With the political crisis in Honduras deepening and President Barack Obama out of the country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading a U.S effort to restore that country’s ousted president to power.
Clinton on Tuesday is expected to meet in Washington with Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, whose thwarted attempts to re-enter his country since being arrested in his pajamas June 28 unfolded Sunday in a bizarre, international fly-around.
“We do call for his return,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. “We’re just very focused on the need for a dialogue, to restore him back and restore the democratic order.”
Obama started the week in Moscow before heading to Italy for a meeting of world leaders followed by a visit to Ghana. White House officials said he is monitoring the situation in Honduras, which is currently being led by what the State Department terms “a de-facto regime.”
The unfolding crisis is the administration’s first major foreign policy challenge in the Western Hemisphere.
“Obama is clearly giving Clinton the reins,” said Ray Walser, a former foreign service officer and an expert on Latin America at the Heritage Institute. “Somebody needs to step in and talk about the need for cooler heads prevailing.”
Zelaya last month was arrested at his home and detained, before being put on a plane out of the country.
After meeting with U.S. officials, Zelaya attempted to fly from Washington Dulles International Airport to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, but his aircraft and two others were denied landing and the president ended up in Nicaragua.
U.S. officials have deplored the violence attending the coup, which has included troops using tear gas and firing on protesters.
Roberto Micheletti, the interim president who seized power from Zelaya, is threatening to arrest Zelaya for treason and a variety of criminal acts relating to his leadership of the country.
The Obama administration has remained solidly on the periphery of the morass, cutting non-humanitarian aid to the regime and urging a diplomatic resolution that would end with Zelaya back in office.
To that end, the Organization of American States, the United Nations and others were taking the lead in dealing with Micheletti, who appeared so far unwilling to compromise.
Johanna Mendelson Forman, a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she does not expect any unilateral efforts by the Obama administration to resolve the crisis.
During a trip earlier this year to Latin America, Obama expressed his determination to be a less meddlesome neighbor to the region, where America remains mostly unpopular.
“In countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, as well as in other parts of the hemisphere that endured long civil wars, sentiments run deep that political crises must be resolved through democratic mechanisms rather than by military force,” Forman said.
