OAS rejects Honduras’ Micheletti plan

The Organization of American States (OAS) refused to accept a compromise plan offered last week by Honduras’ de facto President Roberto Micheletti.

Micheletti’s plan had several points; chief among them was his own resignation from the presidency on the condition that ousted President Manuel Zelaya would not be reinstated. It was this point that led OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to reject the deal and insist that Micheletti accept the San Jose Accord brokered by Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias. Micheletti himself appeared to shy away from his own deal after reneging over the clause that would’ve granted Zelaya political amnesty upon returning to Honduras.

Micheletti’s deal was problematic from the start; it was similar to a compromise that had already been rejected by the Zelaya camp. Furthermore, as this New York Times piece noted, the new interim president wouldn’t exactly be a neutral party:

(…) Mr. Micheletti, in his latest plan, said he would resign only if Mr. Zelaya agreed to resign as well, leaving the presidency to the next in line. That would be Jorge Rivera, the president of the Supreme Court, which supported Mr. Zelaya’s ouster. Mr. Micheletti made an identical offer last month, and it went nowhere.

In the meantime, the international community is turning the screws on Micheletti. For instance, the White House is considering placing sanctions on Honduras by deeming Zelaya’s June ouster as a “military coup”.

Image- New York Times (“A supporter of the ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, at a rally in Tegucigalpa.”)
Online Sources- New York Times, Monsters & Critics, Voice of America, CNN, Xinhua, The Latin Americanist