Zelaya Back In Honduras?

That's what he and his buddy Hugo Chavez are saying.

"I'm here, in the capital," Mr. Zelaya told Caracas-based Telesur during a brief telephone conversation.

His statement comes after President Hugo Chavez interrupted a televised school event he was attending to have a telephone conversation with Mr. Zelaya, a regional ally who was ousted from power in late June.

"He's in Tegucigalpa, and now we'll see what the leaders of the coup will do," Mr. Chavez said after his telephone conversation with Mr. Zelaya.

Television images showed Roberto Micheletti, the interim Honduran leader who replaced Zelaya, telling reporters that "we have no evidence that he's inside."

"I cannot give details, but I'm here," Mr. Zelaya told the local TV channel. His voice, but not his image, were transmitted. He said he was at the United Nation's headquarters in his homeland. But a spokeswoman at the United Nation's offices in Tegucigalpa told The Associated Press he wasn't in the offices. "I have no idea where that story came from," said spokeswoman Ana Elsy Mendoza.

Just a reminder but the US government is aiding and abetting a criminal in his attempt to illegally regain the presidency of an allied country.

Now a report filed at the Library of Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides what the administration has not offered, a serious legal review of the facts. "Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system," writes CRS senior foreign law specialist Norma C. Gutierrez in her report.

Do the facts matter? Fat chance. The administration is standing by its "coup" charge and 10 days ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went so far as to sanction the country's independent judiciary. The U.S. won't say why, but its clear the court's sin is rejecting a U.S.-backed proposal to restore Mr. Zelaya to power.

The upshot is that the U.S. is trying to force Honduras to violate its own constitution and is also using its international political heft to try to interfere with the country's independent judiciary.

Oh and Obama won't say whether he will recognize the results of the previously scheduled elections. You know, the ones Zelaya tried to circumvent.

h/t Krakatoa in the headlines

*I changed the pull quote from the second linked source. I made a mistake in the original quote I used. Read the whole thing, it's devastating to the US position.

posted by DrewM. at 03:50 PM

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