Honduras' de facto government extended a curfew and closed the country's airports yesterday after deposed president Manuel Zelaya made a surprise return and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed for calm as the Honduras crisis was raised on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Setting the stage for a confrontation, Zelaya called on supporters to converge on the capital as the government extended what had been a nighttime curfew until 6pm yesterday to head off protests.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Zelaya, who was ousted on June 28 and flown into exile in his pajamas, secretly made his way back into the country, taking the nation's de facto leaders by surprise.
Appearing on the Brazilian embassy balcony in his trademark cowboy hat, Zelaya told supporters: “Nobody is going to grab me sleeping again, and my position is fatherland, restoration or death.”
“They thought they were going to stop me at the border, but here I am alive and kicking,” he said.
Zelaya told a Honduran TV station early yesterday that he had begun reaching out to the de facto government through intermediaries. At the same time, he called on his followers to come to Tegucigalpa.
“Come to the capital, because here is where a peaceful dialogue must be established, but one which reestablishes constitutional order,” he said.
However, interim Honduran leader Roberto Micheletti showed no signs of yielding, lashing out in a TV interview against pressure from the US and other governments for a resolution to the crisis. He demanded that Brazil hand over Zelaya.
In New York, Clinton called for calm and welcomed Zelaya's return as an opportunity to end the political stalemate.
“Now that President Zelaya is back it would be opportune to restore him to his position under appropriate circumstances, get on with the election that is currently scheduled for November, have a peaceful transition of presidential authority and get Honduras back to constitutional and democratic order,” Clinton told reporters.
She met ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel peace laureate who brokered failed peace talks between the Zelaya camp and the interim government.
Arias urged both sides to sign July's San Jose accord, which called for Zelaya's return to the presidency. But Micheletti told local TV on Monday that Arias' role as a mediator was over.
“I think Mr Arias has absolutely nothing to do with this conflict any longer,” Micheletti said.
“His role is finished, from the moment Mr Zelaya arrived in the country without any mediation or agreement in common with anyone to do it,” he said.
He also lashed out at Clinton.
“Let's hope for Dona Hillary's and Mr Arias' sake, after the pleasure they took in president Zelaya's arrival here, that there will not be consequences to regret,” he said.
“I am not going to defraud the Honduran people who want nothing to do with Zelaya and the intervention and imposition of other countries,” he said.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said his country had played no role in Zelaya's return, but that it had simply accepted his demand for asylum in its embassy.
“We hope this will open a new stage in the discussions and a rapid solution,” Amorim told a news conference in New York.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS