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Ties with Honduras unchanged: Presidential Office

Ties between Taiwan and Honduras will not be affected despite the last-minute cancelation of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) scheduled trip to the nation’s Central American ally, the Presidential Office said yesterday.

The announcement came several hours after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was arrested by the military and sent into exile in Costa Rica early yesterday morning.

Because of the recent political upheaval in Honduras, the government had already made contingency plans and canceling the trip was one of them, Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said.

The cancelation will cut the length of Ma’s trip by two days, meaning he will return next Monday, Wang said.

“Because of the current political instability in Honduras, we would not be able to accomplish what we had originally intended during this visit. The president’s security is also another reason why the visit has been called off,” said Wang, stressing the cancelation will not affect bilateral relations between Honduras and Taiwan.

Ma and first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) were scheduled to spend two days in Honduras during his trip to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli on Saturday.

While the international community has condemned the military coup, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said that to date, Taiwan would refrain from making any official comment because of the nation’s unique political situation.

“We will closely monitor the situation,” he said.

The Republic of China embassy in Tegucigalpa has not reported any problems with Taiwanese nationals because of the coup, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

International Cooperation Development Fund secretary-general Chen Lien-gene (陳連軍) said all 20 volunteers, staff members, and conscripts currently in Honduras have been accounted for and are reported to be safe.

A Taiwanese mobile medical team originally scheduled to visit Honduras will also be held back until further notice, he said.

Meanwhile, the ministry said yesterday it had no plans to raise its travel alert for Honduras because there was no widespread upheaval there.

“We will not raise our travel advisory for Honduras, but we are keeping a close eye on the situation,” Chen said.

At the moment, the ministry has in place a “yellow alert” for San Pedro Sula City because of its poor public security. A “yellow alert” is the lowest on the three-color travel advisory scale and serves as a reminder for travelers to exercise caution.

The comments came after the Honduran Congress on Sunday named its speaker Roberto Micheletti as an interim leader, who immediately imposed a 48-hour curfew after hundreds of Zelaya supporters took to the streets in the capital Tegucigalpa and blocked access to the presidential palace, calling for Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Asked whether the ministry would expand its travel alert if the protests escalated, Chen said it was a possibility, but so far the ministry had not considered doing so.

During his stay in Panama, Ma will hold talks with senior officials of the new Panamanian government, visit the Panama Canal, give interviews to the international news media and meet with Taiwanese community leaders.

The first lady will visit a charity organization headed by the new Panamanian first lady.

Following his trip to Panama, Ma will travel to Nicaragua where Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega will drive him to the hub of a bilateral technological cooperation project, which will allow Ma to interact with Nicaraguan citizens.

Ma will also attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a large trade fair to be held in Nicaragua from tomorrow to Sunday, at which many Taiwanese firms are expected to exhibit their latest products.

During the Nicaragua visit, first lady Chow will visit the local branch of World Vision and a development center for physically challenged children.

Ma will make a transit stop in San Francisco en route to Panama and will stop in Hawaii on his way home.

He will be accompanied by a 129-member delegation of government officials, legislators, industry executives, academics, university presidents, local government chiefs, charity group executives and performing artists.

Commenting on the cancelation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be responsible for not offering Ma the latest advice about the impending coup.

DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said Ma called his foreign policy a “diplomatic truce,” but the consequences were that the ministry ignored the maintenance of good relations with the nation’s allies and failed to keep up with the latest information, and had therefore arranged for Ma to visit Honduras even though the political situation had been unstable for a while.

Chen said Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) should step down because of the incident.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, however, defended the ministry’s performance in arranging the president’s trip.

Shuai said the ministry had been keeping an eye on the political scene in Honduras. Shuai said although it was common for coups to take place in Central America, the ministry could not cancel the president’s planned visit until the coup had actually happened.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA, FLORA WANG AND RICH CHANG

Also See: EDITORIAL: The dilemma of Honduras
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