Negotiations on Honduras

Panama Headline News

Negotiations on Honduras
Set for Saturday Morning



By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports


President Óscar Arias Sánchez expects to convene the next negotiating session over the future of the Honduran presidency about 10 a.m. Saturday. The opposing sides have selected their designates to represent them at the bargaining table.

Meanwhile, Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said he is open to resigning as long as ousted President José Manuel Zelaya is not allowed to return to power.

Micheletti made the comment to reporters Wednesday in Tegucigalpa. A day earlier Zelaya said that he would accept nothing less than full reinstatement and said Saturday was the deadline.

The new round of mediation talks is aimed at resolving the ongoing political standoff between the two rivals. Aides to Arias said they expected the discussions to continue at least through Sunday.

Zelaya's representatives will be Arístides Mejía, a former minister of defense in Honduras; Milton Jiménez, a former foreign minister, and Enrique Flores Lanza, the secretary to the Presidencia.

Micheletti will be represented by Carlos López, a former foreign minister; Arturo Corrales, president of the Partido Innovación y Unidad; Mauricio Villeda, vice presidential candidate for the Partido Liberal, and Vilma Cecilia Morales, a former president of the Corte Suprema de Justicia. in Tegucigalpa.

Arias is mediating the dispute involving the two men and he called on Zelaya to be patient with the process, as did the United States. Zelaya is not making the mediating job any easier.

Zelaya has said the people in his country "have the right to insurrection" in order to force the caretaker government to return him to power, following his ouster June 28.

Micheletti has said he will only discuss the deposed president's return to Honduras if Mr. Zelaya faces charges of treason and abuse of power in court.

The interim government says it expelled Zelaya from the country last month because he was trying to illegally change the constitution to extend his power.

Meanwhile, a new public opinion poll indicates that Zelaya is more popular than his interim replacement.

Results of the Gallup poll, published Wednesday, indicate Zelaya has a favorable rating of 46 percent, although a nearly equal number of respondents (44 percent), have given him an unfavorable rating.

Respondents gave Mr. Micheletti a 30 percent approval rating. His unfavorable rating stood at 49 percent.

Monday, Mr. Zelaya issued what he called his "ultimatum" to the interim government, saying it must give him back the presidency within a week. Zelaya said if he does not resume office by then, he will consider the discussions a failure.

Zelaya and Micheletti met separately with Arias last week at the Costa Rican leader's home in Rohrmoser.

The United States and the Organization of American States have called for Zelaya's reinstatement. The U.S. also has called for all parties in the crisis to give the talks a chance to succeed.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs Wednesday said the United States continues to believe that Mr. Zelaya's removal is not in accordance with democratic principles.

U.N. Official Wants End
to Honduran Press Curbs



Special to A.M. Costa Rica staff


A U.N. official has called for restrictions on press freedoms to be lifted in Honduras.

He is Koïchiro Matsuura, head of the U. N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“I am deeply concerned about reports of restrictions on the media and harassment of journalists in Honduras,” said Matsuura.

“In situations of crisis, it is especially important to ensure that the media can report freely and without intimidation,” he added.

Since Zelaya was forced from office on June 28, human rights and press freedom organizations have reported severe restrictions on news media by blocking cable television transmissions and Internet access, as well as arrests of and attacks on journalists, according to a U.N. press release.

Matsuura also condemned the killing, apparently unrelated to recent political events in Honduras, of Gabriel Fino Noriega, a radio reporter, in San Juan Pueblo in the country’s north.

The reporter was shot July 3 by an unidentified gunman as he left Radio Estelar, a local station on which he presented a daily news program. He was also the local correspondent for Radio América, a national radio station.

“Using violence to silence journalists constitutes an intolerable attack on the fundamental human right of freedom of expression and on the whole of society’s ability to enjoy human rights,” said Matsuura.