Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and three Republican congressmen are heading to Honduras to meet with the coup government in defiance of the Obama administration. Senator John Kerry, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, initially blocked the trip from happening but relented late yesterday. Also traveling will be Republican Congressmen Aaron Schock of Illinois, Peter Roskam of Illinois and Doug Lamborn of Colorado. All four have been vocal supporters of the June coup that ousted the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras last week and is currently inside the Brazilian embassy. On Thursday, a group of Brazilian lawmakers traveled to Honduras and condemned the coup government for attacking the embassy with toxic gas.

Brazilian lawmaker Ivan Valente: “The state of siege decree showed that the civil society who supported the coup decreased — businessmen, the Church, several movements, parties, Parliament — and so it was a measure which was not the best for them. That could help in looking for a peaceful solution in order to return to democracy and give legality to the constitutionally elected president and carry out a democratic electoral progress.”