Thursday, January 21, 2010

Honduras: ALBA out; Zelaya out too?

This is half a catch-up-report for an item that came in while I was not here, but there's a report of a new twist to it all as well.

Back on January 13th, Honduras withdrew from ALBA, the "Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America" which serves as Hugo Chavez & Company's little pocket version of the Warsaw Pact. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

As long as we are talking of taking out the trash, it would be negligent to overlook this breaking (but not yet widely acknowledged... so believe it when you see it happen) item: The Presidential Spokesman of the Dominican Republic says a deal was signed on Wednesday to guarantee a safe-passage to exile for professional nuisance and former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, to be allowed on 28 January. That would be the day after the inauguration of Porfirio Lobo as President. Apparently the terms are that Dominican President Leonel Fernandez will come escort M. Zelaya from his tin-foil-lined room in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa as a "guest of the Dominican Republic".

I can't say this is terribly pleasing, if it is even going to happen, because...

(1) it puts Zelaya out of reach of prosecution *again*, which likely means he'll never be asked all those really unpleasant questions about treason, narco-trafficking, and looting the banks, and

(2) the last time he was exiled, it worked out so well. (( <-- sarcasm ))

Seriously, this man is a menace to Honduras as long as he has any liberty of action. He's kept his foreign team out beating the drums of insurrection against the Honduran state and his agitator-in-chief Patricia Rodas has been doing the Venezuela and satellite-states circuit keeping the Chavez-Zelaya link going...

...this will not end well if Zelaya is available to play the Quisling role for the Chavistas in the future.

3 comments:

Roy said...

This is a serious error in that he is not forcing Zelaya to accept asylum. Under the international terms of asylum, Zelaya would have to agree to be prohibited from engaging in any political activity and it is the responsibility of the nation granting such asylum to enforce said prohibition. That was the condition Michelleti placed on his safe conduct to leave Honduras, and it was a wise precaution. It appears that Porfirio Lobo has much to learn.

L.Douglas Garrett said...

@Roy

Not sure P. Lobo was actually calling the tune on this maneuver... it may have been orchestrated and presented to him as a done deal.

That said, the President-elect is about to get a heck of a lesson in international relations. Hope he survives the class.

Roy said...

For the sake of the Honduran people, who showed such fortitude in resisting Chavez's media onslaught, I do hope he is quick study.