Zelaya says pact failed to end Honduran crisis
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 6:57 AM ET
CBC News
Supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya demonstrate in front of police officers outside the hotel where representatives of Zelaya and the interim government met. (Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press)Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said Friday his country's four-month political crisis is not over, saying the deadline for forming a unity government as outlined in a U.S.-brokered pact passed Thursday.
"The accord is dead," Zelaya told Radio Globo from the Brazilian Embassy where he has been holed up under threat of arrest.
"There is no sense in deceiving Hondurans."
Last week U.S. diplomats helped hammer out a pact between supporters of Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who was named interim president after Zelaya was ousted on June 28 in a bloodless coup.
Zelaya met with officials from the United States and several Latin American countries in an effort to gather international support for his claim to resume his presidency. (Larry Downing/Reuters)The pact gave the two sides until midnight Thursday to install a government that would act until Nov. 29 presidential elections.
Neither Zelaya nor Micheletti are candidates in the upcoming election.
The issue for Zelaya was whether he would be reinstated as president until the election. The pact did not specifically spell this out, instead saying it would be a decision left to the Honduran Congress. Zelaya interpreted that to mean Congress had to vote on the issue on Thursday, the same day the government had to be in place.
Reinstatement of Zelaya main issue
"The de facto regime has failed to live up to the promise that, by this date, the national government would be installed. And by law, it should be presided by the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya," said Jorge Reina, a negotiator for Zelaya.
Micheletti's supporters said the pact required cabinet to be in place by Thursday but that Congress did not have to meet on Thursday.
Micheletti said the unity government had been created even though Zelaya had not submitted his own list of candidates.
"Everybody, with the exception of Mr. Zelaya, recommended Hondurans to lead the institutions of our country as part of the new government," Micheletti said.
The lack of agreement between the two sides is a setback for the international community, which has been pressuring for resolution to the standoff.
Zelaya was ousted in a coup on June 28, just hours before a referendum he had called that defied the country's courts and Congress.
Opponents feared Zelaya would use the referendum to remain in power after his term ended on Jan. 27, 2010. The Honduran Constitution limits presidents to a single four-year term.
Zelaya then returned to Honduras and took shelter in the Brazilian Embassy in the capital of Tegucigalpa, leading his supporters to take to the streets in demonstrations that were put down by police, drawing international attention and criticism.
With files from The Associated Press
