Honduras/Venezuela

Venezuela will not remove diplomats from Honduras

Article published on the 2009-07-22 Latest update 2009-07-24 14:33 TU

Venezuelan embassy in Tegucigalpa, 21 July 2009
(Photo: Reuters)

Venezuela said it would not remove its diplomats from Honduras after the Honduran foreign ministry issued a statement Tuesday giving them 72 hours to leave the country. The interim government has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is a supporter of Honduras’ deposed President Manuel Zelaya, of meddling in its internal affairs.

A Venezuelan foreign ministry statement called Tuesday’s expulsion order “absurd.”

The charge d'affaires at the Venezuelan embassy in Tegucigalpa, Uriel Vargas, said no one is going anywhere.

"We do not recognize the government of Roberto Micheletti. It is a de facto government, led by a coup and supported with bayonets," he told reporters.

“The point that the Venezuelan government has made is the de facto government, which has seized power by military coup, does not have legitimacy, for it is not in a position to determine whether or not there will be a break in diplomatic relations,” Helen Yaffe, Latin American specialist at University College, London, explained to RFI.

Negotiations between Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti have broken down, and there is growing international pressure on Micheletti to allow Zelaya to return to power.

Zelaya, who is currently in Nicaragua, said he would return to Honduras after Thursday, despite Micheletti’s threats to arrest him if he tries.

“The next few days are important,” says Yaffe. “I think what’s been made clear is that the attempt to mediate a peaceful settlement has hit a brick wall.”

Zelaya has the support of the European Union and the United States, which have cut off development aid to Honduras, though not humanitarian aid, in attempt to destabilise the interim government.

This, says Yaffe, is the only peaceful option.

“You’re looking at an alternative which is feasibly quite a violent and bloody one, which literally there is a battle for power in Honduras.”