| | |  Americas & Beyond | October 2009 
Honduran Talks Deadlocked Over Restoring Zelaya
 Juan Carlos Llorca - Associated Press
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October 17, 2009
| | Victor Meza, main representative of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya for the negotiations with Honduras' interim government, speaks to reporters in Tegucigalpa, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009. (AP/Arnulfo Franco) | |
Tegucigalpa, Honduras — Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said negotiations over Honduras' coup are in "suspense" after the rival factions rebuffed each other's proposals and his foreign minister called the internationally brokered talks a failure.
Negotiators for interim President Roberto Micheletti said talks would go on even though he spurned a proposal to allow legislators to vote on whether Zelaya could return to power. Micheletti offered a counterproposal calling for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, an idea immediately rejected by Zelaya.
"I had said that Micheletti was preparing to slap the Honduran people and the international community, and now he has done that," Zelaya told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Brazilian Embassy, where he took refuge after sneaking back into Honduras on Sept. 21 from his forced exile.
In a statement released later, Zelaya urged Western Hemisphere countries to step up economic sanctions "against the de facto regime." The United States and other countries have already suspended development aid to the impoverished Central American country.
Although Congress voted to back Zelaya's ouster, lawmakers have since said they would support any agreement that emerged from talks.
There has been no such assurance from the Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya's arrest days before the June 28 coup after he pushed ahead with plans to hold a referendum on changing the constitution despite the court ruling the vote illegal. Instead of arresting him, soldiers flew Zelaya into exile at gunpoint.
Zelaya's foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, told Latin American leaders meeting in Bolivia that the talks had collapsed because of Micheletti's refusal to accept Zelaya's return to power. "The intransigence of the dictatorship led to the failure," she said.
However, Zelaya said he would give negotiators until Monday to break the impasse.
"The dialogue is in a moment of suspense ... until the other side adopts a reasonable stance," Zelaya said.
The latest round of talks began last week when top diplomats from the United States and other countries flew to Honduras and made clear that Zelaya's reinstatement was the only way for the Central American country to regain international recognition.
The crisis has become a challenge for the administration of President Barack Obama, who has faced vocal criticism from some Republicans in Congress for supporting Zelaya, a leader distrusted by conservatives because of his friendship with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Zelaya was ousted after he defied Supreme Court orders to cancel a referendum asking Hondurans if they wanted an assembly to rewrite the constitution. Zelaya's opponents argued he wanted to use that process to extend his term in office by abolishing a ban on presidential re-election, as Chavez did in Venezuela. Zelaya denies that was his plan.
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