Washington has revoked the visas of Honduras’ interim president and 17 other top officials to pressure the Central American nation to reinstate ousted leader Manuel Zelaya, Honduras’ government said on Saturday.
The interim government expects the US to revoke the visas of at least 1,000 more public officials “in the coming days,” Information Minister Rene Zepeda said.
Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said losing his diplomatic and tourist visas would not weaken his rejection of the return of Zelaya, who was toppled in a June 28 military-backed coup and flown into exile.
Micheletti said he was expecting the action and called it “a sign of the pressure that the US government is exerting on our country.”
The move “changes nothing, because I am not willing to take back what has happened in Honduras,” he said on Radio station HRN.
Washington on Friday revoked the diplomatic and tourist visas for 14 Supreme Court judges, the armed forces chief, the foreign relations secretary and Honduras’ attorney general, Micheletti spokeswoman Marcia de Villeda said on Saturday.
US State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said later on Saturday that he could not comment.
“By law we are not allowed to comment on the revocation of visas,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Zelaya in Nicaragua.
Last week, Washington cut off millions of dollars in aid to the Honduran government in response to Micheletti’s refusal to accept a mediated accord that called for returning Zelaya to power with limited authority until elections set for November.
The accord was brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping end Central America’s civil wars.
Washington recently revoked the US visas of some of Micheletti’s Honduran allies and supporters. The US also has stopped issuing most visas at its embassy in Tegucigalpa.
“I’m OK because I expected the decision and I accept it with dignity ... and without the least bit of resentment or anger at the United States because it is that country’s right,” Micheletti said.
However, he complained that the letter he received from the State Department addressed him as president of Congress, his position prior to Zelaya’s ouster, and not president of Honduras.
“It doesn’t even say ‘Mr President of the Republic’ or anything,” he said.
Micheletti reiterated that “the United States has always been a friend of Honduras and will continue being one forever, in spite of the actions it has taken.”
The eliminated US aid includes more than US$31 million in non-humanitarian assistance to Honduras, including US$11 million remaining in a more than a US$200 million, five-year assistance program run by the Millennium Challenge Corp.
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