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Confidante: Honduran leader open to Zelaya return
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-31 13:47 TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Honduras' interim leader has backed off his opposition to restoring Manuel Zelaya to the presidency but wants concessions to mollify reluctant business leaders, a former Honduran government official said Thursday. Interim President Roberto Micheletti's refusal to consider Zelaya's reinstatement had been a key stumbling block in talks on solving the Central American nation's political crisis following the June 28 coup.
Micheletti told the chief mediator in the conflict, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, that the door was open to Zelaya's reinstatement, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge information from a private conversation. The ex-official, who has been in frequent contact with Micheletti, said he spoke Wednesday with the interim leader.
Arias, who said he was considering the proposal, said the envoy would have to meet with several sectors, "especially businessmen ... who have been very reluctant to consider the possibility that Zelaya be reinstated." There was no immediate from Zelaya, whose supporters protested in Honduras on Thursday. Clashes with police left at least one man seriously injured. Nearly all foreign governments have condemned the coup, and the United States and the European Union have suspended millions of dollars in development aid to Honduras. The US stepped up the pressure this week by suspending the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials and warning it was reviewing the visas of all members of the interim government. The US State Department declined to name the officials, but the interim government identified them as the president of Congress, the defense minister, the national human rights ombudsman and the Supreme Court justice who signed the order for Zelaya's arrest. Arias warned Honduras could face more sanctions. "Certainly, there has been a lot of international pressure ... visas have been revoked and more visas could be revoked," he said. "And I can't reveal other sanctions that many other countries are considering." The former official said Micheletti is seeking several changes to a compromise proposed by Arias last week that would restore Zelaya as president of a coalition government. The changes are aimed providing stronger guarantees that Zelaya will not resume efforts to change the constitution, an initiative that prompted his ouster. The agreement already stipulates that Zelaya must drop ambitions to change the constitution. But among other proposals, Micheletti is suggesting that before Zelaya returns, an international commission would be put in place to would monitor compliance with the agreement. |
