A POWERSHARING deal between the de-facto government of Honduras and the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, has collapsed, reigniting the country’s political crisis.
Mr Zelaya refused to join a new “unity” government yesterday after it became clear he would not be heading it. “The accord is dead,” he told Radio Globo. “There is no sense in deceiving Hondurans.”
The leftist leader, toppled and exiled in a coup four months ago, signed up to a US-brokered pact last week thinking it would be his ticket back to power.
But opponents in the Honduran congress delayed a decision on Mr Zelaya’s reinstatement and the de-facto president, Roberto Micheletti, went ahead with forming a new administration without his rival.
The accord had set a Thursday midnight deadline for the new government and left the decision over Mr Zelaya’s return to power in the hands of congress.
“It’s absurd what they are doing, trying to mock all of us, the people who elected me and the international community that supports me. We’ve decided not to continue this theatre with Mr Micheletti,” Mr Zelaya said.
He urged Hondurans to boycott a presidential election slated for November 29th in which neither he nor Mr Micheletti are candidates – raising the spectre of a discredited poll and continued crisis.
The de-facto regime appeared to be bracing for fresh street demonstrations in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Local television showed soldiers, tanks and military vehicles reinforcing positions around the Brazilian embassy where Mr Zelaya has holed up since slipping back into the country last month.
In a televised speech Mr Micheletti said the new caretaker administration would rule until the January swearing-in of the election winner.
“We’ve completed the process of forming a unity government. It represents a wide spectrum despite the fact that Mr Zelaya did not send a list of representatives,” he said.
The de-facto authorities have the support of many middle-class and conservative Hondurans as well as the supreme court, congress and military. They mistrusted Mr Zelaya’s leftward tilt and alliance with Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez.
Curfews, media curbs, tear gas and mass arrests have been used to suppress protests by Mr Zelaya’s mostly poor supporters. Several have died.
Foreign condemnation of the coup has been near universal, leaving the leaders of the impoverished coffee-exporting country isolated but defiant. European and Latin American governments said they would not recognise the election unless Mr Zelaya was first reinstated. US negotiators clinched last week’s deal by apparently reinforcing that message.
The Obama administration appeared to have scored a significant diplomatic victory. But since congress stymied Mr Zelaya’s reinstatement, the US has said it will recognise the election regardless, which could deepen Latin American frustration that Washington has not done more to pressure the Honduran regime.
A US state department spokesman said the pact did not demand Mr Zelaya's return. "The only deadline was to form a government of national unity, which was done." – ( Guardianservice)