State Department changes tack on Honduras
After weeks of little progress, the State Department is reversing its policy of freezing out the de facto regime in Honduras. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both current leader Roberto Micheletti and ousted President Manuel Zelaya over the weekend and a full administration team will travel to Tegucigalpa later this week. The delegation ...
After weeks of little progress, the State Department is reversing its policy of freezing out the de facto regime in Honduras. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both current leader Roberto Micheletti and ousted President Manuel Zelaya over the weekend and a full administration team will travel to Tegucigalpa later this week.
The delegation will consist of Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon, principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Craig Kelly, and National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Dan Restrepo, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday.
The administration has been quietly communicating with the Micheletti regime recently, after initially siding with Zelaya, who has come under criticism for his increasing strange behavior since he returned to Honduras and decided to hide out in the Brazilian Embassy.
After weeks of little progress, the State Department is reversing its policy of freezing out the de facto regime in Honduras. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both current leader Roberto Micheletti and ousted President Manuel Zelaya over the weekend and a full administration team will travel to Tegucigalpa later this week.
The delegation will consist of Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon, principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Craig Kelly, and National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Dan Restrepo, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday.
The administration has been quietly communicating with the Micheletti regime recently, after initially siding with Zelaya, who has come under criticism for his increasing strange behavior since he returned to Honduras and decided to hide out in the Brazilian Embassy.
The new engagement comes as the two battling sides in the Honduran political dispute seem to be nearing an agreement after weeks of intense negotiations.
The delegation "will urge both sides to show flexibility and redouble their efforts to bring the crisis to an end," Kelly said, adding that progress was made as recently as this morning. Clinton decided to get involved after seeing what was then regarded as an impasse last Friday.
Elections in Honduras are planned for Nov. 29 and the need to properly prepare is what’s driving the timeline, according to Kelly.
"In order for it to be seen as legitimate and for the authorities down there to conduct a completely open and transparent electoral process, that there needs to be some time. And this is precisely why we see some urgency in this," he said.
The fate of Shannon’s nomination to become ambassador to Brazil and Arturo Valenzuela’s nomination to replace Shannon hang in the balance as well. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, has said he would release his holds on the two after the administration comes out in support of the elections.
The two sides are working off the San Jose Accord document, but have been stuck on the issue of what Zelaya’s role would be if and when the truce is signed.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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