Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was set to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday as the country’s political crisis talks moved to Washington.
The Clinton meeting would be the highest-level contact between Zelaya and US President Barack Obama’s administration since the June 28 coup, when troops arrested the leftist leader in his pajamas and expelled him from the country.
The interim leaders who deposed Zelaya meanwhile sent a commission to Washington to try to convince politicians that there had been a “constitutional succession” not a “coup” in Honduras, they said in a statement.
PHOTO: EPA
In increasingly polarized Honduras, several thousand protesters took to the streets on Monday, a day after two Zelaya supporters were killed during a mass demonstration at the airport, when the army prevented a plane carrying the deposed leader from landing.
”Assassins!” they shouted at a crowd of soldiers behind riot shields as they marched several hundred meters past the presidential palace.
A fake corpse covered in fake blood lay under a Honduran flag to represent the first deaths since the troubles began.
“We’re going to continue with peaceful resistance despite the repression,” union leader Juan Barahona said.
The US and the UN on Monday led condemnation of the first deaths since protests began a week ago in Honduras.
“We deplore the use of force against demonstrators in Tegucigalpa in recent days,” US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Organization of American States should work to restore constitutional order, after the 34-member pan-American body suspended Honduras at an emergency session over the weekend.
Roberto Micheletti’s interim government says that Zelaya’s return is not negotiable and insists that his ouster was legal.
Micheletti said in Honduras late on Monday that he hoped Clinton would help “advance” dialogue to resolve the crisis.
“We support the attempt by Secretary Clinton to advance dialogue in this situation,” Micheletti said on national TV.
The Honduran crisis is the biggest challenge yet for Obama’s Latin America policy, in a region where the US holds great influence.
Zelaya said in Nicaragua that he would leave late on Monday for Washington, where he planned to talk to Clinton about his eventual return to Honduras.
“I will return to Honduras, there’s no doubt about that,” Zelaya said in Managua.
“No one owes allegiance” to the new government of the “usurper” Micheletti, he said, adding that the coup leader’s actions over the last week were “void” because they were carried in violation of the country’s Constitution.
Before leaving, Zelaya said he was naming a new Honduran ambassador to the US, Enrique Reina, to replace Hugo Llorens, who had submitted to the interim government.
International pressure has mounted on the Central American nation on the heels of aid freezes, the recall of ambassadors and temporary trade embargoes.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Zelaya’s key backer, said he has suspended crucial shipments of oil.
The Pentagon has suspended all military activities with Tegucigalpa until further notice.
The coup leaders say they are prepared for an economic blockade of at least six months, in order to hold out until scheduled elections in November, but analysts warn that they would struggle to resist economic sanctions.
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