Isolate and Punish: How Not to End the Honduran Crisis

Ray Walser / October 06, 2009

The Obama Administration’s policy refuses to recognize the way out of the Honduran crisis. The door is open and a solution beckons: national elections on November 29. Yet, the Administration remains fixated on restoring former president Manuel Zelaya to power. In fine bureaucratic fashion, it has lost sight of the solution in order to support an uncertain process of negotiations.

Instead of allowing the Honduran people to speak through elections on November 29 and end the crisis, the Administration makes Zelaya’s restoration to presidential office its primary objective and the litmus test for “a restoration of democracy.”

Since his precipitous return to Honduras on September 21 and entry into the Brazilian embassy for asylum, former president Zelaya has not helped his cause. He has made a number of surreal allegations regarding “Israeli mercenaries” and tortures with “high-frequency radiation.” (more…)