The Associated Press reported that Porfiro Lobo, a wealthy and very conservative cattle rancher known affectionately as Pepe, called the race “the cleanest in the history of the country.” Pepe asked nations to recognize his government despite the controversy sparked by the military coup five months ago that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

“We ask them … to see that they are punishing the people who went to vote, do so every four years and have nothing to do with what happened on June 28,” Lobo said, according to AP and other press reports on Monday.

The coup government has been ostracized internationally and most nations have said they would not recognize anyone elected under that coup government. On Tuesday, leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain and Portugal released a statement calling the coup “unacceptable,” saying that reinstating President Zelaya was “a fundamental step” the Central American country needed to take to return to constitutional normality. The leaders of Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica, however, had individually endorsed the election. The statement was released at the end of a three-day Iberoamerican summit in Estoril, Portugal.

“Respect for a democratic way of life has, especially in the Latin American region, a tragic history and because of that we have to defend democracy unconditionally,” Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, told a press conference.

The president of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said all leaders opposed the coup but that “differences centered on how we evaluated the elections and their consequences.” The majority are refusing to recognize the results.

The Obama administration had previously indicated it would not recognize the results of any election unless Zelaya was first restored to power. But last week, the U.S. State Department said it backed the election process as an “essential part” of the solution to the crisis.

U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens went much farther on Monday, calling the election “a great celebration of democracy.”

“Pepe Lobo is a man of great political experience,” Llorens said. “I wish him luck, and the United States will work with him for the good of both our countries. … Our relations will be very strong.”

To its credit, the U.S. State Department did say that negotiations to create a unity government should continue. That unity government would hold power until Lobo takes office Jan. 27. Under a U.S.-brokered pact, Honduran lawmakers will vote Wednesday on whether Zelaya should be restored until Lobo takes office.

Zelaya, however, told BBC on Tuesday that the official turnout figures of some 60% were fraudulent. He also said he would refuse reinstatement even if Congress votes to restore him to serve out his term.

A Honduran political analyst, Eduardo Bahr, said the newly elected president would be a puppet of the United States.

“The winner in these elections has to follow the guidelines of Washington and act as an ideological cap on the progressive ideas in the south of the continent,” Bahr, director of the Honduran National Library and a political observer during the elections, in an interview to news agency TELESUR Monday.

Is this train wreck bound for a banana republic?

News reports today say that the coup-installed government has silenced two dissident broadcasters, Radio Globo and Channel 36 TV, just hours after it suspended civil liberties to prevent what it called an uprising by Zelaya backers. On Sunday, he had called for mass protests.

The government’s suspension of civil liberties violates the Honduran Constitution. The decree issued by the government prohibits unauthorized gatherings and allows police to arrest without a warrant.

The United Nations and the international community have condemned the coup and continue to demand that the deposed president be reinstated and allowed to complete his term which ends in January.

Since this attack on democracy is taking place in our own backyard, you might think that the United States would be using every diplomatic weapon at its disposal to make sure that the democratically elected president was returned to power.

But the reality is, despite its condemnation of the illegal government in Honduras and the suspension of $30 million in assistance to Honduras, the Obama administration has been sitting back, (the United States won’t even officially call this coup a coup) perhaps waiting for a negotiated accord hammered out by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias, to run its course. The San Jose Accord calls for Zelaya’s return to power, the creation of a unity government and early elections. But it has already been rejected by the coup government of Honduras. Other negotiations are under way.

The U.S. response has been decidedly tepid. Could it be that this administration is holding back because Zelaya, like many other Latin American leaders, is a little left of center? I thought we ended that way of thinking when Obama was elected.