Zelaya Says He Is Not in Costa Rica to Negotiate

Juventud Rebelde
July 9, 2009

SAN JOSÉ, July 8.— Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said on Wednesday that his presence in Costa Rica is not to respond to any negotiation and that what is appropriate is for the leaders of the de facto regime in his country to present excuses and the requirements for their withdrawal from power “in the next 24 hours.”

On arriving in San José for the announced mediation by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on the Honduran situation, Zelaya explained to journalists that he is there to hear, through the mediator, what the coup leaders have to say and see how they are planning their withdrawal, “which is the most honourable for the Latin American democracies.”

Zelaya said that he is acting in accordance with the OAS resolutions and the severe declarations which have condemned “this blow to democracy,” and without recognizing the authorities that the usurpers are trying to name before different countries and international organizations.

After highlighting the importance of the work entrusted to Arias, the Honduran president said that he would immediately meet with Arias to devise precisely the parameters of that mediation and its operating parts, and that he expects that on Thursday “we will have a very clear answer from the coup leaders” in order to comply with the resolutions of the different international organizations and groups which have demanded his restitution.

Zelaya also spoke about the usurpers’ isolation and recalled the mass demonstrations of the Honduran people who after ten days are continuing to demonstrate against the coup, as well as the murders and human rights violations of which they are victims, when their constitutional rights are also being violated with the state of siege and the cutting off of the freedom of speech.

Without mentioning him by name, Zelaya said that the fact that coup leader Roberto Micheletti —“who has already committed crimes”— is in Costa Rica this Thursday without being captured, is already an exception because he had violated international law and the regulations and the world has condemned him.

According to Arias, the mediation work will begin on Thursday and could last up until Friday.