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Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald wrote an intriguing piece recently on the splash effect of the coup, or crisis, or whatever term least offends someone of Honduras’ new leadership and recent election, and how the major powers in Latin America have tried unsuccessfully to remedy the situation. Oppenheimer argues that the US, Brazil and the OAS have all succeeded in failure in their own unique ways. Failure for the three comes as follows. For Brazil, its “hypocrisy” of recognizing Iran’s and Cuba’s undemocratic leadership, while criticizing Honduras’ recent elections. For the US, the “flip-flopping” that comes with a constant...

Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya said on Sunday that he would stay in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital for as long as Brasilia allowed him to and that he would be willing to talk to the new president-elect. Leftist Zelaya, who was ousted by the army in a coup on June 28, slipped back into Honduras in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he has been demanding his reinstatement. The United States and Brazil have been pushing for Zelaya's return to power but his fate remains uncertain after the Honduran Congress voted...

STERLING, Va. - A close inspection by Customs and Border Protection officers at Dulles International Airport turned up something unexpected. Inside a fully-cooked chicken they found cocaine with an estimated street value of $4,300. The 60.4 grams (2.3 ounces) of coke was found inside two small, clear plastic bags inside the chicken's cavity. Officers discovered the white powdery substance during a secondary inspection after a flight from El Salvador arrived shortly after midnight Saturday. It tested positive for cocaine. "CBP officers have seen many unique narcotics concealment methods, and they all present the same challenges to discover them. Our officers'...

The State Department recognized Porfirio Lobo's victory in Sunday's election but said the Honduran Congress still needed to vote on the restoration of deposed President Manuel Zelaya and form a government of national unity. "While the election is a significant step in Honduras' return to the democratic and constitutional order ... it's only a step and it's not the last step," said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela. Before the election, the United States tried and failed to have Zelaya reinstated. Its support of the election upset many Latin American nations, including powerful Brazil, which called...

Honduras' disputed presidential election is likely to set Washington against emerging Latin American power Brazil over whether to recognize the winner of a vote promoted by the leaders of a June coup. Conservative opposition leader Porfirio Lobo easily won the election on Sunday, but he will struggle to get recognition in Latin America where many leftist governments see the election as a nail in the coffin of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The United States has tried and failed to have Zelaya, a leftist, reinstated and now looks resigned to backing the election as the best way for Honduras' to get...

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras' Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that ousted President Manuel Zelaya cannot legally return to office, dimming the possibility of his reinstatement after a June coup, court sources said. The Court did not release the full text of its non-binding ruling, but a court source and a lawyer close to the proceedings said it closely follows earlier decisions upholding Zelaya's ouster after he moved to change the constitution.

Note: The following text is a quote: Three Convicted in International Truck Theft Conspiracy Sentenced to Prison HOUSTON—Three men who conspired to steal and transport millions of dollars of truck tractors, trailers and other heavy equipment to Central America have been sentenced to prison, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Rito Jasso-Zorilla, 32, Victor Antonio Garcia, 27, and Orlando Gonzalez Huerta, 29, all citizens of Mexico, were sentenced by United States District Judge David Hittner this morning for their respective roles in assisting Yuri David Melendez, 42, of Houston, with the far-reaching scheme. Beginning in 2001, Melendez received requests...

Church members from Utah and abroad gathered on Friday to hear some Book of Mormon stories their teachers have never told them. The lessons centered around Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Guatemala, as the most likely setting for Book of Mormon peoples and events at the 7th annual Book of Mormon Lands Conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City. The conference drew 280 attendees — the conference’s biggest crowd ever — as a result of key speakers such as Dr. John L. Lund, Joseph Allen and Jerry L. Ainsworth, said Stephen L. Carr, senior vice president of the...

(English-language translation) Sao Paulo - High-level officials with the Brazilian government are accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "orchestrating" the plan for the return of deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, who is sheltered at the Brazilian Embassy, the local press reports. Advisors to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Foreign Ministry interviewed by Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado pointed out that the "infrastructure, the logistics, and the advice to specifically seek the Brazilian Embassy" for Zelaya's clandestine return were prepared by Chávez. Zelaya's unexpected bursting into Brazil's diplomatic legation has caused an unprecedented and hard-to-resolve conflict, since...

EGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras' de facto leader vowed on Friday that no country will push the small Central American nation around Roberto Micheletti, said Honduras had enough basic foodstuffs to endure economic sanctions if it were further isolated over the coup. "We don't accept anyone imposing anything on us.

Honduras was on a collision course with one of the region’s most powerful leaders last night after its government tried to expel Venezuelan diplomats for meddling in the country’s affairs. The diplomats, backed by Venezuela’s leftist President, Hugo Chávez, vow to stay on in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, defying a government that they regard as illegal. “It is a de facto government, led by a coup and supported with bayonets,” Ariel Vargas, the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires, said after the interim administration of Roberto Micheletti, who came to power in a military coup last month, ordered the Venezuelan envoys to leave...

Honduran officials are investigating allegations that President Manuel Zelaya and his chief of staff stole millions of dollars from the central bank before the military ousted Mr. Zelaya last month, according to a senior Honduran official, government documents and other evidence.

Nicaraguan Congress members and opposition party members asked Zelaya to either refrain from calling for civil war and unrest in Honduras or to leave their country...and to stop telling people that he was going to lead the insurrection with Nicaraguans...because it isn´t going to happen...they also reminded him he is a guest and he needed to respect them a bit more...and to kindly go to Venezuela where they might take to his war yelps a little better...looks like Nicaragua woke up finally.

In a high-stakes move to reclaim his post, ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya tried to fly to this Central American nation on Sunday. The provisional government said it would turn the aircraft away, even as it signaled a new willingness to negotiate a solution to the region's biggest political crisis in years. Honduras' civil aviation director said Mr. Zelaya's plane was being redirected to El Salvador. Mr. Zelaya, a leftist kicked out by Honduras' army last week in his nightshirt, departed from Washington to Tegucigalpa on an aircraft believed to belong to Venezuela's government. He was accompanies by the U.N....

Honduras says Nicaragua has troops moving on border 05 Jul 2009 20:20:26 GMT Source: Reuters TEGUCIGALPA, July 5 (Reuters) - Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday Nicaraguan troops were moving to the mutual frontier and urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to respect Honduran sovereignty. He gave no further details about troop movements in Nicaragua which shares a border with Honduras to the southeast of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Military ordered to turn back Zelaya's jetBy WILL WEISSERT and NESTOR IKEDA – 1 hour ago TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' ousted President Manuel said he was getting on a flight home to reclaim his post on Sunday, accompanied by the U.N. General Assembly president and a group of journalists. The interim government said it ordered the military to prevent the landing of Zelaya's plane. If turned away, it will likely land in El Salvador, where a separate flight was headed with Latin American leaders who support Zelaya's reinstatement. Thousands of protesters were gathering in the capital of Honduras in...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 4 -- Although the U.S. government knew for months that Honduras was on the brink of political chaos, officials say they underestimated how fearful the Honduran elite and the military were of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Rumors were buzzing in the capital that the fight between Zelaya and his conservative opponents had reached the boiling point, but diplomatic officials said the Obama administration and its embassy were surprised when Honduran soldiers burst into the presidential palace last Sunday and removed Zelaya from power... The overthrow, and the new Honduran...

BOGOTA – The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States. "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol. "We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in...

Those promises remain largely unfulfilled. Corruption has dogged his government with several officials accused of taking kickbacks. He doubled the minimum wage but most businesses have refused to pay it, saying they can't afford it amid a global financial crisis. And violence has surged, rising 25 percent from 2007 to 2008 to make Honduras one of Latin America's deadliest countries. [snip] His government declared it had the right to monitor phone conversations, though officials say they stopped tapping after a month because of the public outcry. Zelaya has been embroiled in disputes with media outlets, accusing them of criticizing his...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Soldiers stormed the house of leftist President Manuel Zelaya in a predawn raid Sunday, arresting him and removing him from power amid a growing crisis over Mr. Zelaya's plans to try to get re-elected. Mr. Zelaya called the action a kidnapping, and said he was still president of Honduras... The Honduran Congress named its leader, Roberto Micheletti, to replace Zelaya following his military ouster and forced exile in Costa Rica. A resolution read on the floor of Congress accuses Mr. Zelaya of "manifest irregular conduct" and "putting in present danger the state of law," a reference to...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km west from Caracas June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files) Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in...

Senior U.S. official says the Obama administration sees Zelaya as the only constitutional president of Honduras after coup.

The Honduran Army has ousted and arrested Chavez pal, and Obama supporter, President Manuel Zelaya. According to the Reuter's report: The Honduran army ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to seek another term in office. ~~~ Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chavez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America -- said he would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally. A military plane flew Zelaya to Costa Rica and CNN's Spanish-language channel...

Soldiers seized the national palace and sent President Manuel Zelaya into exile in Costa Rica on Sunday, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum. Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said he was victim of a coup. The Supreme Court said it was supporting the military in what it called a defense of democracy, and the Honduran ambassador to the Organization of American States said the military was planning to swear in Congressional President Roberto Micheletti to replace Zelaya. Zelaya was arrested shortly before polls were to open in a referendum on whether to change the constitution. The...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - More than a dozen soldiers arrested President Manuel Zelaya and disarmed his security guards after surrounding his residence before dawn Sunday, his private secretary said. Protesters called it a coup and flocked to the presidential palace as local news media reported that Zelaya was sent into exile. The chief executive was detained shortly before voting was to begin on a constitutional referendum the president had insisted on holding even though the Supreme Court ruled it illegal and everyone from the military to Congress and members of his own party opposed it. Zelaya was taken into military...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The military arrested Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Sunday morning, the same day he vowed to follow through with a referendum that the country's Supreme Court had ruled illegal, local media reported. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to an unknown destination, the newspaper La Prensa reported. -snip-

**BREAKING NEWS** Honduran president arrested (UPDATED) 11:00 AM - According to the newspaper La Prensa, Zelaya was put on a plane with his family and may be on his way to Venezuela, but this was denied by Zelaya's wife who said that she and her children are not with him. Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro, told journalists that she doesn't know where her husband is being held. June 28 - Honduran president José Manuel Zelaya, an ally of Hugo Chávez and the Castro brothers, was arrested on Sunday morning by soldiers. Zelaya had pledged to go forward with a referendum on...

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama expressed deep concern on Sunday at the Honduran military's arrest and expulsion of President Manuel Zelaya from the country. "As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama said in a statement. "Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference," he said. (Editing by Patrick Rucker)

URGENT -- Venezuela's Chavez says he will act militarily if the country's ambassador to Honduras is attacked or kidnapped during coup. BULLETIN -- VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT CHAVEZ WARNS OF MILITARY ACTION AGAINST HONDURAS. Venezuelan president Chavez says he will do "everything necessary" to abort the military coup in Honduras.

PANAMA CITY – Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama's presidential election in a landslide Sunday, promising to guide the country through the world economic crisis and an ambitious expansion of the Panama Canal. The win by Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, marked a rare center-right election triumph in a region that has seen a wave of leftist leaders. Electoral Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli the "indisputable winner" after preliminary results showed him with 61 percent support and governing party candidate Balbina Herrera with 37 percent. Former President Guillermo Endara was a distant third. The winner was...

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Swine Flu Fallout: Cheap Vacation Deals May 5, 2009 Health officials are seeing some evidence that the spread of swine flu may be starting to ebb. That’s obviously good news from a public health perspective — but it also means that travel bargain hunters may want to take a closer look at booking deals to destinations hit hardest by the hype...

March 4, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crm-189.html Colombian Paramilitary Leader Extradited to the United States to Face U.S. Drug Charges WASHINGTON – Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, a/k/a "El Mellizo," was extradited today from Colombia to the United States to face narcotics trafficking charges, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the indictment, Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, together with his twin brother Victor, led a major Colombian narcotics trafficking organization known as "the Twins" or "Los Mellizos" Organization. Victor...

In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a...

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa says Quito may buy weapons from Iran to enable the tightening of security on its border with Colombia. "We have a very serious problem on the northern border with Colombia, an irresponsible government that does not take care of its… border," AFP quoted Correa as saying on Saturday. "We need to equip ourselves… Iran can supply us and help us with credit," the president explained

Immigration law enforcement has been a key ingredient contributing to the success of criminal gang suppression efforts in many jurisdictions across the United States. Since 2005, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than 8,000 gangsters from more than 700 different gangs as part of a special initiative known as Operation Community Shield. This effort has produced incalculable public safety benefits for American communities, despite being criticized periodically by immigrant and civil liberties advocates that are consistently opposed to all immigration law enforcement. Local governments and law enforcement agencies that shun involvement in immigration law enforcement...

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday. Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States.

(English-language translation) Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives approved last night a $465 million fund included in the Mérida Plan to fight drug-trafficking in Mexico and Central America. The initiative, which President George W. Bush proposed in October of last year, was appproved with 416 votes in favor and 12 against, legislative sources said. The approval includes a total of $400 million for Mexico and $65 million for Central American countries. "The Congress has reached an agreement to support the first year of the initiative meant to fight drug-trafficking and the violence it generates," said Democrat Howard Berman, Chairman...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's Senate has voted unanimously to remove criminal penalties for undocumented migrants. Some officials acknowledge that harsh immigration laws here have weakened Mexico's argument for better treatment of its own migrants in the United States. Monday's measure must still be approved by the lower house, which passed a different version earlier. Current law establishes punishments of one-and-a-half to six years in prison, but such penalties are seldom applied. Undocumented migrants are simply deported. The proposed new law would make undocumented immigration a minor offense punishable by fines of about $475 to $2,400. Most of Mexico's undocumented migrants...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - Costa Rica has rejected a political asylum request by a Colombian presidential confidante accused of having ties with right-wing paramilitaries. The Foreign Ministry says that former Sen. Mario Uribe's request is inadmissible based on information shared with them by Colombian prosecutors. Uribe is a second cousin and close ally to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Colombia's chief prosecutor ordered Mario Uribe's arrest on Tuesday -snip-

ARRIAGA, Mexico — For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. starts here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call The Beast. But these days many don't get too far. Central Americans without documents now face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks. The result: The number of non-Mexican migrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005, despite increased detention...

ARRIAGA, Mexico - For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. starts here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call The Beast. But these days many don't get too far. Central Americans without documents now face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks. The result: The number of non-Mexican migrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005, despite increased detention...

Foreign News Report The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider. La Hora (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 2/19/08 A profound crisis of violence in Guatemala was denounced in a report presented yesterday to a visiting special representative of the U.N.'s Secretary General. The report by the Myrna Mack Foundation shows there were 25,700 violent deaths in Guatemala in the last five...

MIAMI - At the end of Nicaragua's civil war, Juan Gregorio Rodriguez traded his life as a Contra rebel for that of auto mechanic in Florida. He kept in touch with other rebels and supported their political efforts, but mostly from afar. That changed in 2006, when the Contras' nemesis, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, was elected president, 16 years after his Soviet-backed government lost power in a vote that ended the guerrilla conflict in which some 30,000 people died.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega may appear too insignificant to create U.S. security risks from his tiny, impoverished nation. But the leftist's growing alliance with Tehran tells another story. Ortega is the same Marxist Sandinista leader that Ronald Reagan in 1989 dubbed "the unwanted animal at the garden party... Ortega had shot his way to power, forged an alliance with Cuba and ignited a long civil war. He was surprised when Nicaraguan voters unceremoniously threw him out in 1990. Since then, Ortega has changed his tune...He now calls himself a social democrat, and he lowered his anti-American rhetoric to win a...

Iran making push into Nicaragua Web Posted: 12/18/2007 10:25 PM CST Todd Bensman Express-News MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses. "This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our permission...

Editor’s Note: By participating in the historic Spanish-language debate on Univision, Republican candidates finally realized that they need Latino votes. But is it “too little, too late?" NAM editor Elena Shore monitors Spanish language media. The first Spanish-language Republican presidential candidate debate couldn’t have come at a better time for the GOP. Latino support for the Republican Party has dropped substantially when the Latino vote is more important than ever. The candidates’ jostling over who is tougher on immigration has alienated Latinos even further. Seven of the eight Republican presidential candidates showed up at the University of Miami Sunday with...

TeamTancredo.org has released a new video...CONSEQUENCES

America's only socialist senator traveled to Costa Rica last week, but it wasn't to work on strengthening ties between our two nations. Vermont's Bernie Sanders went to San José with Rep. Mike Michaud (D., Maine) to aid the local opposition to the U.S-Central American Free Trade Agreement, which has not yet been ratified by that country. The congressional visit was strategically timed. As one of seven signatories to Cafta, and the only one that hasn't made it official, Costa Rica has only until Feb. 29 to adopt ...the pact. But first it must be ratified... The Costa Rican Congress has...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Managua Nicaragua (LifeNews.com) -- The Supreme Court in Nicaragua is expected to issue a ruling on the nation's abortion ban in the next two weeks. The Central American nation adopted the complete ban last November that prohibits all abortions, including those for rape and incest or to save the life of the mother.Abortion advocates, led by the New York-based Americas for Human Rights Watch, have taken the law to court.The nation's high court is expected to deliver a decision in the case soon and it could result in the undermining of other pro-life laws in...