It is impossible not to be moved by the desperate scenes of death and destruction in Haiti. That such devastation should befall a country that has known nothing but hardship for decades tests the faith of even the truest of believers. And yet, out of the ashes, a phoenix may rise. And as the nations of the western hemisphere scramble to provide aid and figure out how to co-operate in the reconstruction, the seeds of a new western unity may be planted.

The military coup in Honduras that ousted President Zelaya was an exception, not the norm, in Latin American politics, say Drs. Andrew F. Cooper and Jorge Heine. Current leadership in the region generally supports democracy and regional integration. At a public lecture, they discussed evolutions in Latin American politics, which is also the topic of their recently published book, Which Way Latin America? Hemispheric Politics Meets Globalization.

By taking on Honduras as a foreign policy priority, Brazil is expressing a powerful Latin American consensus. The notion that this could somehow damage Brazil and its global objectives is profoundly mistaken.

Junior foreign minister Peter Kent voiced strong support over the weekend for the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras in advance of a high-level trip to the Central American country to help resolve the nation's eight-week-old coup.