On Tuesday (6th), Michel Temer (PMDB-SP), the President of the Chamber of Deputies, received a mission from Brazilian deputies that visited Honduras in the attempt of pacifying the country and find a formula to assure the safety to the Brazilian people that live there. According to Temer, the mission of the Chamber "may have been definitive in the solution of the crisis in Central America's country. This delegation that went to Honduras – in which the opposition and the government were together, representing the Congress – accomplished something with an extraordinary scope", he said.

For the President of the Chamber of Deputies, the mission reinforced the Brazilian parliamentary diplomacy role. He said that the international news realized the parliamentarians’ role for the pacification of that country.

According to Temer, the conclusion of the state of siege, accomplished on Monday (5th), was a result of the manifestations of the Brazilian deputies that were there. "More and more, the Chamber is playing its role. And one of its roles it is just the parliamentary diplomacy, something that we have encouraged”.

Diplomatic success
Deputy Maurício Rands (PT-PE) explained that the external role was hosted by 15 ministers of the Supreme Court, by the entire Governing Board and by the Parties Leaders of the Honduran National Assembly and even by the deposed president Manuel Zelaya and by the “de facto” president, Roberto Micheletti.

Rands adds the end of the siege at the embassy to the list, as one of the victories conquered by the parliamentarians. "We requested the respect of them in relation to the Brazilian Embassy and we made it. The Government established before us, in that particular moment, that the diplomats would have free circulation and the telephones’ reconnection. However, I would say that the mission reinforced the parliamentary diplomacy and, even in an additional nature, the official diplomacy", he celebrated.

According to the deputy from Pernambuco, the parliamentarians did not state that legitimated the Government lead by Micheletti. He even reminded that the next step will be a visit of many Chancellors of the Organization of American States (OAS) to Honduras, on the next week. "I expect that OAS helps Honduras to find a negotiated solution that, I believe, it is very close now", he stated.

Reprisal against Brazilian people
Deputy Raul Jungmann (PPS-PE), that coordinated the external role, said that a solution must be found immediately, even to finish with the pressure received by Brazilian citizens in Honduras, whose children have been accused in schools, of being part of an interventionist country.

The parliamentarian said that there is an advertisement in the Honduran TV that is concluded with the sentence "Brazil and Venezuela violated the Honduras sovereign ".

"Brazil owes an apology to the Honduran people, not for opposing the coup or granting the asylum, but for having allowed that Mr. Zelaya used the facilities of the Embassy to defend a political revolt", he said.

Jungmann reminded that the President of the Republic Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Government would be responsible if Zelaya caused a massacre with his appeals. "The diplomats and employees were touched by our departure and stated that, in fact, we were the Brazilian State that defended them", he added.

Raul Jungmann complimented the Brazilian diplomats on their actions, but made an observation. "Brazil did the right thing hosting Zelaya, but made a mistake when allowed his use of the Embassy of Brazil as a pulpit and electoral committee. And we saw this at the place, there were the possibility of a confrontation with a massacre".

This Jungmann’s criticism referent to the presumption of Brazilian Diplomacy mistake in Honduras was directly notified to Itamaraty, on Tuesday (6th) in a meeting of the External Committee of the Chamber, with the General Secretary of Foreign Relations, Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães.

Schedule highlight
From deputy Ivan Valente (Psol-SP) point of view, the parliamentarians conquered a victory by accomplishing the entry in the Brazilian Embassy and then collaborating to the end of the state of siege that was in force.

"The mission increased the value of the Chamber. We presented a reply to the institutions, a reply on the motives of the State coup and two days later the president Micheletti admitted that they had made a mistake by accomplishing a coup”, the parliamentarian comprehends.

Besides Rands, Jungmann and Valente, the Chamber of the Deputies external role was attended by  deputies Claudio Cajado (DEM-BA), Bruno Araújo (PSDB-PE) and Janete Rocha Pietá (PT-SP).

Reporting - Juliano Pires
Edition - Newton Araújo
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Maria Carolina Ogata