Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has agreed to lead the mediating effort to resolve the political crisis in Honduras. Clinton's announcement Tuesday came after she met with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, her first sit down with him since he was ousted in a military-backed coup June 28.
"I reiterated to him that the United States supports the restoration of the democratic constitutional order in Honduras," Clinton told reporters.
Arias confirmed that he would meet Thursday with Zelaya and the leader who replaced him, former speaker of the Congress Roberto Micheletti. Arias is to host the talks in Costa Rica.
Micheletti said in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, that he was ready to talk but stressed that Zelaya's return to power was not acceptable.
"That is non-negotiable," he said.
The United States has refused to recognize the new Honduran government and has demanded Zelaya be returned to power. Some US aid to the country has been placed on hold. The United States also backed Sunday's unanimous decision by the Organization of American States to suspend Honduras.
Zelaya, speaking to reporters after meeting with Clinton, said he planned to fly to the Costa Rican capital of San Jose on Wednesday to begin discussions with Arias. He also said he would be open to holding elections ahead of the scheduled November 29 vote.
"Of course, even if they want to hold them as early as tomorrow. But a de-facto government does not give legitimacy to an electoral process," he said.
Arias, in his second stint as president of Costa Rica, received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his effort to end the civil war in El Salvador. His role as current president of the Central American Association makes him the "natural person" to take on the mediating effort, Clinton said.
Clinton also called for an end to the violence that erupted over the weekend in Honduras when Zelaya supporters took to the streets to protest his ouster.
"We call upon all parties to refrain from acts of violence and to seek a peaceful, constitutional and lasting solution to the serious divisions in Honduras through dialogue," Clinton said.
As Zelaya met with Clinton, Micheletti dispatched a delegation to present the new government's case. Zelaya's opponents insisted he was violating laws in an attempt to hold onto power yet acknowledged his removal from office could have been handled better.
"In retrospect, probably we could gave done it in a different way," Norman Garcia Paz, a former ambassador to the United States, told reporters in Washington.
Roberto Flores Bermudez, who had been the Honduran ambassador to Washington until the State Department informed him Tuesday that he was no longer recognized as such, said the delegation came to the US capital to make sure the rest of the world heard its case for ousting Zelaya.
"Honduras should be heard by the international community before being condemned," he said. He confirmed that Micheletti had spoken to Arias earlier Tuesday and agreed to join negotiations.
The State Department refused to meet with Micheletti's delegation, but some members of the US Congress sat down with the group consisting largely of former Honduran officials.
Micheletti, speaking in Tegucigalpa, said earlier that Zelaya "must be held accountable for his violations of the constitution and other illegal actions."
However, Jorge Rivera, president of the Honduran Supreme Court, proposed an amnesty for Zelaya to defuse the tensions. A possibility would be to pardon him for offences such as treason, abuse of power and disregard of the rulings of the court, Rivera told the El Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy Tuesday.
Micheletti noted that the Supreme Court, the Congress and the public prosecutor's office all ruled against Zelaya's call for a constituent assembly to amend the constitution. Zelaya wanted changes that would have allowed him to seek a second term, a move critics saw as a power grab.
Micheletti said there was no coup in Honduras but instead it was a transfer of power in line with the constitution after Zelaya was deposed by Congress. Zelaya's attempt to return to the country on Sunday was thwarted after Honduran authorities blocked the runway to prevent his plane from landing.
Two pro-Zelaya demonstrators were shot by security forces during the melee at the airport Sunday.
