Obama's Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis going to Honduras

[rabs]

as a member of the OAS Verification Committee that will oversee that last week's accord will be carried out.


The other foreign member is former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, a moderate leftist. They are scheduled to arrive in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday.

There will be four members on the committee, Solis, Lagos and one representing Zelaya (Reina) and one for Micheletti (Corrales).

The appointment of Obama's Cabinet Secretary Solis to the committee sends a strong signal that Hillary/Obama will not tolerate any delaying monkey business by the golpistas.

Lagos, in addition to being president before Bachelet, is a member of Chile's PPD (Partido para la Democracia), which includes some of Chile's most brillant intellectuals. Don't think Lagos will tolerate any golpista delaying tactics either.

http://www.hondurasnews.com/2009/11/01/oas-names-committee-member

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Honduran Congress is currently on recess and tomorrow (Monday) there should be a call for an urgent, extraordinary session to consider Zeyala's restitution. Congress is on recess because about 120 of the 155 deputies are up for re-election (assume the Shannon mission was aware of that).

[Judi Lynn]

1. What a wretched shame there aren't MORE people of Hilda Solis' quality within the administration.

Completely trust this former Congresswoman.

I'm almost certain she has gone to Cuba recently, before she was nominated, incidently.

Thanks for shining some light on what the heck has happened after the agreement, and after so many articles have been published right afterwards. It was starting to look very bleak today without new info.

Will be waiting along with you, rabs. Hope something can possibly go right in Honduras soon.

[rabs]

2. There has been a lot of gloom and doom articles since Friday

but I am just waiting to see what happens tomorrow and the rest of the week. Zelaya yesterday said this should be settled by Thursday at the latest.

The fact that Solis is going to Tegus indicates that Hillary/Obama are deadly serious about this pact. If it were to unravel, Hillary's feathers would be ruffled to say the least, considering that she was sending congratulations to all parties hours after the accord was reached.

Another article

http://www.kansascity.com/451/story/1543260.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Sure hope it won't be expected of Sec. Solis to indulge any part of the coup..

So disappointed Obama felt obligated to toss Hillary this favored position after the campaign.

Our foreign policy needs a far more principled person.

Hope to see success and protection for the courageous, moral protesters. They are risking EVERYTHING for the people who matter in Honduras.

[Braulio]

7. Hillary's the Israel Lobby's man in the government

Obama had to make deals to get breathing room. The Israel Lobby was breathing down his neck, so he made the deal to put Hillary in, and also got Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff. I think Obama's counting on them to help out if he ever guts it up to do the right thing and stop US subservience to zionist interests. And this is the real deal for the USA and the world. As long as the empire remains a lackey of Zionists, almost as if it were an Israeli colony, the USA will remain an abusive power disliked by all righteous living human beings.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Did you all see this article posted by Downwinder?

"It took four months for the White House to understand the high cost that a coup regime would exact in the region. Beset by the various problems which he faces in his foreign policy, above all, by the rapid deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the miring of his troops in Iraq, Obama wrested the steering wheel from his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the main architect of support for the putschists, and sent Thomas Shannon to Tegucigalpa with the task of restoring order in the tumultuous back yard. Shortly afterward, Micheletti shelved his bravado and meekly accepted what had previously been unacceptable. Of course, Shannon had just laid down the imperial mandate. To sweeten the moment, he publicly expressed his admiration for the two leaders of Honduran democracy: the putschist and the deposed."

The imperial mandate arrives in Honduras
November 1, 2009
Honduras: An Improbable Solution
By Atilio A. Boron
English translation: Machetera

http://machetera.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/the-imperial-mandate-arrives-in-honduras/

Downwinder's post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x25815

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Don't know the writer at all, nor how plugged in he may be to the L/A left and its leaders. But he seems to think that the internal struggle that many of us perceived in US policy as to the Honduran coup was Obama vs. Clinton. I'm not so sure of this (--so many Bushwhack actors that both she and Obama may have been hamstrung--and they really do want deals with Brazil). He also thinks it was a "learning curve"--they thought it could be ignored--didn't object to it that much, had Jim DeMint, et al, breathing down their necks, and laying in wait for them in Congress, and holding up all their L/A appointments; then they found out it couldn't be ignored--the people of Honduras, the OAS, the EU, and especially Brazil, up in arms--so they had to do something. But he sees it as an Obama "learning curve" with Clinton as the bad actor. I don't know. The upshot is delayed reform in Honduras, with the people of Honduras hung out to dry. Was that Obama's intention? (hard to say) Clinton's? (more believable) Or the result of their being hamstrung by Bushwhacks? (definitely happening--in the diplomatic corps, the Pentagon, probably the CIA, certainly in Congress and in Bushwhack/Reaganite circles).

I wouldn't want to be in Solis' or Lagos' position right now--with this utter farce of an election happening. How can you restore democracy in four weeks, after four months of brutal repression? But maybe their presence will provide some measure of safety for death-squad targeted leftists, and for those who may be planning a boycott of the election. I dread to think what will happen after the election, though. The election should have been postponed--and restarted at the candidate nomination stage--and Zelaya restored for his full term of office (the four months he and those who elected him were robbed of). He was in no position to set these terms. They had him basically imprisoned in the Brazilian embassy, with constant harassment and threats. The US should have done so, since they had the economic clout to force the greedy golpistas to stand down. I am in total sympathy with the boycotters, but, at the moment, I don't see how they can get their Constituent Assembly happening in the near future. Al Giordano hinted that there may be a strategy of a parallel election--a polling booth set up out outside the official polling booths, to gather votes on the C.A. However, since the military is running the election, and one general said a few weeks ago that the military "would not permit" a boycott of the election, the parallel vote will likely be brutally repressed--or maybe Solis and Lagos can prevent that. The anti-coup resistance has been led by the teachers' union, and other labor unions. Solis is likely in sympathy with their goals. That could be helpful for at least a temporary halt to the repression. It sure beats Jim DeMint being there.

[Judi Lynn]

4. AP article says Tuesday is the day their Congress will take this up, or not....

Honduran Congress to review crisis accord Tuesday
By ESTEBAN FELIX (AP) – 1 day ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Lawmakers will wait until Tuesday to consider a U.S.-brokered agreement that could return deposed President Manuel Zelaya to power, despite diplomats' pleas to not delay an end to the country's 4-month-old political crisis.

Monday is a holiday in Honduras, and many legislators are busy campaigning for Nov. 29 elections that will also elect a successor to Zelaya.

Nonetheless, Zelaya said Saturday that he hopes he will be back in office by Thursday, the deadline for the two sides to establish a power-sharing government.

"By Thursday, the government of national unity should be installed," he said in a meeting broadcast by Radio Globo. "By that day, point No. 5 has to be resolved," he added, referring to the clause of the agreement that covers his return to office.

In fact, the accord does not establish a firm deadline by which Congress has to make a final decision on Zelaya's reinstatement, Organization of American States Political Affairs Secretary Victor Rico noted following Zelaya's comments.

"There is no timeframe for Zelaya to return to office," he said. "Only Congress can make that determination."

Diplomats have urged lawmakers not to delay; if Congress approves the pact, a unity government including members of the major parties will be installed and the country will win international recognition for the elections. Many countries have warned they would not accept the elections' results if the June coup is not reversed.

Ramon Velasquez, the congressional secretary who is in charge of handling submitted measures said Saturday that consideration of the deal "will not be until Tuesday, because I'm in full swing campaigning for my re-election to Congress."

Legislators also suggested it would take time to debate. "It is important to give Congress space, without pressure, to be able to reach the best decision," said Congressman Juan Orlando Hernandez of the opposition National Party, which has 55 seats in the 128-seat body.

Zelaya's Liberal Party controls 65 seats. However, the party is split between those who support him and those who don't.

The legislature backed his removal, but congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that would end Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimize the presidential elections.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAkMGKIUDg_ngUiZboxQbYj5_DPwD9BMG4JG0

[Judi Lynn]

6. Just saw a headline on CholuSatSur that the National Congress

is actually working on the restitution of Zelaya today. Have no idea if they intend to do the honorable thing or not.

http://www.cholusatsur.com/