Honduras chief's return scorned

Security forces pushed back the president's supporters

The interim government in Honduras has dismissed the brief return to the country of the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, as a publicity stunt.

Mr Zelaya crossed a few metres into Honduras from Nicaragua, before retreating a few minutes later.

The interim Honduran President, Roberto Micheletti, said Mr Zelaya's action was "ill-conceived and silly".

The US also criticised his move, but Mr Zelaya says he is determined to try again, despite the threat of arrest.

The interim authorities who removed him from office in June had warned they would arrest him if he returned.


But Interim Deputy Security Minister Mario Perdomo said authorities did not bother to arrest Mr Zelaya because he barely entered Honduras.

"Zelaya made a show of entering Honduras: he put one foot in, and left," Mr Perdomo told Associated Press news agency.

"And he did this in a dead zone of the frontier, which we tolerated."


The BBC's Stephen Gibbs, at the scene, said military personnel, apparently unsure how to react, retreated about 20m as Mr Zelaya stepped under a chain marking the border at Los Manos.

The event lasted less than 30 minutes, with Mr Zelaya posing next to a sign reading "welcome to Honduras" before walking back to Nicaragua.

"I am not afraid but I'm not crazy either," he told Venezuelan-based TV network Telesur. "There could be violence and I don't want to be the cause."

Mr Zelaya said he would continue his attempts to return home, despite the threats of arrest.

A night curfew already extends over all of Honduras, but people living close to the border were ordered to stay at home between midday local time (1800GMT) and 0600 (1200GMT) to "keep the peace".

Thousands of Zelaya supporters ignored the curfew and gathered near the border, prompting police to fire tear gas.

At the same time, thousands of supporters of the interim government gathered in the northern Honduras city of San Pedro Sula, holding signs reading "Zelaya can return, but to jail."

'Reckless'

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticised Mr Zelaya's action, calling it "reckless" and "not conducive to the broader effort to restore constitutional order".

Talks in Costa Rica aimed at resolving the political crisis collapsed two weeks ago with no agreement reached, but Mr Zelaya told reporters he was willing to return to negotiations.

Mr Zelaya has been in exile for nearly a month after a coup forced him from power.

Mr Zelaya had planned to hold a non-binding public consultation to ask people whether they supported moves to change the constitution.

His critics said the move was unconstitutional and aimed to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president and pave the way for his possible re-election.

He insists he remains the democratically-elected leader of Honduras and had previously attempted to return home on 5 July.

On that occasion, his plane was prevented from landing when the Honduran military blocked the runway. .......HE WAS NOT ALLOWED IN YET...... HIS CELL WAS NOT READY

All hat no cattle

By Sean Mattson and Esteban Israel

EL PARAISO, Honduras (Reuters) - Disheartened supporters of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya trickled home from the Nicaraguan border on Sunday, weakening protests backing his bid to return to power after a coup last month.

Honduran troops manning checkpoints have prevented several thousand demonstrators from staging a show of support at the border for the leftist leader, now exiled in Nicaragua.

Six miles from the border, 100 weary protesters milled around the coffee town of El Paraiso, a far cry from the massive outpouring of public backing Zelaya had called for.

Lilian Ordonez, a 29-year-old teacher, came with a convoy of some 100 cars to try to reach the border, but only six made it through the checkpoints.

"We're going to head back to Tegucigalpa where most of the people are," she said, wiping off tears. "We have to change our strategy. ... People are angry but we don't have weapons and against a rifle, we can't do anything."

A couple hundred Hondurans who managed to reach the border were camped out in Nicaragua with Zelaya, holed up in the town of Ocotal on Sunday planning his next move.

Zelaya was accused by the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court of trying to extend presidential term limits. Soldiers arrested him and sent him into exile on June 28.

The United States, Latin American governments and the United Nations want Zelaya returned to power, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized him as "reckless" when he took a few steps onto Honduran soil on Friday in a symbolic gesture in front of international media.

Zelaya hit back at Clinton for the second time in two days. She should "stop avoiding the issue" of dictatorship in Honduras, he told journalists. "Secretary Clinton should confront the dictatorship with force."

Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed interim president by Congress the day after the coup, says Zelaya's removal was legal since he was acting against the Constitution. The Supreme Court ordered his arrest and Congress backed his removal.

U.S. President Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras and threatened to slash economic aid.

But Obama has yet to take harsher measures and there are growing tensions with Zelaya, a close ally of Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.

TENSIONS WITH U.S.

The crisis has put Obama in a difficult position. He does not want to show U.S. support for rightist coups in Latin America, but some Republicans in Congress say he has already done too much for the ousted leftist.

"It's been very clear from the outset that (the Obama administration) didn't really like Zelaya anyway," said Vicki Gass, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America.

"This wishy-washiness on their part is giving the impression that they are backing away from their original stance," she said.

The U.S. State Department said Zelaya is expected to visit Washington on Tuesday but it was unclear from his aides whether he would make the trip and who he would meet if he does go.

Micheletti seems to believe he can resist international pressure until elections in November and the world will accept the new order when a new president takes office in January.

The alternative is a negotiated solution under pressure from Washington, likely modeled on a proposal by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. In an interview with El Pais published on Sunday, Arias said his plan remained the only option and that Zelaya's actions on Friday did not help reconciliation.

The plan "is the best path for our Honduran brothers to get out of this conflict," he said. While he said the coup must be reversed, he added that it was unrealistic for Zelaya to demand an unconditional return.

The Micheletti government says it is still committed to negotiations and open to some of the terms of the Arias plan, but not the return of Zelaya as president.

The Honduran military issued a statement expressing support for the negotiating process and affirming respect for civil institutions and the Constitution.

The military chiefs of staff would be among those with most to lose if Zelaya does return as president, since their position would be weakened if there is an admission that they acted illegally in removing him.

Zelaya's relations with the military were tense before the coup. Just days before he was removed from power, he fired the military chief of staff after the army refused to help him run an unofficial referendum on extending his mandate.

In the capital, Tegucigalpa, tensions bubbled up at the funeral of a man found dead in El Paraiso on Saturday in unclear circumstances. Mourners burned a police car and beat two police officers, a Reuters photographer on the scene said. It was unclear how he died but Zelaya supporters blame police.

Leaders of the pro-Zelaya movement said a small explosive device went off outside a building where they were meeting, breaking windows but causing no injuries.

U.S. cools its support for reinstating Honduras' Manuel Zelaya
Signaling a policy shift, the Obama administration is now saying that Manuel Zelaya was responsible for his own ouster in Honduras -- and stopping short of calling for his return.
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The head of Congress was sworn in as president of Honduras on Sunday, while ousted democratically elected leader Manuel Zelaya -- clad in an undershirt -- declared from Costa Rica that his expulsion was the product of an illegal coup by power-hungry elitists.

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BY TYLER BRIDGES
McClatchy News Service

TEGUCIGALPA -- The Obama administration has backed away from its call to restore ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power and instead put the onus on him for taking ``provocative actions'' that polarized his country and led to his overthrow on June 28.

The new position was contained in a letter this week to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that also rejected calls by some of Zelaya's backers to impose harsh economic sanctions against Honduras.

While condemning the coup, the letter pointedly fails to call for Zelaya's return. ``Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting any particular politician or individual,'' said the letter to the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new U.S. position is likely to undercut diplomatic efforts to bring about Zelaya's return, analysts said.

It may, in time, help the administration win confirmation for three top State Department officials President Barack Obama has appointed to deal with the region. Senate Republicans have put their nominations on hold to protest U.S. policy in Honduras.

About 1,000 pro-Zelaya demonstrators protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa on Thursday after the State Department letter was made public in the Honduran media.

While condemning the overthrow and predawn expulsion of Zelaya, the Aug. 4 letter said that Zelaya, who is allied with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, was largely to blame for his plight.

``We also recognize that President Zelaya's insistence on undertaking provocative actions contributed to the polarization of Honduran society and led to a confrontation that unleashed the events that led to his removal,'' said the letter, signed by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Richard Verma.

A NEW PRESIDENT?

`I think this could open the door for an alternative option as president,'' said Jorge Yllesca, a political consultant based in Honduras, meaning that interim President Roberto Micheletti might try to end the political crisis by stepping aside, not for Zelaya but for the president of the Congress or the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The crisis began when Zelaya insisted on staging a referendum June 28 that would support a constitutional convention leading to a constitutional change that would allow him to seek reelection. Zelaya had only six more months in office before a non-Chávez ally was likely to take over as Honduras' next president.

Chávez and two of his South American allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, have won public approval for new constitutions that allow them to extend their terms in office.

The Honduran Congress, the attorney general's office and the state prosecutor all advised Zelaya that Honduras' constitution didn't permit the referendum.

He went ahead anyway, and was ousted.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a conservative Republican congresswoman from Miami, applauded the State Department letter.

``It seems that the U.S. is stepping a bit away from its unabashed support for Zelaya,'' Ros-Lehtinen said in a telephone interview.

She would prefer that the Obama administration break ranks with the rest of Latin America and Europe and drop its support for Zelaya.

Republican senators angered by the administration's Honduras policy put a hold on Obama's nomination of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, along with two key ambassadorial nominees.

Lugar, in a July 30 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said he hoped that her explanation could ``improve the prospects'' of confirming Valenzuela this week.

The Obama administration has taken a series of low-level steps to show its dissatisfaction with the Micheletti government.

PUNITIVE STEPS

The U.S. has revoked diplomatic visas for five Hondurans associated with the Micheletti government. It suspended anti-drug operations from the U.S. military base in Honduras, withheld $16 million in defense aid and warned that it might not disburse the final 10 percent of money for Honduras under a $250 million aid program.

The U.S. also has strongly supported the mediation efforts of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who has proposed a compromise plan to reinstate Zelaya with limited powers. Micheletti has rejected the plan, while Zelaya has accepted it.

The letter to Lugar said U.S. officials wouldn't go much further.

``We have rejected calls for crippling economic sanctions,'' it said.

The letter comes at a time when Zelaya is expressing his unhappiness with the Obama administration.

``The United States only needs to tighten its fist, and the coup will last five seconds,'' Zelaya said Tuesday in Mexico.McClatchy correspondent James Rosen contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that he has no quick way to resolve the political crisis in Honduras, where supporters of a coup are refusing to let ousted President Manuel Zelaya return to power.

Obama told reporters he still supports the reinstatement of Zelaya, who was overthrown in June, but that the United States would not take unilateral action.

"I can't press a button and suddenly reinstate Mr Zelaya," Obama said.

Obama has canceled $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras and has condemned Zelaya's removal, as have Latin American governments and the European Union.

But the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti, the former head of Congress, appears to be digging in and the country's elite say they will keep Honduras running even if the administration is not recognized by foreign governments.

"We would like to see him be able to return peacefully to continue his term, but we are only one country among many and we are going to deal with this in an international context," Obama said.

Zelaya, an ally of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Tuesday the United States needs "only tighten its fist" to evict the de facto government.

"It is important to note the irony that the people that were complaining about the U.S. interfering in Latin America are now complaining that we are not interfering enough," Obama said.

Implying that support for Zelaya may be weakening, a U.S. State Department letter sent this week to a key Republican U.S. senator said U.S. policy on the Honduras' crisis is not aimed at supporting any particular individual.

Before the coup, Zelaya was pushing for constitutional reforms that included letting presidents seek re-election. His opponents accused him of trying to stay in power, but he denies the allegation.

Mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have so far failed to achieve Zelaya's return, as has pressure from Venezuela's Chavez, a key leader in Latin America.

The United States, Honduras' longtime ally and top trading partner, has withdrawn diplomatic visas from key members of the de facto government in a bid to force Zelaya's reinstatement. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle, editing by Philip Barbar

Zelaya will soon appear on dancing with the stars

he interim government of Honduras has said it will not allow a high-level delegation from the Organisation of American States to visit for talks.

It said OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza would not be an impartial observer.

The delegation was hoping the Honduran government would accept a plan under which ousted President Manuel Zelaya would return and elections be held.

Mr Zelaya was sent into exile after a coup in June amid a power struggle over his plans for constitutional change.

His critics said the move was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on serving as president, and paving the way for his re-election.

Following the army-led coup on 28 June, the speaker of Congress, Roberto Micheletti - constitutionally second in line to the presidency - was sworn in as interim leader.

The OAS has demanded Mr Zelaya's immediate reinstatement.

It suspended Honduras' membership after the interim government failed to abide by a deadline to restore Mr Zelaya to power.

'Damage to democracy'

Mr Insulza was to be accompanied on the visit to Tegucigalpa on Tuesday by the foreign ministers of Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.


Unfortunately, Insulza's intransigence and his insistence on including himself in the delegation... has made it impossible to allow this visit in the scheduled date
Honduran Foreign Ministry

But on Sunday, the Honduran foreign ministry announced that it would turn back the group because of the presence of the OAS secretary-general.

It also said other unnamed countries it considered more sympathetic were not represented in the delegation.

"Unfortunately, Insulza's intransigence and his insistence on including himself in the delegation and to exclude foreign ministers of member states that... are open to reconsidering our case has made it impossible to allow this visit in the scheduled date," it said.

But the foreign ministry said it was willing to reschedule the visit as long as the delegation does not include Mr Insulza, whose "lack of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism" in his role had "resulted in serious damage to democracy".

The OAS hopes Mr Micheletti can be persuaded to accept a detailed plan proposed by the Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias.

Under this, Mr Zelaya would return to serve out his presidency and a government of national reconciliation would be set up. There would be an amnesty for political crimes committed during the crisis, and presidential elections would be brought forward to 28 October.

But the interim government says his return to power is an impossibility. Mr Zelaya says it is "non-negotiable".

Honduras prohibits visit of OAS crisis negotiators

By FREDDY CUEVAS (AP) – 8 hours ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' coup-installed president says he will not allow a visit by regional delegates trying to negotiate an end to the country's political crisis because their leader lacks "impartiality and professionalism."

Interim leader Roberto Micheletti said Sunday that he would be willing to reschedule the delegation's visit, previously planned for Tuesday — as long as Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza doesn't participate.

The Washington-based OAS on Friday announced the formation of the delegation comprising foreign ministers from Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The group was going to try to persuade Micheletti to negotiate with international mediators seeking to return President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' coup-installed president says he will not allow a visit by regional delegates trying to negotiate an end to the country's political crisis because its leader lacks "impartiality and professionalism."

Interim leader Roberto Micheletti said Sunday that he would be willing to reschedule the delegation's visit, previously planned for Tuesday — as long as Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza doesn't participate.

The Washington-based OAS on Friday announced the formation of the delegation comprising foreign ministers from Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The group was going to try to persuade Micheletti to negotiate with international mediators seeking to return President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup.

Honduras will allow OAS envoys to visit
In a potential boost to the bid to reinstall Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, the country's de facto government will let an OAS delegation into the country.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- The de facto government of Honduras on Sunday canceled and then rescheduled a trip by foreign envoys who are seeking to resolve a six-week-old political crisis caused by the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.

Honduras' interim government initially said Sunday that it wouldn't accept a delegation led by Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, because of what it called his ``lack of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism.''

The interim government led by President Roberto Micheletti later said it had worked out its differences with the OAS over which foreign ministers would visit. It also said that Inzulsa had been downgraded to ``observer'' status.

The government's communique Sunday evening said it would settle on a new date for the visit ``in the next two days.''

Many independent observers give an OAS delegation the best chance to resolve this Central American nation's power struggle that led the military to whisk Zelaya out of the country on June 28 and the Congress to replace him with Micheletti.

The OAS's Insulza has angered Micheletti government officials by calling for Zelaya's return without, they think, taking time to understand that Zelaya repeatedly violated the law by trying to hold an illegal vote on June 28.

They think that Zelaya was trying to use that vote to amend the Honduran constitution in order to remain in power, following the model of his political ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and other leaders of Chávez's ALBA trade and political alliance.

``Insulza has cast his lot with the ALBA group,'' Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American studies professor at Florida International University, said. ``He's burned a lot of bridges.''

Earlier Sunday, Zelaya supporters had quickly criticized the initial decision to cancel the trip.

``They just want to stall and delay things,'' Carlos Sosa, who was Zelaya's OAS ambassador, had said by telephone from Washington, where the organization is based.

``They hope by delaying things they can have an election and the world will recognize it.''

Sosa said Zelaya's supporters in the country would step up their pressure on Micheletti to give way to Zelaya and keep pressing foreign governments not to accept the results of the planned Nov. 29 presidential election to choose Zelaya's successor.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is mediating on a parallel track. He has presented a 12-point plan that calls for Zelaya to return to head a government of national reconciliation for the final five months of his term. The plan also would limit Zelaya's powers and give amnesty to anyone who's accused of committing illegal acts just before or during the coup.

Zelaya has accepted the plan, but Micheletti has rejected it.

A State Department spokesperson Sunday said the Obama administration remains committed to the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

``We continue to believe a negotiated solution is the right way to go and the Arias Plan is a good one,'' the State Department said. ``Both sides would be well advised to accept it.'

By Blake Schmidt

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Supreme Court in Honduras will hear a case on whether the military acted illegally when it removed President Manuel Zelaya from the country June 28, said magistrate Rosalinda Cruz.

Cruz said the Supreme Court’s constitutional branch has accepted an injunction alleging the dawn ouster of Zelaya violated the president’s constitutional rights. She didn’t say when the court admitted the injunction, which was filed by a group of judges and lawyers in the week following Zelaya’s removal.

“The injunction has been admitted, and a legal process is underway,” Cruz said in a phone interview from Tegucigalpa. “I’ll have to issue an opinion along with my colleagues in the constitutional branch.”

She said the military will be asked to defend its actions and state prosecutors will weigh evidence before the court’s constitutional branch makes a decision.