Efforts to end the six-month political crisis in Honduras lay in tatters on Thursday as deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya rejected an offer of exile barbed with demands he relinquish his claim to the presidency.
Zelaya dismissed a Mexican offer of safe passage, which could have ended a tense stand-off that has seen him holed up at the heavily fortified Brazilian embassy for the last three months.
Mexico on Wednesday sent a plane to collect Zelaya — who was deposed and exiled in a coup backed by the military in June, before clandestinely returning to the country three months ago — only to have it return to Mexico.
“Yesterday, the de facto government ... experienced another failure in its plan to get me to renounce my post,” Zelaya told Brazil’s Globo radio from inside the Brazilian embassy.
“I can stay here 10 years. Here, I have my guitar,” said Zelaya, who slipped back into the country secretly in September to rally support for his reinstatement as president following his ouster in a June 28 coup. “They want me to resign.”
The de facto regime’s Interior Minister Oscar Raul Matute said the government would only consider allowing Zelaya to leave the embassy if he applied for political asylum in Mexico.
“The instructions given by [de facto] President Roberto Micheletti is that if there is a formal petition ... the government is willing to consider it,” he told Honduran radio station HRN.
According to a copy of the Mexican offer, Zelaya and four people close to him would be allowed to reside in Mexico, providing they were given safe passage to the airport to board a Gulfstream jet.
However, Zelaya has firmly rejected the possibility that he would seek political asylum, which would effectively end his chances of being reinstated as president until his term ends on Jan. 27.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim condemned the Micheletti government’s refusal to approve Zelaya’s departure.
“This condition laid down by the putschist government is unprecedented. They cannot create conditions Zelaya must meet before leaving the country,” he said.
The de facto government’s actions “indicate how far removed from respecting international norms this regime is,” he said.
Zelaya has steadfastly insisted he be returned to power since his June overthrow that was backed by the country’s courts and some lawmakers and businessmen.
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