Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya insisted late on Saturday that he will not accept any deal to restore him to office if it means he must recognize elections later this month.
In a letter addressed to US President Barack Obama, Zelaya also repeated his accusation that Washington reversed its stance on whether the Nov. 29 vote should be considered legitimate if he was not in office.
“As the elected president of the Honduran people, I reaffirm my position that starting today, no matter what, I will not accept any agreement on returning to the presidency of the republic to cover up this coup d’etat,” Zelaya said, reading from the letter on Globo radio.
Zelaya spoke from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has taken refuge since slipping back into the city on Sept. 21.
He was hustled out of the country at gunpoint by soldiers June 28, touching off a political crisis that has seen the US and other nations cut off much of their aid to the nation.
Last week the US sent Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, to Honduras to try to move along a US-brokered pact signed by both sides that calls for a unity government and for Congress to vote on whether to restore Zelaya to the presidency to serve out his term, which ends in January.
Zelaya declared the agreement a failure last week when Micheletti announced the creation of a national unity government even though Zelaya had not proposed any candidates.
Washington has said it supports Zelaya’s reinstatement, but the pact set no deadline for his return to office. And after brokering the deal, US diplomats indicated Washington would support the elections, which had been scheduled before the coup, as long the deal was implemented.
“The future that you show us today by changing your position in the case of Honduras, and thus favoring the abusive intervention of the military castes ... is nothing more than the downfall of freedom and contempt for human dignity,” Zelaya said in the letter to Obama. “It is a new war against the processes of social and democratic reforms so necessary in Honduras.”
Legislative leaders say they are waiting for an opinion from prosecutors and Honduran Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya’s arrest for refusing to drop plans for a referendum on constitutional change that the court ruled illegal.
Key lawmakers have indicated there might not be a vote until after the Nov. 29 election.
Zelaya has urged the international community not to recognize the outcome of the election if he is not restored to power first.
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
‘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