Ministers Challenge Military In Supreme Court

A group of Evangelical ministers have challenged the military to explain to the court why they were denied permission to visit President Manuel Zelaya even though they had completed all the paperwork and obtained all the required permissions. Today the Supreme Court accepted the case brought against Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, Jorge Alberto Rodas Gamero, and Mario Hung Pacheco. Justice Omar Galeano Mejia was assigned the case. In addition to getting an explanation from the three accused gentlemen, the judge will rule on the human rights claims made by the evangelical ministers.

Amnesty Postponed For Next Congress

El Heraldo reported this evening that the National Congress decided against acting on the proposal for amnesty. Instead it chose to leave it for the next Congress to act, or not. "We felt there needed to be a consensus, and we didn't have time to do that," said PINU Congressman Toribio Aguilera. Ramon Custodio, the human rights commissioner urged that they only take up the question of amnesty after hearing the report of the truth commission.

Porfirio Lobo Sosa, acting on the recommendation of the international community, had urged that this Congress pass an amnesty before he takes office on January 27. While not part of the Tegucigalpa San Jose Accord, an amnesty was one of the original conditions of the San Jose Accord.

Honduras Suspends Payments To BCIE

Business News Americas reported this afternoon that it had confirmed that the de facto government has suspended payments on $405 million in debt with the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE in Spanish).

Posting from my iPhone.

Military Before Supreme Court Thursday

The five generals charged with abuse of authority and illegal extradition by the Public Prosecutor must appear before Justice Jorge Rivera Aviles on Thursday, after which he will decide whether to accept the charges or not. They are scheduled to appear at 2:30 or 3 pm. Because of security concerns, the place they are to meet was not specified by the judge.

"Because of the scope of the audience and because of security concerns, and the shared interests of the parties that will participate and the comfort of those charged, it should be a place that brings together the physical conditions to hold the hearing," said Juan Carlos Sanchez Cantillano, a defense attorney.

In an interview with El Heraldo published today, Romeo Vásquez Velásquez declined to comment on the charges.

Justice Jorge Rivera Aviles gave an interview on the program Grado 33 of Globovision of Venezuela on July 3 in which he said the capture of Zelaya was by a legitimate Supreme Court order, but that the forced exile was a necessity of the time and situation, but was not ordered by the Court. He said of Zelaya "he was disobeying the orders of the court, and that's a crime." How is it less of a crime for the Military to disobey the order of the court? He changed his mind in an interview published in La Tribuna on July 16:

"The expulsion was not ordered in the detention order and because of this we have to look at the necessities at this time, if it was the suitable thing to do, both for the life of the person detained and for national security....we'll have to weigh this later on, once its before the court."

Justice Rivera was also on the commission that nominated the Public Prosecutor, Luis Rubi, in February 2009. Given his interest in the appointment of Rubi, and that he has already pronounced publicly on the facts of the case before him, he should recuse himself, but I won't hold my breath.

Honduras is Broke

Eighteen days after Porfirio Lobo Sosa takes office, the country of Honduras will run out of cash and be unable to pay its debts without the help of international aid, says Gabriela Nuñez. The only way the country has survived the last six months is by living off its cash income and paying its debts off in a prioritized fashion, or rather, not paying some of them. "The most important thing is to comply with the priorities," she said, "even if there are pending payments that remain....its a work from week to week."

Supreme Court Assigns Judge in Military Case

The Supreme Court, after meeting as a whole today, assigned the Chief Justice, Jorge Alberto Rivera, to hear the case presented by the Public Prosecutor against the 5 generals of the military high command and to decide whether the case has merit and can proceed, according to El Heraldo's Minute by Minute column. On Tuesday, the Public Prosecutor, Luis Rubi, filed a complaint with the court accusing the generals of the military high command of "abuse of authority" in forcibly exiling President Manuel Zelaya on June 28. Today lawyers for the generals requested that the court not issue arrest warrants for them since they would be willing to come before the court whenever it requests their presence. Rivera will have six days to review the filing and make a finding.

De Facto Government Can't Make Payroll for January

The Finance Minister for the de facto government, Gabriela Nuñez announced today that she does not currently have access to sufficient funds to pay government employees for January. It all boils down to cash flow. She said she has access to about 400 million lempiras, and needs a total of about 1,500 million lempiras. In addition, she noted that the government has run up large debts with suppliers, including 450 million lempiras for medical supplies, and a further 700 million lempiras owed to road construction and paving contractors. She noted that the priority of the de facto government is to pay employees, and creditors will just have to wait. Nuñez expects that when the sales tax payments are received in mid-January, there might be enough for the government to pay its employees. Micheletti previously had assured us that they had sufficient funds to last through March.