Honduras Agreement: An Important Example
By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer
Washington - The
agreement in Honduras between President Manuel Zelaya and
the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, is
a victory for negotiation and dialogue in resolving
political conflicts and sets a historic example for the
Latin American region, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton said October 30.
In a statement released
before she concluded her visit to Pakistan, Clinton
congratulated both sides on the "breakthrough," as well as
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for his role in the
negotiation process.
"This is a big step forward for
the inter-American system and its commitment to democracy as
embodied in the Inter-American Democratic Charter," the
secretary said, adding that she is especially proud of "the
people of Honduras who have worked very hard to have this
matter resolved peacefully."
"I cannot think of
another example of a country in Latin America that, having
suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional
order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and
dialogue," she said.
Zelaya was ousted in a June 28
coup and replaced by a government headed by Micheletti. The
United States has been supporting efforts by the
Organization of American States (OAS) to broker a solution
to the political crisis through the mediation of President
Arias.
Clinton dispatched Assistant Secretary of State
for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon, along with
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Craig Kelly and White House Special Assistant to the
President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Dan Restrepo, to Tegucigalpa October 28 to help the two
sides overcome the remaining obstacles to a political
solution. (See "Clinton Sends U.S. Officials to Honduras to
Urge End to Crisis: http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/October/20091027154434esnamfuak0.2594416.html
.)
According to news reports, Zelaya and
Micheletti have agreed to allow the Honduran Congress, with
authorization from the country's Supreme Court, to decide
whether Zelaya should be allowed to return to power and
whether to allow him to serve until his term ends on January
27, 2010. It also calls for a commission to investigate the
events that led to the coup.
Speaking to reporters
from Tegucigalpa, Shannon said the agreement "effectively
opens a pathway to resolve Honduras' current political
crisis and that will allow the international community to
support Honduras' elections on November 29th."
The
agreement is a "huge accomplishment for the Hondurans," as
well as for the OAS, he said. With international help, the
country was able to find a way out of the "rupture of
democratic and constitutional order" resulting from the June
28 coup and repair it "peacefully, without violence and
without an imposition of a solution from outside."
It
is now up to the Honduran Congress, "in consultation with
the Supreme Court and other organisms of the Honduran
state," to determine "when, if and how President Zelaya
returns to office," Shannon said.
Both sides realized
that the decision on Zelaya's restitution had to made in a
political body, as opposed to a legal body, and "more
importantly, they were looking for a way to root the
agreement" in a democratically elected institution. "They
wanted it to be more than just an agreement between two
political leaders," he said.
The assistant secretary
described the restitution issue as being "up for grabs" in
the legislature.
"I can assure you that both sides are
reaching out to members of [the Honduran] Congress right now
and trying to build levels of political support that will
favor the outcome that each of them would prefer. But I
think what's important here is there is broad expectation
that they will abide by whatever that decision is," he
said.
DESIRE FOR ELECTION TO BE SEEN AS
LEGITIMATE
Restrepo said part of the impetus for
reaching an agreement was a widespread recognition
throughout Honduras, "regardless of where people find
themselves on the political spectrum," that if their country
was to "move forward in a sustainable way, it needed to do
so accompanied by the international community." That message
was reflected back to the political leaders, he
said.
Shannon said that Micheletti recognized that
without international support, "the elections were actually
going to deepen the political crisis and make Honduras'
relationship with the international community more
problematic."
"It was worth a political risk in order
to ensure that on November 29 there were international
observers on the ground and broad recognition in the OAS and
elsewhere that the results of that election were going to be
free, fair and legitimate and that the president who takes
power on January 27 was going to be in a position to
petition for Honduras' reintegration into the inter-American
community and to get access again to international financial
institutions," Shannon said.
The U.S. delegation also
told both sides that "with this agreement we could begin to
move immediately on electoral observation support, and that
we would mobilize an electoral observation support within
the OAS and elsewhere," he said. Shannon added that Honduran
leaders understand that the agreement also "open[s] a space
for us to begin to discuss normalization of our
relationship," including diplomatic ties and U.S. assistance
to Honduras.
The full text of Clinton's statement ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/October/20091030113230eaifas0.531109.html
) is available on America.gov.
(This is a product
of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
ENDS