A trio of South Florida Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that the remedy to the post-coup woes in Honduras lies in U.S. support of next month's scheduled elections.

U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, all of Miami, called for recognition of the Nov. 29 vote after returning Tuesday from an overnight visit to Honduras, where they met with interim President Robert Micheletti, Congress members, business leaders and others.

They said supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya want the elections to be held.

``People in Honduras, we found, are eager, are eager to vote,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

The Obama administration and other governments don't recognize the interim Micheletti administration, but the Republican House members believe that Zelaya was a populist leader who aligned himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The Obama administration says the presidential vote will be illegitimate unless Zelaya is restored to power before the election. After he was spirited away at gunpoint in June, Zelaya recently sneaked back into the country, where he is holed up with supporters at the Brazilian Embassy.

In their news conference Tuesday, the Republican lawmakers also blasted the Obama administration for cutting aid earmarked for combating drug trafficking.

``They are devastating cuts,'' Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said at Miami International Airport. ``It is an affront to our national security because if we stop our counter-narco efforts and we stop that cooperation it goes against our benefit.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@