Mexico is working to get ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya out of the Brazilian embassy, a refuge where he has spent nearly three months in a failed effort to return to office and prevent the election of his successor.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said late on Wednesday that it asked the interim administration installed after the coup that removed Zelaya to guarantee his safe passage out of the country without being arrested on treason and abuse of power charges.
Honduran officials said the interim government agreed to let Zelaya go if he was willing to accept political asylum, but Zelaya said he would not accept a departure under those terms.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I want to leave as a distinguished guest, not as political refugee like the interim government wants,” Zelaya told Radio Globo late on Wednesday night.
The interim government had been insistent Zelaya would be arrested on the charges that led to his June 28 ouster for ignoring a Supreme Court order against holding a referendum on changing the Constitution, but recently it began hinting Zelaya could leave for exile or political asylum in another country.
Zelaya said his reason for leaving is to seek out a neutral site for a meeting with Honduran president-elect Porfirio Lobo to “find a peaceful solution to the situation in the country.”
Zelaya said he wanted a negotiated solution for his departure — one “that respected the law and respected my office” as president.
He suggested he wanted a status that would “allow me to continue my [political] actions abroad.”
He operated a sort of government-in-exile from other Latin American nations after being ousted.
“I will not accept any political asylum,” Zelaya said.
That status might hinder his campaign to drum up opposition to the forces that removed him from the presidency.
Oscar Raul Matute, the interim interior minister, said Mexico had filed paperwork asking for safe passage for Zelaya, but had failed to include whether Zelaya would be recognized by Mexico as Honduras’ president or as just a citizen being given refuge.
“If the government of Mexico wishes to give him asylum, we will consider that petition as long as it fulfills all the requirements,” Matute told CNN en Espanol.
Honduras’ Congress, which is dominated by Zelaya’s own political party, voted 111-14 last week month against restoring him to office to serve out his term, which ends on Jan. 27.
Zelaya said he had talked with both Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Dominican President Leonel Fernandez about leaving Honduras.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said it was looking “to contribute to the easing of tensions in Honduras ... through dialogue and negotiation.”
The interim government’s foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, told Channel 5 television that a Mexican plane had approached Honduras late on Wednesday to fly Zelaya out of the country, but that had it diverted to El Salvador.
“Honduras will only offer a safe-conduct pass to Zelaya to travel to another country as a political refugee and not in any other way,” Lopez said.
A Mexican government official, who agreed to discuss the issue if not quoted by name, said a plane had apparently been sent or would be sent to Honduras as a result of the talks. The official also said the negotiations were focused on exactly what title Zelaya would be given.
On Tuesday, Porfirio Lobo, the man who won the Nov. 29 election to replace Zelaya, said he supported amnesty for Zelaya and for all of those involved in the coup that deposed him.
Although Zelaya has refused to recognize the election, Lobo has said he hopes to open dialogue with the deposed leader and start a national reconciliation process after he takes office.
Lobo’s options, however, are limited. Even once he takes office, he cannot grant Zelaya amnesty from prosecution. That power belongs to the same Congress that overwhelmingly rejected reinstating Zelaya.
‘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