Word: coups
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...news. Exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, after sneaking back into his Central American country, had shown up at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa seeking refuge. Lula, like every other world leader, has called for Zelaya's restoration ever since the Honduran was ousted by a military coup on June 28, so he had little choice but to let him into the embassy. But when Lula arrived in Manhattan, according to numerous sources, his irritation was plain. "He was taken by surprise and put in an uncomfortable position," says one Brazilian source. "Brazil was on the spot, in the center...
...itself in the kind of diplomatic spotlight it once shunned. Chávez never misses a chance to thumb his nose at U.S. influence in Latin America, and since he'd grown impatient with what he considered the Obama Administration's too tepid efforts to lean on the Honduras coup leaders and get his ally Zelaya returned to power, he decided it was time to bring Lula deeper into a banana-republic situation that gets messier for the hemisphere by the day. (See pictures of violence during the Honduras protests...
...whether it likes it or not, Brazil is up to its neck in Honduras, and the hemisphere is hoping that means enhanced prospects for a negotiated settlement between Zelaya and coup leaders like de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti. Zelaya has complicated things for Brazil by making hyperventilated comments, claiming last week that "Israeli mercenaries" were targeting him and his entourage with high-frequency radiation. Micheletti, meanwhile, has gone over the top this week, expelling an Organization of American States (OAS) delegation and trying to shut down constitutional rights in Honduras. He even gave Lula until early next week...
Still, because most analysts agree that the Honduras coup sends a dangerous signal to the region's fledgling democracies, they feel that having Brazil's respected heft thrown more directly into the mix could help negotiations. Says another source close to Lula, "I think the talks are evolving now that Zelaya is back and under our protection." If an accord actually gets inked in Honduras, Brazil's image as a regional power broker will take off. And if not, Lula at least will win points with the leftist base of his Workers Party. "Even if it doesn't work...
...pictures of the Honduras coup on LIFE.com...