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4 May, 2010 20:38

Honduras still looking for truth in 2009 coup

A truth commission has been established to investigate the situation surrounding Honduras' 2009 coup, but observers are divided over whether or not it will have any effect on pacifying the country.

The ghost of Honduras's 2009 coup just won't die.

The US State Department is hoping a truth commission will help put the matter to rest. The establishment of the truth commission was part of an accord signed by ousted President Manuel Zelaya and members of the coup government last October. The commission, endorsed by the new Honduran government, would investigate the situation in Honduras following the coup d'etate that ousted Zelaya.

The State Department has been pushing for this truth commission since the election of President Porfirio Lobo. They see it as an important step for Honduras to improve its international standing following the controversial ousting of Zelaya. But many human rights organizations in the United States and on a majority of those on the ground in Honduras do not trust the truth commission to investigate and unveil human rights abuses as they are happening in Honduras.

The Obama administration came under fire following the coup against Zelaya. Critics and Latin American analysts accused the State Department of double talk, signing on to an accord it would later violate and then endorsing a president who was under investigation for  human rights violations during his election.

The start of the truth commission comes as the resistance movement in Honduras amplifies.  The country has suffered an increase in human rights abuses in recent years. Without investigating Honduras's human rights issues and political problems, some say it will be politics as usual. 

"All the human rights organization on the ground in Honduras all of them are unequivocal in their condemnation of this truth commission. It's just trying to whitewash the coup," said analyst Arturo Viscarra

Whatever comes out of the truth commission, analysts say the State Department will be among the first to celebrate it's findings. Observers say that just the process of working to uncover problems would mean a new chapter for Honduras following the first coup in Latin America in almost two decades.  However, for the resistence movement and human rights groups, the truth commission is everything but a truth fact finding mission.  To them, it would is little more than a rubber stamp to settle a political crisis in Honduras they believe was heavily facilitated by the US.

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