Honduras: Zelaya says judge’s ruling imperils reconciliation
Friday, June 17th, 2011[Translation of an article from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for June 16. See original here and a number of related articles here. The “Cuarta Urna,” or “Fourth Ballot Box,” referred to in the article would have added to the general election ballot the question of whether to hold a referendum allowing citizens to decide whether to convoke a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Proponents of the coup d’état against Zelaya claimed the attempted referendum was unconstitutional and provided grounds for removing the president from office.]
Tegucigalpa – Former President of the Republic and coordinator of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) Manuel Zelaya Rosales yesterday denounced a violation of the Cartagena Accord in the form of a judicial rulings against former Minister of the Presidency Enrique Flores Lanza.
Penal court judge Claudio Aguilar sentenced the former minister to house arrest and imposed a fine of 27 million lempiras for alleged misappropriation of funds, which were to be used presumably for promotion of the Cuarta Urna.
Zelaya announced that next Monday, when Flores Lanza is to return to court, he will lead a demonstration to the capital city’s courts, located in the La Granja neighborhood, in support of the former member of his cabinet.
He declared that what happened to Flores Lanza “reflects badly and bodes ill for the hopes and efforts President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has shown for a politial reconciliation among Hondurans and attests to the lack of coherence of the Honduran government, which signed an accord that was ratified by the OAS and is being violated 15 days later.”
Zelaya, whose return to the country was a product of the accord in question, emphasized that on the day of the rulings against the former minister “violation of the Cartagena de Indias Accord began, an international agreement that allowed Honduras to return to the Organization of American States, but that has begun to be violated, disrespected and not fulfilled.”
“We protest directly this violation and we demand the fulfillment of the accord. Citizen Enrique Flores Lanza, a former minister and a member of the political committee of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, returned to the country peacefully to appear before the court voluntarity on the basis of the presumption of innocence,” he declared…