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TEGUCIGALPA: Leaders of a coup in Honduras have said
they would consider early elections as a way to resolve the
country’s political crisis, ahead of a visit by the head of the
Organization of American States.
OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel
Insulza was expected to arrive on Friday for a quick visit to press
international demands for ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s
reinstatement and explore ways to break the impasse.
Faced with an OAS threat to kick
Honduras out of the organization, Honduras’ interim leader Roberto
Micheletti Thursday backed down from his insistence that general
elections would take place on November 29 as scheduled.
The elections could be advanced,
Micheletti told journalists, saying: “As long as it’s within the
law, there’s no problem, I’d have no objection if that was a way
to solve this kind of problem.”
Since Zelaya’s ouster Sunday,
the country has been rocked by growing demonstrations, a freezing of
international aid and recalls of foreign ambassadors.
Protests have increased through
the week, with daily lives disrupted by night-time curfews—which
suspend some freedoms guaranteed by the constitution—and the
country’s 7.5 million inhabitants increasingly frustrated.
The army clashed with
demonstrators in northern Honduras Thursday, for the first time in
three days.
Insulza, meanwhile, said he faced
a massive challenge, a day after defiant statements from the coup
leaders who have threatened to arrest Zelaya if he returns to the
country.
“I cannot say I am
confident,” he told reporters after a regional meeting in Guyana.
“I will do everything I can but I think it will be very hard to
turn things around in a couple of days.”
Insulza planned to talk to select
members of the Supreme Court and Congress—the bodies, along with
the army, which clashed with Zelaya over his plans to change the
constitution before sending him away on Sunday.
Insulza dismissed any idea of
negotiating with the instigators of the coup.
“We are not going to Honduras
to negotiate, we are going to Honduras to ask them to change what
they have been doing now, and find ways in which we can return to
normalcy,” said Insulza.
Demonstrations turned violent
again on Thursday, this time in the country’s main economic hub
San Pedro Sula, after clashes between baton-wielding soldiers and
protesters in the capital at the start of the week.
A Zelaya ally and deputy said the
army had shot at protesters, injuring two.
A local police commissioner said
some protesters had been detained and the army had intervened after
demonstrators started attacking shops.
Thousands took part in a separate
demonstration in favor of Micheletti.
Zelaya said in Panama that a
string of personalities would join him when he returned to the
country, including Nobel Prize winners and presidents. He did not
mention a return date.
The international community,
meanwhile, heaped further pressure on Honduras.
Venezuela’s President Hugo
Chavez, who has backed Zelaya, announced that Caracas was suspending
shipments of oil to Honduras, which he said would drive up gasoline
prices.
The Swedish EU presidency said
all Europian Union countries with embassies in Honduras had
withdrawn their ambassadors.
Central American countries and
Latin American leftists, including Venezuela—Zelaya’s main
supporter—Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua have announced
similar measures, as has Colombia.
The Inter-American Development
Bank on Wednesday halted aid, following a similar move by the World
Bank. And key ally the United States indicated it may follow suit,
saying it would wait until Monday before making a decision.
The Pentagon suspended all
military activities with Tegucigalpa until further notice, a
spokesman said.
Soldiers bundled Zelaya into a
plane at dawn Sunday and sent him to Costa Rica after a dispute with
the country’s courts, politicians and army over his attempts to
change the constitution to allow him the possibility of a run for a
second term.
--AFP
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