Looking for Trouble

U.S. endorses conservative victor in Honduran presidential election

Christmas came early for the conservative victor in Sunday’s presidential election in Honduras. And, unfortunately, it’s the United States who is playing Santa.

The Associated Press reported that Porfiro Lobo, a wealthy and very conservative cattle rancher known affectionately as Pepe, called the race “the cleanest in the history of the country.” Pepe asked nations to recognize his government despite the controversy sparked by the military coup five months ago that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

“We ask them … to see that they are punishing the people who went to vote, do so every four years and have nothing to do with what happened on June 28,” Lobo said, according to AP and other press reports on Monday.

The coup government has been ostracized internationally and most nations have said they would not recognize anyone elected under that coup government. On Tuesday, leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain and Portugal released a statement calling the coup “unacceptable,” saying that reinstating President Zelaya was “a fundamental step” the Central American country needed to take to return to constitutional normality. The leaders of Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica, however, had individually endorsed the election. The statement was released at the end of a three-day Iberoamerican summit in Estoril, Portugal.

“Respect for a democratic way of life has, especially in the Latin American region, a tragic history and because of that we have to defend democracy unconditionally,” Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, told a press conference.

The president of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said all leaders opposed the coup but that “differences centered on how we evaluated the elections and their consequences.” The majority are refusing to recognize the results.

The Obama administration had previously indicated it would not recognize the results of any election unless Zelaya was first restored to power. But last week, the U.S. State Department said it backed the election process as an “essential part” of the solution to the crisis.

U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens went much farther on Monday, calling the election “a great celebration of democracy.”

“Pepe Lobo is a man of great political experience,” Llorens said. “I wish him luck, and the United States will work with him for the good of both our countries. … Our relations will be very strong.”

To its credit, the U.S. State Department did say that negotiations to create a unity government should continue. That unity government would hold power until Lobo takes office Jan. 27. Under a U.S.-brokered pact, Honduran lawmakers will vote Wednesday on whether Zelaya should be restored until Lobo takes office.

Zelaya, however, told BBC on Tuesday that the official turnout figures of some 60% were fraudulent. He also said he would refuse reinstatement even if Congress votes to restore him to serve out his term.

A Honduran political analyst, Eduardo Bahr, said the newly elected president would be a puppet of the United States.

“The winner in these elections has to follow the guidelines of Washington and act as an ideological cap on the progressive ideas in the south of the continent,” Bahr, director of the Honduran National Library and a political observer during the elections, in an interview to news agency TELESUR Monday.

Is this train wreck bound for a banana republic?