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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000843 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL CVIS SMIG HO
SUBJECT: TFH01: MEDIA REACTION US VISA SUSPENSION, OAS VISIT AND 
POLITICAL CRISIS 
 
"Visas and migration" 
 
¶1. (U) Editorial in the Tegucigalpa-based liberal newspaper 
(8-26-09): "The U.S. government suspended the issuance of visas 
starting August 26, for non immigrants and non emergency cases, 
which implies almost the (entire) totality of these documents for 
Hondurans that want to travel to the U.S.  Sources from the 
Department of State explained that this measure will be applied 
practically to all visas, because it affects all the permits that 
are given for tourism, business, exchange, students, and journalism, 
among others.  The emergency cases, like people who need urgent 
medical assistance in the U.S. or have to attend a funeral, will 
receive special treatment.  According to the latest statistics 
available in the Department of Homeland Security, 75,000 Hondurans 
entered the U.S. with tourist and business visas in 2006, two of the 
categories affected by the restriction taken today by the 
government.  We said a while back that in the measure that this 
political crisis gets worse, many people will search to get out of 
the country.  And because of this, we foresee that the migration 
wave towards the U.S. will be unstoppable.  ... In the measure that 
the legal possibilities of access to a visa and travel are closed, 
surely they will look for a way to do it, entering the U.S. as 
illegal immigrants.  All of it despite the hostile campaign over 
there against Hispanics and the more drastic measures to detect 
illegal immigrants capture them and deport them.  ... If the strikes 
continue and the country is unable to move, -- also, product of the 
crisis, -- there will be a time in which many compatriots will spend 
their savings, and without possibilities here, the pressure will be 
bigger to search for a life elsewhere." 
 
"Damaging Honduras" 
 
¶2. (U) Op-ed by Ramon Villeda Bermudez, (former) Honduran Ambassador 
to the U.S. in La Tribuna (8-26-09): "Few times in our republican 
life have we had such a level of polarization as today; it has 
separated and caused a dangerous confrontation among Hondurans. ... 
The opposition or sympathies for a person, should never serve to 
distort the truth and the facts, much less to move national 
interests to an inferior level, to the extent as to allow an embargo 
against Honduras.  Lies must stop.  Micheletti did not look for the 
position he is now carrying, nor did he deserve to have insults 
hurled at him commensurate with the level of Chavez' education.  The 
fact that Honduras did not have a vice-president, in the moment that 
article 239 of the constitution was violated; the presidency had to 
be assumed by whoever had the Congressional position.  That is how 
the Constitution orders it.  So if any of the congressional 
vice-presidents had been acting as the president of Congress at that 
time, so any one of them would have to take such responsibility. 
...  At this time it is not very helpful to blame what happened to 
the bad advisors or to the stubbornness of the president at that 
time.  Let's say it again: Manuel Zelaya would still be president if 
he had listened to the advice not to go on the path of illegality. 
For the nations that do not know of constitutional order, it is 
difficult for them to understand what happened in Honduras.  When 
there is an earthquake, the attention is focused on the visible 
damage, in the fallen buildings and little attention is given to the 
buildings that remain standing because they had a solid foundation. 
The words coup d'tat, even if improper, have a louder effect than 
the phrase 'we respected our judicial order.'  On the other hand, 
few ambassadors in Honduras have given an objective and professional 
report on what happened.  If they had, then draconian measures would 
not have been taken against Honduras.  The majority of Ambassadors 
are accustomed to not sending true monthly analysis to their foreign 
ministries.  It is common that these diplomats prefer to defend the 
government in the country where they are credentialed because of the 
affective contact developed with the people in place.  Because of 
this possible affection, many countries change their ambassadors 
after three years of service.  Let's add this to the lack of 
objectivity of those compatriots, who exercise the information 
profession, who hide or justify the great delinquent acts committed 
before June 28.  Micheletti had to remind the OAS visitors that the 
damage done by those who kept silent before the biggest 
administrative felony in the history of Honduras; and the injustice 
of condemning Honduras without hearing first those who were 
repairing the damage.  For those irresponsible people who (try to 
prevent us) from returning to normalcy through elections, Micheletti 
said that Honduras will go to elections whether they recognize them 
or not; and if they insist on an embargo, then they (de facto 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00000843  002 OF 002 
 
 
government) will continue forward.  We can foresee that they will 
try to pressure us more, but Honduras cannot be asphyxiated. ... But 
those who proceed responsibly love and defend Honduras (and) are the 
majority.  Anarchy has only served these days to unify all the 
healthy sectors of the people. The true civic resistance is to fight 
for the implementation of the Constitution and for democratic 
elections. " 
 
"Final stage" 
 
¶3. (U)Editorial in the San Pedro Sula-based liberal paper Tiempo 
(8-26-09): "With the OAS ministers visit to Tegucigalpa to promote 
the approval of the San Jose Agreement as the best way for a 
peaceful solution to the political crisis created by the coup d'tat 
on June 28, this diplomatic effort has entered, definitively, its 
final stage.  The OAS ministers' commission concluded that there 
still is no disposition for the full acceptance of the San Jose 
Agreement by Mr. Micheletti and the sectors that support him, and 
regret that they did not achieve support for this agreement this 
time. ... The first reactions from the last negative response of the 
de facto government to the San Jose Agreement - after they played 
hide and seek for a month- correspond to the foreseeable (aspect) of 
the final stage, which began with the increase of isolation in the 
international community, through migration measures and selective 
policies, and will become harder with the necessarily drastic 
financial, economic and commercial dispositions. ...  The next few 
days will be difficult for Hondurans, here and abroad.  An unfair 
price to pay for the irresponsibility, ambition and arrogance of a 
handful of coup-makers that believe to be the absolute owners of 
Honduras, including in that group the leaders of the parties, that, 
after all, have been playing with the existence of the century-old 
political institutionalism." 
 
"Peace and Unity" 
 
¶4. (U) Op-ed by Billy Pena in Tiempo (8-26-09): "OAS mission arrived 
last Monday... The Mission is searching for a diplomatic solution to 
the institutional crisis that divides and makes all Hondurans 
suffer.  They also want the Zelaya and Micheletti delegations to 
accept the Arias Plan.  There is optimism and pessimism on the 
achievements from the OAS ministers' mission.  Those who doubt that 
the ministers can achieve a happy ending to the crisis due to the 
provisional government; besides  being rejected internationally and 
receiving deplorable evaluations from the Human Rights 
Inter-American Commission, does not accept the return of Zelaya and 
that is what the Arias Plan and the international community demand. 
Due to the government's intransigency, who won the qualification of 
coup-makers, the OAS ministers will not be able to progress and 
achieve any solution.  We do not believe that peace and unity will 
return to Honduras because the members of the current government 
will always be remembered as coup-makers... the people won't be able 
to forget what happened on June 28.  The OAS ministers are wasting 
their time in Honduras; it doesn't help to have meetings with 
religious, business, union and Armed Forces people, when the 
government already dictated that Zelaya's restitution is not 
negotiable. ... Baltazar Garzon's visit to Honduras, in our modest 
opinion, can only signify that the International Court of Justice 
from The Hague has fixed its attention on the protagonists of the 
coup.  Judge Garzon cannot -- by himself -- detain anyone in 
Honduras, because he would be intervening in the country's internal 
affairs; however, he has the necessary influence and power to 
denounce the violations to human rights and report them to the 
international courts and those (courts) do have the power to call 
anyone to present themselves before justice.  Surely he can study 
and analyze who violated the Constitution, if (it was) Zelaya or the 
de facto government.  Both Garzon and OAS ministers are searching 
for the return of peace and unity to Honduras. Case closed. 
Impossible." 
 
Henshaw