28 January 2010
Honduran Leader’s Inauguration Helps End Political Turmoil
Washington — A U.S. delegation met with Porfirio Lobo Sosa in Tegucigalpa for private talks the day before he was sworn in as president January 27, which effectively ended a seven-month political crisis that began when army officers ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, speaking with reporters from his car at the presidential palace January 27, said Lobo clearly set forth in his inaugural address the pressing need for national reconciliation and unity.
“Things are moving very much in the right direction. A truth commission is going to be installed soon and quickly,” Valenzuela said.
Following Lobo’s swearing-in by Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of the Honduran National Congress, the new president immediately signed a decree granting political amnesty to those who were involved in the country’s political crisis and also made it possible for Zelaya, whose term in office officially ended January 27, to leave the country safely for exile in the Dominican Republic.
“The Honduran family begins [the process] of reconciliation,” Lobo said in a speech at the national stadium in the capital, Tegucigalpa, according to news reports.
Valenzuela told reporters that the United States urged the Honduran government to restore democratic and constitutional order as rapidly as possible as required by the conditions of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. That accord, worked out months earlier, required Honduras to establish a truth commission, national reconciliation and national unity.
Zelaya was arrested June 28, 2009, flown to nearby Costa Rica, and replaced by a de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti. The United States supported efforts by the Organization of American States to broker a solution to the political crisis through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton dispatched several senior U.S. diplomats to Tegucigalpa to help the two sides overcome the obstacles to a political solution. Zelaya and Micheletti agreed on October 30, 2009, to allow the Honduran Congress, with authorization from the country’s Supreme Court, to decide whether Zelaya should be allowed to return to power and whether to allow him to serve until his term ended January 27. It also called for a truth commission to investigate the events that led to the coup. The Supreme Court denied permission for Zelaya to serve out his term.
Opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, a rancher from the conservative Nationalist Party, won the November 29, 2009, presidential election, which had been scheduled before the June 28, 2009, coup. The United States recognized Lobo’s election and praised him for quickly saying he will work with a new government to reconcile the issues still confronting the country. The presidential election process began with primaries in November 2008.
For the United States, the election was part of the process of restoring a democratic government to Honduras. Valenzuela said that among the things to be evaluated in the recovery process are restoration of U.S. assistance and funding for anti-narcotics cooperation.
“We’re going to be evaluating these events. We see that things are moving very much in the right direction,” he said. “And if these steps are taken, we’re going to be evaluating our position.”
Valenzuela, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Lobo personally escorted Zelaya and Dominican President Leonel Fernández to the airport for their departure after he hosted a luncheon for foreign guests at the presidential palace. The gesture was intended to show a democratic transition from one president to the next.
President Obama sent a U.S. delegation led by Valenzuela that also included U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens; Jose Fernandez, assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs; and Craig Kelly, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
