Thanks For The Coup

In a private ceremony the command of the armed forces of Honduras gave awards to a handful of government officials. These officials "could not be thanked during the Armed Forces Day celebration," said Colonel Ramiro Archaga, spokesperson for the Armed Forces. "Besides, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Minister, and the President wanted to thank them personally," Archaga continued.

"These are people who have contributed to the institution [Armed Forces] and the country, and what better moment than a reunion of the high command to recognize their merits in supporting defense of democracy."

The ceremony was closed to the press, and the public, because this is the meeting of the high command in which they discuss security strategy for Christmas.

So who are these "defenders of democracy" who could not be decorated in the public celebration of armed forces day, but rather, had to wait for a closed meeting of the high command?

Tomas Arita Valle, justice of the Supreme Court
Marcia Facussé, Liberal Party Congress person
Rafael Pineda Ponce, Chief of Staff to Micheletti
Gabriela Nuñez, Finance Minister
Roberto Zuniga, Budget director in Finance Ministry
Arturo Corrales, Negotiator on San Jose Accord team of Micheletti
Enrique Ortez Colindres, Foreign Minister for a few days at the beginning of the coup
Miguel Antonio Andino, administrative head of Defense Ministry

Anyone else think this is totally inappropriate?

Verification Commission

The verification commission members have been named. Ricardo Lagos, former President of Chile will be one of the international representatives named by the OAS. Hilda Solis, US Secretary of Labor has also been named as the other OAS representative. Earlier reporting had suggested that Colin Powell would be named, but that appears to be an error.

The Micheletti representative to the verification commission will be Arturo Corrales, previously of his negotiating commission. Manuel Zelaya has named Jorge Arturo Reina Idiáquez, his UN representative.

Visit to Embassy

Both El Heraldo and La Tribuna report that Raul Valledares, an advisor to Zelaya, and Arturo Corrales, one of Michiletti's negotiators, arrived at and entered the Brazilian Embassy without speaking to the press.

Update 4;35 PM PDT: Corrales gave statements to the press on leaving. He said he and Zelaya exchanged points of view on how to resolove the situation. He said the meeting, which lasted for a little more than an hour, was at the invitation of Zelaya.

"We exchanged information about what had happened during the dialogue; he asked me questions, he took positions, I took positions, in the honduran fashion, very friendly, very open, forward looking."

Victor Meza, head of the Zelaya negotiating team said he knew nothing about the meeting but he considered it valid. "The dialog is stagnant; but can be unstuck by an intelligent proposal." Meza said he was in favor of anything that was constructive, but that he couldn't accept jokes like the proposal on Friday. "That we should accept that there was no coup! My God! we're not so foolish as to accept that."