TEGUCIGALPA – Representatives of ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya and the current government led by Roberto Micheletti reached agreement Wednesday on the draft of an accord to restore former head of state Zelaya to office.

“We have managed to achieve a consensus on a unified text that will be submitted to the discussion and analysis of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and Mr. Roberto Micheletti,” a member of the deposed leader’s Cabinet, Victor Meza, told reporters outside the Tegucigalpa hotel hosting the talks.

He said the contents of the draft would remain secret until Zelaya and Micheletti render their opinions on the pact.

During a recess in the talks, Meza and the other Zelaya delegates went to the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where the former president has been holed up since clandestinely slipping back into Honduras on Sept. 21, nearly three months after the events that toppled him and forced him into exile.

“If we agreed to it, it’s because it seems acceptable to us, because we concur that a text of that nature could be the door for finding a way out,” Meza said, adding that he “would not speak of a solution to the political crisis, but of an exit from the political crisis.”

Micheletti delegate Vilma Morales, a former Supreme Court chief justice, said the sides planned to reconvene later Wednesday after meeting with their respective principals.

In comments after Tuesday’s session, Morales told Efe the two sides had made progress on eight of the 12 points of the San Jose Accord, a proposal put together by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

Zelaya, whose term was scheduled to end in January, has already pledged not to attempt to convene an assembly to rewrite Honduras’ constitution, an initiative bitterly opposed by the military, the political establishment and the 25 families that dominate the country’s economy.

The deposed head of state also agreed to the formation of a national-unity government, once a comprehensive pact is signed.

In the eyes of Constituional scholars and most Hondurans, Zelaya’s ouster was not a coup. The soldiers who escorted Zelaya from the presidential palace were enforcing a Supreme Court order of arrest after Zelaya refused to comply with their earlier order banning his planned referendum on revising the constitution to allow for unlimited presidential terms. The Constitution calls for immediate disempowerment of any official who does so.

Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution says “Any citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch cannot be President or Vice-President again. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those who support such violation directly or indirectly, must immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”

The Organization of American States, the United States and the European Union have been pressing Micheletti to accept the San Jose Accord, a proposal put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

The plan calls for Zelaya to return and lead a national unity government for the few months left in his term, and for a political amnesty that would protect both sides in the dispute.

Time is running out before presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 29, as both the European Union and Washington have said they will not recognize the winner of that balloting unless Zelaya is restored to office beforehand.


Readers of the Latin American Herald Tribune knew about the situation in Honduras before those events led to the departure of President Manuel Zelaya. Did your news source put the events on your radar screen?


6/14/2009 No Guns Shot at Honduras President’s Car, Investigation Shows


6/24/2009 Thousands March Against Zelaya’s Plan to Change Honduras Constitution


6/25/2009 Honduras President Zelaya Presses Forward with Controversial Referendum


6/27/2009 Ruling Party Urges Hondurans Not to Vote in Referendum


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