Word: micheletti
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...reaches back to an old one: Costa Rican President Oscar Arias - who during his first presidency won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for helping end Central America's rash of bloody civil wars - will now mediate the Honduran standoff. Clinton, who said both Zelaya and provisional Honduran leader Roberto Micheletti had agreed to Arias' involvement, called on "all parties to refrain from acts of violence" - on Sunday a teenaged Zelaya backer was shot dead by soldiers - "and to seek a peaceful, constitutional and lasting solution." Zelaya and Micheletti say they'll meet together with Arias on Thursday in San Jose...
...Under this scenario, say the diplomats, Zelaya would be immune from prosecution when he's back in Honduras. Likewise Micheletti, who last week had insisted he that he would never negotiate Zelaya's return, and other Zelaya foes, including the military leaders who ousted the President, would not face trial for the coup. "It's designed to keep the potential for violence at a minimum when Zelaya is reinstated," says one diplomat in Washington, who asked not to be identified...
...also defers, at least unless the Arias negotiations break down, the question of whether the U.S. should squeeze the Micheletti regime by cutting off aid - always a dicey prospect when a country as poor as Honduras is involved. Washington funnels about $50 million a year to Honduras in social and military assistance, much of which the State Department put on hold in response to the coup; and in 2005 it signed a five-year, $215 million development grant for the country. Because of the coup, the World Bank has already suspended $270 million in pending credit for Honduras as well...
...restoration of the democratically elected President of Honduras." He added, "We do so not because we agree with" Zelaya's often anti-U.S. stances, but "because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not." Micheletti's Foreign Minister, Enrique Ortez, shot back, saying "I respect that little black guy, but he doesn't know where Tegucigalpa is." It appears, however, that Obama may well know enough to get Zelaya back to that capital...
...Micheletti, meanwhile, after bashing the international community last week for refusing to recognize his authority, took a slightly more conciliatory tone after the protests. While still refusing to reinstate Zelaya, he said he would be open to "good-faith negotiations" with the Organization of American States (OAS), which suspended Honduras on Saturday over the coup. "There are times for dialogue and times for negotiation," Micheletti told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. How readily the OAS will bargain with an administration that came to power via a coup, whose soldiers have now fired on unarmed demonstrators, remains...