Trash Talk

No, I'm not going to discuss the back and forth between Manuel Zelaya Rosales and Porfirio Lobo Sosa. You can read about that trash talking somewhere else.

I'm talking about what politicians do. Politicians say things for many reasons, but generally because they are politically expedient, truth doesn't matter.

Rodolfo Irias Navas did some trash talking to La Tribuna on December 9, 2010, saying he was tired of the double standard of foreign leaders when it comes to impunity. He says they are asking for impunity for Manuel Zelaya Rosales, in violation of Honduran law.

Who is the politician, you ask? He's a former president of the Honduran Congress and a conservative leader for the National Party. What he said, exactly is

"When they ask you to accept ex-president Zelaya, and that we forget the crimes that he committed that are not covered by the amnesty, it appears to me that they are requiring us to violate the constitution of the Republic and the rule of law.....It is sad and it makes me sad when foreign functionaries come here with the double morality, they come to say that there's impunity in Honduras, and on the other hand, they're twisting our arm behind our back to get us to violate the constitution and the laws of the country."

That would be sad, if it were true, but politicians say things that aren't true all the time, if it advances their cause.

What Irias Navas's statement is really all about is clearer when you combine it with a new statement by Chief Justice Jorge Rivera Avilés, who says

"Ex-President Zelaya, in the moment he comes to Honduras, must be captured and placed at the order of the courts.....They have to defend him oportunistically, in the sense that some interpretations can be made, but on this I may not pronounce, because despite having my own criteria, that would be prejudging."

But of course, Rivera Avilés has already prejudged the case. He continues

"They'll send him to jail, or they'll give him an alternative sentence."

Apparently exoneration is not a possibility in Rivera Avilés's universe.

All of this political talk, because that's what it is, is about taking up a position in opposition to Porfirio Lobo Sosa and his attempts to regain international recognition for Honduras. Irias Navas told La Tribuna

"The situation of President Lobo is difficult"

Yup, and its people like Rodolfo Irias Navas and Jorge Rivera Avíles and Luis Rubí who make it difficult.