Give the Hondurans their due for sticking to their principles. Rumors persist that an agreement between ousted Manuel Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti is near, but some points are apparently not negotiable.
The State Department's latest reading of the situation in Honduras is that the two sides are extremely close to an agreement, but stuck on the issue of the role Zelaya would play if a deal is signed.
"It's a really fluid situation that seems to be changing minute by minute," said the official. Zelaya is still hiding out in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
Almost all of the provisions of the San Jose Accord are said to be part of the new agreement, but Article 6, which states that all government posts should return to their status before the coup began, is a sticking point with the Micheletti camp, which is said to adamantly oppose Zelaya retaking his presidential position.
Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina went on a fact finding trip to Honduras and found that most Hondurans are not in favor of returning Zelaya to power after his attempt to force a change to the Honduran constitution, an act which is illegal under Honduran law.
Indeed, the desire to move beyond the Zelaya era was almost universal in our meetings. Almost.
In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya's ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.
When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a "coup," he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department's top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh's report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.
Thomas Shannon, the outgoing assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, has been nominated to become Obama's ambassador to Brazil. Throwing his considerable Senatorial weight around, DeMint has put a hold on that nomination.
Jim DeMint, who is holding up Shannon's nomination to become ambassador to Brazil and Arturo Valenzuela's nomination to take over Shannon's job.
DeMint has been hugely critical of the administration's Honduras policy and took a delegation there to meet with Micheletti against the State Department's wishes. There is speculation that if the situation in Tegucigalpa gets resolved, DeMint would release his holds, but neither of those things has happened just yet.
In the meantime Zelaya has set a deadline that Micheletti has ignored, saying that Manual Zelaya can't be reinstated.
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