Honduran police cracked down on protesters and Congress delayed consideration of an amnesty bill needed to end the standoff, even as the interim leader appeared to back away from his opposition to reinstating ousted president Manuel Zelaya.
The mixed signals from Honduras’ interim powers on whether a deal to resolve the country’s coup crisis is imminent came as Zelaya met with the US ambassador to Honduras in Nicaragua, where the ousted president has set up his government in exile.
But Zelaya’s foreign minister expressed frustration with meeting with US officials, saying nothing new came out of it.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The interim government has long said it hopes to outlast international sanctions and diplomatic isolation until November elections, which it hopes will weaken calls to restore Zelaya, who was flown into exile during a June 28 coup.
A former Honduran government official said on Thursday that interim President Roberto Micheletti was open to considering Zelaya’s reinstatement, but wanted concessions to mollify reluctant business leaders. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge information from a private conversation.
Micheletti’s previous refusal to even consider Zelaya’s reinstatement was a key stumbling block in talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on resolving Honduras’ political crisis.
While Micheletti’s apparent flexibility was seen as a positive sign for negotiations, Honduras’ congressional leaders decided to put off until Monday consideration of a bill on granting amnesties to both sides in the dispute — an important part of Arias’ plan to end the standoff. Congress had originally been scheduled to take up the matter this week.
Also marking a tougher stance, riot police in Tegucigalpa used tear gas and night sticks to break up a pro-Zelaya blockade of a main artery leading into the capital. Police said 25 people were injured and 88 arrested.
“We will not allow any more disturbances,” Micheletti told reporters on Thursday. “We are going to bring order to Honduras.”
A Zelaya supporter was wounded in the head by a gunshot and was seriously hurt; police spokesman Daniel Molina said the shot was fired by protesters.
Red Cross spokesman Domingo Flores said protesters attacked an ambulance and beat three Red Cross workers, accusing them of being coup supporters.
Before this week, the interim government had largely tolerated the street blockades and protests, which regularly snarl traffic in Tegucigalpa and other major cities.
Zelaya’s team, in turn, demanded a tougher strategy after Zelaya left the Nicaraguan town of El Ocotal to meet in Managua with US Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens.
Zelaya told reporters after the three-hour meeting that he asked for Washington to apply pressure on the interim government “with more energy, more strength and greater decisiveness.”
He will also ask for “immediate action” from the UN and Organization of American States.
But his foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, told the Telesur network that “it has been a meeting of repetitions, of positions that can’t be negotiated. They [the US diplomats] didn’t come with a change, nor any new proposal.”
Micheletti called the meeting an “interference,” and said “Ambassador Llorens has committed a serious mistake by meeting with Zelaya.”
Zelaya told his supporters in the Nicaraguan border town of El Ocotal that he wanted them to form “peaceful popular militias” to demand his reinstatement.
Nearly all foreign governments have condemned the coup, and the US and the EU have suspended millions of dollars in development aid to Honduras.
The former Honduran official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Micheletti told Arias that the door was open to Zelaya’s reinstatement. The ex-official, who has been in frequent contact with Micheletti, said he spoke with the interim leader on Wednesday.
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.
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