Well, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this story. Some things from this article that jumped out at me:
“The Obama administration has been firm in condemning the coup and demanding my restitution. I do not see reasons to believe that the Obama administration has two faces,” Zelaya said.
“Now, there are some elements of the CIA that could have been involved. When they took me by plane to Costa Rica, it was a short flight but the plane made a stop at the Palmerola air base to refuel,” he added. “Palmerola is a base administered by Honduran and U.S. troops. If it was a short flight, some 40 minutes, why did they have to refuel at Palmerola base?”
Okay, MAYBE it's a little suspicious that they stopped for gas on a 40-minute flight, but there could be lots of reasons. I doubt that the CIA had any "overt covert" participation in the coup, given the fact that historically, we haven't been very good at staging coups in this region without the heat coming back on us. Then again, the way these drama-queen leftist leaders are out here, it's inevitable that anything bad that happens to them or their country is automatically going to be blamed on the U.S., so either way the U.S. is gonna take heat for these kind of things...so maybe I'm wrong.
Patricia Valle, who served as Zelaya’s deputy foreign minister, reiterated those suspicions Saturday, although she gave no evidence that American personnel at the base interacted with the Honduran military officials on the plane or that they even knew Zelaya was there. She said Zelaya stayed on the plane during the stop.
“Zelaya was taken to Palmerola,” Valle told AP. “The United States was involved in the coup against Zelaya.”
Oh, well that answers THAT question. You know, considering she was the FOREIGN MINISTER to this guy, and Obama has become one of his strongest (if not most unlikely) allies, you would think Valle would hold her tongue a little more. But, if there's one thing I've learned about Latin American politics, it's that these people can go as far as referring to the leader of the free world as the devil himself, and we continue to pour billions of dollars into this region via humanitarian aid and oil purchases, and in Obama's case, it seems that once he's already turned the other cheek, he turns around and gives them two more to slap.
Micheletti voiced his own anger over Washington’s stance on the coup, saying he hoped U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens would not return to Honduras from a trip abroad. The U.S. Embassy has said Llorens left Honduras temporarily for personal reasons and has not been withdrawn from his post.
“I understand he is on vacation, so I hope he doesn’t come back,” Micheletti said Saturday during a meeting with more than 3,000 army reservists in the northern city of San Pedro Sula.
Okay, THIS was the only part of the article that did surprise me. If the USG won't recognize the new government and is demanding the
reinstatement of Zelaya as a precondition to a return to normal relations, why WOULDN'T we pull our ambassador? This "personal reasons" thing is a little sketchy, and a helluva time for the ambassador to be taking a vacation. I dunno, if actions really do speak louder than words, all ours are saying is that we are really wishy-washy on the whole situation.