President Zelaya is at the Honduran border again, reinitiating his attempt to enter the country, which although he passed through briefly yesterday afternoon, his reentry was prevented by military forces under orders from the coup regime. He is hoping to reunite today with his wife and children, who have been detained since yesterday several miles from the border in El Paraíso, Honduras, by police and army forces. There are approximately 3000 police and army forces at the border preventing Zelaya's reentry and interaction with supporters on the Honduran side.Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya's behavior "reckless" in statements yesterday afternoon. Her specific statement was, "President Zelaya’s effort to reach the border is reckless. It does not contribute to the broader efforts to restore democratic and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis. So we urge President Zelaya and all other parties to reaffirm their commitment to a negotiated, peaceful solution to the integrity of Honduran democracy and the safety and well-being of the Honduran people. In fact, we urge both parties to accept the proposal put forth by President Arias. It is the basis for a peaceful solution, and that is what the United States supports."
Right, but the coup regime's repression of the Honduran people, political assassinations, tortures, detentions of over 1000 Zelaya supporters, violent kidnapping and forced exile of Zelaya, illegal usurpation of the presidency and executive functions, censoring of media, expulsion of foreign journalists, amongst other crimes, is "good behavior" that "contributes to democracy"??? Because we haven't heard any clear condemnations from Clinton or her spokesmen regarding all of the above. Zero, zip, nothing.
The whole Arias negotiation is a trap to buy time and consolidate the coup regime, or return Zelaya to the presidency with no power. Clinton advisor Kevin Casas-Zamora, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute (the most influential "democrat" think-tank in Washington) and former Vice President of Costa Rica under President Arias (hmmm, maybe that's why he is the designed negotiator) laid out the terms that Arias/Clinton are trying to impose on Zelaya in an article on July 9, 2009, at least one week before Arias presented his first proposal to resolve the Honduran conflict. Casas-Zamora said,
"First of all that Zelaya should return to the presidency, though not necessarily to power. The presidency and power are two different things. Number two, he has to end his plans to amend the constitution, which won't be much of a problem. Number three, he has to put some distance between himself and Chavez. That's essential. Number four, there has to be some kind of power-sharing agreement, whereby Zelaya remains at the helm of the government but some other people chip-in in the main decisions that are to be made between now and the next election in November. Number five, there has to be some kind of amnesty, for lack of a better word, where everybody turns a blind eye on the pervasive illegal behavior of all the parties involved, because all of them have acted with illegal behavior and have acted with total disregard for the rule of law. Sadly for Honduras, they will have to turn a blind eye to all of that. At this point, no party is in a position to demand accountability from anybody. There's no such thing as high moral ground in Honduras at this point."
So, let the coup regime off the hook and turn Zelaya into a limp president. This is the "smart power" solution of the Obama-Clinton administration. Save the empire's face and its interests too!
Zelaya's "reckless" return to Honduras and his reunification with his people is the only way to restore dignity to the Central American nation.
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