Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone votes to confirm Arturo Valenzuela as assistant secretary of state, and Thomas Shannon as U.S. ambassador to Brazil. DeMint is unhappy with U.S. policy on Honduras. He and 16 other Republican senators wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ask that the administration to reassess its stance on Honduras.
The group said it worried that Washington's pro-Zelaya stance would legitimize "abuses of power" and "violations of the Honduran constitution" by Zelaya before he was ousted by the army on June 28.
Efforts to broker an end to the Honduran power struggle collapsed on Sunday, after interim leader Roberto Micheletti rejected a proposal to reinstate the overthrown president.
Clinton spoke to Micheletti by phone after the talks fell apart and warned him he could face cuts in economic aid unless he strikes a deal with his rival.
DeMint and other Republicans have said they believe Hondurans were acting lawfully when they ousted Zelaya after he had sought to hold a referendum on overhauling the constitution to allow his re-election.
A spokesman for DeMint said on Tuesday the senator was also displeased at Valenzuela's refusal to discuss Honduras at length during his nomination hearing.
At the hearing, DeMint asked why Washington would want to be on the same side as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro, in the Honduran crisis.
"President Obama rushed to side with Chavez and Castro before getting the facts. Now it's clear that the people of Honduras were defending the rule of law," DeMint said on Tuesday, through his spokesman.
I can't help but notice that Obama invariably sides with leftists, or any other totalitarians for that matter, while they assert control by whatever means possible. Look how he refused to stand up for the people of Iran. And now Honduras.
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