HONDURAS: Amnesty for Zelaya Idea Re-Surfacing . . .

[magbana]

and they call Micheletti the "caretaker president."

Honduras leader may allow Zelaya amnesty, curfew off

By Gustavo Palencia
and Daniel TrottaPosted 2009/07/12 at 9:07 pm EDT

TEGUCIGALPA, July 12, 2009 (Reuters) — Honduras' interim president held out the possibility of an amnesty for ousted President Manuel Zelaya Sunday after the lifting of a curfew that had been imposed on the country since the June 28 coup.
A tattered Honduran flag flutters in the wind on the grounds of the presidential residency in Tegucigalpa, July 11, 2009.

Caretaker President Roberto Micheletti, sworn in hours after the armed forces removed Zelaya from power and expelled him to Costa Rica, held firm in a Reuters interview to his position that Zelaya could not return to power under any circumstances.

No foreign government has recognized Micheletti as president and the United States and the Organization of American States have called for Zelaya to be restored.

Micheletti's interim government is holding talks with Zelaya's representatives through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, but the talks have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.

"If he (Zelaya) comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem (with an amnesty for him)," Micheletti told Reuters in an interview at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa.

Micheletti said Zelaya could not return to power "under any conditions" because he contravened the constitution by seeking to illegally extend his rule through the lifting of presidential term limits.

Zelaya, a logging magnate elected in 2005 who was due to leave office in 2010, has said only his restoration to office can solve Honduras' political crisis.

The ousted president, now traveling the Americas to shore up his support, ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

The lifting of the curfew, which had been in place from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. local time, came as a relief for this coffee-exporting Central American country that is the third poorest in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua.

Ordinary Hondurans have sought to put a brave face on the coup crisis, from a village that forged ahead regardless with its annual fiesta, complete with a brass band and fireworks, to the gang-plagued slums surrounding the capital, where the poor are bracing for higher prices and unemployment.

Even the wealthy have felt the pinch. At the upscale restaurant El Patio, where Saturday nights are normally a rollicking affair of mariachi music and rum-fueled laughter, the neon lights were dimmed early on a dining terrace that was half-filled even though the national soccer team was on TV.

Zelaya told Caracas-based Telesur television Sunday he intended to return "at any time, on any day, anywhere" even though the new government vows to arrest him.

SUPPORT ABROAD FOR ZELAYA

Reflecting widespread international condemnation of the coup, foreign ministers and diplomats from 50 democracies on Sunday urged the reinstatement of Zelaya and said his overthrow represented a threat to democracy.

The call came from a meeting in Portugal of the Community of Democracies, an intergovernmental organization that seeks to strengthen democratic institutions.

Micheletti blamed Chavez for the political crisis. "Chavez is the great damage that democracy in Honduras has suffered. We hold him responsible for any incident or any invasion that might come against Honduras from any country," he said.

In a sign that tensions with Venezuela remained, Honduran police Saturday night detained for several hours members of TV crews of the Venezuelan state channel VTV and Caracas-based Telesur, which have extensively covering pro-Zelaya protests.

Speaking in Caracas, Chavez condemned the detention.

He said he was convinced it was the "Yankee empire" (United States) behind Zelaya's ouster in Honduras, even though U.S. President Barack Obama's administration quickly condemned the coup and has called for Zelaya's restoration.

Chavez called on Obama to prove that he is not supporting the coup in Honduras. "It is the time to prove yourself, President Obama," Chavez said on his weekly television show.

Micheletti plans to hand over power after scheduled November elections, which he says will go ahead as planned. He told Reuters the poll could be held earlier if the country's judicial powers agreed to this.

He has asked citizens to prepare for austerity after foreign lenders suspended about $200 million in credits and the United States cut off $16.5 million in military assistance while threatening to halt a further $180 million in aid.

The coup was triggered by a planned vote on June 28 called by Zelaya to measure support for convening a constitutional assembly that could have lifted limits on presidential terms. The Supreme Court and Congress deemed the vote unconstitutional and ordered Zelaya's removal.

A day before the national plebiscite, the village of San Buenaventura was preoccupied by another vote -- one to choose the child queen of the annual fiestas in honor of the saint bearing the name of the farming enclave of 2,300 people about 20 miles from the capital.

Seven-year-old Jessy Ordonez prevailed, but the next day's coup suddenly cast doubt on whether the fiesta could be held.

"She got very sad. Every day she asked what was going to happen," said her father, Jorge Ordonez.

In the event, Jessy got her moment of glory as the fiesta went ahead despite the political crisis. She was accompanied to her coronation by a band of ancient, beat-up instruments played by elderly musicians.

"This is what the people want," Mayor Jose Andres Amador said, "not all the political games."

(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner, Enrique Andres Pretel, Juana Casas in Tegucigalpa, Patricia Zengerle in Caracas, Shrikesh Laxmidas in Lisbon; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)"
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre56b13n-us-honduras/