Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
On The Situation In Honduras
September 25, 2009
Mr. Leahy: On Monday, September 21st,
President Manuel Zelaya returned to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for the first
time since he was deposed and exiled in a June 28th coup
d’etat, taking refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. His return has led
to the installation of a curfew, violence between Zelaya’s supporters
and Honduran security forces, and troubling reports of the detention and
physical abuse of his supporters.
I am encouraged by reports that representatives of
Roberto Micheletti, who currently occupies the presidency, have met with
President Zelaya. As divided as these two factions are, these
talks need to continue in order to resolve this situation peacefully
before the country descends into further bloody confrontations between
civilians and police, or it leads to violent fractures within the
military.
I continue to believe that the proposal for the
restoration President Zelaya and early elections, put forward by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, has the best chance of resolving this
conflict. Brute force, like that reported from Honduras this week,
will achieve nothing but further polarization.
If President Zelaya is guilty of violating the law, as
some have maintained, there are constitutional procedures for dealing
with that. But by abusing the law themselves and simply throwing
him out of the country, those who claim to have acted in the interests
of the Honduran people only compounded the country’s problems.
Honduras, an impoverished country that needs the support of the United
States and its neighbors, can ill afford this crisis to continue.
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