Another Corrupt Democratic Politician Weasle's Away

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee admonished Senator Roland Burris of Illinois for giving “inconsistent” and “misleading” testimony regarding his appointment to fill the seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

The ethics panel issued a letter of “qualified admonition” that said Burris, a Democrat, gave “shifting explanations” that were “less than candid” about his failure to disclose all of his contacts with associates of then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The panel also said termed “inappropriate” Burris’s November 2008 conversation with the governor’s brother, Robert Blagojevich, in which Blagojevich sought to raise campaign funds. Burris “repeatedly brought up your desire to seek the Senate seat” while also appearing to agree to write a check, the ethics panel’s letter said.

Burris issued a statement that said he was cleared of any “legal wrongdoing.” The ethics committee said that while no laws were broken, “senators must meet a much higher standard of conduct.”

“I am pleased that after numerous investigations, this matter has finally come to a close,” Burris said in the statement.

Bribery, like adultery, is no longer a punishable offense for Democratic politicians.

Are the World's Diplomatic Organizations Beyond Redemption?

International organizations like the United Nations (UN) and Organization of American States (OAS) are currently threatening not to recognize the outcome of the upcoming Honduran presidential elections. Any international organization that does not do so, IMO has no real legitimacy and should be disbanded, as it has become corrupt and serves no legitimate diplomatic purpose. It is time to denounce organizational "officialism" as a source of "authority" in higher education, politics, diplomacy and ALL it's forms. For let's face it, democracy is NOT a panacea for all the world's problems. If it were, there would never be a stock bubble or failure of the free market, newspapers would serve as impartial brokers of public opinion which always sought to serve the "public," and not "private," interests and the modern world would be a perfect place.... and it's not.

An example. The UN General Assembly is currently investigating and denouncing torture in the Columbian jungles, seeking to ostracize the Uribe government. They're focusing upon the last five years, years during which the Uribe government has finally been able to turn the corner and gain an upper hand in the fight against Leftist revolutionary ELN and FARC terrorist forces and may finally succeed in pacifying and ending a forty year old conflict... unless the UN General Assembly can put a stop to that process, that is.

What "good" is the UN General Assembly doing? None that I can see. In all it's many years of existence, all the UN has been able to do is prolong conflicts for decades upon decades (as in the cases of Africa and the Middle East), thereby allowing millions more innocent people and their decendents to be subjected to perpetual state internment and preventing the solution of crises .... which all too often can ONLY be brought about through the complete military defeat of an enemy which FORCES people to "move on" with what remains of their lives. In these cases, an 'appeal' to "international authority" and "justice" is an "evil/false hope" that needs to be promptly extinguished, if not unmercifully CRUSHED.

Micheletti Moves to Legitimize Upcoming Elections By Stepping Down as President

De facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti will temporarily step down from power in the days surrounding the scheduled November 29 presidential election, Micheletti said in a speech Thursday.

Micheletti said he hopes that by stepping down from November 24 to December 2, Hondurans will focus on the election and not the political crisis that has gripped the country since a coup ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya in June.

Micheletti's cabinet will head the government during his absence, he said.

In the event that "peace is threatened" near the election, Micheletti said he would immediately reassume his role as president.

An agreement to end the political crisis, signed by representatives of both sides last month, has not been smoothly implemented, putting in question of the legitimacy of the upcoming presidential election.

The agreement called for a unity government to lead Honduras until a new president is elected this month. The pact also stipulated that the nation's congress would vote on whether Zelaya would be returned to power, though reinstatement was not guaranteed.

Congress delayed its vote on Zelaya, opting to ask for an opinion from the country's supreme court, which is yet to come. A congressional leader said the chamber's vote on Zelaya's fate will happen on December 2, after a new president has been elected.

Zelaya, who has called the agreement dead, told CNN en Español that Micheletti's move was "a fake resignation."

Micheletti doesn't give a cr*p about being president. He has faith in the Honduran people and that they'll do the right thing. Anyone who would choose to reinstate Mel Zelaya to replace Micheletti as president or tout "revolution" as a replacement for responsible government in Honduras is either a complete idiot or someone seeking to take advantage of others for personal gain.

Zelaya Seeks to Delegitimize Upcoming Honduran Elections by A Priori Impugnment

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya on Thursday called on his followers to "impugn and denounce" the Nov. 29 elections to be hosted under his country's de facto government.

Zelaya issued a communique, urging his followers to resist against the coup carried on June 28.

"Our weapons are the ideas, our fight is peaceful," Zelaya said in a statement read by his advisor Eduardo Reina to the local media.

"Compatriots: The President of the Republic (Zelaya) makes a call to keep firm and decided to fight against the coup, to fight for our democracy, without hiding the truth, to fight peacefully for our ideas; when people are decided there are no weapons, Army or maneuvers able to stop them," the statement says.

Zelaya said that "it is an antidemocratic electoral maneuver rejected by large sectors, to cover the material and intellectual actors of the coup...."

"The coming elections are not legal, they do not have support of the international community, mainly of Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations," Zelaya said.

"Officially, all the countries have said they do not recognize this electoral process, except the United States, which manifests itself with ambiguity," Zelaya added.

Zelaya seeks to re-attain power at any cost. He doesn't give a cr*p about Honduras. Anyone who can't see that is a either complete idiot or a greedy and corrupt Leftist revolutionary.

Hugo Begins to Burn to His Columbian Bridges

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan troops blew up two foot bridges that connect the country with Colombia, aggravating tensions along the border that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said could lead to war.

Venezuelan soldiers dynamited rope suspension bridges crossing the Tachira River near the Colombian hamlet of Ragonvalia, in the northeastern province of Norte de Santander, Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said in a statement yesterday on the ministry’s Web site. Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said the bridges were used to move contraband.

“It’s almost like somebody’s hitting a piece of flint trying to get a spark going,” said Adam Isacson, director of the Center for International Policy in Washington. “The minor incidents are coming fast and furious. If you’re looking for a casus belli, something is coming up almost every day.”

Chavez last week told his military to prepare to resist an invasion by Colombia, which signed an agreement last month to give U.S. troops access to Colombian bases. Colombia’s government has denied any intention of attacking Venezuela and says the U.S. accord will help fight drug trafficking and domestic terrorism.

A Venezuelan general, Eusebio Aguero Sequera, told Venezuela’s Globovision television last night that drugs and paramilitaries entered Venezuela across the bridges, while smugglers carried food and fuel through the area.

“We’ve been informed of other pedestrian passes that will be destroyed given the proper government authorization,” Aguero said.

Border Crossing

Venezuelan troops began to cross the bridges into Colombian territory, daily El Tiempo reported, citing unidentified Ragonvalia officials as saying. Colombian residents threw stones at the soldiers, who detonated explosives to destroy the bridges, the Bogota-based newspaper said.

“This action represents a violation of international and humanitarian law,” Silva said in the statement. “It is an aggression against civilians. The bridges destroyed on the Venezuelan side are essentially community foot-crossings.”

Carrizalez accused Colombia of “manipulating the story.” He said no Venezuelan forces entered Colombia and his country had committed no aggression against its neighbor.

Relations between Venezuela and Colombia have crumbled since last year after President Alvaro Uribe accused Chavez of financing leftist Colombian rebels. Colombia says the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC as the drug- funded rebels are known, uses Venezuela as a transit route to smuggle drugs overseas.

Narco Trafficking

Colombia’s border with Venezuela is rife with guerrillas and paramilitary groups, as well as independent narco- traffickers. Colombia is the source of as much as 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Justice. “We have army personnel in the area,” said Silva. Colombia said it would denounce the acts before the Organization of American States and the United Nations Security Council.

Chavez ordered an increase of troops along the 2,000- kilometer (1,250-mile) border between Venezuela and Colombia earlier this month and said he may declare a state of emergency after two officials from the National Guard patrolling near a border post were shot and killed by unidentified people.

“It’s an act of calculated hostility,” said Alfredo Rangel, a former member of Colombia’s state Security Council and head of a Bogota research group, the Security and Democracy Foundation. “You can’t say this was something accidental.”

Colombian Agents

Chavez said in July he would end imports from his Andean neighbor because of the U.S. military pact and Colombian allegations the FARC had obtained weapons originally sold to Venezuela.

Colombian exports to Venezuela, its second-biggest trading partner, plunged 50 percent in September from the same month last year, according to Colombia’s national statistics agency.

“There’s a strong domestic policy incentive on both sides” to have a border skirmish, said Isacson.

Approval ratings for both heads of state have fallen. Elections to choose 167 lawmakers in the Venezuelan National Assembly will be held in September 2010. Uribe may run for a third straight presidential term next year if a referendum is approved by a national court and in a popular vote.

‘Patch Things Up’

“Once this election season is over, everyone will patch things up,” Isacson said.

Colombia’s intelligence agency, the Administrative Security Department, or DAS, said last week it detained four Venezuelan national guardsmen crossing into Colombia in a motorboat. Venezuela earlier arrested three individuals it said were DAS agents and has held a Colombian on spying charges since September.

Last month, nine Colombians were found shot to death in Venezuelan territory

Spokeswomen at the Venezuelan Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

“We’re not going to see an all out war,” Isacson said. “But we could see a several-day running battle -- an actual shooting battle -- between official forces, that claims a lot of casualties and ends quickly with one side trying to show its superior military prowess.”

Pre-Election Violence in Honduras Continues

Two bodyguards of the businessman and regional Liberal Party government, Ulises Sarmiento, were killed by bullets by unknown persons in the state of Olancho, police from the Honduran National Police reported.

The deed happened in the parish of Medardo Mejia, in the city of Juticalpa, and the victims were identified as Felix Noel Hernandez and Jose Blas Romero, stated police spokesman, Orlin Cerrato.

It appears that Hernandez and Romero were travelling in a pick-up truck which was the property of Ulises Sarmiento brother of the deputy, Eduardo Sarmiento, of the opposition National Party.

Cerrato didn't say or not whether Ulises Sarmiento was in a party leading the vehicle.

He stated that the attackers fired high caliber weapons and four 40mm grenades, only one of the explosions causing significant damage to nearby homes.

The artifacts were fired with a grenade launcher. He stated that the type of grenade fired exploded upon superficial impact (contact).

The police spokesman also stated that another improvised bomb exploded last night in a principle building in Tegucigalpa of the mobile phone company Celtel, which managed the Tigo brand, and suffered significant damage, but no human casualties.

The explosion broke windows and damaged the front wall of the building, along with a car parked nearby, stated Cerranto to Efe.

The explosion was heard around 11:45 pm local time, and no people were hurt, he added.

Cerrato explained that the artifact was composed of a tube, a commercial explosive, details of which he failed to specify, and a slow fuse ignition system.

The bomb was thrown from a moving vehicle, similar to those reported upon in previous weeks in Honduras, that is experiencing a political crises caused by the deposing of president Manuel Zelaya on 28 June.

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Danny's Police Discriminate Against Opposition Marchers

Source.

Civilian organizations, political and press on Wednesday accused the police of a double standard regarding the interests of president Daniel Ortega, for not offering to guarantee security for an opposition march scheduled for Saturday after intimidating threats from Sandanista groups were made.

The accusations are directed at the chief of the National Police, Aminta Granera, a popular ex-guerilla who assumed the position in 2006 with the desire to improve the organization, and who was someone who became closely tied with Ortega after assuming the presidency in 2007.

"Aminta Doubletalker", "Aminta Tainted", read the headlines of major newspapers, La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario, while some promoters of the march placed in doubt the promises of police protection in the face of violent aggressions suffered recently within view of riot police in previous demonstrations.

The police chief is on a political cross, trying to "maintain the peace and protect the citizens" between strong pressures, admitted the vice president of the republic, Jaime Morales.

Some suspicions arose after the police not only authorized the Sandanistas to protest the same day and on the same streets in the southeast of the captitol in which the opposition had requested to march, but even asked the opposition to change their route onto adjacent streets to "avoid confrontations".

It appears that Ortega gave "direct orders to the chief of police to deny permission to representatives of civil society about the requested route," denounced the head of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, Marcos Carmona.

"They want to stick us on a tiny street from which anyone can throw a bomb from a house and there are no means to protect us or catch the guilty ones," speculated opposition politcal commentator, Jaime Arellano.

According to reports given to the press supposedly by ex-Sandanistas, the governing Sandanista Front (FSLN, Left) plans to mobilize blocking groups formed by gangs, so as to attack the opposition marchers on secondary streets and in neighborhood strongholds in its' path.

The "alternate route" proposed by police is dangerous, remarked Ana Quiros, director of one of the 600 non-governmental civic organizations which will participate in the opposition march.

After some talk, the organizers of the opposition march this Tuesday accepted a partial route modification after the police agreed to deploy 3,560 agents, 450 members of the riot brigade, and 169 motorized officers to separate the two marches.

With these promises, civil and politcal organizations confirmed their decsion to march on Saturday to countervene the re-election plans of Ortega and reiterate their repudiation of the supposed fraud of the 2008 municipal elections, which was won by the officialists.

The Sandanistas, for their part, have called their parties to march in defense of the government, after an intense get-out the march media campaign, despite the climate of fear and insecurity caused in the past few days by the proliferation of armed gangs in some neighborhoods.

The Vice President of the Republic dismissed the possibility of serious violence. "It's possible that sanity and composure will prevail," he said.

Vote to Restore Zelaya Set for 2 Dec.

The National Congress of Honduras will meet on 2 December to decide whether or not to restore to his post the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, the President of the Legislature, Alfredo Saavedra announced.

"We have decided, along with my other companions of the joint directive, to make official the Congressional session called for 2 December to analyze the question" of Zelaya, declared Saavedra on local media.

The deputies will resolve the question of the restitution of Zelaya three days after the 29 November elections, one which several members of the international community have threatened not to recognize unless the deposed president is restored to power.

Saavedra, of the governing Liberal Party, explained that they decided to call the session of 2 December because there is now a certainty that the presentations required of the four institutions of the state should be available.

"We've already received a report from the National Commission on Human Rights (last week) and today from the General Procurer of the Republic, and we were officially informed that next week a report from the Public Ministry and the Supreme Court of Justice," he said.

The legislative president indicated, without revealing details, that the vote concerning Zelaya's situation would follow, "a procedure which allows the opportunity for all normal parliamentary procedures to be observed."

He added that, "every member is at liberty to vote, to reason, whatever decision which he believes will work most conveniently for Honduras," and he reaffirmed that no one should "threaten" that "independence" of the legislators.

The accord subscribed to on 29 October by representatives of Zelaya and the defacto president, Roberto Micheletti, gave the mandate to Congress to decide over the restitution of Zelaya, who during the dialogue process proposed that the decision be given the Legislature.

The Honduran parliament has 128 seats, of which 62 are occupied by the Liberal Party that belong to Zelaya and the defacto president, Roberto Micheletti; 55 from the National Party, five from the Democratic Union (Left), four from the Christian Democrats and two from the Innovative Party and Social-Democratic Unity.

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A Foundation of Lies

by George Will

NEW YORK -- The 20th century was 100 years of amplitude. It overflowed with barbarous fighting faiths, wars enveloping continents, and graphic journalism assaulting global audiences with scenes of shocking immediacy. The Spanish Civil War, although small in terms of the number of combatants, was perhaps the century's emblematic conflict. As a rehearsal for the Second World War, Spain's agony became a proxy struggle between fascism and communism, with democracy crushed in the middle. And for perhaps the first time, pictures supplemented and sometimes supplanted words as primary shapers of opinion about a conflict.

According to Robert Hughes, author of "The Shock of the New" (1980), during World War I's nation-shattering and culture-shredding carnage, no photograph of a dead soldier appeared in a German, French or British newspaper. But the Sept. 23, 1936, issue of the French magazine Vu published (as did Life magazine 10 months later) what became perhaps the century's iconic photograph -- "Falling Soldier." It was taken by, and launched the remarkable career of, a 22-year-old Hungarian refugee from fascism, photographer Robert Capa.

It supposedly shows a single figure, a loyalist -- that is, anti-fascist -- soldier, at the instant of death from a bullet fired by one of Franco's soldiers. The soldier is falling backward on a hillside, arms outstretched, his rifle being flung from his right hand. This was, surely, stunning testimony to photography's consciousness-raising and history-shaping truth-telling, the camera's indisputable accuracy, its irreducibly factual rendering of reality, its refutation of epistemological pessimism about achieving certainty based on what our eyes tell us.

Probably not. A dispute that has flared intermittently for more than 30 years has been fueled afresh, and perhaps settled, by a Spanish professor who has established that the photo could not have been taken when and where it reportedly was -- Sept. 5, 1936, near Cerro Muriano.

The photo was taken about 35 miles from there. The precise place has been determined by identifying the mountain range in the photo's background. The professor says there was no fighting near there at that time, and concludes that Capa staged the photo.

Could an alternative explanation be that a single fascist sniper fired the fatal shot while some loyalists were at rest? No. What was once thought to be blood spurting from the falling soldier's skull is actually a tassel on his cap. And Capa several times said the soldier was felled by machine-gun fire. In a slightly less dramatic photo of another falling soldier, taken by Capa at the same time -- the cloud configuration is the same as in "Falling Soldier" -- the soldier falls on the same spot.

In 1995, the controversy seemed to have been settled in Capa's favor when the fallen soldier supposedly was identified as Federico Borrell Garcia, an anarchist militiaman. But a 2007 Spanish documentary included a written eyewitness account of Borrell dying many miles away, behind a tree. There are no trees in the many pictures Capa took when he took "Falling Soldier."

The coolly analytic professionals at the International Center of Photography in midtown Manhattan, which has the Capa archives, are commendably dispassionate about the "Falling Soldier" controversy. They also avoid postmodern mush, such as: All photographs are manipulative fabrications because the photographer chooses to point the camera here and not there, and, anyway, "Falling Soldier" is "basically" truthful because it illustrates the "essential truth" about war.

Capa was a man of the left and "Falling Soldier" helped to alarm the world about fascism rampant. But noble purposes do not validate misrepresentations. Richard Whelan, Capa's biographer, calls it "trivializing" to insist on knowing whether this photo actually shows a soldier mortally wounded. Whelan says "the picture's greatness actually lies in its symbolic implications, not in its literal accuracy."

Rubbish. The picture's greatness evaporates if its veracity is fictitious. To argue otherwise is to endorse high-minded duplicity -- and to trivialize Capa, who saw a surfeit of 20th-century war and neither flinched from its horrors nor retreated into an "I am a camera" detachment. As a warning about well-meaning falsifications of history, "Falling Soldier" matters because Capa probably fabricated reality to serve what he called "concerned photography." But this, too, matters:

There was the integrity of constant bravery in Capa's life, which was a headlong rush toward danger. He arrived on Omaha Beach with the first soldiers early on June 6, 1944, and was only 40 in 1954 when, on the move with French troops in Vietnam, he stepped on a land mine.

Third Grenade Attack This Week by Zelaya's Guerillas

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Assailants hurled a grenade at the building housing ballots for the upcoming Honduran presidential elections, which are taking place under the shadow of a four-month crisis caused by a coup.

The grenade exploded 550 yards (500 meters) from the building, and there were no damages.

Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said Friday "the intention was to destroy election material to sabotage the elections." The attack happened Thursday night.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is urging the international community not to recognize the Nov. 29 election if he is not reinstated beforehand.

The government that took power in the June 28 coup is hoping the election will end the country's diplomatic isolation.

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Chavista Oficialista Astroturf Protest US-Columbian Bases

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Hugo's Shining New Socialist City on the Hill

The Venezuelan Legislature yesterday authorized a second installment of Bs. 300 million for construction of the first "new socialist city" to house government offices for 8 government departments under the new defense and security plan. The city will be call "Caribean City". Source.

I wonder who his architect is... and whether he's basing his design on Albert Speer's "New Germania"...

Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

President Hugo Chavez's government on Wednesday nationalized two coffee companies, including Fama de America, one of Venezuela's largest coffee producers.

The state-run Bolivarian News Agency said presidential decrees published in the Official Gazette ordered the government takeover of Fama de America and Cafea, which together control about 80 percent of the local coffee market.

Company executives were not immediately available to comment.

Chavez's government has nationalized major players in the electricity, steel and cement sectors since 2007, as well as four major oil projects.

It now says it's asserting control over coffee companies that it accuses of acting as monopolies and flouting price controls by smuggling coffee into Colombia. Government officials have said they also hope to purchase a majority stake in a third company, Cafe Madrid.

Col. Carlos Osorio, an army officer in charge of food distribution, said the move will give other smaller coffee producers access to better distribution. He said the government plans to combine Fama America and Cafe Madrid into a single business with a reduced market share.

The government seized temporary control of both coffee producers in August while it investigated whether they illegally smuggled coffee out of the country to circumvent price controls. The companies denied wrongdoing.

Coffee is one of many products that fall under price controls, and Venezuelans have been facing sporadic shortages of coffee. Business leaders say the underlying problem is insufficient production. Source.

Yes... insufficient production of what cost $1.00 to grow but the companies are forced to sell at $0.50. How could THAT possibly happen??? It's a "mystery".

How Cuba Deals with Dissenting Bloggers

By DAVID LUHNOW

Yoani Sánchez, Cuba's most prominent dissident blogger, was walking along a Havana street last Friday along with two other bloggers and a friend when two men she says were Cuban agents in civilian clothes forced her inside an unmarked black car and beat her, telling her to stop criticizing the government.

The assault, believed to be the first against the growing blogger movement on the island, has cast a spotlight on the country's record of repression, highlighting how little change there has been in political freedoms during the nearly three years since Raúl Castro took over as president from retired dictator Fidel Castro.

A decline in tourism revenues from the global recession and damage from several hurricanes last year have prompted the island's government to clamp down even harder on dissent and freedom of speech, according to a recent report by the Inter American Press Association, a watchdog group.

The group said Cuba currently has 26 journalists in jail, and it cited 102 incidents against Cuban journalists in the past year, including beatings, arbitrary arrests and death threats.

The U.S. State Department on Monday condemned the alleged beating and called on Cuba to respect its citizens' rights.

The Cuban government didn't respond to requests for comment.

When Raúl Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel nearly three years ago, many Cubans hoped he would liberalize the country's economy and politics.

So far, the government has taken bold steps in agriculture, giving out some 80,000 land grants to private farmers in a bid to ease chronic food shortages, according to Philip Peters, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a free-market think tank based in Washington.

But the changes haven't gone beyond there, especially when it comes to freedom of thought. The state media remains as tightly controlled as ever, analysts say.

Until now, Cuba's growing blogger movement has been tolerated by the government, mostly because Internet access is restricted on the island. But the attack on Ms. Sánchez could signal that tolerance is waning.

"I don't think their attack is against the person of Yoani Sánchez, but rather against the blogger phenomenon, a phenomenon of different opinions that is taking place in Cuba," Ms. Sánchez said in an interview with the blog Mediaite.

But, she said, the effort failed. "They still haven't understood the potential of the Web, and that these repressive measures do nothing but increase the number of hits on my blog," she said.

Ms. Sánchez is a 34 year-old whose poignant vignettes of daily life in Cuba -- and the resulting aggravations, humiliations and suffering -- have proved to be far more effective criticisms of the Castro regime than the bluster and bravado from Cuba's exile community in Miami.

Earlier this year, she won a top journalism prize from Columbia University but was barred by the government from traveling to New York to accept the award.

Ms. Sánchez wasn't cowed by the incident and has blogged in the days since. After being thrown from the car with another blogger, she worried about her son.

"We hugged and cried, and I thought about Teo. How in God's name would I explain my bruises? How can I tell him he lives in a country where this happens?" she wrote.

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The Way Forward in Honduras

By LANNY J. DAVIS

For months Honduras has faced a political crisis. In June, its president, Manuel Zelaya, attempted to subvert the country's constitution and was removed from office. He has since pushed to return to power, called the current president—Robert Micheletti—illegitimate, and has cast a shadow over presidential elections to be held at the end of this month.

On Oct. 30, it appeared the crisis might come to a close when representatives of Mr. Zelaya signed an agreement with representatives of Mr. Micheletti to create a reconciliation government to oversee the country until the next president is seated (among other provisions). But in recent days, that agreement—known as the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord—fell apart.

It's more accurate to say Mr. Zelaya moved to destroy the accord. It called for him to propose members of the reconciliation government by Nov. 5, and it also gave Honduras's Congress the right to vote whether to reinstate him as president. But Mr. Zelaya refused to make his appointments, even while Mr. Micheletti proposed his appointments on time. On Friday, Mr. Zelaya declared the accord null and void before Congress could vote on whether to restore him to power. Interestingly, he had insisted on adding the congressional vote to the agreement, so his decision to blow up the process before the vote is an indication that even he realizes he would lose a vote in a Congress controlled by his liberal party.

If there is to be a resolution to this crisis, it will likely only come if the Obama administration (which helped both sides hammer out the accord), leaders in the U.S. Congress, and the Organization of American States (OAS) make sure that Mr. Zelaya does not get away with breaking his word.One vital part of the accord calls for international monitors to go to Honduras to prepare for the presidential elections, which are scheduled for Nov. 29. Under the accord the monitors will work with the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal, a four-member body appointed by Honduras's Congress when Mr. Zelaya was in power, and which is independent of the executive branch. The White House and the U.S. Congress need to call for this step to be taken immediately.

Mr. Zelaya's modus operandi is clear. In 2005, he got elected president while vowing to uphold the constitution. He then violated the country's constitution by pushing for a vote that would have allowed him to extend his time in office. Honduras's Constitution specifically states that a president who does that is to be automatically removed, which is why the country's Supreme Court and Congress supported his removal. Mr. Zelaya's response was to turn to OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and the OAS to support him in ignoring his constitutional and legal commitments—and they did so.

Mr. Zelaya's agenda is to reinstall himself to power before the presidential elections. If he succeeds, he might be able to disrupt those elections and create a constitutional crisis by ensuring that no one is credibly elected president. If that occurs, he would likely declare himself president ad infinitum—just what he was trying to do when he was ousted in June.

The bottom line is that a deal is a deal. The U.S. government needs to insist on the implementation of the accord and endorse the results of the Nov. 29 presidential elections as verified by international monitors. Once that happens, Mr. Zelaya will be irrelevant, a footnote as a president who thought he was above the constitution.

And then, on Jan. 27, a new president will be sworn into office in Honduras. That will restore to normalcy the proud little constitutional republic that has always been a loyal and reliable friend of the United States.

Mr. Davis, an attorney at the Washington D.C. office of McDermott, Will & Emery, is a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton and represents the Honduran Latin American Business Council.