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Weekly Report - 06 October 2011 (WR-11-40)

HONDURAS: Time slips away for Lobo

President Porfirio Lobo won a coveted meeting with his US peer Barack Obama in the White House on 5 October. For Lobo it marked the culmination of his efforts to see Honduras rehabilitated into the international community. The only trouble is nearly half of his mandate has been devoted to this end and politicians are now openly discussing the next presidential elections in 2013. One name in the frame raises serious concerns about the future of Honduran democracy.


Lobo’s three-day official visit to Washington is an important milestone in his quest for recognition for Honduras, which will continue when he attends the Ibero-American summit of heads of state in Paraguay on 28 and 29 October. Organised crime and regional security were the main issues addressed by Obama during a joint press conference in the White House, but he also praised Lobo’s leadership and his efforts to put Honduras back on the right track after the democratic rupture when Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a coup in June 2009: “What we’ve been seeing is a restoration of democratic practices and a commitment to reconciliation that gives us great hope.” Zelaya himself wrote a public letter to Lobo this week expressing his support to ensure that Lobo’s government went down in history as opening up the possibility of reconciliation

Lobo told Obama that “We have reaffirmed the road to democracy that we are on and that we will continue on.” This road, however, could be very rocky. Zelaya has made it clear that his wife Xiomara Castro will run for president for his re-baptised political outfit Libertad y Refundación (Libre) in 2013. But the real concern is that Romeo Vázquez Velásquez, commander in chief of the armed forces when Zelaya was ousted, is intent on seeking the presidency. Vázquez clearly sees himself as a saviour of democracy rather than a threat to it but his attempt to seek election is indicative of a disturbing move by the military out of the barracks and into public life.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa stands alone among heads of state in condemning the fact that not only has justice not been served for those who orchestrated the coup in Honduras but that many were actually rewarded for their efforts. Vázquez was appointed head of the state telecommunications operator Hondutel. Other retired military officers have been given prominent public positions, inter alia, as head of the national immigration office and the social housing fund (Fosovi). Further military involvement in public life could only be a step backwards for democracy in Honduras.

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