VZCZCXYZ0008
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSO #0587 2721419
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291419Z SEP 09
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9666
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0799
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 9270

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000587 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD 
 
DEPT PASS USTR 
 
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP XM XR XF BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: HONDURAS/OUSTED PRESIDENT ZELAYA 
 
"A Step Back" 
 
Editorial in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (9-29) states: "Brazil's 
involvement in the Honduran crisis has gone beyond what could be 
reasonably expected and Brazil's Foreign Ministry has probably 
already lost any chance of mediating the impasse.....It needs to 
take a step back and regain its distance from both 
sides......President Lula negotiates with Cuba's dictatorship and 
has intervened in its favor at the U.N.  In New York, he has praised 
Iran's President....and right after that, in Venezuela, he met 
with.....[people] like Robert Mungabe and Muammar Gaddafi....Roberto 
Micheletti's regime is in a much more subtle category of 
illegitimate democracy......Brazil needs to recover its diplomatic 
lucidity and its capability to mediate.  Helping to solve the 
impasse is the best contribution Brazil's foreign ministry has to 
offer in the Honduras' case." 
 
"The errors, or not that much" 
 
Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (9-29) by Janio de Freitas notes: 
"In political terms, President Lula is under more pressure than the 
Organization of American States (OAS).  It is his international 
prestige, the greatest jewel of his current vanities, that is at 
stake.....[The interpretation for] Zelaya's situation at the 
Brazilian embassy depends on who is evaluating it....Lula's 
opponents, those with a more conventional and conservative view, are 
insistent on the opinion that it is absurd for Zelaya to be 
conducting politics inside the embassy......But if Zelaya is 
Honduras' legitimate President and is in the embassy only as a 
guest, as the Lula's government considers, then the absurdity would 
be blocking his words and his right to use them to defend a 
democratic cause...." 
 
"Ask to leave, Zelaya" 
 
Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (9-29) by columnist Clovis Rossi 
states: "It is OK to condemn the coup against Manuel Zelaya in 
Honduras. It is also OK that the Brazilian embassy gave him 
shelter...But it is too much to allow the guest to take over the 
house...It is a cowardly and indecent action to call for protests 
while sheltered inside the embassy knowing that those who answer the 
call would be risking their lives...Zelaya is still the legitimate 
president of Honduras...but it is ever clearer that there is not a 
single character in the Honduran drama that any decent person would 
like to invite to their children's birthday party." 
 
"The bridge collapsed" 
 
Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (9-29) by columnist Eliane 
Cantanhde notes: "Brazil has completely lost the ability to deliver 
on one of its strong suits in the resolution in Honduras: leadership 
and mediation.  As it entangled itself passionately defending one of 
the sides, the one of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, the Lula 
administration started a duel with the coup-backed president, 
Roberto Micheletti. ...And so we have the worst of scenarios: 
Micheletti went radical on one side, and Zelaya went radical on the 
other....U.S. policy has been and remains uncertain (to us).  Chavez 
likes to set fires, not to put them out...But Brazil made a huge 
mistake in confronting Micheletti.  Before, it hosted a president 
who had been ousted during a military coup.  Now, it hosts a bomb 
ready to explode." 
 
The embassy and the sidewalk 
 
Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (9-29) by Carlos Heitor Cony 
says: "To what extent did Brazil, on behalf of democracy, meddle in 
the domestic problem of a sovereign country like Honduras?  When the 
U.S. invades sovereign countries such as Iraq, there are complaints 
left and right, and justifiably so.  Does the end justify the 
means?...Brazil is not intending to invade any country; it limited 
itself to granting asylum in its embassy to a domestic politician 
ousted from the presidency in a coup.  And that is fine.  But 
besides asylum, Brazil intends to restore Zelaya to power and that 
may be perceived by Hondurans as an intrusion in the sovereignty of 
that country." 
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