Delegation to Honduras seeks Zelaya's return

The delegation from the Organization of American States was the most prominent group of officials to visit Honduras since Zelaya was arrested and hustled out of the country June 28, prompting criticism from governments around the world.

“We hope to meet with the interim government and other sectors (of Honduran society) who are able to support all the points in the San Jose accord, including the reinstatement of President Zelaya,” Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno told reporters.

The foreign ministers — from Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic — met with Zelaya supporters in the morning and they “showed they would support the accord,” Stagno said. OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza accompanied the group.

The OAS is pressuring the interim government to accept the San Jose accord, a plan proposed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias that would return Zelaya to power until elections are held by the end of November and would grant amnesty both to Zelaya for any alleged crimes and to those involved in the coup. The U.S. State Department backed the OAS effort to push Arias' proposal.

“We believe that it's imperative that all parties involved support this accord and move forward to resolve this political crisis,” spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. “We continue to believe that the Honduran people deserve a peaceful negotiated agreement to which all parties can commit and that this accord presents the best opportunity for this kind of agreement.”

Xiomara Castro, Zelaya's wife, said her husband has accepted all of the plan's 12 points, including abandoning efforts to change the Honduran constitution, the move that prompted the coup.

The government headed by interim President Roberto Micheletti has repeatedly refused the Arias plan, arguing it would trample on rulings by the country's Supreme Court and Congress.

“No one can come to impose anything on our country because we're sovereign and have our own laws,” Micheletti said Monday.

Micheletti, who has withstood weeks of diplomatic isolation and the suspension of international aid, insists Congress legitimately removed Zelaya from office for ignoring court orders to drop efforts to change the Honduran constitution.

“We hope the foreign ministers understand that what we did was based on legality and the constitution,” he said.

Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez rejected the possibility of granting amnesty to Zelaya in a letter published Monday in Honduran newspapers.

“To impose a president legally removed from the presidency, it's an option that the Honduran Constitution does not allow,” Lopez wrote.

Many Hondurans saw Zelaya's attempt to hold a referendum asking voters if they wanted a constitutional assembly as a backdoor way of erasing the ban on re-election and heading toward socialist rule like that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Zelaya, whose term expires in January, denies plotting to remove term limits or the ban on re-election.

Some 2,000 Zelaya supporters took to the streets Monday, marching peacefully through the capital.

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