Honduran president: America is our No. 1 ally

Posted By Josh Rogin Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 1:52 PM

Honduran President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo will meet President Barack Obama today to renew the friendship between the two countries, and ask for help in fighting Honduras's drug war. The meeting comes two years after the Obama administration sided against the process that brought Lobo to power, before reversing itself and embracing the Lobo presidency.

Lobo sat down for an interview with The Cable on Tuesday to talk about his country's 2009 political crisis, the role of the United States in that drama, and the need for strong ties between Washington and Tegucigalpa, which he described as two like-minded democracies fighting together against drugs and for democracy.

"The United States is our most important foreign ally, it's our strongest relationship and it has been so historically," Lobo said. "That's the way it is and I'm sure it will continue to be so."

Back in 2009, the State Department sided strongly with former President Manuel Zelaya, who was seized by the military and taken out of Honduras in what some called a coup. Zelaya snuck back into Honduras in September 2009 and holed up in the Brazilian embassy while the Obama administration worked to restore him to power.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even met with Zelaya in Washington, suspended aid to Honduras, and revoked the visas of Honduran officials. Later, Honduras was cut off from Millennium Challenge Corporation assistance.

Eventually, it became apparent that the de facto regime in Tegucigalpa, led by Roberto Micheletti, was winning the internal struggle and that new elections would take place. The administration began shifting its position in October 2009 and finally threw Zelaya under the bus when Lobo won the election and Zelaya rejected a deal that would have returned him temporarily to power.

Zelaya hurt his case and alienated the Obama administration when he starting accusing "Israeli mercenaries" of poisoning him with mind-altering gas and radiation while he was inside the Brazilian embassy.

But that's all water under the bridge as far as Lobo is concerned.

"The Unites States has always supported democracy and the rule of law. Whether it is Zelaya, whether it is Lobo, this is what the United States has always looked for," Lobo said. "They always said that as soon as there are elections and the Hondurans elect the president, the situation with Honduras would be the same as it had always been, and this is the way it happened."

Most U.S. trade and assistance to Honduras has been restored, although they are still not able to receive grants from the MCC.

We asked Lobo if he forgave the Obama administration for sticking with Zelaya for so long and initially opposing the process that led to his election.

"They haven't done anything to us!" Lobo exclaimed. "The United States was the only country that maintained an ambassador in Honduras and was extremely helpful in eventually finding a path out of the crisis."

Lobo is meeting with a host of senior officials in addition to Obama, including Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Attorney General Eric Holder. He'll also hold meetings with leaders at the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Dialogue.

His main goal is to seek financial and technical assistance for Honduras's worsening problem with drug cartels, which have increasingly moved into Central America due to the crackdown in Mexico.

"[W]e need to have help to do more investigations and we need to seek reforms in the national police as well as in the armed forces," Lobo said. "We have a strong ally in the U.S. because this is the market, this is where the consumers are. We are basically on the corridor and this we cannot change. We also seek the United States to launch an effective fight against consumption."

On Tuesday morning, Lobo had breakfast with Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-DL). DeMint was key in shifting U.S. policy away from Zelaya and traveled to Honduras in the middle of the crisis, against the State Department's objections, to meet with Zelaya's foes.

DeMint told The Cable in an interview on Tuesday that the Lobo government had made progress in repairing its relationships around the world but that more attention from the United States was needed.

"If we focus on Mexico and Columbia, the criminals move to places like Honduras," DeMint said. "They are a good friend and they are very pro-American and there aren't many pro-American countries left in the world."

AFP/Getty Images

COMMENTS (0)

EXPLORE:LATIN AMERICA, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIPLOMACY, DRUGS & CRIME, HILLARY, MEXICO, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. CONGRESS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

WikiLeaked: China's next president lashed out in Mexico against 'well fed foreigners'

Posted By Josh Rogin Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 6:21 PM

Not much is known about Xi Jinping, the expected next president of China, but according to a newly public WikiLeaks cable, Xi has been complaining to America's neighbors about "well fed foreigners" pointing fingers at China.

In a February 2009 trip to Mexico, the first stop in Xi's six-country tour of Latin America, the current vice president of China blurted out his feelings about criticisms of Chinese diplomacy, according to a diplomatic cable classified by acting deputy chief of mission James Williard.

"There are some well fed foreigners who have nothing better to do than point fingers at our affairs," Xi blurted out at a lunch meeting, appropriately. "China does not, first, export revolution; second, export poverty and hunger; third, cause troubles for you."

Xi showed up with representatives of 20 Chinese companies in tow and made the case that China and Mexico have common cause to cooperate economically, as both are developing countries facing the consequences of a global financial crisis they didn't cause. The embassy cable noted that Xi's outburst seemed to reveal the Xi's true feelings about America despite a more diplomatic message during the rest of his visit.

"It should be noted that his criticism of 'well-fed foreigners' sharply contrasted from the overarching cooperation theme of his visit and were delivered on the first leg of his trip in a country with strong ties to the United States," the cable said.

The cable reported that Mexico was trying to correct its huge trade deficit with China and that Mexican officials were wary of China's tactic of expanding economic activity in developing countries.

"We don't want to be China's next Africa," a Mexican official told a U.S. Embassy economics officer, according to the cable, referring to the oft-cited criticism that China has pursued a strategy of seizing the continent's huge natural resources while dumping cheap industrial and manufactured products into foreign markets. "We need to own our country's development."

Two other recently released WikiLeaks cables also detailed China's charm offensive in Latin America and skepticism on that continent of Chinese motives and practices.

"China's strategy in Latin America is clear: it wants to 'control the supply of commodities,' said the Brazilian consul general in Shanghai," according to one cable sent to Washington from the U.S. Shanghai Consulate in April 2009.

"Colombia is wary of Chinese motives and what it sees as lax Chinese environmental and labor standards. However, Colombia needs new economic partners, particularly given the lack of progress on a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade agreement (FTA)," said another cable, conveying the views of Colombian diplomats as reported by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The cables paint a picture of an aggressive Chinese effort to insert state-owned companies into America's backyard while Latin American countries have few options but to go along in the face of American neglect.

Xi, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2012, has been intimately involved in those efforts, the cables show.

So how did his trip to Mexico go? The cables report the results as mixed.

"Xi's visit intensified the Mexico-China dialogue," the cable said. "However, Mexico's trade deficit with China and concerns over China's approach to investment continue to color Mexico's perception of China as a true partner."

AFP / Getty Images

COMMENTS (17)

EXPLORE:EAST ASIA, LATIN AMERICA, CHINA, MEXICO, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, WIKILEAKS, WIKILEAKS CABLE

Mexican border crossing cards vulnerable to abuse

Posted By Josh Rogin Friday, July 2, 2010 - 5:16 PM

The State Department is issuing cards for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border that may be vulnerable to counterfeiting, according to a new report.

In 2008, the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs took over from the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service the job of producing and issuing passport cards, which can be used by Americans as cheaper alternative to passports, and Border Crossing Cards, which are used by Mexican nationals who cross the border on a regular basis. However, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday that "State does not fully understand the security and durability of the [U.S. passport] card." Though State "generally" is following accepted standards and procedures for designing the passport cards, it didn't test the final version of the cards -- leaving opportunities for criminals to forge their own.

Making the problem worse, when State began planning to produce a second-generation Border Crossing Card, the department issued the work to the same company that produced the flawed passport cards.

"Because the second generation BCC was added to the passport contract, it did not undergo any formal security testing and evaluation activities and no security or durability testing was done on the second-generation passport card," the GAO said.

The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection bureau intercepted more than 13,000 fraudulent Border Crossing Cards in 2009 alone. Last July, only one month after the use of the Border Crossing Cards became mandatory, the DHS's Forensic Document Laboratory alerted U.S. Border Patrol officers that counterfeits had begun appearing at U.S. ports of entry and issued an alert explaining how to detect forgeries.

"The 9-11 Commission's final report makes clear that ‘for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons,'" six congressmen wrote to the GAO in December 2008, in requesting the investigation. "We are concerned that the physical and electronic security of the U.S. Passport Card and the new Mexican Border Crossing Card may be inadequate."

State received the responsibility for manufacturing these cards as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which was supposed to tighten up the U.S. southern border as part of the reforms spelled out in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004.

The Forensic Document Laboratory, ,which specializes in travel-document fraud, told the GAO that State should use a different material to make the card, a higher standard of engraving, and put more visible security features on the front of the cards.

State responded that it has to balance the cost of security features with the benefit and therefore didn't think the bulk of the laboratory's recommendations were worth the expense.

Why didn't State even test the final version of the passport card, as the laboratory recommended?

"Because it was in the final stages of procurement when the design was finalized and it wanted to meet schedule," the GAO said. State is working on the new version of the passport card now.

COMMENTS (1)

EXPLORE:NORTH AMERICA, MEXICO, MIGRATION/IMMIGRATION, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, STATE DEPARTMENT