Honduras

Micheletti says he will go, if ...

Article published on the 2009-07-16 Latest update 2009-07-16 14:56 TU

A supporter of Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya spray-paints graffiti during a protest outside the National Congress building
(Photo: Reuters)

The interim leader of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, said Wednesday that he would be ready to quit, on condition that deposed President Manuel Zelaya does not return to power. Micheletti has reimposed a night-time cirfew, faced with the threat of a push to topple his government by Zelaya's supporters.

"For peace and tranquility in the country [...] without the return of ex-president Zelaya, I would be ready to do it," Micheletti said Wednesday in an apparent softening of his position.

Previously the leaders of the coup which drove Zelaya out of the country insisted they would stay in power, despite a barrage of international criticism.

Micheletti reimposed a curfew from midnight to 5 am, after Zelaya, who is in Guatemala, called on his supporters to revolt.

Zelaya declared that insurrection is legitimate, when faced with a "usurping government and a coup-supporting military" and urged his backers to strike, march and engage in civil disobedience.

No major protests took place on Wednesday but demonstrations and roadblocks are planned throughout the country on Thursday and Friday.

Micheletti also said that he will not return to new mediation talks in Costa Rica set for later this week but will send his team of negotiators.

Zelaya's Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas claimed that the mediation is being used to "give a break to the right and the de facto regime".

"Every day that passes weakens President Zelaya's position," notes Larry Birns of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "It confirms a kind of new status quo, which is against the professed desires of the entire international community without exception."

"It may well be that Micheletti's strategy is going to work," he says, adding that the US's apparent reluctance to act against him is not helping Zelaya.

"There seems to be an ambiguity in Washington over what it wants," Birns told RFI.

"President Obama has condemned the extra-constitutional change of power and has urged that President Zelaya be allowed to return home. But there seems to be a contradictory stream of events taking place, where the United States is not particularly anxious to face any kind of showdown and doesn't want any type of military action to be taken against the de facto government."