Ousted leader Manuel Zelaya to return to Honduras

Cartagena accord will allow return of exiled president and re-entry of Honduras to Organisation of American States The ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya has signed an accord with his successor that will allow him return to his homeland and the country’s re-entry into the Organisation of American States. Zelaya and President Porfirio Lobo met in Cartagena, Colombia, on Sunday to sign the agreement that was worked out by presidents Juan Manuel Santos, of Colombia, and Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela. The goal is to end the political crisis caused by the June 2009 coup that sent Zelaya into exile and caused the OAS to suspend Honduras as a member. The agreement “strengthens the American system … and there is peace and freedom in a brotherly country like Honduras”, Santos said. Earlier he said via Twitter that the agreement “implies the return of Zelaya to Honduras and its return to the OAS”. Chávez promised to make sure the accord’s terms were respected. “We will be monitoring very closely that the agreement is fulfilled because we know there will be forces inside and outside Honduras who are going to try to boycott the accord,” he said from Caracas, Venezuela. The deal calls for an end to the persecution of Zelaya, and his supporters, and his safe return to Honduras; reiterates that Honduras’s constitution guarantees the right to seek a national plebiscite on reforming fundamental laws; requires respect for human rights and the investigation of possible violations; and calls for a guarantee that Zelaya supporters can participate in Honduras’s political life and in 2014 elections as a political party. “I am pleased to come to sign a reconciliation agreement for the democracy of the Honduran people … Do not be afraid of democracy,” said Zelaya, who was ousted after he ignored a court order to cancel a referendum asking if Honduras should change its constitution. His opponents accused him of wanting to get around a provision limiting presidents to a single term; a charge he denied. Lobo called the signing “a very important day for Honduras”, saying the accord was “for the millions of Hondurans who choose to live in peace and harmony”. He urged his countrymen to recognise that Zelaya’s return would be good for the country. “Return to Honduras without any fear because you will be treated with the respect due a former president,” Lobo told Zelaya. Santos attended the signing of the “Cartagena accord” and Chávez, who is recovering from a knee injury, was represented by the Venezuelan foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Zelaya attended even though a spokesman for Lobo had said the former leader would not be in Cartagena, but rather sign the agreement later at a forum in Managua, Nicaragua, with the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. A Honduran government statement said that with the accord, Lobo had fulfilled the electoral mandate given to him to “achieve national reconciliation and unity”. Zelaya, who has been living in exile in the Dominican Republic, said last week that he plans to return to Honduras on 28 May. After Zelaya was overthrown by the military, international sanctions and months of negotiations led by the US and the OAS failed to persuade an interim government to restore him to power. Honduras went ahead with November 2009 elections that had been scheduled before the coup and Lobo was voted into office . The US and other countries restored ties shortly after Lobo took power in January 2010. But Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua and Ecuador opposed restoring Honduras to the OAS unless Zelaya could return from exile without facing the threat of prison. Honduran courts recently dropped corruption charges and arrest warrants pending against Zelaya, paving the way for the country’s restoration as an OAS member. The OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, issued a statement saying the accord “opens the way to return Honduras to the hemispheric organisation”. He said it would be presented to the OAS’s permanent council on Monday. Honduras’s return to the OAS is expected to be made official during the organisation’s general assembly in El Salvador from 5-7 June. Honduras Colombia guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.