 |
CENTRAL AMERICA |
| |
HONDURAS
Honduran De Facto President Says He’d Go If
Told To
By Jose Luis Paniagua
Tegucigalpa – Honduran de facto President
Roberto Micheletti said in an interview with
Efe that if the country’s institutions
decide that he must go and that deposed
President Mel Zelaya be restored to power he
will immediately step down and head home.
“When the people, when the Supreme Court,
when the Attorney General’s Office, when
Congress say that I shouldn’t stay on, I’ll
immediately pack up the photographs I have
there (at the presidential palace) and go
home,” Micheletti, named president by
Congress after Zelaya’s June 28 ouster,
said.
Micheletti has found himself increasingly
isolated since Zelaya made a surprise return
to the country on Sept. 21 and took refuge
at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
To head off mass protests in support of
Zelaya’s restitution, Micheletti issued a
decree suspending civil liberties that has
been harshly criticized by the international
community and even by Honduras’ political
elite.
The “interim” leader told Efe that the
decree banning demonstrations and allowing
the government to shut down opposition media
will not last 45 days – the initial
timeframe for the measure. He also suggested
that some politicians who have criticized
the crackdown and distanced themselves from
him are doing so with an eye to the Nov. 29
elections.
The international community’s insistence
that Zelaya be returned to power before the
balloting has caused a schism among
Honduras’ political and business
establishment, with Micheletti remaining
firm in his opposition to the president’s
return to office but others showing a
greater willingness to compromise.
But Micheletti said he still feels as much
support from the nation’s political parties
now as he did on the day Zelaya was dragged
out of the presidential palace and put on a
plane to Costa Rica.
“They’re the ones responsible for my being
here. Weren’t they the ones who voted in
Congress to put me in this position?” the
erstwhile congressional speaker said.
Micheletti, however, said that those same
political parties “possibly don’t agree so
much” with him “because they have
aspirations to attract all the country’s
voters.”
Zelaya, a former timber magnate who moved to
the left after his 2006 election, enjoys
widespread support among poor Hondurans,
many of whom have carried out daily
demonstrations over the past three months.
Several proposals for ending Honduras’
political crisis have surfaced in recent
days, including one by business leader
Adolfo Facusse that would put Zelaya back in
office with limited authority and bring in
foreign troops to make sure he stays in
line.
Micheletti, however, told Efe that while he
is open to different ideas solutions such as
Facusse’s are unworkable because they
violate the nation’s constitution.
The “interim” leader justified the decree
curbing civil liberties by saying Zelaya
since his return has been “calling for
insurrection ... for conflict, for the
(taking up of) arms, which can be considered
an act of sedition,” although he added that
constitutional guarantees will be restored
“as soon as possible.”
Micheletti also said that in a poll carried
out by his government the vast majority of
the population supported the executive
order.
The decree was frowned upon by the political
establishment because it further hurt the
“interim” government’s image and belied
claims that it was tolerating dissent.
The regime has also been put on the
defensive by reports from human rights
groups about killings and police abuses.
A total of 14 politically motivated killings
have taken place in Honduras since the June
28 coup, according to a human rights group
founded when death squads stalked the
Central American country in the 1980s..
Asked about Zelaya’s return, Micheletti told
Efe “we never had any fear ... we always
thought he could come back at any time,”
adding that he feels “no personal enmity”
toward the ousted head of state but that
“the people are very concerned about the
man’s return.”
While the entire international community has
insisted that any solution to the Honduran
crisis must include Zelaya’s restitution,
Micheletti said the ousted president must
first appear in court to answer charges
related to his alleged plan to remain in
power through a constitutional overhaul.
“If the courts set him free, I’ll
immediately get out of here so he can be
(reinstated),” Micheletti said.
The de facto leader contends Zelaya’s ouster
was not a coup, insisting that the soldiers
who dragged him from the presidential palace
were simply enforcing a Supreme Court ban on
the president’s planned non-binding
plebiscite on the idea of revising the
constitution.
While 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.
The Organization of American States, the
United States and the European Union have
been pressing Micheletti to accept the San
Jose Accord, a proposal put forward by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias.
The plan calls for Zelaya to return and lead
a national unity government for the few
months left in his term, and for a political
amnesty that would protect both the coup
plotters and the ousted head of state, who
stands accused of various offenses by the de
facto regime. EFE |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
