http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/honduras/ en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:07:50 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415216/posts Note: The following text is a quote: Ringleader of International Truck Theft Conspiracy Sentenced to Prison HOUSTON—A Houston man who recruited others to steal and transport millions of dollars of truck tractors, trailers and other heavy equipment to Central America has been sentenced to prison, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. United States District Judge David Hittner sentenced Yuri David Melendez, 43, to a total of nine years in federal prison for his leadership role in the truck theft scheme and in an unrelated narcotics charge during a hearing today. Melendez, who was convicted of conspiracy to export and... Houston.FBI.gov - DOJ Press Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415216/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:07:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414980/posts TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will spend Christmas with his family stuck inside the soldier-ringed Brazilian Embassy where he has been holed up for months after being toppled in a June coup. Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414980/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:24:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412091/posts Honduran President-elect Porfirio Lobo is actively considering a general amnesty for all political activists involved in the June 28 takeover that toppled Jose Manuel Zelaya and triggered an international crisis over the legitimacy of the de facto government that succeeded Zelaya. Lobo was chosen in a Nov. 29 election that itself was marred by controversy because Zelaya, who sneaked back into Honduras from exile in September, conducted a passionate campaign for return to power from the Brazilian Embassy. The takeover deeply divided Hondurans and led to riots, economic dislocation and partial sanctions against the impoverished state. Both the United States... UPI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412091/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:52:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410502/posts WASHINGTON — The United States will soon resume issuing visas to Hondurans it barred after president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a June coup, Republican Senator George LeMieux said Thursday. Citing a letter he received from the US State Department announcing the measure, LeMieux told reporters that "visa procedures will be normalized... very quickly." Temporary visas for Hondurans to visit the United States were suspended in August amid an international outcry over Zelaya's ouster. Honduras last month held elections won by Porfirio Lobo, who is slated to replace Zelaya and the de facto regime in January. Washington backed an agreement... AFP via Google http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410502/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:07:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410126/posts Diario de America (note- Machine translation from Spanish) "Rigged States Organization" By Luis Marín The OAS is well aware, in any of the instances, what is the state of human rights in Venezuela, as does also on Cuba, even though that country is full member of the organization. It does not take in all the visit of any committee "in loco" for what he need to contact a group of experts who could do their job and report much better documented and more credible than the same inter-American commission, so permeated by political and ideological interests of the respective governments.... Diario de America http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410126/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:26:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407397/posts Given the challenges that President Obama faces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, China, and elsewhere, the fact that he has thus far neglected Latin America is hardly surprising or scandalous. Obama has committed several unforced errors in the Americas, however, most notably in Honduras, and his relatively weak performance has raised concerns about declining U.S. influence. Obama's Latin America policy has evolved through four stages. During stage one, Obama practiced what might be called Sally Field diplomacy ("You like me!"), marveling over his own popularity in the region while trying to make nice with both friendly and adversarial... Weekly Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407397/posts#comment Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:48:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407313/posts Porfirio Lobo, Honduras president elect, said on Sunday he is committed to enable ousted president Manuel Zelaya to leave the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he remains under refuge following a frustrated attempt last week. Honduras now made it clear what it will accept: "It was decided at the highest level of government: it will be a territorial asylum and he may not go to any nation which borders Honduras, ie that is in Central America," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Milton Mateo. According to the Honduran government, Zelaya will not be allowed to travel to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua... Brazzil Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407313/posts#comment Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:37:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406011/posts QUESTION: And my second question is whether the U.S. is surprised at all of the passion, the people reacted before on Honduras. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: On your second question, your question is a very valid one because there really are strong passions on both sides; there’s no question about that. And it does show a certain degree of ideological polarization in the world, and you see it in many capitals. You see it here in Washington. It became a domestic problem as well in terms of Honduras. You see it very much in Spain and in other places. So I’m... U S State Department http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406011/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:11:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405340/posts Our weapon is the vote," a man named Randolfo tells me. We are standing outside a school called La Vida Abundante in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It is Sunday, November 29, Election Day and this is one of the polling places. Outside each class room is a list of all the people who are to vote there. Inside, representatives of the five political parties check the IDs of voters and give them three ballots, one for the Presidential race, one for the mayoral race and one for the Congressional races ( more complicated because each voter can vote for up to 23... Denver Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405340/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:03:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405331/posts BRASILIA, Brazil — Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he will leave the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras by Jan. 27, when his presidential term ends...Zelaya said in the telephone interview with Globo TV that he wants to leave soon but did not say where he will go. He has been holed up in the embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa for three months under threat of arrest if he sets foot outside the building. Zelaya's comments aired a day after Honduras' coup-installed government said he is free to leave the country, but not as president. The top-ranking Brazilian official... Google AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405331/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:52:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404986/posts Americans take many things for granted: our high standard of living, our low infant mortality rate and our democratic government, to name a few. Witnessing firsthand the 2009 Honduran presidential election reminded me of all these things. I am particularly struck by how fragile democracy truly is. Despite fears of violence, unrest and calls to boycott the election, Hondurans came to the polls in droves. They elected Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo as their next president. We may be tempted to dismiss that news. Elections happen all the time, right? But we should all extend our deepest congratulations to the good people... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404986/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:05:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404914/posts TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' coup-installed government says ousted leader Manuel Zelaya is free to leave the country, but there's a catch: Zelaya can't go as president, and he says he won't go as anything else. And so he remained holed up Thursday in the Brazilian Embassy, where he has been staying since he slipped back into the country three months ago. If he sets foot outside the building, the leaders who ousted him have vowed to arrest him on charges of treason and abuse of power. They appeared to be softening their stance on Wednesday when they initially responded positively... AO - via Atl Journal & Constitution http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404914/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:24:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404439/posts Plans for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to leave for exile in Mexico have been postponed, the government of Honduras has said. Sources close to Mr Zelaya had said he was about to leave Brazil's embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Mr Zelaya was removed from power in June and forced into exile but later returned and has taken refuge in the embassy for almost three months. Officials said Mr Zelaya had to apply for political asylum before leaving. He insisted he would not do so. Porfirio Lobo won presidential elections late last month and the Honduran Congress voted not to... BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404439/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:45:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404277/posts Honduras' interim government says it has authorized ousted President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country and go to Mexico. Foreign Ministry spokesman Milton Mateo says the safe-conduct pass was signed and would be delivered to the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya has been holed up since sneaking back into the country Sept. 21. Mateo said Wednesday night that the Mexican government has sent an airplane to pick up Zelaya and his family. Another official of the interim government's Foreign Ministry said Mexico requested that Zelaya be given safe conduct to leave. A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404277/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:26:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403965/posts Representatives for Honduras tourism announced this morning that the U.S. canceled all pending travel alerts to Honduras yesterday. The Department of State issued a travel alert in July, stating “The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras, and recommends that American citizens defer all non-essential travel to Honduras until further notice.” The alert was issued shortly after Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya and sent him out of the country. However, on November 29, the Honduran people peacefully elected their new president – Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, who will take office on... Travel Agent Central http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403965/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:31:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403839/posts According to an Associated Press report, “Obama declared that the United States still considers Manuel Zelaya to be the president of Honduras and assailed the coup that forced him into exile as ‘not legal.’ ” So the question arises, why would Obama refer to Zelaya’s ouster as an “illegal coup?” As the AP reminds us, “The term ‘coup’ is defined as ‘a sudden, decisive exercise of power whereby the existing government is subverted without the consent of the people.’ When a country’s legally and democratically elected government ‘removes’ an individual, using the processes outlined in its Constitution, it is not... The New Media Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403839/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 17:46:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403122/posts Gunmen in Honduras have shot dead the head of the country's anti-drug trafficking operations.Police said retired Gen Julian Aristides Gonzalez was travelling in a car in the capital, Tegucigalpa, when attackers on a motorcycle opened fire. Honduras is a major route for drugs smuggled from South to North America. The nation, mired in political crisis since President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in June, also has one of the highest murder rates in the region. Gen Aristides, director general of the national office for combating drug trafficking, was travelling by car through Tegucigalpa when two attackers on a motorcycle opened fire,... BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403122/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 20:43:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401890/posts Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald wrote an intriguing piece recently on the splash effect of the coup, or crisis, or whatever term least offends someone of Honduras’ new leadership and recent election, and how the major powers in Latin America have tried unsuccessfully to remedy the situation. Oppenheimer argues that the US, Brazil and the OAS have all succeeded in failure in their own unique ways. Failure for the three comes as follows. For Brazil, its “hypocrisy” of recognizing Iran’s and Cuba’s undemocratic leadership, while criticizing Honduras’ recent elections. For the US, the “flip-flopping” that comes with a constant... Foreign Policy Association http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401890/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 07:47:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401885/posts Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya said on Sunday that he would stay in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital for as long as Brasilia allowed him to and that he would be willing to talk to the new president-elect. Leftist Zelaya, who was ousted by the army in a coup on June 28, slipped back into Honduras in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he has been demanding his reinstatement. The United States and Brazil have been pushing for Zelaya's return to power but his fate remains uncertain after the Honduran Congress voted... Reuters Via Yahoo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401885/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 07:26:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401359/posts As members of a gang of kidnappers, assassins and robbers were investigated two of the five victims who on 1 December were found floating in the waters of the Ulua River in the area of Pimienta. In the place were found the bodies of two women and two men, who were naked and bound hand and foot. The bodies decomposed, they would have been dropped from the 28 November. Officials of the National Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DNIC) have not publicly released the identities of two of the victims, but it is presumed there are two individuals who belonged to... Tiempo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401359/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 04:53:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400888/posts PANAMA CITY, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 25th Ordinary Assembly of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) decided on Friday to suspend the Honduran Congress from it, for supporting the coup against ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Most of the Latin American deputies voted in favor of the suspension, Parlatino Executive Secretary Humberto Pelaez from Columbia said. "The suspension measure was approved by 103 votes in favor, three against and seven abstentions," Pelaez told a press conference after the Ordinary Assembly in Panama City. Pelaez urged the Honduran congressmen to think over and work to reinstate the constitutional order in their... China Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400888/posts#comment Sat, 5 Dec 2009 12:59:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400884/posts There is wide agreement that last week’s presidential election in Honduras, won by the conservative leader Porfirio Lobo, was clean and fair. But it doesn’t settle the country’s political crisis, nor the question of how the world should treat Honduras. snip Despite all the missteps, Honduras’s military and militaries across the region need to know that coups will not be tolerated. Hondurans need to be able to move on and rebuild their democracy. New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400884/posts#comment Sat, 5 Dec 2009 12:48:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400338/posts 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... Latin American Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400338/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 17:53:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400098/posts TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Where does Manuel Zelaya go now? Congress slammed the door on restoring the ousted Honduran leader to power, ignoring intense international pressure to reverse Central America's first coup in 20 years. He faces arrest if he leaves the Brazilian Embassy, where he stays up into the night talking on the phone, sleeps until noon and fires off letters to world leaders, urging them not to forget him. Seeking asylum would return him to the exile he faced when soldiers ejected him from the country in his pajamas. He vows not to do that — for now. His... AP via Google http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400098/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:07:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2399672/posts The US has said it is disappointed by the Honduran Congress's decision not to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya for his remaining two months in office. Honduran lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was removed from office in June, to serve out his term. Conservative politician Porfirio Lobo won presidential elections on Sunday. Several neighbouring countries say they will not restore ties unless Mr Zelaya is allowed to finish his term. Following the vote in Congress, Mr Zelaya told the BBC: "This decision ratifies a coup and condemns Honduras to continue living in illegality." Of the 125... BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2399672/posts#comment Thu, 3 Dec 2009 22:07:55 GMT