Bogota/La Paz - Comments on the ongoing political crisis in Honduras continued to spell tension Friday, a day before commissions representing the two sides return to the negotiations table chaired by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. Former Honduran Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti - designated to head the government set up after the June 28 coup - told Colombian radio from Tegucigalpa that he is willing to leave the position if ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya stops behaving arbitrarily.
"He is calling for a national insurrection," Micheletti charged. "He is calling for a bloodbath."
He said his post-coup government is willing to study alternatives in the framework of Arias' mediation efforts, including holding elections earlier than those scheduled for November 29.
Micheletti repeated his insistence that Zelaya not return to power as a condition for his stepping down.
But Zelaya has full backing of Arias and the Organization of American States (OAS) as the rightful president. The OAS has suspended Honduras for its illegal ouster of Zelaya, who was sent into exile in his pajamas several weeks ago.
"No way would we accept (Zelaya's return), because here he would go back to what he was doing. We do not want to be left like Venezuelans, like Ecuadorians, like Bolivians. We want a free, democratic country that is respectful with the law," Micheletti stressed.
In La Paz, Zelaya's close confidante Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was convinced that Zelaya would return to his country.
"The people there are calling for him," Chavez said. "The only thing the military have to do is hand over power to the legitimate president."
Arias, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his mediating role in Central America, is set to renew his mediation effort Saturday in San Jose, as he hosts delegations designated by Zelaya and Micheletti.
Positions seem to be about as far apart as they were last week, when Zelaya and Micheletti met separately with Arias at his private home in the outskirts of San Jose.
