Honduras/OAS

Honduras allows OAS visit

Article published on the 2009-08-10 Latest update 2009-08-10 09:52 TU

Zelaya supporters will be protesting again on Tuesday
(Photo: Reuters)

The regime in Honduras has said it will allow a visit by foreign envoys who are trying to find a solution to the political crisis caused by the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya six weeks ago.

The interim government initially rejected the delegation, which was due to arrive in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday, because it was headed by Jose Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).

It said Insulza, who has been critical of the junta, was not acceptable because of his "lack of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism".

Interim President Roberto Micheletti's government also blamed him for not including in the delegation states that it considered more sympathetic to its cause.

"Unfortunately Insulza's intransigence and his insistence on including himself in the delegation and to exclude foreign ministers of member states that ... are open to reconsidering our case has made it impossible to allow this visit in the scheduled date," read a Foreign Ministry statement.

Late on Sunday, however, the government said that it would now accept Insulza, so long as he was only an observer.

"The differences that emerged around the make-up of the Organization of American States mission that planned to visit Honduras have been reconciled," the country's de facto government said in a statement late Sunday.

"The Secretary General will participate as an observer," it said, adding that the date of the visit would be "determined in the coming two days".

The Tuesday visit was to coincide with the arrival of thousands of pro-Zelaya activists from around the country that are to converge on Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the two largest cities in the country.

OAS officials announced they were sending the delegation - aimed at supporting the "re-establishment of democratic order" - on Friday.

Honduras’ membership in the OAS was suspended following a 28 June coup in which soldiers ousted Zelaya from power and put him on a plane to neighbouring Nicaragua.