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Logo by kanawa
Posted on 12/04/2009 9:53:34 AM PST by don-o
TEGUCIGALPA – The National Resistance Front that arose after the June 28 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras has abandoned hope for the restoration of ousted the former president and is focused now on convening an assembly to overhaul the country’s constitution, one of the group’s leaders said Thursday.
“We have closed this chapter on the restoration of President Zelaya, which didn’t take place,” Juan Barahona told Efe the day after Honduran lawmakers rejected reinstatement of the deposed head of state.
The Honduran Congress decisively rejected the restitution of deposed President Mel Zelaya in a vote of 62 to 8, after six hours of debate on Wednesday.
Only 70 of the 128 legislators cast ballots in the evening vote.
The Congress began on Wednesday to debate whether or not to reinstate Zelaya but the powerful National Party announced its support for the June 28 decree whereby he was removed from the presidency, thereby virtually quashing any chance of his return to power.
“We declare ourselves in favor of the ratification of Decree 141/2009 approved on June 28,” said party chief Rodolfo Irias before the full Congress, and the statement essentially closed the door on any reinstatement of Zelaya because the votes of the 55 National Party lawmakers were necessary to return him to power.
“This position is unanimous, removed from any opportunism,” added Irias, the head of the party of Porfirio Lobo, who won the presidential election last Sunday, a balloting result that was rejected by the majority of the international community with the argument that it came about amid a rupture of the country’s constitutional order.
In the days preceding the start of the congressional debate, the possibility had been held out by some that Zelaya might be reinstated if the National Party’s 55 members were to join with around 20 of the 62 members of the Liberal Party – the deposed president’s party and that of the country’s current president, Roberto Micheletti – and the 5 members of the leftist Democratic Unification party.
In any case, Zelaya had said Monday – and Irias noted this fact in his own remarks to Congress – that he would not accept reinstatement even if lawmakers vote this week to restore him to office for the less than two months left in his term.
Meanwhile, after the National Party’s announcement, the Democratic Unification Party reiterated its position Wednesday that Zelaya must be returned to power in accord with the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Agreement.
Zelaya, who has been holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa since slipping back into Honduras September 21, commented a day after Lobo won a presidential election rejected in advance by much of the international community with the conspicuous exception of Washington.
“Restitution under the conditions of legalizing this electoral fraud cannot be accepted by someone such as your servant, who fights for principles,” Zelaya told Radio Globo, vowing to go on “risking everything so the transformations in Honduras do not stop.”
In a telephone interview later Monday with the Quito-based Ecuadorinmediato Web site, he accused the U.S. government of legitimizing the Honduran coup.
President Barack Obama’s administration issued a statement Monday formally recognizing Lobo’s victory and urging Zelaya to engage in dialogue with the president-elect.
Washington had already signaled its intention to recognize the election result and hailed Hondurans for going to the polls.
It is not clear why Zelaya decided to agree to let Congress decide on his reinstatement, as the deposed former president enjoys the support of only about a fifth of the legislators, and Congress had before his ouster already opened an investigation into whether he was mentally fit to govern, voted to disapprove his violations of the Constitution and even members of his own political party voted to replace him with Micheletti after he was ousted.
But, it's good to keep up what the Reds are up to...
Didn’t just have an election and a third guy won.
Wasn’t it pretty much over then.
““Restitution under the conditions of legalizing this electoral fraud cannot be accepted by someone such as your servant, who fights for principles,””
Principles?? Where is the 2 million you stole from a bank, you friggin thief????
The cause of freedom always prevails... Chavez and Obama deeply saddened.
Zero’s diplomatic W/L is 0-12 and climbing.
Now if the U.S.A. could only emulate Honduras in removing an illegitimate president.
Don't forget her Heinous, Hillary.
Right now Honduras reminds me of Finland in December, 1939.
The posts to FR about the Finns resistance to the USSR
speaks volumes of a people who do not want to live in a Marxist-Lennist-Stalinist state.
This “refusal to recognize” by some other LA countries crap will fade away quietly and Ol Mel will at some point be pushed outside the front door at the Brazilian Embassy. That's when the squealing like a pig will be heard.
Take THAT zero!
ROFL Another blow to Obama, I’m loving this !
At least one country in the Western Hemisphere takes its constitution seriously
I guess it’s time for Barack and Hillary to get to Honduras with a bunch or really tough military fold and clean out that Congress.
Next thing Zelaya will be arrested on suffer lead poisoning,by “accident” of course.
BUMP!
The score at this point is voters: 1, congress: 1, OAS: 0
Hey, maybe the OAS can show their true stand on democracy by throwing Honduras out for holding a democratic election, and,
Welcoming Cuba back in to the OAS in advance of Cuba’s fiftieth anniversary of NOT having any democratic elections.
I am confused, is this 2009 or 1984 ???
um.. only 70 congressmen cast their votes?! the score was 111 to 15 that means that 126/128!
These reds...
yes, and I can tell you of a rumor that he has other 170 at his ranch.
I’m inclined to buy the rumor ;-)
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