SALON

Wednesday, Oct 14, 2009 7:01 AM UTC

Hondurans agree on constitution; no deal on Zelaya

By

Topics: Valentines Day, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America,

Honduras’ opposing factions agreed Tuesday on nearly every point of a pact to end the political crisis except the central issue: ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s return to the presidency.

Negotiators said Zelaya’s camp has promised that if he returns to power, he will drop his efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that led to his June 28 ouster.

Juan Barahona, a Zelaya supporter who has led street protests against the coup, walked out of the talks Tuesday in protest of the agreement on the constitution. He vowed to continue fighting for a new constitution on his own even if Zelaya is restored to office.

Critics say Zelaya was seeking to extend his time in office by removing a constitutional ban on presidential re-election, as his ally Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela. Zelaya denied that was his intention, but soldiers flew him into exile at gunpoint after he ignored court orders to drop a referendum to ask Hondurans if they wanted an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras on Sept. 21 and is holed up at the Brazilian Embassy. The United States and other countries have suspended aid to the Central American country to pressure the interim government to restore Zelaya.

Vilma Morales, a spokeswoman for the coup-installed government, said the two sides began discussing the subject of Zelaya’s return to power Tuesday and would continue the debate Wednesday.

“Tomorrow we will continue discussing different scenarios and alternatives,” Morales said.

Mayra Mejia, a spokeswoman for Zelaya negotiators, emphasized that the ousted leader’s return to power is not negotiable. “The ball is in their court. We wait their response tomorrow,” she said.

Morales said the two sides have agreed on every other aspect of the pact, first proposed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. One point includes a commission to monitor that both sides stick to their part of the agreement.

Morales gave few other details. However, Barahona said the two sides had agreed to renounce amnesty from prosecution. The Arias plan had proposed amnesty for both the coup perpetrators and Zelaya, who faces abuse of power charges stemming from his efforts to change the constitution.

More Juan Carlos Llorca.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Judge tells lesbian couple to separate or lose kids: "unmarried sexual relationships -- including straight ones – can be grounds for losing child custody"
89 points90 points | 16 comments
vote
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
22 points23 points | 31 comments
vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
21 points22 points | 2 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
13 points14 points | comment
vote
I don’t hate millennials anymore! <--- not my words, but good read on Gen X. IMO
10 points11 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations