Honduras Peace Talks in Costa Rica To
Continue Today As Both Sides Reject Arias
Proposal
Costa Rican president Oscar Arias on
Saturday opened the second round of peace
talks to end the Honduran political crisis
that now is in its 22nd day. However, the
day did not go so well, as both sides to the
negotiations flatly rejected the proposal to
reinstate president Manuel Zelaya and the
resigantion of defacto president, Roberto
Micheletti.
According to the Arias plan, Zelaya would return
to office in a unity government and amnesty
would be granted to all crimes before and
after the coup.
Meanwhile, presidential elections scheduled
for November would be held a month earlier
in October. The army which toppled Zelaya
must submit to the electoral authorities the
month before the elections, and Zelaya would
have to shelve his plan for constitutional
reforms.
The constitutional reform had been Honduras'
apple of discord -- the military coup was
staged just hours before a non-binding
referendum on calling a constitutional
assembly for possible changes including
extending the one-term limit to the
presidency.
Micheletti's allies said Zelaya was seeking
indefinite re-elections, something
prohibited by the Constitution.
Zelaya, insisting that such reform was
essential for the nation's development, had
sacked the head of the nation's defense
forces a week before the coup.
"These are the things that the 7 million
Hondurans are asking for", Arias told the
delegates before the talks between the
parties began.
A spokesman for Roberto Micheletti, the
former congress speaker who took over the
presidency after the coup, rejected a plan
for a reconciliation government led by
Zelaya.
"They want to restore President Zelaya
without any negotiation," Mario Saldana told
reporters, "That is not viable."
Zelaya, who enjoys wide international
support, also departed from his earlier
acceptance of a power-sharing government
with whatever political forces.
Those responsible for the June 28 coup will
not be accepted by the reconciliation
government, a close aide to Zelaya told
reporters in Nicaragua.
The deposed leader, somewhat frustrated by
the slow negotiation process, Tuesday called
on the Honduran people to stage an
"insurrection" against the de facto
government.
Pelting stones and wielding sticks, Zelaya's
supporters and those who sided with the
post-coup interim government clashed in a
coastal city of Honduras on Saturday,
leaving many people injured.
Witnesses said many people, including some
children, were badly beaten, and the police
had to intervene to bring the situation
under control.
Also on Saturday, in the Honduran capital
Tegucigalpa, hundreds of Zelaya's
supporters, also known as the "Zelayistas,"
blocked a main pathway in the south of the
urban area.
Micheletti said Zelaya's repeated calls for
insurrection are no different from
instigating a civil war.
"He is calling for a national insurrection,"
Micheletti told a Colombian radio station on
Friday. "He is calling for a bloodbath."
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