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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Zelaya Says He “Hasn’t Broken Off Talks” and
that OAS Backs His Proposal
TEGUCIGALPA – Ousted Honduran President
Manuel Zelaya said on Saturday that he
“hasn’t broken off talks” with the de facto
president, Roberto Micheletti, and added
that the Organization of American States
(OAS) backs his proposal to let Congress
decide on his reinstatement.
Zelaya also rejected any action on his
behalf that would entail “violence or arms”
to put pressure on the de facto government
and instead asked for more trade and
economic reprisals.
“Talks haven’t been broken off, they’re
suspended” until his commission and
Micheletti’s get together this weekend and
meet again on Monday, Zelaya said in an
interview on Tegucigalpa’s HRN radio.
One of the people closest to Zelaya, his
Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, had said
Friday in Bolivia, where she is attending
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(ALBA) summit, that the dialogue had been
“definitively broken off” due to
Micheletti’s “intransigence” in refusing to
reinstate the elected president in power.
The head of Zelaya’s commission, Victor
Meza, said Friday that “the talks continue”
in spite of the disagreement between the two
parties on his reinstatement proposals.
Nonetheless, the deposed president said that
he has “no optimism” about the negotiations,
which reached agreements on other points but
not on his eventual return to the presidency
of his country.
Zelaya proposed that Congress decide on this
point and Micheletti argued that it should
be the Supreme Court (CSJ), since the ousted
president has trials pending for suspected
political and common crimes.
The de facto president presented another
possibility on Friday, according to
commission member Vilma Morales, but its
content has not been revealed by the
delegations and will be analyzed this
weekend.
Zelaya commented that on Thursday “there was
a consensus of the two commissions on the
text, which was taken to Micheletti who
tossed it out” in order to propose on Friday
that a political problem should be made a
matter for the court, which is
“unacceptable, it’s an insult to the
intelligence.”
“Then we presented another text, another
proposal, that is backed by the OAS and
backed by the international community,”
which suggests that the matter be discussed
by Congress, he said.
The banished president said that he rejected
Micheletti’s proposal because “the court is
judge and part of this coup d’état,” having
ordered his capture last June 28, after
which the military deposed him and expelled
him to Costa Rica.
De facto Cabinet head Rafael Pineda defended
the CSJ’s ruling on the reinstatement of
Zelaya because it is handling several cases
against him and “Congress cannot resolve
matters that are in the province of another
power of the state.”
Zelaya said that “the best thing would be
giving the political decision to
politicians, with the politicians getting
legal advice,” and in fact his proposal
includes the possibility of Congress
consulting with the CSJ.
As for his request through a communique that
foreign ministers of OAS nations increase
their sanctions against the de facto
government, he considered that “they can
perfectly well establish tougher trade and
economic measures, which the United States
would comply with immediately.”
Those sanctions could be related “to many
activities to do with ports, economic
transfers ... there are a lot of things in
that field that are within the Free Trade
Agreement” with the United States, he said.
“We’ve never believed in nor asked for
displays of violence and arms – we actually
oppose procedures of that kind,” he said.
Zelaya also said that “conditions do not
exist for transparent elections” in Honduras
on Nov. 29 and that “they are cooking up a
fraud in order to make the departure of Mr.
Micheletti and his friends viable.”
Asked about whom such a fraud would favor,
Zelaya said: “It would favor whoever takes
part.”
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