Honduras could offer ousted Zelaya amnesty

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday ousted president Manuel Zelaya would not be allowed to return to power under any circumstances but could be granted an amnesty if he comes home quietly to face justice.

Micheletti's overture was the first conciliatory offer from the interim authorities to try to solve the worst crisis in Central America since the Cold War, although Zelaya insists on being reinstated and has vowed to return and defy the interim government.

"If he comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem (with an amnesty for him)," Micheletti told Reuters in an exclusive interview at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa in a room guarded by five heavily-armed soldiers.

"We have to talk to the Supreme Court and consult with the State Attorney of the Republic to see what possibilities there are of that nature," he added. "But I think that we need to seek peace, and that is part of it."

However the interim president, a centrist veteran of Zelaya's Liberal Party who was installed by Honduras' Congress after the June 28 military coup that deposed Zelaya, repeated his position that Zelaya would not be reinstated as president "under any conditions."

This signaled Micheletti's continuing defiance of international condemnation of the coup and calls from the Organization of American States, the United States and the United Nations General Assembly for Zelaya to be restored to office.

Honduras' Congress and Supreme Court ordered the army to remove Zelaya last month, arguing he had violated the country's constitution by attempting to lift presidential term limits.

MICHELETTI BLAMES VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ

Zelaya, who has been traveling in the Americas to shore up his support, also ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

Micheletti blamed Chavez for the political crisis.

"We are completely certain that Chavez is intervening in our country," Micheletti said. "He is completely responsible for the death the other day at the protest," Micheletti said. "I think he is responsible for all of this."

At least one pro-Zelaya protester was killed in clashes at Tegucigalpa's airport a week ago when Honduran troops blocked an attempt by Zelaya to return in a plane provided by Chavez.

"Chavez is the great damage that democracy in Honduras has suffered. We hold him responsible for any incident or any invasion that might come against Honduras from any country," he said. "He believed this country was one of his satellites, and he was wrong."

He said that Honduras would fight back if Chavez sought to invade the country in a bid to reinstate Zelaya.

"We have the courage to defend our resources," Micheletti said. "We will receive him with open arms," he joked. "I don't have the least doubt that seven million Hondurans will become soldiers to defend our territory."

Micheletti on Sunday lifted a curfew imposed since the coup, despite almost daily protests by pro-Zelaya supporters.

His interim government is holding talks with Zelaya's representatives under the auspices of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The meetings have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.

Micheletti said Arias was due to call his negotiating team in the next 8-10 days to organize the next round of talks and that he was very satisfied with Arias' impartiality.

He plans to hand over power after scheduled November 29 elections, which he says will go ahead as planned, if not sooner if authorities agree to bring them forward.

"Holding early elections is a proposal that has been made, and I don't think it is a crazy idea and could be a solution to this problem," Micheletti said.

(Reporting by Simon Gardner, Gustavo Palencia and Juana Casas; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Daniel Trotta)