Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

President Zelaya Heading for Mexico?

El Tiempo confirms reports from other media, including Telesur, that President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales is leaving Honduras and will be welcomed in Mexico.

Reuters has a report saying the same, from 22 minutes ago, citing "a politician close to Zelaya", saying
He is going to leave the country today for abroad. He is leaving of his own will.
Telesur and Tiempo identify their source as Enrique Flores Lanza.

Tiempo and La Tribuna report that the Honduras Chancellor has already signed a safe conduct for a car from the Mexican embassy to pick up Zelaya, his wife, and two children, and convey them to Toncontin airport where a plane from Mexico, sent for them, landed at 7 pm. Tegucigalpa time.

Flores Lanza said that Zelaya would establish his family in Mexico, then go to Havana for the ALBA summit.

Update: Radio Globo is broadcasting an interview with President Zelaya in which he states that he has not sought asylum in any country.

Telesur has updated its coverage with a story that is headlined Zelaya confirms that he has not asked political asylum of any country.

It reads:
The legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, confirmed exclusively to teleSur that he has not asked for political asylum of any country in the world and clarified that in case of an eventual exit from his nation it will have to be within his role as President of the hondurans.

El presidente legítimo de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, confirmó en exclusiva a teleSUR que no ha pedido asilo político a ningún país del mundo y aclaró que en caso de una eventual salida de su nación tendría que darse dentro de su calidad de Presidente de los hondureños.

The English-language media are reporting this as a story of going into political exile. Zelaya's own statements, and those of Flores Lanza, emphasize that he is leaving Honduras in order to carry on his work as president by attending the ALBA meeting.

President Zelaya, on questioning, has said he is not going to confirm plans as he does not have firm agreements yet giving him permission to travel.

The Mexican government limited its comments to Tiempo to confirming that a Mexican airplane is on the way to Tegucigalpa.

The Washington Post reports that a spokesman for the de facto regime's Foreign Ministry, Milton Mateo
says the safe-conduct pass was signed and would be delivered to the Brazilian Embassy.
Meanwhile, Zelaya is playing guitar live and singing on Radio Globo...

Update: El Heraldo minute-by-minute column says the Mexican plane has diverted to either San Pedro Sula or Comalapa, El Salvador.

Update (7:25 Pacific): A report on Proceso Digital says that at the last minute, the Micheletti government suspended the approval of the safe conduct.

Update (8:17 Pacific): La Prensa reports that the de facto government declined to issue the safe conduct requested by the Mexican embassy after Zelaya announced he was not seeking asylum. Carlos Lopez Contreras said "it lacked the appropriate legal requirements in not specifying the type of asylum they would give him." Previous press reports had quoted a spokesperson for Lopez Contreras as confirming the safe conduct had been issued.

Further details are provided in a story in the Mexican newspaper Diario de Yucatan. It makes clear that the point of disagreement between the parties was a demand by the Micheletti government that Zelaya leave for Mexico as a "political refugee" (asilado).

Daniel Ortega is quoted as saying that
the de facto Honduran government proposed to Zelaya "that he take political refuge, that he leave the embassy of Brazil... and that he go to Brazil or another country as a political refugee, but he (Zelaya) said that he did not accept the status of political refugee, because he continues being the president of Honduras".

4 comments:

Meno said...

I tried to give you this when it happened, but the comments were slow to update so was not able to do much but wait for you to see them. Anyway, Mel needs a rest, and I hope he gets a good rest, he deserves it.

Thank you Hondurascoup2009 for your great coverage.


meno

RNS said...

Meno, thanks for alerting us to the fact that something was happening, and for the kind words. We aren't always in front of our computers, but do try to keep up with what's going on and communicate it as quickly as possible. In this case, a christmas tree intervened.

In any event it now appears that Zelaya probably will not be going anywhere tonight. I'm a little concerned about the military taking action against the crowds building up around the embassy so I'll continue to monitor things for a while longer tonight.

Meno said...

No problem brother. It seems as if there will be negotiations going on to decide what asylum means, and what powers he will have or might have to relinquish in order to live somewhere else. I think it will all boil down to who decides to request him, and or offer him a place to reside, and also that his dignity and the dignity of his office be respected through Jan 27th.

Of course Micheletti and his sock puppets are always going to try at the last minute to hold things up or make it harder for him. Suffice it to say though that Mel knows that he needs to find a place to be so he can get some rest. He and his family and friends have suffered long enough from the coup regime and he and they need to be respected for his/their efforts.

I hope that soon enough he will have the ability to get out of that cursed place and be free to move about and be respected as he should be.

Thank you again Hondurascoup2009 for all of your efforts at keeping everyone up to date on events in Honduras and the coup.

Paz

Meno

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