Honduras Coup - Day 143 - November 17, 2009

• Porfirio Lobo Visit To Colombia Cancelled
  By hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  Porfirio Lobo Sosa, the Nationalist candidate for President, and his party's candidate for Mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez, were scheduled to leave Honduras during the height of the campaign to meet with politicians in Colombia, or so reports CM&, a Colombian TV station and website. / Lobo Sosa was invited by Colombian Senator Jairo Clopatofsky, and they had appointments with the Mayor of Bogotá, Samuel Moreno, and the head of the police, General Oscar Naranjo. However, Colombian President Uribe, when asked to grant them an audience, thought it might exacerbate relations, already tense, with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and so told Clopatofsky, "the best thing would be to wait until he is President-elect to receive Señor Pepe."
  
  
• Priest, Friend of Zelaya, Leaves Brazil Embassy in Honduras. Only 16 Left Now
  By José Donizete - brazzilmag.com : November 17, 2009
  Father Andress Tamayo, a priest from El Salvador, has left on November 16 the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital, where he was living since September 21st, when he moved in together with ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Tamayo used to celebrate mass, every Sunday, in the embassy.
  
  
• The Municipal Politics of the Honduran Crisis
  By Daniel Altschuler - americasquarterly.org : November 17, 2009
  Since the June 28th coup removed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti has vigorously defended the upcoming elections as the way out of the political crisis. In recent weeks, the central question has become whether the international community will recognize the upcoming presidential elections. With the breakdown of negotiations and Zelaya’s recent declaration that he will not accept restitution from the Congress (itself increasingly unlikely), the Organization of American States (OAS) will almost certainly not send election observers. Conversely, Panama, Colombia and the United States have indicated they will recognize the elections, which undermines the previous international consensus on the Honduran crisis.
  
  
• Zelaya claims US and Micheletti are involved in "laundering" the coup
  By mercopress.com : November 17, 2009
  Honduran ousted president Manuel Zelaya claims the United States in partnership with de facto leader Roberto Micheletti are involved in an operation to "launder" the coup d’etat of June 28th.
  
  
• US envoy heads to Honduras in bid to jumpstart talks
  By AFP - google.com : November 17, 2009
  A top US diplomat for Latin America headed Tuesday for Honduras to renew contacts with all parties and try to defuse the lingering political crisis, a State Department official said. Craig Kelly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was en route back to the Central American country, Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a spokesman for Latin American affairs told AFP by phone.
  
  
• Honduran Congress to vote on Zelaya fate after poll
  By Helen Popper - reuters.com : November 17, 2009
  Honduran lawmakers will wait until after a November 29 election to decide whether to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, delaying a vote central to a U.S.-led deal to end months of political crisis.
  
  
• Congressional vote in Honduras
  By weeksnotice.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  The president of the Honduran Congress says that their vote about whether to reinstate Zelaya will not come until after the election. Instead, they will meet three days later (December 2).
  
  
• Honduras: more candidates join election boycott
  By ww4report.com : November 17, 2009
  In a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua, on Nov. 13, the mayor of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, confirmed that he was no longer running for another term in general elections scheduled for Nov. 29. "The people don't believe in this process, because these are elections where absolutely nothing is going to get elected," Mayor Rodolfo Padilla Sunceri said. A member of the center-right Liberal Party (PL), Padilla joined a growing number of candidates who have withdrawn from the race in order to protest the control of the process by a de facto government put in place after a military coup removed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office on June 28. Padilla was the frontrunner in polls taken before the coup. The Nov. 29 general elections are intended to elect the president, the 128 members of the National Congress, 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and members of the country's municipal governments.
  
  
• Spain Will Not Recognize Elections
  By hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  The Spanish Subsecretary of State for Iberoamerican Affairs, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, announced that the elections scheduled for November 29 will not be democratically acceptable for Spain if there is not a change in the political situation. He noted there were significant restrictions on public liberties and a "delicate situation" with regards to human rights. "If there is not a change, it will be very difficult for the Spanish government to recognize the results of the elections."
  
  
• Honduran Congress Delays until After Elections
  By hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  The Washington Post is reporting, based on AP wire stories from Honduras, that the Honduran Congress will not hold its vote on restoring the constitutionally elected president, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, until after the November 29 election. Citing statements by Jose Saavedra, president of the Honduran Congress, on national radio, this report says Congress will hold its vote on December 2.
  
  
• Craig Kelly Back To Honduras
  By hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  El Heraldo reports, in its Minute by Minute column, that Craig Kelly is back on his way to Honduras again today to "reanimate" the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. Nothing on the State Department website. Press reports are currently confined to a single Venezuelan source.
  Update 2:00 PM PDT: Kelly will meet with Zelaya today in the Brazilian Embassy, the Spanish website, ADN.es reports. The US Embassy in Honduras confirmed Kelly arrived this morning but would not confirm his schedule. Honduran sources could not confirm if Kelly would meet with Micheletti.
  
  
• AFL-CIO Letter to Clinton Opposing Honduran Elections
  By americasmexico.blogspot.com : November 17, 2009
  The AFL-CIO, the 11-million member labor federation, has joined human rights groups and others in urging the U.S. State Department to oppose the elections in Honduras scheduled for Nov. 29 unless "President Manuel Zelaya is reinstated and free and fair electoral conditions are guaranteed." The unions' stand is a confirmation of their position to impose the June 28th coup in Honduras and a recognition that the political and human rights situation in the country make any semblance of fair elections currently impossible. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka notes that at least twelve trade unionists have died in the context of the coup amid an atmosphere of violent repression of political opposition.
  
  
• Election Boycott Kicks Off with "To Vote is to Say "Yes" to the Coup D’Etat"
  By hondurasoye.wordpress.com : November 17, 2009
  
  
• Increase in cases of torture and maltreatment in Honduras...
  By irct.org : November 17, 2009
  A report by the IRCT member centre in Honduras, the Centre for Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, denounces a growing number of cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment perpetrated by the current Honduran regime.
  
  
• Resistance in Honduras calls for abstention from elections
  By granma.cu : November 17, 2009
  The National Front against the Coup in Honduras has reiterated its call to abstain from voting in the November 29 elections, because it considers them an attempt to legitimize the coup regime dictatorship.
  
  
• Zelaya: US Nourishes Honduras Dictatorship
  By prensa-latina.cu : November 17, 2009
  Constitutional President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya told Mexico's La Jornada daily the change in the US stance has strengthened the dictatorship ruling in his country.
  
  
• Soto Cano Base: SOUTHCOM Awards $38M Contract to Honduran Firm for "IT-Communications"
  By hondurasoye.wordpress.com : November 17, 2009
  --Advancing new visions of the U.S. Government and institutions of the region.
  -- Reducing sources of conflict and tension.
  -- Promoting partnership in times of need.
  -- Empowering initiatives to thwart narcotics trafficking and other transnational threats.
  
  
• Interview with Honduras FM Rodas
  By Rel-UITA - havanatimes.org : November 17, 2009
  At the end of a press conference held at the Honduran embassy in Managua, Nicaragua, the liberal mayor of San Pedro Sula, Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri, announced his decision to drop out of the elections. Along with him would also be withdrawing more than 50 candidates for the legislature and a hundred candidates for mayoral and vice mayor positions, all from the same party.
  
  

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