According to EFE press agency, OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza announced today that former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos and current U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís will join the verification commission established in the Tegucigalpa/San José accord as the OAS representatives. The accord provides for two international commission members chosen by the OAS and two Honduran members chosen by President Manuel Zelaya and regime leader Roberto Micheletti. President Zelaya has chosen Jorge Arturo Reina, permanent Honduran representative to the United Nations, and Micheletti chose one of his negotiators, Arturo Corrales.
The San José Accord (I posted a full translation yesterday) provides for a verification commission to be established by tomorrow, November 2, and a truth commission that will not be formed until the first half of 2010. As its name suggests, the verification commission will be responsible for verifying that commitments made under the accord are kept:
The Verification Commission will be responsible for attesting to the strict compliance with all of the points of this Accord and will receive the full cooperation of Honduran public institutions for that effect.
The failure to comply with any of the commitments contained in this Accord, as verified and declared by the Verification Commission, will result in the activation of measures the Commission will establish for the transgressor or transgressors.
The presence of such a high-ranking U.S. official on the commission sends a powerful message about the White House’s interest in seeing the Honduras crisis resolved.
According to the EFE report:
Insulza said the two international members will arrive in Tegucigalpa this Tuesday, November 3, to meet with the Honduran members, Jorge Reina and Arturo Corrales.
They will be accompanied by the OAS Secretary for Political Affairs, Victor Rico, and a delegation of high-ranking officials from the organization.
The OAS is also considering a general assembly meeting in Tegucigalpa on November 16, before the November 29 Honduran elections, to discuss reversing its suspension of Honduras from the body. The meeting was suggested by the Bolivian ambassador and would demonstrate strong support for the "unity and reconciliation" government to be established by November 5.
Congress is expected to meet on Tuesday to consider President Zelaya’s restitution, which many observers expect it to approve.