Honduran riot policemen and soldiers stood guard at the National Congress building in Tegucigalpa as supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya marched yesterday.
(Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
OAS chief, en route to Honduras, calls economic sanctions likely
Diplomat will demand return of the president
Honduran riot policemen and soldiers stood guard at the National Congress building in Tegucigalpa as supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya marched yesterday.
(Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A top diplomat said yesterday that he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the president toppled at gunpoint, a mission he said is likely to meet rejection, bringing diplomatic and economic punishment for the impoverished Central American nation.
The head of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he plans to travel to Honduras today to demand the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup Sunday.
“I will do everything I can,’’ Insulza said at a summit of Caribbean leaders in Guyana. “But I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days. We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing.’’
The interim government of Roberto Micheletti has shown little willingness to do so, contending that the army acted legally on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court when it raided Zelaya’s house amid gunfire and deported him, still in his nightshirt.
The Organization of American States said it will suspend Honduras if Zelaya is not back in office by tomorrow, bringing sanctions that could block international aid to one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere.
Nations around the world have promised to shun Micheletti, who was sworn in after the Sunday coup, and the nation is suffering economic reprisals.
Neighboring countries have imposed trade blockades, major lenders have cut aid, the Obama administration has halted joint military operations, and European Union ambassadors have abandoned the capital.
That leaves few channels for negotiating a solution.
Communication has been so limited that an influential pro-Micheletti congresswoman, Marcia Villeda de Facussé, said she learned of the mission yesterday from news reports.
“Nobody here knows anything,’’ she said. “We don’t have any idea if that commission is coming or who will be in it.’’
She said the new foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, had been placed in charge of meeting with visiting officials once they arrive, and that he would use “abundant proof to try and show that Zelaya violated our laws and that his government damaged everyone.’’
Insulza said he would not meet with members of Micheletti’s government, to avoid legitimizing it. But he will meet with leaders of the Supreme Court and Congress, institutions that approved the coup, “to clarify exactly what our position is.’’
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