Costa Rica promised to restore ties with Honduras after it elects a new president today, joining other countries in rejecting ousted president Manuel Zelaya’s insistence that recognizing the vote would legitimize a June coup.
The front-runner in the elections, Porfirio Lobo, welcomed the decision by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, saying in an interview on Friday that he expected other Latin American countries gradually to follow suit.
“Some who are saying today they won’t recognize the vote have told me they will recognize the elections,” he said.
Lobo also promised that if he wins, he would include Zelaya in a national reconciliation talks and suggested that the ousted leader would be able to leave his refuge inside the Brazilian embassy without fear of arrest. Zelaya has been holed up there since sneaking back into the country in September.
“They have to get him out. If not, how?” said Lobo, who declined to answer whether he would grant Zelaya a pardon on abuse of power and other charges.
“What I know is that if we want peace for Honduras, we have to bring him into the dialogue,” he said.
Arias’ decision to acknowledge the next administration is a new setback for Zelaya, who is urging the international community not to recognize the vote.
Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was a chief mediator in largely unsuccessful negotiations to restore Zelaya to power. He now says the world should not punish the next Honduran government for the coup.
“Why should we punish them with a second Hurricane Mitch by not recognizing the next government, isolating it, denying it cooperation?” Arias said in an interview aired on CNN en Espanol on Friday. The 1998 hurricane killed thousands in Honduras.
Western Hemisphere countries, once united in condemning the June 28 coup, are divided on recognizing the results of the elections, which were scheduled long before Zelaya’s ouster.
Left-led countries, including Brazil and Argentina, argue recognizing the vote is tantamount to whitewashing the coup.
Washington has said it will support the election.
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