Honduras, Meddling And A Hillary Clinton Sighting!

Amazingly, well not really given the upside down nature of a lot of what Obama does, the US is still trying to return wannabe strongman Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras.

The ousted Zelaya even got some legitimizing face time with US Secretary of Sate Hillary Clinton.

...Clinton said Tuesday that Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has agreed to mediate the escalating political crisis in Honduras and that the rivals for that country's leadership have agreed.

Mrs. Clinton, who met with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya at the State Department, said she urged him not to attempt another return to his country "in the face of opposition" until the negotiations have a chance to work.

...Mr. Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping to end the civil war in El Salvador, will conduct the negotiations in Costa Rica, Mrs. Clinton said.

"He is the natural person to assume this role," she told reporters at the State Department.

The secretary declined to say what specific arrangements may be made during the talks. In private, officials said that one option is for Mr. Zelaya to complete his term, which expires in January, but agree not to seek to prolong it.

Yeah, that's the natural deal but are the authorities in Tegucigalpa going to take that chance and trust Zeleya? Given the amount of foreign intervention involved in bringing the country to the brink, it would be risky as hell. They'd spend the next few months battling each other and fending off the inevitable attempts at intervention by Chavez.

For this kind of deal to work, the US would probably have to guarantee that Zelaya would leave office, one way or another, when his term is up. I hope the Hondurans aren't that gullible.

Neither they or we should even be in this position. Unfortunately, Obama failed to respect the right of Hondurans to settle their affairs internally, according to their own laws.

Smart Diplomacy(tm) indeed.

posted by DrewM. at 04:58 PM

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