Word: zelaya
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...Latin American left knows anything, it's the value of political theater. When leftist, coup-ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to return to his country on Sunday in a small Venezuelan jet, buzzing the Tegucigalpa airport before soldiers blocked the runway, many inside the Organization of American States and the Obama Administration considered it a reckless stunt that might hamper a negotiated solution to the crisis. But as it turns out, the aerial spectacle may have aided their cause: it finally coalesced hundreds of thousands of Zelaya supporters on the ground and helped prompt Honduran coup leaders, already facing...
...seemed to know that better than Zelaya himself. After his aborted return, Zelaya - who during the Sunday flight told reporters melodramatically that he felt "blessed with the blood of Christ" - said, "I will return to Honduras, there is no doubt about that." And now, after his private discussion Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, his chances look better. Their meeting sent the strongest signal yet that the U.S. not only considers Zelaya to be Honduras' legitimate President, but that it's convinced that restoring him to office is crucial to safeguarding Latin America's fledgling sense...
...After huddling with Zelaya, Clinton announced a new plan that 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...
...Adding to the drama, Zelaya gave a live interview with Latin American network Telesur as he flew over the scene, making comments that veered from the impassioned to the reckless. "What we see is a return of the right in Latin America - a more reactionary right, more prone to killing, more fascist than in the past," he said of the shooting. "I'm doing everything I can. If I had a parachute, I would immediately jump out of this plane." Afterward, stranded in El Salvador, he promised to continue his struggle but did not reveal what his next move would...
...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...