Maravi

Zelaya vows return to Honduras

Zelaya vows return to Honduras
Written by Patrick Markey and Mica Rosenberg
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 3:40:16 PM

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted President Manuel Zelaya vowed on Tuesday to return to Honduras flanked by foreign leaders to serve out his term, defying a warning from an interim government that he faces immediate arrest. Gathering international support at the United Nations and Organization of American States, Zelaya said the Argentine and Ecuadorean presidents and the U.N. General Assembly and OAS chiefs would accompany him back to Honduras on Thursday.

But in a move fueling confrontation in Central America's worst political crisis in decades, the interim government established after Zelaya was forced out by troops said the leftist would be captured if he returned.

Several thousand demonstrators rallied to applaud Zelaya's ouster in the capital Tegucigalpa, after a day of clashes between riot police and the toppled leader's supporters broke out near the presidential palace.

"I am going back to Honduras on Thursday, I'm going to return as president," Zelaya said after the U.N. General Assembly urged member states to recognize only his government.

The coup against Zelaya -- a timber magnate toppled in a dispute over his push to allow presidential re-election beyond a single four-year term -- has been greeted by a tide of condemnation from U.S. President Barack Obama to Zelaya's leftist allies in Latin America.

Zelaya remains a divisive figure in Honduras, an impoverished coffee, textile and banana-exporter of 7 million people, especially after he allied himself with fierce U.S. foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Enrique Ortez, the interim government's foreign minister, told CNN's Spanish-language channel that Zelaya had charges pending against him for violating the constitution, drug trafficking and organized crime.

"As soon as he enters he will be captured. We have the warrants ready so that he stays in jail in Honduras and is judged according to the country's laws," he said.

But in a development that could offer an opening for negotiations on ending the stand-off, the interim government said it would send a delegation of politicians, business leaders and lawyers to Washington on Wednesday for talks.

Roberto Micheletti, sworn in as caretaker president by Congress soon after the coup, announced the mission after Zelaya traveled to New York and Washington to address the United Nations and Organization of American States.

OAS HOLDS LATE NIGHT SPECIAL SESSION

After arriving in Washington, Zelaya met Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon.

"We recognize him as the legal constitutional president of Honduras, and underscore our commitment to work with the OAS to restore Honduras' constitutional order," Shannon told Reuters, speaking in a hallway of the OAS building.

The OAS began a special session late on Tuesday that continued into Wednesday to debate its role in the situation.

Zelaya insists he will return to complete his mandate, which ends in early 2010, but said he did not intend to run for president again.

"Some sort of negotiation will have to occur," said Shannon O'Neil at the Council on Foreign Relations. "For the international community, the most acceptable solution is that Zelaya comes back and completes the last several months of his term as president, and then steps down."

CHAVEZ ALLY

The crisis erupted as Honduras struggles with a sharp decline in remittances from Hondurans living in the United States and vital textile exports. Thousands of jobs have already been lost due to the slowdown in exports.

The World Bank said it had "paused" all program lending to Honduras following the coup. [ID:nN30445897] Standard & Poor's, worried about the economic impact, placed Honduras "B-Plus" credit rating on its CreditWatch negative category.

But coffee producers told Reuters exports had not been affected even after protesters blocked parts of major highways in the interior of the country.

In office since 2006, Zelaya had upset conservative elites with his growing alliance with Chavez, who is championing a revolutionary brand of socialism across Latin America.

Central America's first military coup since the Cold War came after Zelaya angered Congress, the courts and the army with a push for constitutional changes to allow presidential re-election.

Micheletti, who is backed by the country's business and political elite and has said he plans to stay on until an election in November. He told Reuters on Monday that the coup had saved Honduras from swinging to radical socialism.

In Tegucigalpa, anti-Zelaya protesters waving blue-and-white Honduran flags packed a square to back Micheletti and protest against the return of a leader they say wants to follow the socialist model.

"We are defending democracy, the constitution. Zelaya violated the constitution," said Jose Manzanares, an engineer. "We don't want him here."

Pro-Zelaya protests several blocks away were calmer than on Monday, when masked demonstrators clashed with security forces by the presidential palace. Troops and police tightened security at the international airport, but traffic was back to normal and many stores and cafes reopened for business, although schools remained shut.

Public support for Zelaya had dropped as low as 30 percent in recent months, with many people uncomfortable over his tilt to the left in a country with a longtime conservative, pro-Washington position.

The U.N. General Assembly called on its 192 member states to recognize only Zelaya's government, calling in a resolution for "the immediate and unconditional restoration of the legitimate and constitutional government."

Zelaya said he had only sought to improve the lot of poor Hondurans but had been treated harshly by the army and business interests. "No one has put me on trial. No one has called me to a court to defend myself, no-one has told me what the crime is," he told the assembly.

Labels: HONDURAS, MANUEL ZELAYA

posted by MrK @ 2:41 PM