Free and fair elections are a pillar for tangible change in government. Many have long strived to see the fruition of democracy in all of its values reach contemporary Latin America, more recently in the Arcadia Foundation taking to task the former Honduran government of dubious dealings and questionable practices. Their anti-corruption campaigns shone a spotlight on ‘sweetheart‘ deals and abuses of power within the higher echelons of the Zelaya government, and today we are seeing the fruits of the labor from both their team and those who understood likewise and wished for greater transparency and less corruption-susceptible enactors of rule of law. Today, Porfirio Lobo assumes the presidency of Honduras, the result of democratic elections in the region.

Lobo, 62, has recently vowed to unite the Central American country by naming a commission to investigate last year’s ouster against then-President Manuel Zelaya and by appointing opposition members to his Cabinet. Zelaya, 57, who has holed up at Brazil’s Embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa, since September, says he’ll leave for the Dominican Republic after Lobo is installed.

Today’s ceremony won’t assuage tensions between the U.S. and Latin America that were aggravated by Zelaya’s ouster, said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based research group. The U.S. backed Lobo after his Nov. 30 election.

“I’ve been in touch with many heads of state, they say once I take power they’ll recognize me,” Lobo said in a brief interview yesterday in Tegucigalpa. “You have to respect electoral democracy — the people decided.”

The U.S. delegation to the swearing-in will be led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday. A total of 19 governments will be represented, Lobo spokesman Bladimir Bacca said.

Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez helped broker a deal allowing Zelaya, who said he wants to avoid facing charges in Honduras, to leave the country. Lobo said he consulted with prosecutors and Supreme Court judges to make sure the arrangement is legal. Zelaya took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy after sneaking back into the country from exile on Sept. 21.

“If we are granted access, we’ll take Zelaya out of there,” Lobo told reporters yesterday.

The University of Miami-educated Lobo, known to his supporters as “Pepe,” will be sworn in at 11 a.m. New York time. The lawmaker and cattle rancher was elected after vowing to cut crime and promote national dialogue following the ouster. He also pledged to create better-paying jobs in the $14.1 billion economy, which depends on remittances, aid and exports to the U.S. that include bananas and coffee.

The country lost access to as much as $500 million in aid and loans from foreign donors, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, following the coup, according to the New York-based Eurasia Group.

“Obama misread the situation on the ground in Honduras,” said Shifter “He thought condemning the coup would lead to a satisfactory solution.”

“Up until the fall of last year Obama had gotten a lot of bang for his buck — he did very little but reaped substantial rewards,” said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with the Eurasia Group in New York. “His sheen has gone now and the goodwill in the region has gone too.”

Representative Eliot Engel, a Democrat who chairs the sub- committee overseeing affairs with Latin America, said he’s certain Obama is committed to improving ties with the region.

“He can’t snap his fingers and make things change overnight,” he said.

Latin governments will revisit relations with Honduras at the Rio Group meeting Feb. 22-23 in Cancun, Mexico, Marco Aurelio Garcia, an adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, told Agencia Brasil on Jan. 23. El Salvador and Guatemala said this week they will recognize the new government, joining other Latin American countries including Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera yesterday found the country’s six top military commanders not guilty of abuse of authority and expatriation for ordering soldiers to send Zelaya into exile, court spokesman Danilo Izaguirre said in a phone interview from Tegucigalpa.

Zelaya’s departure, arranged by Lobo, may facilitate better ties with regional leaders such as Brazil more than his taking the reins as president, said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“You can’t turn the clock back to the day before Zelaya was ousted,” DeShazo said in a telephone interview. “What you can do is try to clarify the situation and try to heal the wounds opened up by that episode.”