Interim Honduras leader hints open to early vote

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-03 23:51

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Honduras' interim leader said he was open to early elections if it resolves an impasse with the world community, as a top diplomat headed to the Central American nation to demand he restore the president ousted by a coup.

With time running out on a Saturday deadline by the Organization of American States to return President Manuel Zelaya to power, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza was to arrive in Honduras Friday to push for his reinstatement.

Interim Honduras leader hints open to early vote

Soldiers arrest a supporter of Honduras' ousted President Zelaya during a march in San Pedro Sula July 2, 2009. [Agencies]

Insulza said he will meet with leaders of Honduras' Supreme Court and Congress -- institutions that approved Sunday's coup -- "basically to clarify exactly what our position is."

But he has said he will not meet with members of Roberto Micheletti's military-backed government, to avoid legitimizing it. It was unclear if Insulza would meet with US Ambassador Hugo Llorens during the visit.

Micheletti said Insulza would be welcome in Honduras, and "If he wants to talk with me, I'll receive him gladly."

Asked later by a reporter if he would be willing to move up presidential elections from their scheduled date of November 29, Micheletti said the idea was acceptable to him as long as it is done within the framework of the law.

"I have no problem or objection to this, if it will solve these problems," Micheletti said, though he did not mention any date and neither Zelaya nor any international body has formally proposed that.

Micheletti argues that Honduras' military acted legally -- on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court -- when it raided Zelaya's house amid the rattle of gunfire and deported him, still in his nightshirt. He has shown little willingness to bend to demands by the OAS, the United Nations, Washington and other countries that he restore Zelaya.

He said he fears violence if Zelaya returns to Honduras.

"For the peace of the country I would prefer that he did not come, because I do not want one drop of blood shed by any Honduran," Micheletti said.

Insulza said he will do everything he can in Honduras on Friday, but added that he believes "it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days."

"We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing," Insulza said Thursday at a summit of Caribbean leaders in Georgetown, Guyana.

The OAS says it will suspend Honduras if Zelaya isn't back in office by Saturday, bringing sanctions that could block international aid to one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere.

Nations around the world have promised to shun Micheletti, who was sworn in after the coup, and the nation already is suffering economic reprisals.

Neighboring countries have imposed trade blockades, major lenders have cut aid, the Obama administration has halted joint military operations and all European Union ambassadors have abandoned the Honduran capital.

In Honduras, Zelaya's supporters staged their largest demonstration since the coup, as more than 6,000 people marched from a park in front of a military base to a U.N. office. An equal number of Micheletti backers marched in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city.

Police scuffled with Zelaya supporters in that northern city, leaving about a dozen with minor injuries. Police Chief Leonel Sauceda told the AP that 78 people were arrested for vandalism, all of them Zelaya supporters. He said a Salvadoran photographer was briefly detained.