Analysis: US Leverage Small in Honduran Coup

The coup that deposed the president of Honduras exposed the small leverage that even millions of dollars in aid and longtime military cooperation will buy.

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya speaks during a press conference in Panama City, Thursday,...

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya speaks during a press conference in Panama City, Thursday, July 2, 2009. Zelaya said he will depart Panama on Thursday and travel to a Central American country, but did not disclose his destination. At left is Honduras' former Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas who was also ousted. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

(AP)

Washington has few direct means to pressure those who packed President Manuel Zelaya onto a plane out of the country on Sunday — not the military leaders who carried out the coup or the civilian lawmakers who backed it.

America's troubled history in Latin America, from power broker with bloodied hands in coups past to seemingly indifferent next-door neighbor in recent years, limits everything President Barack Obama can do now.

Obama warned against a return to the "dark past" of coups and instability in Latin America, but he is moving cautiously, and much more slowly than many allies, to distance himself from what the U.S. calls an illegitimate interim Honduran government.

Despite U.S. calls along with the U.N. and the Organization of American States for Zelaya to be returned to power, the Obama administration hasn't suspended some $45 million in annual aid or trade perks — benefits that continue to flow to Honduras, a reliable U.S. ally in a part of the world where American motives are often considered suspect.

The U.S. also hasn't yanked its ambassador from Tegucigalpa, even as all European Union ambassadors abandoned the Honduran capital.

And even the administration's decision to suspend training exercises and counter-narcotics operations with the Honduran military — one of the few moves the White House did make this week — is complicated by America's long-term reliance on Honduras as a base and dependable Latin American partner. Those close ties, shown in the scores of Honduran military officers who have trained in the U.S. over the years, would not be severed easily.

Administration officials say they hope the weight of international condemnation and the threat of economic isolation will speed a political compromise that restores Zelaya to office. In the meantime the U.S. is letting Honduras' Latin American neighbors and international organizations play the heavy.