Supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya demonstrated outside the hotel where agents representing Zelaya and the interim government met with diplomats in Tegucigalpa.
(Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press)
Honduran leaders find allies in GOP
Lobby lawmakers to support coup
Supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya demonstrated outside the hotel where agents representing Zelaya and the interim government met with diplomats in Tegucigalpa.
(Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press)
WASHINGTON - In the three months since soldiers expelled Honduras’s leftist president, the Obama administration and the rest of the world have shunned the Central American country, cutting off aid and travel visas. But the isolated Honduran leadership has found one lifeline: Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Within days of President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster June 28, powerful Hondurans launched a lobbying campaign in Washington, arguing that the leftist leader had been a menace to their country. The Honduran government and its allies have spent at least half a million dollars on public-relations specialists and lobbyists from both parties, including Lanny Davis, a lawyer who worked in President Clinton’s White House.
Although the Hondurans haven’t succeeded in reversing US policy, their arguments have found favor with some Republicans. GOP lawmakers have blocked two of Obama’s key nominations for Latin America, weakening his diplomatic team. In the past week, two Republican delegations have traveled to Honduras to meet with the de facto government, which is not recognized internationally.
Those actions have complicated the strategy of the Obama administration, which has been seeking to impress a growing crop of leftist Latin American leaders with its prodemocracy credentials. The administration is pressing for a negotiated solution to the Honduran crisis and worries that the de facto government is trying to run out the clock until the Nov. 29 presidential elections - with the support of its allies in Washington.
“It gives [the de facto government] this hope you can hang on,’’ said one US official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “It’s not helpful.’’
Republicans say the issue goes beyond Honduras. They maintain they are trying to prevent the spread of a leftist, anti-American ideology promoted by Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chávez - a close ally of Zelaya’s.
“We’ve seen these power-hungry leaders of South and Central America take command and never let go. It’s a worrisome trend,’’ said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. She is a longtime critic of Chávez, but other Republicans who have attacked the US policy have little or no experience in the region. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, for example, is an outspoken Obama foe who had never been to Latin America before leading a delegation to Honduras on Oct. 2.
Skeptics say at least some lawmakers are playing politics.
“It’s about the Republicans using what they can to attack the administration,’’ said Julia Sweig, a Latin American specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s definitely bigger than Latin America.’’
Yesterday, diplomats pushed the two sides of the conflict into direct talks for the first time in nearly three months, but left the country with no commitment from the coup-installed government to reinstate Zelaya.
Members of the delegation sponsored by the Organization of American States characterized the result of their one-day visit - the establishment of a “table of dialogue’’ and an agenda - as a positive step even though the rivals appear as far apart as ever.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
