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HONDURAS VOTES ITS CONSCIENCE, GETS MILLENNIUM-ACCOUNT MONEY.

Article Excerpt
Allegations of arm-twisting and blackmail of the cruelest kind have surfaced in Honduras as the US seeks to garner support for its favored candidate in the election of a secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS). A Honduran newspaper has reported, and wire services have distributed widely, that the US told President Ricardo Maduro that unless he threw his country's support behind El Salvador's former President Francisco Flores (see NotiCen, 2005-02-03), Honduras could see itself shut out of the benefits of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), an aid program announced by US President George W. Bush in 2002.

No funds have as yet been disbursed by the account, but potential recipient countries have been selected. From Central America, only Honduras and Nicaragua made the final list. Only Bolivia made the cut from anywhere else in Latin America.

Denials of pressure followed soon after the initial reports saw daylight. Maduro denied in Tegucigalpa any linkage between the OAS and the MCA. He said this on Feb. 3, just before departing for the US to participate in the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. The initial reports had linked this trip to an arm-twisting session regarding the election.

"I would hope that the subject of the OAS has nothing to do with the Millennium Account," Maduro told reporters. "If...

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