Arcadia Foundation

A lingering political crisis in Honduras seemed to be nearing an end this morning, after the current administration agreed to a deal that would allow Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, to return to office.

The government of Roberto Micheletti, which had refused to let Mr. Zelaya return, signed an agreement with Mr. Zelaya’s negotiators late Thursday that would pave the way for the Honduran Congress to restore the ousted president and allow him to serve out the remaining three months of his term.

The accord came after a team of senior American diplomats flew from Washington to the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on Wednesday to press for an agreement. On Thursday, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., warned that time was running out for an agreement.

Mr. Micheletti appeared to have been persuaded that the warnings were serious. Read Full Paper

A Paris court handed down prison sentences to two businessmen convicted of arms trade with Angola, concluding a case that tried over forty defendants, including senior politicians and civil servants.

The court sentenced French businessmen Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak to six years each for arranging the shipment of weapons valued at $790 million to Angola in the mid-1990s. Mr. Falcone immediately appealed the ruling, his lawyer told the Wall Street Journal. The Moscow-born Mr. Gaydamak, who also has Israeli citizenship, didn’t attend the trial and is the target of an international arrest warrant. His lawyer said he was also considering lodging an appeal. Read Full Paper

United Nations torture expert Manfred Nowak today stated that he would recommend that the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) take action against Zimbabwe after his expulsion from the country.

Zimbabwean officials denied him entry and forced him to board a South Africa-bound plane on Thursday after he was detained by security officials on arrival overnight

Nowak, the UNHRC’ special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, told reporters after arriving in South Africa that his mission had failed.

“I think that it is the end of the mission. I think I have not been treated by any government in such a rude manner than by the government of Zimbabwe. I will not (go) back,” Nowak said. Read Full Paper

“Iran and Venezuela are establishing an oil company named Beniroug which allows us to make investments and activities in other countries, including Cuba, Sudan, China and Bolivia,” Venezuelan Embassy’s First Secretary for Energy Affairs Louis Mayta told FNA on Wednesday.

Mayta also reiterated that Spain, which helped to the settlement of problems in the registration of Iran-Venezuela’s joint company, will host its central office.

Referring to Caracas’s investment in the Iranian oil industries, he said a contract was inked during the latest visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on the basis of which, Caracas will invest in Iran’s South Pars oil and gas filed. Read Full Paper

Mac Margolis of Newsweek has developed an insightful piece on Hugo Chávez and his aspirations of being a freedom-fighter against Hollywood bureaucracy, when in truth, the propaganda machine has simply veered its head towards the bright lights of tinseltown. This move should frankly come as no surprise in the pattern of erratic irrationalism his regime has utilized (courting Hizbullah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stockpiling Russian-made fighter jets and tanks, and giving aid and comfort to Colombian narcoguerrillas). Altough a reference to traffic in the region, Mac is spot-on in stating that “…you have to wonder why anyone believes his rhetoric.” Read Full Paper

The presence of Iran in Latin America was the topic on Capitol Hill in Washington today, as several prominent academics testified at an open hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

The Examiner has reported that testimony was presented by The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, The Honorable Gary L. Ackerman, The Honorable Brad Sherman, Mr. Eric Farnsworth, Ms. Dina Siegel Vann, Mr. Douglas Farah, Mohsen M. Milani, Ph.D., and Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D.

Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas, expressed concern over the potential for Iran to exert a negative and destabilizing influence in a region that desires, but sometimes grapples with, democracy.

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Robert Carmona-Borjas in Globovision, El Heraldo:

El cambio se avecina, a pesar de una aparente desunión de la dirigencia opositora, promovida más bien por los situacionales oficialistas y de todas las trampas que se están montando en el sistema electoral venezolano. Read Full Paper

The party of Zimbabwe’s prime minister said one of its security officials was beaten by the president’s militants Tuesday, and said the attack was part of new violence unleashed because it has stepped back from the governing coalition. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said at a news conference that the official was stopped on her way to party headquarters early Tuesday and beaten by four armed men who said they wanted to arrest her. He said the men were militants from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The men fled when a crowd gathered.

The party also has received reports from rural areas of attacks on its supporters, Chamisa said. He also cited a weekend police raid of a house used by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s supporters as part of a campaign of violence and intimidation. ”We expect this to increase and escalate on a national level,” Chamisa said at a news conference. “We take this very seriously. We are possibly on the brink of another storm of persecution and intimidation.“

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In what can only be seen as a boisterous and misinformed public relations disaster, Manuel Zelaya has today proclaimed he will return to power in the nation of Honduras. Asia One News reports that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said yesterday that he was confident he would eventually be reinstated, despite the collapse of negotiations with President Roberto Micheletti.

“There’s a crisis. How do we get out of it? With an agreement. That agreement… you must have faith, will come. I can’t give you details, but the agreement will come,” Zelaya told Radio Globo at the Brazilian Embassy where he is holed up.

Talks to resolve the political crisis collapsed over the current government’s refusal to reinstate Zelaya, who on Friday rejected Micheletti’s offer to step down if he (Zelaya) gave up his claim to the presidency. Read Full Paper

A former guerrilla fighter jailed for 14 years and an ex-president seem headed for a runoff for the presidency of Uruguay, after neither was expected to capture more than 50 percent of the vote in yesterday’s election. Jose Mujica, a former Marxist Tupamaro guerrilla who was the top vote-getter Sunday, will be challenged by Luis Alberto Lacalle, who served as president from 1990-1995. The runoff will be held November 29. Both candidates predicted victory at separate rallies Sunday night. ”We have ahead of us 30 days that are a fight but are not filled with hate for anyone,” Mujica said at a boisterous gathering in the capital, Montevideo. With 60 percent of the vote counted, Mujica was leading with 47.4 percent of the vote to 29.2 percent for Lacalle, news reports said. Another two candidates trailed with 17.8 percent and 2.5 percent of the vote. Only the top two vote-getters advanced to the runoff. Third-place candidate Pedro Bordaberry conceded defeat, saying he called Mujica and Lacalle to congratulate them. Read Full Paper