Honduras leader vows to resist world pressure

TEGUCIGALPA, Saturday

Honduras’ de facto leader vowed yesterday that no country will push the small Central American nation around and pledged to resist international pressure to reinstate toppled President Manuel Zelaya.

Roberto Micheletti, who was named president by Congress just hours after soldiers overthrew Zelaya on June 28, said Honduras had enough basic foodstuffs to endure economic sanctions if it were further isolated over the coup.

“We don’t accept anyone imposing anything on us. There is no country – no matter how powerful – that is going to tell us what to do,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The United States, Honduras’ No. 1 trading partner, withdrew military aid and cancelled diplomatic visas to important figures in the interim government to pressure Micheletti to reinstate leftist Zelaya.

Latin American countries and the European Union have also lined up against Micheletti, a former head of Congress.

Washington is backing a plan by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to end the Honduran standoff, the worst political crisis in Central America in nearly 20 years.
The proposal includes bringing Zelaya back to office, but Micheletti again flatly rejected that idea.

“We respect many of the points of the agreement but we do not accept some of them, like the return of Mr Zelaya. We don’t accept it in this country under any circumstance. If he wants to come back he can, but only if he faces trial.”

Zelaya upset the Supreme Court and many in Congress by trying to hold a referendum to change the constitution.

Critics accused him of pushing for presidential re-election to extend his mandate, following the lead of Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez. He had angered business and religious leaders by his close ties with Chavez.

Micheletti had tried in the past to run for president but lost his party’s internal elections. (Reuters)