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Posted Monday, November 09, 2009 12:00 PM

Brazil Loses Face in Honduras Political Fiasco

Mac Margolis
It's not clear who will be running Honduras from now on, but the clear loser in the nation's protracted political crisis is Brazil. Ever since the June ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Brazil has been working to restore him to power. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denounced the "coup makers" at the U.N. in September, just before Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras and took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy. But by allowing Zelaya to use his diplomatic shield to broadcast radio messages from the embassy, Brazil ended up looking like a biased broker--which only worsened tensions by hardening de facto President Roberto Micheletti's resolve to stay in power. So by late October, the U.S. got involved. For Latin Americans, that stung--especially for Lula, who has long tried to thwart U.S. influence in the region. Under the U.S.-backed plan, Honduras's Congress will vote on whether to reinstate Zelaya or hand power to a unity government until his term ends in January. The plan could still fail (as squabbles in Tegucigalpa suggest). If so, other nations might refuse to recognize the Nov. 29 elections. But peace prospects look a lot better since Tío Sam came to Brazil's rescue.
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Member Comments

Posted By: PFigueiro (November 10, 2009 at 4:58 AM)

Brazil loses face in Honduras Political fiasco.......

Why?

Just because we don´t use army....

Like US usualy do...


Posted By: OttoDog (November 9, 2009 at 6:34 PM)

jcmontys (November 9, 2009 at 2:54 PM) wrote:

"Ottodog,

Zelaya is a democratically elected president by the majority of the Honduran citizens. June 28th events are to the civilized and thinking world a coup de etat,  and Micheletti is a dictator."

Democratically elected?  Yes.  Constitutionally removed? Yes, as well.

I really love your simplistic,"Anyone who doesn't see things the way I'd like them to be must be either unthinking or uncivilized" bit.  What a joke.


Posted By: vcast (November 9, 2009 at 5:09 PM)

It's amazing how many people do not really see the reality here I am form honduras and Zelaya is the real wanabe dictator here ,he is the one who wanted to breake the laws change the constitution to his personnal benefit so he could stay in power for ever just like his budies the Castro brothers,Chavez,Corrrea,Morales,and Ortega if this names do not ring any bells to you ,you do not know what is really happening in Latin America.

In Honduras the majority of people know the that most of the people protesting on the street were either paid or from sandinistas or fmln movements from nicaragua and el salvador