Interim Honduras leader hints open to early vote

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.

Raising fears of possible clashes Friday, approximately 2,000 Zelaya supporters gathered at a university in Tegucigalpa and some said they would march to the presidential palace, where supporters of Roberto Micheletti’s military-backed government were planning to assemble.

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 Micheletti’s government to avoid legitimizing it. It was unclear if Insulza would meet with U.S. 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 Nov. 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, as he has vowed to do this weekend accompanied by the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador, among other figures. He has also invited Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu to accompany him.

“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.

Ousted Honduran Finance Minister Rebeca Santos on Friday told international finance ministers in Chile that the coup has already hurt the country’s economy, with $300 million to $450 million in financing from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank currently on hold.

Influential pro-Micheletti congresswoman Marcia Villeda de Facusse said Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez was in charge of meeting with visiting OAS officials once they arrive, and that he would use “abundant proof to try and show that Zelaya violated our laws and that his government damaged everyone in the country.”

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.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that he wouldn’t intervene in the internal affairs of Honduras, but would cooperate to return stability following the coup.

“We’re not an interventionist government,” he said. “We’re obliged to respect Honduras, but we’re working together with other countries and multilateral organizations, doing all that we can to avoid bloodshed.”

Honduras’ new government was so eager to find a friend that it announced it had been recognized by Israel and Italy — surprising the governments of those countries. Italy withdrew its ambassador to protest the coup, and Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: “All rumors about Israeli recognition of the new president are wholly unfounded.”

And contrary to Micheletti’s assertion, Interpol on Friday released a statement saying it had not received any request to issue an arrest warrant for Zelaya.

Zelaya’s defense minister, Aristides Mejia, suggested a possible “peaceful arrangement” to the dispute in an interview broadcast Thursday by HRN radio.

The ousted president left Panama and arrived in El Salvador late Thursday, where he held talks with President Mauricio Funes. Salvadoran officials said he left El Salvador immediately afterward for an unidentified country.

He said Zelaya has sworn off any idea of re-election and is willing to drop plans to rewrite the constitution that led to his ouster. Zelaya had ignored a Supreme Court order to halt a vote on whether to revamp the constitution, which many Hondurans believed was meant to let him stay in power.

Zelaya told a news conference earlier in Panama City that he is not afraid of returning to Honduras despite the threat of arrest.

“I have never been afraid, and I have acted on my principles, for which I am prepared to die,” he said.

Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro, and his youngest son, a teenager, are staying at the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa.

Associated Press writers Marcos Aleman and Freddy Cuevas in Tegucigalpa; Juan Zamorano in Panama City, and Angela Charlton in Paris, contributed to this report.