Additionally, the Honduran government has delivered an ultimatum to Brazil (also run by a leftist president--me thinks a political trend is developing in the Southern Hemisphere) to turn over President Zelaya within 10 days or face unspecified consequences. The new president, Roberto Micheletti, has also kicked out several diplomats who had been sent to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Today will be a key point in the matter as supporters of the former president have vowed to continue to march on the Brazilian embassy to show their support and clashes with riot police are likely to occur.

I suspect that Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen's support for the current government is disproportionately influenced by the fact that the former president was seen as getting too cozy with the Castro regime in Cuba and President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. To be sure, a dwindling portion of her constituents in Miami and the Keys (especially the older Cuban immigrants from Castro's revolution) were initially behind her outspoken comments which were in direct conflict with the Obama Administration and the State Department's position that Mr. Zelaya must be reinstalled as Honduras' legitimately elected president. Now, one must wonder if Rep. Ros-Lehtinen will continue to be as outspoken in support of a government that is beginning to show all the trappings of an old-style "Banana Republic."

You can contact her office at ros-lehtinen.house.gov where you can also view her speeches in support of Micheletti's government via YouTube.