletti backs down and a semi-face saver is found with negotiations. The
only hitch is that Zelaya has to agree and he is not going to buy any BS.

[magbana]

2. I think Micheletti's "concessions" of considering amnesty for Zelaya

and resigning to save Honduras from itself were designed to get the scorecard started. Zelaya gets to the talks and Arias says "okay, it's two to nothing,Zelaya, what are you going to give up?" If this were the old days, Zelaya would cave and agree to things that would be very bad for his country. But, Zelaya has the weight of Latin America on his shoulders and to compromise would be a betrayal especially to his own people. Compromising doesn't buy Zelaya anything. No mater what happens Zelaya will be surrounded by a sea of golpistas.

I would prefer that Zelaya pull a fast one on Saturday and not show up in Costa Rica and spend this free time re-entering his own country.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Castro blames Bush appointees for Honduran coup

Castro blames Bush appointees for Honduran coup
By WILL WEISSERT, The Associated Press
7:48 p.m. July 16, 2009

HAVANA — Fidel Castro blames the coup in Honduras on the U.S. Embassy in that Central American country and other American diplomats in the region appointed during the administration of George W. Bush.
"Unscrupulous characters of the extreme right who were trustworthy officials of George W. Bush" toppled the democratically elected government of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Castro claimed late Thursday.

In a column posted on a government Web site, the 82-year-old former Cuban president stopped short of blaming Barack Obama for Zelaya's ouster. He suggested the U.S. State Department conspired with the leaders who took power after the coup to broker a false diplomatic solution while Obama was distracted by travels in Russia.

"The idea that the ambassador of the United States in Tegucigalpa, Hugo Llorens, knew nothing about or discouraged the coup is absolutely false," Castro wrote, referring to America's top diplomat in the Honduran capital. "He knew about it, as did American military advisers who have not ceased training Honduran troops even for one second."

The day before the coup, Zelaya publicly praised American officials in Honduras for working to preserve his presidency, and Obama has joined the United Nations, the Organization of American States and other governments in condemning the coup.
The U.S. Embassy in Honduras severed all contact with the new government and suspended more than $18 million in military assistance and development aid programs, though Washington has not joined other nations in recalling their ambassadors to Honduras.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has met with Zelaya personally and promoted the idea of brokering a peace agreement through mediations with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel peace laureate.

But Castro contends that "the Costa Rica peace plan was suggested by the office of the State Department to contribute to the consolidation of the military coup."

He said the interim government has grown more entrenched and international support for Zelaya has waned.
"The coup plotters were in a hurry. The Costa Rican initiative had the objective of saving them," he wrote. "It's obvious that Yankee handiwork does not increase the possibilities for peace but does exactly the opposite."

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/16/cb-cuba-honduras-071609/?world/mexico&zIndex=133421