July 3, 2009 (LPAC)—Two days ago, the emotionally unstable Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, threatened to send troops to reinstate Manuel Zelaya as President of Honduras. On Thursday, Zelaya himself announced that he would be flying back to Honduras today, in the company of OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza and the presidents of Argentina (Cristina Kirchner) and Ecuador (Rafael Correa), to reassume the presidency—which was met by threats from the new Honduran government that they would arrest him on the spot. And the incompetent and delusional President Obama also demanded the immediate, unconditional reinstatement of Zelaya.
Today, cooler heads are beginning to prevail.
The OAS announced that it will be sending a mission to Honduras on Friday to talk to the new government there. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. hopes the OAS can hammer out a compromise between Zelaya and new president Roberto Micheletti, adding that "We think that this process should be allowed to play out." Kelly directly warned Zelaya to not disrupt this process by trying to return to Honduras right away, saying "we would discourage any actions that would prove to be an obstacle to this process reaching its desired outcome."
New president Micheletti also struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he would be "in total agreement" with moving forward the November presidential election, "if it would be a way of resolving these problems."
In a State Department briefing yesterday afternoon, an unnamed "Senior Administration Official" denounced the so-called "coup" against Zelaya, but did admit that what led to Zelaya's ouster was "his proposed non-binding referendum," and that "there will be political discussion in which, obviously, the concerns that led them to take action against the president will be raised."