Organization’s efforts to return Honduras’ ousted president fall short / LJWorld.com

Archive for Sunday, July 5, 2009

By Nestor Ikeda - Associated Press Writer

July 5, 2009

Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo

Gemesis Orellana Rodriguez, 2, stands among a group of soldiers who are on a break Saturday in San Pedro Sula’s central plaza, Honduras. Ousted Honduras’ President Manuel Zelaya announced Saturday that he would return to Honduras to try to retake office following last week’s military-backed coup, despite the interim government’s insistence that he faces arrest and trial.

Washington — The Organization of American States secretary general says his efforts to return Manuel Zelaya to the presidency in Honduras have failed.

Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza asked the organization Saturday to punish the de facto government by suspending the country from the organization. Minutes before Insulza’s report to a special meeting of foreign ministers, ousted Honduran president Zelaya said he’s optimistic and is still planning to return today to his country a week after he was overthrown by a military coup.

But even before Saturday’s emergency session, Honduras’ interim government decided to pull out of the OAS rather than meet demands to reinstate Zelaya. OAS officials say they haven’t received formal notification of that move.

The OAS called on the Honduran government Tuesday to reinstate Zelaya in three days or face an OAS suspension. Honduras’ interim president was presented with the OAS resolution on Friday and said “the OAS is a political organization, not a court.”

“It is very clear that in the de facto government, there is no willingness to change its conduct,” Insulza said.

He said the Supreme Court version of events aims to show a pattern of illegalities in the behavior of Zelaya.

Zelaya’s vow to return set up a showdown between supporters of the ousted president, who hail mostly from the country’s poor and middle class, and largely well-to-do backers of the coup that ousted him, who have held their own daily marches in support of Roberto Micheletti, the congressional president tapped by lawmakers to finish out the six months left in Zelaya’s term.

Tegucigalpa Archbishop Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez urged Zelaya to stay away, saying Saturday in a statement read on radio and television that “your return to the country could unleash a bloodbath.”

The new government has imposed a nightly curfew and limited Hondurans’ constitutional rights during it, but grenades have exploded almost daily outside government buildings and businesses nonetheless.

The Micheletti government has charged Zelaya with 18 criminal acts including treason and failing to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since taking office in 2006, and vows to arrest him if he returns.

Zelaya was taken from his home at gunpoint by soldiers and flown into exile June 25, after months of pushing for a constitutional referendum that Honduras’ courts and Congress had called illegal. Many suspected the referendum was an attempt by Zelaya to remain in power after his term ends in January, though he denied that.

The populist son of a wealthy rancher who adopted an increasingly fiery leftist tone in recent months, Zelaya has been traveling throughout Central America since his ouster building support.

He promised to return to Honduras to retake the presidency as the international community — everyone from the United Nations and U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro — lined up to support him and condemn the military uprising.