Honduras - Zelaya crisis

Rivals agree to talks to resolve crisis

Article published on the 2009-09-25 Latest update 2009-09-25 17:57 TU

Manuel Zelaya during a televised address, 27 June 2009.
(Photo: Reuters)

Honduras’s coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, has agreed to reopen dialogue with deposed President Manuel Zelaya, local radio reported Thursday.

Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian embassy, said shortly beforehand that a breakthrough dialogue had begun with the de facto government to seek a peaceful end to the country's political crisis sparked by his ejection from power on 28 June.

The announcements came after the UN Security Council agreed to a request from Brazil for emergency talks on the three-month crisis in the central American nation on Friday.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel peace laureate who brokered the first failed peace talks between the two sides, said Monday he "would be willing to go" to Honduras to follow up his mediation effort.

He urged both sides to sign July's San Jose accord, which called for Zelaya's return to the presidency.

Greg Grandin, a historian at New York Unviersity, says the dialogue could yield positive results.

"Dialogue and talk has always been Zelaya’s goal,” Grandin told RFI. “Micheletti’s strategy has been basically to wait out until the 29 November election and give the appearance of dialogue… without actually compromising. So it could be a step in the right direction provided that Micheletti… is actually willing to honestly negotiate.

"The terms are very clear – Zelaya has to return to the presidency in order for the November elections to be legitimate. It’s what the whole world is demanding."

Zelaya secretly entered the country on Monday, throwing the country into chaos, provoking mass street demonstrations and a military clampdown, temporary airport closures and curfews.