Zelaya's Honduras exit 'aborted'

from : http://english.aljazeera.net

The de facto government of Honduras has said that plans for Manuel Zelaya, the country's deposed president, to leave the Honduran capital for Mexico have been put on hold.

Sources had said on Wednesday that Zelaya, who has sheltered at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since returning from exile in September, was due to head to Mexico within hours.

But Carlos Lopez, Honduras's foreign minister, told Honduran television that the plan had been "aborted under current circumstances".

Milton Mateo, a spokesman for the Honduran foreign ministry, had earlier said that Mexico had asked for a safe-conduct pass for Zelaya, and that the pass had been signed off.

Security forces alerted

Craig Mauro, an Al Jazeera correspondent who has reported on the politicial events in Honduras, said: "There was a lot of activity around the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where Zelaya has taken refuge for the last couple of months.

"There were reports that the number of security forces there have been doubled, and that Zelaya would be leaving to take asylum in Mexico," Mauro said from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Since then there have been conflicting reports. Honduran aviation officials [said] that a plane is on the way from Mexico, and there [were] some reports from Mexico, quoting unnamed sources, that he has been granted asylum.

"Zelaya has just spoken to a Venezuelan television network and he has neither confirmed nor denied that he would be seeking asylum."

The de facto government, which has held power since Zelaya was deposed on June 28, wants Zelaya to take political asylum in another country, which would restrict his political activities.

However, Zelaya seeks a status that would allow him to campaign fully for his return, Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's president, said on Wednesday.

Political crisis

Zelaya has demanded his reinstatement since being ousted, but the country's congress voted against restoring him to power.

Fresh elections that were held last month saw Porfirio Lobo, a National Party politician, win the presidency.

Zelaya, left, has sheltered at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since September [AFP]

Zelaya was forced into exile after the supreme court, congress and business leaders said he acted against the constitution and tried to illegally extend limits to his term in office.

He has repeatedly denied this and pointed out that it would have been impossible to change the constitution before his term in office was complete.

Divisions in the Central American nation remain wide even after the election, which Zelaya's supporters boycotted, and nations across the Americas are also at odds over whether to recognise the poll.

"The US has said that it recognised the elections but that it was only a step forward, and that it wanted to national reconciliation," Mauro said.

"Several countiries have followed the US' lead there, but there is also a bloc, led by Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, that refuses to recognise the elections and which is demanding that Zelaya be restored to the presidency [to serve out the rest of his term], no matter what."

Lobo, who was defeated by Zelaya in the 2005 election, has pledged to form a unity government and seek dialogue.

He is due to take office on January 27, when Zelaya's term officially ends.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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US: Honduras vote 'a step forward'

from : al jazeera ( Arabic )

The US said it will recognise Porfirio Lobo as the legitimate Honduran president [EPA] The US state department has welcomed Honduras' presidential election as a necessary and "important step forward" for the country, but said that more needs to be done to achieve reconciliation. Speaking to Al Jazeera early on Tuesday, Craig Kelly of the department's bureau of western hemisphere affairs said Washington would deal with Porfirio Lobo, the declared election winner, as the democratically elected president of Honduras. "The Honduran people have spoken very clearly, they have elected Lobo as their president that's clear," he said. But he added: "The elections, while a very important step forward, are part of an overall package to restore constitutional and democratic order in the country." Lobo was declared the winner of the election on Monday and is due to take office in January. He has called on neighbouring Latin American countries to support him. Coup fears However some regional countries including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela have said they will refuse to recognise the result. They say the election was illegitimate because it was held by a government installed in the wake of a military coup that ousted the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, said that his nation would not rethink its rejection of the election because he said that might encourage coups in other nations. in depth Analysis: Winners and losers in Honduras Fault Lines: Honduras - 100 days of resistance Listening Post: Covering the Honduran coup Video: Aid cuts hit Honduran poor Honduras: The way forward Riz Khan: The life and death of democracy Zelaya himself had called for a boycott of the election. He remains holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, having taken refuge there after sneaking back into the country two months ago. Al Jazeera's Latin America editor Lucia Newman, reporting from the Honduran capital, said major questions remains over what will happen to Zelaya in the wake of Sunday's vote. She said intensive negotiations had begun that were expected to last for several days as to what will happen to him, including whether he might be exiled or given an amnesty. Zelaya himself has said he has no plans to move until what he calls the "dictatorship" installed following his removal is no longer running the country. "We are fighting a dictatorship and until we defeat it we will not be satisfied," Zelaya told Al Jazeera following the election. Neither Zelaya nor the man who replaced him - Roberto Micheletti, the de facto president installed following the June coup – ran in the vote which was largely shunned by international monitors. The election was organised before Zelaya was removed from power, with the candidates chosen in primaries last year. Unity government Washington meanwhile is urging Honduras to do more than elect a new leader and move ahead with forming a government of national unity and a truth commission meant to seek reconciliation. Under a US-brokered pact, Honduran legislators will vote on Wednesday on whether Zelaya should be restored as head of that government, although that is not expected to pass. In video Lobo wins vote rejected by Honduras' ousted preisdent Speaking to reporters on Monday, Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs, said Washington wants to see the unity government in place until Lobo takes office on January 27. "Given the gravity of the coup d'etat and the polarisation that Honduras has undergone, both before and after the coup, it's extremely important that Honduran leadership moving forward in the next few months [and] attempt to follow the overall broad frameworks of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose accord," he said. Lobo, the victor in Sunday's election, has said he wants to put the coup and the issue of the ousted president behind him and move forward. "Zelaya is just part of the past, it's over", he told reporters after attending a victory rally on Sunday night. From his base in the Brazilian embassy, the ousted president has rejected the official election results. Turnout disputed Zelaya told reporters that information his supporters had gathered from polling stations indicated two-thirds of voters stayed home, which he insisted meant the election had no legitimacy. According to the Honduran election commission however, almost 62 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballot, more than the 55 per cent it said turned out in the last election in 2005 which was won by Zelaya. Few international observers travelled to Honduras for Sunday's vote, but one group from the International Republican Institute, a US-based nonprofit organisation, said on Monday that they had witnessed "an election free of violence and overt acts of intimidation". In a statement, the institute called Sunday's vote "credible and peaceful". The delegation was led by David Kramer, a former US assistant secretary of state, and included representatives from Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Spain and the US.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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