If the USA wanted to look like it had given up support for coups and dictatorships in Latin America, it did just the opposite in the opinions that count. Only incorrigible narco-chavistas in Latin America thought Chavez was the right side, and only a stupid State Department (or a lying one) would say anybody else was worth posturing for.

The best cover for condemning the defense of constitutional democracy is that the U.S. was more interested in its public image among the wrong crowd than it was for doing, or even saying, the right thing.

If there was any doubt, the continued cancellation of visas during January, 2010, by the Obama administration's Clinton-led State Department, way past any "strategic" or "image" justification window, puts the lie to the "image" idea. It invokes the image of the honest little girl who began the chant: The king has no clothes!

Here's the real reason they kept canceling visas to Hondurans with any first-person testimony to the events of 2008. That's how they muzzled the impact of the people most able to tell the truth in detail about the events, and the inevitable interviews stateside with independent local news programs, talk radio, and the Congress.

It was to rob the American people of the voice of facts, and in a real sense to rob those people of the respect for their free speech rights.

Free speech not only benefits the speaker. Even more important, it benefits those who are in listening distance and otherwise would be ignorant of the truth.

Honduras faced off the international socialist mafia alone, and emboldened the forces of freedom in Latin America, and it should take that role boldly. It cannot just leave it to Lobo, let the honest folks charge the country forward..

--Alan

For the sake of accuracy (not political agenda) should not Mr. Zelaya now be referenced as "Former President" Zelaya and not as "Deposed President"? Even if the events of June 27 had never happened, his term would now be over and he would be the Former President.

We need much more of this type of thinking, and not just in Honduras. It is great to promote Honduras as our home but we need to connect that thought with "working together to keep it clean" and "helping our neighbors as ourselves". While most Hondurans I know, happily accept being brother or sister to all other Hondurans, it often seems to be more with the idea of promoting sibling rivalry than really joining together for the benefit of the family.

It seems that Rodas was the power behind the throne and the main idealogue of the attempted Zelaya Revolution in Honduras. During her tenure as Foreign Minister she was unyielding and unbending in her quest to slide Honduras into the ALBA initiative. Her rhetoric was of the strident, forceful and ¨take no prisoners ¨ variety. Her obvious infatuation with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia and their model of government led her and her boss to miscalculate badly in terms of the reaction of the Honduran people to the their initiative. She did not count on the traditional conservative, non-political nature of the vast majority of the Honduran population, be they poor, middle class or rich. Oner must only look to the period of the 1980´s when as the rest of Central America was experiencing violent civil conflicts - Honduras for the most part was a bystander. Sure Honduras was termed Battleship USA back in the day, but the fighting was for the most part conducted by Nicaraguans vs Nicaraguans - the Hondurans merely supplied the logistics and territory. Hondurans historically have never shown much stomach for sustained, hard headed, in your face political and social conflict. Thus after a period of some 20 years highlighted by a distinct lack of political upheaval, the minute a serious political crisis presented itself in Honduras in the guise of the Zelaya affair, the country retreated to it´s 1980´s - ultraconservative, nationalistic mode which it knows all so well - which enabled the historically weak institutions such as the Supreme Court, Attorney Generals Office, etc to take a firm stand against the Mel - Rodas inspired revolution. The Mel - Rodas miscalulation that Hondurans of all stripes would whole heartedly jump on the ALBA bandwagon was a misguided pipedream - Hondurans are not Nicaraguans nor Venezualans nor Bolivians, countries where leftist regimes enjoy widespread popular support. Honduras for the most part just wanted to pull a Greta Garbo - and ¨wanted to be left alone ¨ ... hopefully future disciples of Rodas and Mel will take notice here next time before embarking on a road less traveled which very few Hondurans sought to travel on.

Remember that Hugo Chavez tried a coup in 1992 and got exiled, but came back to power in 1999, only seven years later.

He is poster boy for the new Latin style of coup d'etat that uses fraud instead of a direct military takeover.

The inside story is that while Elvin Santos was still vice president, Zelaya told him he would have Zelaya's support for the presidential candidacy, -IF- he took Patricia Rodas as his vice presidential candidate.

But Elvin Santos had already warned Zelaya against Patricia Rodas, maybe even before her appointment, saying she was trouble with a capital "T", that she was a pure Communist.

So shady back deals are in play, and she was there during that time. In my opinion she was the brains behind the ex-dictator's shenanigans.

--trutherator

www.trutherator.wordpress.com

..And they are still recovering from the blow. It took almost the full six months of the interim government to make some sense of the mess the ex-dictator had made of "official" finances.

Many millions of lempiras are still lost without trace, but the ministers of finance did manage to peg down where much of it did go, and the result are even more criminal charges against Zelaya.

I agree that Honduras is currently in need of international support in the form of individual volunteers, missionary and school groups etc. but clearly in an ideal Honduras, this assistance would not be needed. Although we do have a long way to go in terms of development and stability, I have concerns about 'social tourism' becoming a major money making sector as it could take the pressure off or slowdown government funded development projects. It also has to be acknowledged that this ‘social tourism sector’ should be a sector that will rise in the shorter term but (hopefully) decline in the long term as the need for assistance subsides.

It would be ideal if money brought in country as a result of social tourism could be tracked somehow and reinvested in the specific areas that are bringing in tourists. E.g if there was a way to channel the money brought in by tourists volunteering in schools back into the education system or funding of specific schools. This would most likely have to be in conjunction with larger volunteer groups and specific (preferably Honduran run) in-country projects.

It seems the majority of tourist volunteers come from The States so one has to consider the future dynamic of the relationship between the two countries if the sector is to significantly expand. It is not uncommon for healthy diplomatic relations to spring unnecessary obligations from less stable to more influential governments thus giving these foreign nations unjustified persuasive powers on national political decisions.

…but the fact remains, you cannot fault the volunteers that travel to Honduras despite all the negative press over the past year, solely to help the people of our beautiful country!

It is indeed sad that what could have been a positive force for change has taken such a negative direction. As you correctly point out, the problem with the Resistance has been their focus on people and not on the issues. In one of the last manifestations of the UCD against amnisty, a group of Resistencia was shouting insults against the people of the UCD while they had signs which said NO to Amnisty. I don't think they even realized that both sides agreed on the issue. They just focused on cursing the people. Sad but true.

The Internet and other communications technology gives Hondurans a real tool for positive change. I would like to suggest that the reality of being able to show the entire world what we are doing in real time could easily make "the sum of our small individual efforts" into a large collective movement for positive change.
When all the individual efforts can communicate and cooperate in real time, the collective difference can be exponentially increased very easily. We can now decide to be part of an unconventional movement for change or keep our small individual efforts separate and independent and remain part of the landscape.
Honduras has unlimited potential, it only takes Hondurans working together to better utilize their collective resources.

Apparently, Zelaya wants to continue being President from afar and out of time. Hopefully, Lobo's answer signals that he has finally gotten tired of Zelaya and international governments' infinite demands. Canada has been the only country that has said "You've done what you had to do and now we´re here as friends." Thank you.