Rejecting the return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya, Honduras’s interim leaders dug in for a fight yesterday after governments across the region demanded the deposed left-winger be restored to power.
In the worst crisis in Central America in a decade, Mr Zelaya was toppled by troops and whisked out of the country at the weekend in a widely condemned coup after he angered opponents with plans to amend the constitution to remove term limits.
The Organisation of American States on Wednesday issued a weekend deadline for the interim government to reinstate Mr Zelaya, in a standoff that is testing President Barack Obama’s administration after he promised an era of better relations with the region.
“We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,” said Roberto Micheletti, who was named as caretaker president by Honduran deputies shortly after Mr Zelaya’s removal.
Mr Zelaya, a logging magnate fond of wearing cowboy hats with his suits, has promised to return, but appeared to be waiting for the outcome of the OAS ultimatum. An OAS mission will arrive this week to discuss the removal, the caretaker government said.
Honduras, an impoverished coffee exporter of around 7 million people, has seen days of protests, but the interim government has rallied supporters onto the streets, underlining divisions over Mr Zelaya’s return.
The Honduran Congress approved a decree to crack down on opposition during a nightly curfew imposed after the coup. The decree allows security forces to hold suspects for more than 24 hours without charge and formalises the prohibition of the right to free association at night.
But Tegucigalpa, the capital city, has remained mostly calm, with traffic blocking streets and most businesses open during the day, although schools remained closed.
Mr Zelaya, who took office in 2006, upset the countrys traditional elite with a leftward tilt that many worried would take him down the same path as Venezuelas socialist president Hugo Chávez.
The interim government says it acted within the law in ousting Zelaya – the Supreme Court said it instructed the army to remove him and Congress voted in the acting president.
Opponents of Zelaya believe he was pushing the limits of democracy with his drive to extend the single four-year term of presidents to allow re-election. He faces arrest on a raft of criminal charges if he returns to Honduras.
Several Latin American presidents, including Chavez and his allies in Ecuador and Bolivia, have extended term limits that were often written into constitutions as safeguards after decades of dictatorship. – (Reuters)