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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000847 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL HO
SUBJECT: TFH01: MEDIA REACTION 
 
"The magic solution." 
 
¶1. (U) Op-ed by Rafael Delgado Elvir in the San Pedro Sula-based 
conservative paper La Prensa (8-19-09): "The circumstances 
surrounding the coup d'tat are keeping us in a state of high social 
upheaval.  Day by day we witness marches and protests that indicate 
the existence of deep wounds and in the face of the reaction of the 
police and military to calm the country and placate opposition, the 
levels of confrontation threaten to increase.  Definitively, the 
dangers may waylay us before a return to normalcy and an electoral 
calendar that allows the election of new authorities.  If we talk 
about the solution it is important to highlight the attitude towards 
the U.S. on behalf of the protagonists.  Micheletti feels betrayed 
by the country that he considers a natural ally; which he would 
expect (to be) much more in his favor.  Zelaya asserted that the 
solution is in the U.S. and demands more U.S. pressure for his 
restitution.  In the face of these demands, it is important to 
highlight that during Obama's administration it has been said on 
several occasions that the U.S. policy is not to continue to defy 
the world with unilateral actions towards the international 
community because in the end, the solution turns out to be more 
expensive in all its dimensions.  At least that is the official 
version, subject, without a doubt, to pressures and criticisms from 
different latitudes, from the Senate, Congress and also from the 
strong interests articulated in the political lobby in Washington. 
Here in Latin American under-development, we have been saying since 
the beginning of the crisis, we continue to demand stubbornly the 
arrival of a magical solution through the direct intervention from 
the Department of State to bless the coup d'tat or, well, to 
reinstall Zelaya.  Those who demand that the U.S. shift the balance 
in favor of their causes forget that all external U.S. intervention, 
independent of the noble values that they undertake, carries 
implicit elements(not related) to the interests of the country 
subject to the intervention.  Definitively, in case it is executed, 
it will not be because they are in favor or against a coup d'tat; 
simply they would act in function of their geo-political interests 
in Latin America.  This is the moment to reflect and do 
self-analysis.  This is the moment to condemn the coup d'tat that 
removed a democratically-elect government, but also to search for 
viable solutions beyond Zelaya or Micheletti; it is the occasion to 
take advantage of the spaces created in the national and Latin 
American contexts for all the national political efforts take a path 
to return to constitutionality through political agreements and 
dialogue.  The magic wand, (i.e. the saving intervention of the 
U.S.) does not exist, nor is it convenient." 
 
"The country's political crisis." 
 
¶2. (U) Editorial by TV news program Abriendo Brecha (8-18-09): "This 
disgraceful political crisis will put Honduras in history as a case 
without genesis, which is known in law as a case without precedent, 
because never before has there been anything similar, where there 
were accusations from both sides as is the situation that occurred 
on June 28.  Those who wanted to convoke the Constitutional National 
Assembly to impose a new Constitution that would eliminate the 
established system in Honduras causing what can be considered the 
major evil, and those who believe that the minor evil could have 
been the removal of Zelaya through the constitutional succession so 
that the rule of law could not be retained.  In both cases, the 
respective sectors support the assertion that there was coup, 
because the effect produced by Zelaya's separation does not 
eliminate the cause.  A cause that was suicide by which the former 
president attempted to launch the famous consultation that was not a 
matter of life or death.  Why did Zelaya turn it into a crucial 
battle, going personally to recover the boxes that contained the 
survey material that was then confiscated and stored by instruction 
of the Judicial branch and Public Ministry in the Air Forces 
warehouse, an action that alerted all the institutions that a 
catastrophe in the Honduran State was to come next.  Is there anyone 
naove enough inside or outside Honduras that will take the bait and 
believe that this type of illegal shortcut is a proper way to 
conduct foreign policy?  That it was nothing other than a coup 
d'etat? ... When the antecedents of the projects were known and who 
supported it from Venezuela, the reaction in block of all the 
institutions was something natural. ... We are then facing a fact 
with two faces, because if they are considered coup-makers -- those 
who were not in agreement with this coup to our Constitution and 
against the nation,-- then coup-makers are also those who wanted to 
destroy the Constitution to impose a discretionary President with an 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00000847  002 OF 002 
 
 
absolute concentration of power.... In modern democracies it is a 
common practice to modify periodically their constitutional texts; 
in France for example, since 1992 and only in six years they have 
done a dozen reforms, but this review is almost non-stop in almost 
all the great countries, including the amendment done to the U.S. 
Constitution respecting scrupulously the essential principles and 
the basic norms of the established system. .... For now the most 
important thing is to avoid that this disgrace we are living with 
repeats itself; and for that, we must open bigger spaces for 
dialogue to initiate an intensive and extensive work to find 
consensus regarding the political changes that Honduras needs, 
because in the end, all Hondurans have to admit that we need to 
revitalize our democracy to make it more participative and 
inclusive." 
 
Henshaw