Honduras' lobito barges in at Santos/Chavez summit

[rabs]

Chavez (in dark shirt) and lobito (center)


Background:

Santos and Chavez were to have held a summit at Cartagena last week. The meeting was canceled until today because Chavez's plane had some sort of problem and could not leave Cochabama, Bolivia. (Chavez did a tour of the Southern Cone last week with stops in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Cochabamba.)
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So Chavez and his entourage (two plane loads) went to Cartagena de Indias today. Santos and Chavez were 35 minutes into their talks when Santos and María Ángela Holguín, his foreign minister, suddenly left the room.

They went to greet lobito, who had arrived unannounced to the media (and presumably Chavez).

lobito's participation was not on the official agenda of the summit. So it looks like Santos may have pulled a fast one on Chavez.

Santos said the purpose of lobito's presence at the summit was to try to get Chavez's support for the re-inclusion of Honduras into the OAS. (It was the first time Chavez and lobito met face to face.)

Chavez was non-committal. He said the return of Mel Zelaya was paramount to any further discussion about the matter.

lobito joined the summit for three of the seven hours the summit lasted.

So far have not seen that the Venezuelans considered lobito's showing up as a rupture of protocol. But there is certain to be a reaction in Caracas when the Venezuelans return.

Santos was in Washington on Thursday and met with his chum obama at the White House.

So wondering whether Hil/obama had something to do with lobito's showing up, in a ploy to embarrass Chavez?? Would not put it past hil and company.

[Judi Lynn]

1. That was underhanded, and half-assed. No one decent pulls a surprise guest

at an adult meeting between two Presidents. It's not a coffee klatch with a neighbor dropping by.

It's great to hear it from you. I feel completely certain we're not going to get the straight story from a corporate media source.

That's really not something anyone would pull on the U.S. President. It takes a lot of gall to try it on any other President. I think, as you do, someone with delusions of grandeur planned it and Santos executed it.

All it does is tell the world Santos can't really be trusted, and anyone who saw how the military operated in the last 8 years would have been very watchful of everything he'll ever do, anyway.

Recommending.

[rabs]

2. Zelaya was at the summit too (in a way)

Looks like lobito is wearing one of Zelaya's shirts and he doesn't fill it :rofl:


Have been reading Colombian and Venezuelan media and more pormenores (details) are known. Chavez said the proposal to try to help Honduras get back in the OAS had come from Santos.

Chavez played it cool. He said it had been a pleasure to meet lobito -- and that they had spoken with Zelaya by telephone, where ideas of resolving the lobito-Zelaya dispute had been exchanged.

But then Chavez dropped the sledge hammer. He said he was sure there would be "positive results in the next few months."

So lobito went home empty handed again.

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At the summit, Chavez and Santos signed 16 accords on trade, tourism, infrastructure, fighting narco-trafficking and so on, the usual stuff.

alvarito uribito had to have been pulling his hair out today. Poor uribito :rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Yep, it looks as if he will be there, symbolically, for some time to come, too.

That's the advantage of kidnapping people and not allowing them any time to pack. You get to keep their clothes!

Looks as if Lobito has been diving into Zelaya's closet repeatedly. Went to take a look at other photos, and they seem to come out the same, too!


Be on the lookout for the day he starts showing up wearing white hats!

I just found something I've never seen from one year ago:

Honduras: The Return of the Death Squads
Thursday, 29 April 2010 11:25 Jeremy Kryt
Source: In These Times

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—Late in the afternoon on February 3, Vanessa Zepeda, a 28-year-old registered nurse, left a union hall after a meeting and began walking to the supermarket to buy school supplies for her children and formula for her baby girl.

~snip~
According to witnesses, as she was leaving the union hall parking lot in this sprawling capital city, Zepeda was forced into an unmarked white sedan by two masked men dressed in fatigues.

A few hours after she was kidnapped, her corpse, still dressed in blue hospital scrubs, was tossed from a moving car in the Loarque neighborhood on the southern side of the city—a well-known stronghold of the resistance movement.

Zepeda was a member of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP), which like many countries, including Brazil and Argentina, does not recognize the military-backed government of President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, who took office in January after much-disputed elections.

More:
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1944/1/

[naaman fletcher]

5. discussions suck..

how terrible for adults to have to talk to each other. Poor Chavez.. first he was forced to hurt his country because Uribe wasn't nice to him and now he can't even talk to a two bit, low-life dictator.

Maybe we should all chip-in and get him some counseling sessions. Perhaps a combination of Dr. Phil and Deepak Chopra.

[Bacchus39]

6. Lobo was likely on a cruise ship and just happened to stumble upon the meeting

sources say he was looking for Plaza Santo Domingo to get his picture with the "fat lady" and have a cup of joe. looks like he got lost and went into a building to ask directions and use the bathroom. imagine everyone's surprise when of all people he encounters Chavez and Santos. he didn't get a picture with the fat lady, but he got one with Chavez. that's pretty close.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Someone scarfed my recommendation of the original post. n/t