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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Honduran Talks
“Exhausted,” Zelaya Says
TEGUCIGALPA – Deposed Honduran President Mel
Zelaya sees no point in continuing the
dialogue launched two weeks ago with the de
facto regime led by Roberto Micheletti, a
spokesperson for the ousted head of state
said Friday.
“At this moment we are treating this phase
as exhausted, as over,” Mayra Mejia told
reporters.
Speaking for the Micheletti camp, Armando
Aguilar told Efe as he left the hotel where
the current round of talks began Oct. 7 that
his delegation was “preparing a
counter-proposal” to be presented Friday
morning.
Mejia said the Zelaya delegation had already
arranged for observers from the Organization
of American States to receive the new
proposal from Micheletti.
If that proposal includes the
“re-establishment of the constitutional
order ... we accept it,” she said, while
adding that Zelaya’s reinstatement “is not
within the political will of the (de facto)
regime.”
She stressed that any new initiative from
Micheletti must evince “seriousness, a
political will to restore President Zelaya.”
“If the coup d’état can’t be reversed, no
democracy in Central America and Latin
America can be at ease, because (putschists)
will find an ideal, simple path: stage a
coup and whitewash it later with an
election,” Mejia said, alluding to Honduras’
Nov. 29 presidential ballot.
Zelaya, who slipped back into the country on
Sept. 21 and remains holed up at the
Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, has made
numerous concessions to achieve an accord
with Micheletti.
The ousted president agreed to preside over
a national-unity government for the balance
of his term, which ends in January.
He also pledged to abandon his push for
constitutional reform, an initiative
bitterly opposed by the military, the
political establishment and the few dozen
families who dominate the Honduran economy.
Micheletti contends Zelaya’s ouster was not
a coup, insisting that the soldiers who
dragged him from the presidential palace and
put him on a plane to Costa Rica were simply
enforcing a Supreme Court ban on the
president’s planned non-binding plebiscite
on the idea of revising the constitution.
Though the coup leaders accuse Zelaya of
seeking to extend his stay in office, any
potential constitutional change to allow
presidential re-election would not have
taken place until well after the incumbent
stepped down.
Time is running out to settle the conflict
before the Nov. 29 presidential elections,
as both the European Union and Washington
have said they will not recognize the winner
unless Zelaya is restored to office
beforehand. EFE
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