Zelaya Rules out Talks in US
Ocotal, Nicaragua - Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
ruled out on Monday to travel to Washington
to meet with US State Secretary Hillary
Clinton, after demanding a firm stance by
the United States against the coup leaders.
"If Washington wants to talk with me, it
should send a representative here, to Ocotal,"
said Zelaya, who has been four days at the
border between Nicaragua and Honduras in an
effort to return to his country.
The president asserted that he has not
thought of leaving the demonstrators alone,
those who got to the border check point in
Las Manos to support him and show their
solidarity.
Zelaya considered that the United States
should clarify its stance towards the
usurpers of power in Honduras, after warning
that Clinton is not using the term coup
d'etat or taking any action against
repression in his country.
Clinton should realize that this coup is
being maintained there with the approval of
many US rightwing circles in power,
including several senators, said the
president.
Honduran legal government Foreign Minister
Patricia Rodas demanded that the US State
Secretary established a significant
difference between those who want peace and
those who are causing violence.
"Those who are carrying rifles and those who
are demonstrating peacefully can not be
grouped on the same side," asserted Rodas in
an answer to Clinton's statements that said
Zelaya's decision to return to Honduras was
bold and provocative.
If US State Secretary can not see this
difference, then we are not talking about
the same democracy or the same conflict,
Rodas said.
The foreign minister is accompanying Zelaya
in his effort to return to Honduras, from
where both were forcibly taken out on June
28 by pro-coup military troops.
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