Give talks a chance, U.S. tells Honduras rivals
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - The United States urged the rival sides in Honduras' political crisis on Tuesday to give dialogue a chance, but the deposed president said he would only discuss his immediate reinstatement at talks set for this weekend.
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was toppled in a June 28 coup but has international backing for his return to office, insisted that only his restoration would end Central America's worst political crisis since the Cold War.
Speaking in Guatemala City, Zelaya said he would attend a second round of talks called for Saturday in Costa Rica by that country's president, Oscar Arias, who is acting as mediator.
Zelaya would press the ultimatum he laid down on Monday for the interim government installed after the coup, led by Roberto Micheletti, to give him back power immediately. If not, he has threatened to abandon the dialogue process.
"I'll be there at the weekend with the negotiating commissions, (but) the only thing that can be negotiated is the timing and the manner of the exit of the coup leaders," Zelaya told a news conference.
But Micheletti, the provisional president appointed by Honduras' Congress after the coup, is adamant Zelaya cannot return to power under any circumstances because he was trying to illegally extend his rule by seeking to lift presidential term limits. His removal was lawful, Micheletti says.
Earlier on Tuesday, both the U.S. government and mediator Arias had responded to Zelaya's ultimatum by urging both sides in the crisis to give an opportunity to dialogue.
"All parties in the talks should give this process some time. Don't set any artificial deadlines," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington.
Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to help end Central American civil wars, is struggling to keep alive hopes for a negotiated solution.
Two days of talks in Costa Rica last week between the rival delegations failed to achieve any real progress. Zelaya and Micheletti refused to meet face-to-face and it was not clear whether they would be prepared to do so on Saturday.
"RIGHT TO INSURRECTION"
Micheletti's interim foreign minister and chief negotiator, Carlos Lopez, said he hoped Zelaya's side would not abandon the Costa Rica talks. "We're not making any threats," he said.
Honduras, which exports bananas, coffee and textiles, has a long history of coups, returning to democracy only in the 1980s after 30 years of mainly military rule in the impoverished Central American country.
Zelaya has promised to return home, and although he has vowed to avoid violence, he says those who support him have the "right to insurrection" because he was unlawfully deposed.
"The whole world ... has said it will not recognize a military government with civilian puppets," he said.
Zelaya's supporters have been staging daily protests for his reinstatement and walls near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa are daubed with anti-Micheletti slogans. "No to the coup. Get out, Pinocheletti," read one , merging his name with that of Chile's former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
The debate over how to solve the Honduran crisis is also developing into a tussle for influence in Latin America between Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, and U.S. President Barack Obama, who is looking to improve strained U.S. relations with the region.
Most analysts see time being on the interim government's side, as it sits tight heading toward scheduled general elections in November, which Micheletti says will go ahead, or could even be brought forward.
Analysts said the talks appeared badly bogged down.
"The public positions that have been expressed up to now, don't give any sign that they are moving toward common ground," said John Carey, Professor of Political Science at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
"If there isn't a change of attitude from both sides ... the talks will fail," said Efrain Diaz, a political analyst with the Honduran NGO Center for Human Development.
VENEZUELA, U.S. DIFFER OVER MEDIATION
No foreign government has recognized Micheletti as president. The United States, the Organization of American States and the U.N. General Assembly have called for Zelaya to be restored to office.
The firm U.S. backing for Arias is in direct contrast to sharp condemnation of his mediation from Venezuela's Chavez, who has dismissed the Costa Rica talks as "dead before they started" and a "crass error" by the Obama administration.
Chavez has called on Obama to apply more pressure on Micheletti to give power back to Zelaya.
Zelaya, a logging magnate who took office in 2006 and was due to leave power in 2010, is traveling the Americas to seek support. He ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in conservative Honduras by allying himself with Chavez.
Micheletti has accused Chavez, who from his oil exporting country has built up an alliance of anti-U.S. leftist leaders in Latin America, of meddling in Honduras.
Micheletti on Sunday held out the possibility of an amnesty for Zelaya if he returns home quietly and faces justice.
But Zelaya has dismissed the gesture.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Simon Gardner, Gustavo Palencia, Daniel Trotta in Tegucigalpa; and John McPhaul in San Jose; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
(For a graphic of the main figures in the crisis, click here)
