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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Crisis Redux
- Zelaya,
Micheletti Begin to Disagree About Accord
TEGUCIGALPA – Barely two days after agreeing
to an accord to resolve the political crisis
in Honduras caused by his June 28 removal,
deposed President Mel Zelaya and current
President Roberto Micheletti are beginning
to differ on the details of the pact.
The crux of the disagreement is once again
the restitution to power of the ousted
Zelaya, who for almost a week blocked the
talks until last week a U.S. delegation and
the Organization of American States managed
to get the two sides to agree on a way
forward.
The Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord establishes
that: “Both negotiating committees (those of
Zelaya and Micheletti) have decided,
respectively, that Congress ... will decide
... with respect to ‘restoring the head of
the Executive Branch to his status prior to
June 28,’” the date of the coup that toppled
Zelaya.
Zelaya said in a telephone conversation from
the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where
he has been holed up since sneaking back
into the country on Sept. 21, that this
means “asking Congress with regard to
reversing the situation, that is, to tell
them: ‘Sirs, with all respect, return to the
State of Law and (abandon) illegality.”
“That is a request that both parties have
made,” he added.
However, the current Honduras government, in
a document prepared on the pact distributed
to reporters, said that the agreement “makes
no type of recommendation about what
decision the Congress should make.”
For Zelaya, this interpretation would be “a
dirty game and an absurd game, not very
intelligent” and “it would put them (the de
facto authorities) in a very bad position
before the international community.”
“It seems to me that the spirit of the
accord is completely clear. The positions of
the international community, the Honduran
people and (me) are completely clear and now
it is the responsibility of Congress to
reverse the coup or continue with the coup,”
he said.
“If the coup d’état is not reversed, then
the accord is going to break down, the
accord would be null and the accord
logically would be an absurdity,” he
declared.
Zelaya currently enjoys the support of only
about a fifth of the legislators, and
Congress had before his ouster already
opened an investigation into whether he was
mentally fit to govern, voted to disapprove
his violations of the Constitution and
replaced him with Micheletti after he was
ousted. The Supreme Court, which will also
weigh-in with an opinion, has already
rejected Zelaya's return, saying he was
replaced as president on June 28 because he
violated the Constitution.
The deposed leader also believes that his
restitution must be accomplished before next
Thursday, the deadline for the installation
of a “Government of Unity and National
Reconciliation,” according to the accord,
which does not specify who should preside
over that prospective government.
But the document distributed by the
Micheletti government says that “with regard
to the intervention by Congress ... in the
matter of the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya
... it only sets forth today’s date (that
is, last Friday, the day of the accord’s
signing) to introduce the request” to the
legislature, but sets no deadline for a
decision on the matter.In response to the
stance of the deposed leader, the deputy
foreign minister, Martha Alvarado, accused
him of wanting to “destabilize” the
elections scheduled for Nov. 29 and to be
“putting the accord into a precarious”
state.
“This bad interpretation that has been given
to the dates is a very well-known tactic
with the aim of destabilizing the electoral
process,” Alvarado said.
Meanwhile, former Chilean President Ricardo
Lagos and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
will be on the verification committee for
the accord signed to resolve the crisis, and
the pair will travel to the Central American
country this week to begin their work, the
OAS said Sunday.
Besides the two politicians, also comprising
the committee will be Hondurans Jorge Reina
and Arturo Corrales, who have been
representing Zelaya and Micheletti,
respectively, in the negotiations.
On Friday, the two sides signed the crucial
accord to resolve the crisis.
The accord includes the creation of the
government of national reconciliation and
states that Congress will vote on whether or
not to reinstate Zelaya in power.
One of the points in the accord stipulates
that “two members of the international
community and two members of the national
community” will make up the verification
committee.
On Sunday, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza
announced that the two international members
would be Lagos
and Solis, a U.S. citizen who is the
daughter of Latino immigrants.
Insulza said that the pair will arrive in
Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to meet with the
committee’s Honduran representatives, Reina
and Corrales.
The international members will travel to
Honduras accompanied by the secretary of
political affairs for the OAS, Victor Rico,
and a delegation of top officials from the
organization.
The OAS has played an important role in the
search for a solution to the crisis in
Honduras, which it suspended from
participation in the regional organization
in response to the coup against Zelaya.
This measure, adopted in early July, is the
most energetic such move to be made by the
organization in the past 20 years.
Insulza said on Sunday that lifting the
sanctions on Honduras is a matter that the
OAS should take up, as was made clear at the
meeting of the organization’s Permanent
Council meeting on Friday.
At that meeting, Bolivian representative
Jose Pinelo proposed that the OAS hold an
extraordinary general assembly meeting in
Tegucigalpa on Nov. 16, before the
elections, to discuss withdrawing the
suspension of Honduras from the
organization.
“The possibility that this meeting might be
held on Nov. 16, once the accord is
implemented, has been rather well-received
among the members of the Permanent Council,”
Insulza said.
“It’s very possible that it will happen in
this way,” he added.
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