De facto Honduran president offers to
resign if ousted president also resigns
www.chinaview.cn 2009-08-29 10:38:11 Print
TEGUCIGALPA, Aug.28 (Xinhua) -- De facto
Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said
on Friday that he would resign and back the
return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to
the country on condition Zelaya also
renounces the presidency.
"If Mr. Zelaya stops being so stubborn and
resigns, I can also do it (resign) for the
peace of the country," Micheletti told local
radio HRN after meeting with legislators
from Honduras' de facto ruling party, the
Liberal Party.
Congress Speaker Alfredo Saavedra said he
appreciated Micheletti's decision "to seek
dialogue, the only option to lead us to
peace."
Meanwhile, about 1,000 Zelaya supporters
marched in a poor neighborhood of the
Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, to demand his
return to power, two months after the coup
that sent Zelaya into exile.
A Honduran negotiation delegation visited
the United States Wednesday to seek a
solution to the crisis. The delegation
presented Micheletti's proposal to the
Washington-based Organization of American
States (OAS) that both Micheletti and Zelaya
resign to enable a third person to serve out
the remainder of Zelaya's constitutional
term, which ends in January.
However, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel
Insulza warned there would be no agreement
to end Honduras' crisis unless Zelaya
returns to the presidency.
A senior U.S. State Department official also
met Friday with representatives of the
Micheletti administration, one day after the
U.S. government said it would soon announce
new actions to press for Zelaya's
reinstatement.
Micheletti had made a similar offer to a
delegation of OAS foreign ministers visiting
the country earlier this week. The
delegation failed in its attempt to persuade
the de facto government to sign the San Jose
Agreement and did not immediately respond to
Micheletti's offer.
The San Jose Agreement, proposed by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, demands that
Zelaya be allowed to return to power. The
proposal, recognized by the OAS and the
United States as the best solution to the
Honduran crisis, also includes a
reconciliatory government, a general
election and political amnesty.
Zelaya has said he will accept the agreement
but Micheletti has refused.
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