Deadlock continues in Honduras

This Friday marks two months since the ouster of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and despite pressure to find a negotiated solution the Central American country continues to be torn between two presidents.

The latest failed stab at peace came this week with a two-day visit by an Organization of American States (OAS) delegation to Honduras. The group discussed with de facto President Roberto Micheletti (image) the possibility of accepting the peace plan drafted by Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias about a month ago. Yet the OAS group returned to Washington empty-handed after Micheletti remained defiant of the main points of the San Jose Accord including permitting Zelaya to finish his presidential term.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza claimed that “there's still a climate for making one final effort” before presidential elections are held on November 29 yet admitted that the odds of a compromise are increasingly slim:

With each passing day, Insulza said, the margin for solving the crisis gets slimmer. Attention to the coup will not disappear, he said, but it will be diverted by the election campaign season that begins Sept. 1.

Many in Honduras, Insulza said, raised concerns about Zelaya's reinstatement and an amnesty for his alleged offenses, both part of the San Jose Accord.

The officials the delegation met with, Insulza said, appeared more interested in discussing the events that led to Zelaya's ouster. "We wanted to get back to the agreement of San Jose, which was our goal in being there," he said.

On Tuesday, Honduras' interim leader, Roberto Micheletti, acknowledged the country would suffer consequences for refusing to reinstate Zelaya, but he suggested that nothing short of armed intervention could change the situation.

The OAS delegation visit seemed to be futile when Honduras’ Supreme Court- which played a key role in ousting Zelaya- ruled the day before the group’s visit that Micheletti is the “legitimate” president. Nevertheless, the U.S. has offered its support of negotiated efforts by “suspending non-emergency, non-immigrant visa services in the consular section of our embassy in Honduras”.

Image- CNN
Online Sources- BBC News, AP, Al Jazeera English, The Latin Americanist, Xinhua