A new international bid to resolve the tense Honduras standoff between two presidents was set in motion on Wednesday as the country’s deposed leader, Manuel Zelaya, waited out a siege at the Brazilian embassy.
Police said that two men had been killed in clashes since Zelaya’s surprise return on Monday and protests supporting him continued to grow.
Hundreds of Hondurans, meanwhile, flocked to gas stations and supermarkets to stock up during a brief respite from a nationwide curfew imposed by the Central American nation’s de facto leaders.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Organization of American States (OAS) said it would send a new mediation mission to Honduras at the weekend, including ambassadors withdrawn after the June 28 coup.
“The de facto government told us that they are ready to receive the mission,” OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters in New York.
The UN, meanwhile, suspended its technical support for November presidential elections.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not believe “conditions are currently in place for the holding of credible elections that would advance peace and stability,” his office said in a statement.
Neither Zelaya nor Roberto Micheletti, the de facto leader, were to stand in the elections, but the interim government is seeking to hold onto its slippery grip on power until then to keep Zelaya out of office.
Zelaya’s return to Honduras in secrecy almost three months after he was ousted threw the impoverished country into chaos and drew international attention as world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly in New York.
The deposed president, along with scores of his supporters, journalists and embassy staff, remained sequestered inside the embassy, which was running short on food and hit by temporary cuts in electricity, water and telephone lines.
Zelaya said from inside the embassy that he sought face-to-face talks with Micheletti on restoring his presidency.
“That’s the goal, to talk personally with him — not only with him, but also with the political and economic groups in the country,” Zelaya said.
Micheletti offered late on Tuesday to hold direct talks with Zelaya if he recognized the validity of the Nov. 29 elections, but the ousted leader dismissed that offer as “manipulation.”
Thousands of red-clad Zelaya supporters poured onto the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa on Wednesday in one of the largest pro-Zelaya demonstrations since the president’s June 28 ouster.
One man died in hospital after being injured in clashes with anti-riot police the previous night, said Orlin Cerrato, spokesman for the National Police. Another died in unknown circumstances in a protest against the coup, he added.
A curfew went back into force overnight to 6am yesterday, radio and TV channels reported.
In New York, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner called for a “strong, precise multilateral strategy” to return democracy to Honduras.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded that Zelaya be restored to power immediately and Brazil has asked the UN Security Council to take up the Honduran crisis. The country’s embassy now lies at the center of a tense waiting game to see how long the occupants can hold out. Most access to the embassy had been denied, although US embassy vehicles removed some Brazilian staff on Tuesday.
Honduran writer Milton Benitez, a staunch Zelaya supporter in the embassy, complained of deteriorating conditions.
“We’re still wearing the same clothing, we haven’t been able to bathe,” Benitez said, calling the conditions “sub-human.”
The EU told the Honduran de facto government to respect the “physical integrity” of Zelaya and the inviolability of the embassy.
Amnesty International expressed alarm at the escalating tension in Honduras, saying human rights and the rule of law were at “grave risk.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese