 Day 19
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Honduran
Interim President Sets Condition For Resignation
Tegucigalpa - Honduran
interim leader Roberto Micheletti said
Wednesday he is ready to resign on the
condition that ousted President Manuel
Zelaya does not return to power.
Micheletti told reporters he is "willing to
leave office if at some point that decision
is needed to bring peace and tranquility to
the country, but without any return, and I
stress that, of former President Zelaya."
Micheletti said the resignation offer had
been presented by a Honduran delegation in
the United States, presumably to the U.S.
government.
Thousands of demonstrators marched through
the Honduran capital on Wednesday, calling
for Zelaya's reinstatement, before
internationally brokered talks resume on
Saturday in Costa Rica.
Zelaya's supporters threatened strikes and
workers at state-owned companies are
planning walkouts later this week,
increasing pressure on Micheletti's de facto
government.
Micheletti was appointed interim president
by the congress hours after Zelaya was
seized from his bed and forced to fly to
Costa Rica in a military coup on June 28.
Zelaya, with wide international supports,
has been actively pressing for his
reinstatement. Exactly one week after he was
toppled, the president boarded a home-bound
plane.
The plane circled above the Toncontin
Airport, in Tegucigalpa, unable to land as
the runway was blocked by soldiers with
military vehicles.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is
mediating talks to resolve the political
crisis in the country. However, the first
talks under Arias' mediation ended Friday in
San Jose without an agreement.
Zelaya and Micheletti failed to meet
face-to-face in the talks, but instead left
four commissioners on each side to continue
the negotiations after they met separately
on Thursday with Arias.
Arias said dialogue will resume Saturday in
Costa Rica. Zelaya said in Guatemala City on
Tuesday he would only discuss his immediate
reinstatement at the weekend talks.
The deposed leader, apparently frustrated by
the slow negotiation process, said on Monday
at a press conference in Nicaragua, "We are
giving the coup regime an ultimatum."
He threatens to abandon the mediation
efforts led by Arias and called on Tuesday
on the Honduran people to stage an
"insurrection" against the de facto
government.
Arias urged patience, saying that "I
understand the desire of President Zelaya to
return and reinstate himself as president of
Honduras as soon as possible, but my
experience tells me that one has to be a
little patient."
The United States, which played a decisive
role in picking Arias as the chief mediator
in the Honduran impasse, called for more
support for his mediation efforts.
"We have to give the process a chance and
support what President Arias is doing," said
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
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