The new government of Honduras says it no longer recognizes the charter of the Organization of American States and is withdrawing its membership from the group. Honduras made the announcement late Friday, a day before the OAS was due to vote on suspending the Central American country, following its refusal to adhere to demands by OAS to return toppled President Manuel Zelaya to office. The OAS has called an emergency meeting in Washington on Saturday. The Supreme Court of Honduras told OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza Friday that its decision to oust Mr. Zelaya is irreversible, and that the leftist leader would be arrested if he returned home.
Honduras made the announcement late Friday, a day before the OAS was due to vote on suspending the Central American country, following its refusal to adhere to demands by OAS to return toppled President Manuel Zelaya to office. The OAS has called an emergency meeting in Washington on Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Honduras told OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza Friday that its decision to oust Mr. Zelaya is irreversible, and that the leftist leader would be arrested if he returned home.
U.S. military officials say that U.S. soldiers stationed on Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, home to a United States' Joint Task Force, were ordered to stay on base. The base is located about 100 kilometers from the capital city of Tegucigalpa and houses 500 to 600 U.S. soldiers. Normally, the two military allies would participate in joint exercises and the U.S. military uses the base for counter-narcotics and humanitarian missions.
The base is located about 100 kilometers from the capital city of Tegucigalpa and houses 500 to 600 U.S. soldiers.
Normally, the two military allies would participate in joint exercises and the U.S. military uses the base for counter-narcotics and humanitarian missions.
Honduras may prove to be a tough test. In the past, one U.S. administration after another has trumpeted a new policy, but more often than not, these new approaches have faded away: resisted by career bureaucrats, special interests, or both, and overwhelmed by regional realities or by other concerns. That is what happened, for example, in 1963 when elected President Ramón Villeda Morales was overthrown in Honduras, testing the resolve of the Kennedy administration to implement its announced policy that it would not recognize governments established by force. Washington suspended diplomatic relations immediately after the coup, but restored them less than two months later, recognized and accommodated itself to the anti-Communist military regime. This sequence contributed to the so-called Mann Doctrine of 1964, dropping the U.S. insistence on democracy.
