razil’s government, presided by Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva, is openly violating in Honduras the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that was signed on April 16, 1961 and that went into force, after the corresponding constitutional ratifications, on April 24th, 1964. The violation consists in giving arbitrary refuge in its diplomatic mission in Tegucigalpa to deposed President Manuel Zelaya, especially because he is inciting, from the roof of the building, microphone in hand, those who have burned automobiles and looted stores in the Honduran capital. After the government of Brazil broke diplomatic relations with the new government of Honduras on June 29th, that diplomatic mission should have stopped working and be in the process of leaving the country. However, in an absolute abuse of power by Brazil, with the complicity of governments in the Americas and perhaps in Europe, the building of the Brazilian Embassy has become a bulwark of subversion against the public and constitutional order of the Republic of Honduras that is ruled by a sovereign state. The entry in that embassy by former President Manuel Zelaya, who came from another country with the help of several governments of the region, coordinated by Hugo Chávez’s Venezuelan dictatorship, has worsened the crisis and increased the violation of the government of Brazil against the Honduran State.

Ordinal number 3 of Article 41 of the mentioned Vienna Convention that refers to diplomatic immunities states: “The premises of the mission must not be used in any manner incompatible with the functions of the mission as laid down in the present Convention or by other rules of general international law or by any special agreements in force between the sending and the receiving State.” The clarity of these concepts, that are part of the responsibilities pertaining to diplomatic asylum, prove that the Brazilian government, whose Foreign Relations Ministry enjoyed considerable prestige in the past, is openly violating, without any respect whatsoever, the Vienna Convention.

The Organization of American States, that is claiming “sui generis” powers to intervene in the case of Honduras, should make a pronouncement about this disruption of international public order brought about by the violation of the Vienna Convention by the largest country in South America, Brazil.