Honduran president denounces "press plot"

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa denounced on 7 December two newspapers for allegedly colluding with judges against him, and accused them of plotting to have him dismissed before his term expires in 2014 after they published declarations critical of his government. "There is a conspiracy, see the El Heraldo newspaper and La Prensa today and yesterday...what they are doing is dangerous for this nation and is going to create a problem for us," similar he claimed to his Leftist predecessor Manuel Zelaya's overthrow in 2009. He was speaking at a military academy in Tegucicalpa. He said he knew "who is gathering, where they are meeting and what they are doing," and named the dailies' owner Jorge Canahuati Larach as implicitly involved in unspecified machinations, El Heraldo reported. Canahuati is one of the country's prominent businessmen. Lobo was reacting to the publication on 5 December of statements by Supreme-Court judges denouncing his "attacks" on judicial independence and specifically its deliberations on a bill to purge the police of corrupt elements with confidence tests. The Supreme Court was to decide whether or not subjecting policemen to such tests was constitutional. Lobo publicly wondered on 4 December if judges were "on the side of delinquents or of honourable people in this country," prompting a rebuke by judges published in dailies. El Heraldo observed that several dailies published the judges' statements but Lobo had inexplicably focused on El Heraldo and La Prensa. Opsa, the group which owns the two papers, rejected the president's accusations in a communiqué. Former president Zelaya reacted in turn, saying both sides had a point and "should be listened to," the website Proceso Digital reported. He said Lobo believed judges were impeding his bid to cleanse the police while the Court's "juridical rationale" had to be considered. The lie detector he said, "cannot be the only element for dismissing a policeman." The head of the armed forces joint command also warned on 7 December that the armed forces would not "permit a political game to play with the country's democracy," El Heraldo reported. René Osorio Canales told the press in the capital that "nobody is thinking of a coup," which he said could not happen without the army's participation. The army he said would not allow "an interested group to create disorder and chaos in the country. On the contrary we are here to foment democracy and show solidarity with the President."