Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: Folks, I’m sorry this blog has gone Honduras-crazy over the last few days. No era para menos. I’ll return to blogging to stuff I know something about shortly, but I just needed to get this one last thing off my chest.

Buried in this absolutely fascinating piece in the Miami Herald interviewing Honduran army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza, where the guy straightforwardly admits the ejection of Zelaya from the country was illegal – but justifies it anyway – we find this hallucinogenic passage that seems to encapsulate OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza’s bizarre behavior throughout the crisis:

Zelaya has said he will try to stage a brazen comeback on Sunday. The Organization of American States’ secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, arrives in Tegucigalpa Friday to try to lay the groundwork for Zelaya’s return. Insulza refuses to meet any member of the new administration led by the former head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.

Wait, wait, wait…how do the last two sentences in that paragraph even make sense together? Does Insulza intend to “lay the groundwork for Zelaya’s return” by negotiating with the hot dog hawker in front of the presidential palace? What exactly is the plan here?

Pardon my rampant Teodorismo here, but you don’t need to be a ranting anti-OAS fanatic to say Insulza’s not exactly covering himself in glory here. At times of crisis the continent needs serious diplomacy from the head of the Inter-American system, not this kind of permanent grandstanding.

(Seriously, though, check out that Miami Herald piece. It’s a blockbuster. This Bayardo Inestroza guy’s a piece of work.)