Lobo Out Of The Closet

Porfirio Lobo Sosa, in a round table discussion at Tulane University, told the audience that Manuel Zelaya Rosales wanted to remain in power, according to his communications director Miguel Angel Bonilla. Bonilla told Tiempo in a phone interview that:

"President Lobo confirmed that former President Zelaya himself had intended to stay in power and he reviewed all the facts coming from that ... the subject of the Supreme Court of Justice when there was a crisis and wanted to impose one person to Judge."

Bonilla also said that Zelaya wanted to appoint the wife of his minister Enrique Flores Lanza as a Supreme Court justice, again as part of his plan to remain in power.

Asked about these declarations, Bonilla said he didn't think they'd cause problems because Lobo Sosa had been "prudent, and has maintained the unity of the country."

"If you mention that someone's personal interests caused them to make mistakes, that's not attacking any part of the population."

Bonilla is worried about the statements, which were not intended for domestic consumption. Only Tiempo has the story in today's web edition. Lobo Sosa has refrained from saying anything of substance about the coup, and had in the past let his campaign spokesperson, now Communications Minister, Miguel Angel Bonilla, speak for him.

The authors of this blog researched the claim that Zelaya wanted to remain in power without finding a shred of evidence that supports the statement. While it's true that Zelaya proposed that Congress appoint Enrique Flores Lanza's wife to the Supreme Court, there is no evidence we know of that ties that to an attempt to remain in power. Assertions by third parties, like Porfirio Lobo Sosa, aren't evidence.

In his statements in Louisiana, Lobo Sosa merely confirmed what we already knew; he supported the coup, something Bonilla has attempted to keep ambiguous until now.