Zelaya to Honduras; Honduras to the OAS

Zelaya to Honduras; Honduras to the OAS

On May 22nd, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and former President Manuel Zelaya signed an accord in Cartagena, Colombia providing a path for Zelaya’s return to Honduras from exile, as well as the readmission of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS). A May 2nd ruling by the Honduran Supreme Court annulled the criminal charges against Zelaya, thus permitting him to safely return to his country. His main advisor, Rasel Tomé, announced that Zelaya is likely to arrive on the weekend of May 28th.1 Zelaya’s return to Honduras is the principal requirement for Honduras’ readmission to the OAS. Accordingly, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza has announced that Honduras has already met the necessary conditions for its reentry into the organization.

Insulza has suggested convening an extraordinary session of the OAS to reinstate Honduras before the next scheduled assembly on June 5-7 in El Salvador. Calling for an extraordinary session requires the backing of two-thirds of the 35-ambassador OAS Permanent Council. The urgent nature of the attempts to reinstate Honduras is partly due to the Assembly’s already overbooked schedule, but also to Honduras’ critical central location, which enables it to play a strategic role contributing to greater cohesion on Central American security and drug trafficking control.2 Marco Cáceres, the editor of Honduras Weekly, argues that, “we tend to overlook the fact that the OAS currently needs Honduras as much or more than Honduras needs the OAS” because it is home to a U.S. military base and central to several drug trafficking routes.3 With support for readmission across the political spectrum, including the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela, Honduras’ acceptance seems probable.
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