US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday brushed aside objections of Brazil and neighbors to urge the Organization of American States (OAS) to readmit Honduras following its expulsion in the wake of last year’s coup.
Her appeal exposed the differences US President Barack Obama’s administration still has with its southern neighbors and the difficulties it faces in building cooperative ties with a region long suspicious of Washington.
Nonetheless, the 33 OAS member countries agreed on creating a group of experts that will study the conditions needed for the return of Honduras to the pan-American body, Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In a move that could give a boost to the return of Honduras, he said the group would have until July 31 to present its conclusions.
“It is time for the hemisphere as a whole to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the inter-American community,” Clinton told OAS foreign ministers and other delegates at their annual general assembly in Lima.
South American nations, apart from Peru and Colombia, disputed the election of Porfirio Lobo as president in November last year because the vote was organized by the backers of the June 28 coup that ousted Manuel Zelaya.
However, Clinton said the region saw Honduras elect Lobo in “free and fair elections” and watched the new president “fulfill his obligations under the Tegucigalpa-San Jose accords.”
These included his forming a government of national reconciliation and a “truth commission” to look into events behind the coup, she said.
Brazil, which sheltered Zelaya in its embassy in Tegucigalpa following the coup, has urged countries in the region not to rush into readmitting Honduras.
“Honduras’s return to the OAS has to be linked to specific means for re-democratization and the establishment of fundamental rights and guarantees, Deputy Brazilian Minister of External Relations Antonio de Aguilar Patriota said.
“It is essential to create conditions for former president Manuel Zelaya to fully participate in the political life of Honduras,” Patriota said.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino also took a stand against Lobo: “My government cannot recognize the new government in Honduras while there are violations committed against human rights.”
“Zelaya has to be recognized in his true capacity, with his guarantees in his country, and those who are responsible for the coup, those who broke human rights and democratic guarantees have to be punished for this,” he said.
Venezuela, a Zelaya ally that is also strongly anti-Washington, has opposed readmitting Honduras. And Mexico, a US ally, has yet to throw its support behind the readmission of Honduras.
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