Arcadia Foundation

Honduras chooses a new president on Sunday in an election that may defuse a crisis caused by the actions of President Manuel Zelaya, but the vote is splitting Washington and Latin America.

Neither Zelaya nor arch-rival Roberto Micheletti, the country’s leader, are running in the election, which could give a new president the chance to take Honduras beyond the political gridlock that has divided the Central American nation and cut off international aid.

“We see the running of these elections — assuming that they’re run in a fair and transparent way — we see them as an essential part of the solution of this crisis,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said this week.

Leftist Zelaya was ousted in June and replaced by Micheletti who has blocked attempts backed by the United States, Latin America and Europe to have the president reinstated.

Zelaya — now holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa — and his supporters argue that recognizing the elections would essentially give the coup leaders victory. Zelaya is urging the vote be rescheduled.

Latin American powers like Argentina and Brazil also say an election organized by Micheletti’s de facto government is not valid, possibly putting them at odds with Washington which looks likely to recognize the vote.

The Organization of American States and the independent Carter Center are not sending observer missions. Human rights groups fear there could be violence.

The two leading candidates have skillfully avoided much talk of the crisis in their election campaigns and hope Honduras will be welcomed back into the international fold after the vote.

Some analysts say under this scenario Zelaya would fade from the headlines.

Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo of the conservative opposition National Party, has emerged as the frontrunner in the election.

In an October poll by CID-Gallup, Lobo was 16 points ahead of his closest rival, Elvin Santos from Zelaya and Micheletti’s Liberal Party.

A wealthy landowner who lost the 2005 election to Zelaya, Lobo is seen backing investment-friendly policies if he wins.

“Today begins the turning of a new page in Honduran history. We should leave behind differences and unite together to look forward,” Lobo said.

Many Hondurans are tired of the crisis and want to move on.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday upon his return from a visit to Latin America and Africa that “a new movement has started to free the world from domination of a few bullying states.”

The IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that that signs, bases and strong points of order and developments in the new world should be identified. He added that the world was speedily changing and the new world was being formed.

“Signs and evidence show that a few domineering governments have not been able to solve problems and address public demand,” the Iranian president added.

Ahmadinejad received a warm welcome on Wednesday from his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, who used the visit to brand Israel as a murderous agent of Washington.

The Venezuelan singled out a comment by President Shimon Peres, during a visit this month to South America, that his and Ahmadinejad’s days in power may be numbered.

“We know what the state of Israel stands for – a murderous arm of the Yankee empire,” Chavez told joint news conference. “What the president of Israel said, we take as a threat.”

Huang Qi, founder of Tianwang Center for Missing Persons (later renamed as Tianwang Human Rights Center), was sentenced to three year imprisonment on November 23 in Chengdu Wuhou district court for “illegal possession of state secrets” in connection with material published on his website.

According to BBC’s report, Huang’s wife Zeng Li, said the verdict was “revenge” for his involvement in the earthquake cases as the information he possessed is available to the public. And Amnesty International said Huang was a victim of China’s “vague” state secrets laws and urged for his immediate release.

The Tianwang website was initially set up to help counter human trafficking problem in China in 1998, but later it was expanded to include campaign against human rights abuse. After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Huang helped the parents who lost their children because of the bean dreg construction problem and gave advice to the families of five dead children who wanted to bring a legal case against the local authorities following the earthquake. Huang was taken by the police in Chengdu in June 2008 and has been held in custody ever since.

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