TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A top aide of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he was heading back to the country Thursday, while thousands of his supporters blocked roads to demand his return to power. Patricia Rodas, foreign minister of Zelaya's toppled government, said the deposed president was "on his way" back, but refused to say how he planned to enter the country or when he expected to arrive. Zelaya's current whereabouts are unclear and Honduras' interim leaders have promised to arrest him if he returns."Our president will be in Honduras at some point and a some moment. He is already on his way. God protect him and the people of the Americas who are with him," Rodas told reporters in La Paz, Bolivia.
It would be Zelaya's second attempt to return to Honduras since the military deposed him and flew him out of the country in a June 28 coup. The interim government thwarted his first attempt on July 5 by sending military vehicles to block the airport runway and keep his plane from landing.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti said Wednesday that there were reports that Zelaya planned to enter over the Nicaraguan border Saturday.
| Hard to watch the entire border ... |
Prospects for finding common ground appeared slim. Micheletti, the former congressional leader who was sworn in to serve out the final months of Zelaya's term, offered Wednesday to step down but said that hinged on guarantees that Zelaya would not return to power.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is mediating the talks, said that proposal is unacceptable. "The restoration of constitutional order must involve the reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya," Arias said in an interview Thursday radio program Nuestra Voz.
On Tuesday, Zelaya said Hondurans have the right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government — referring to a clause in the country's constitution — and warned he would pull out of talks to solve the crisis if the interim government does not quickly leave.
Micheletti said Wednesday that forces he didn't identify "were handing out some guns" to foment rebellion. He reinstated an overnight curfew that had been lifted only days earlier.
Zelaya supporters denied they were armed Thursday as they blocked a road leading out of the capital, Tegucigalpa. Thousands have staged such protests almost daily since Zelaya's ouster. "Check it out: there is not one machete, gun or rifle here. This is a peaceful parch," said peasant leader Rafael Alegria.
If Micheletti were to resign, under Honduran law the presidency would pass to Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera. The Supreme Court backed Zelaya's ouster, ruling that he had violated the law by attempting to hold a vote about whether to write a new constitution.
Many Hondurans viewed the proposed vote as an attempt by Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to end a ban on re-election and pave the way for his return to power. Zelaya denies he was seeking another term.
In an interview with La Tribuna newspaper, Rivera said the Supreme Court had ordered Zelaya's arrest two days before the coup — but acknowledged that it never ordered the president expelled from the country. However, Rivera stopped short of calling Zelaya's expulsion illegal, saying the circumstances must be considered. "The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's capture and authorized the raid on his house so he could be captured," Rivera said. "The expulsion was not in the capture order, and in that sense, we have to analyze if (his expulsion) was the best thing given the necessities of the moment."
He said Zelaya should be arrested if he comes back to Honduras. However, he said the interim government should also consider him granting him amnesty from prosecution as part of the negotiations in Costa Rica. "It should not be dismissed as a possibility. It could happen at the end of the tunnel, once a light is found in the path of dialogue," he said.