TEGUCIGALPA -- A representative of the government of Roberto Micheletti acknowledged the failure of talks aimed at resolving the Honduran political crisis, as deposed President Mel Zelaya's camp had said hours earlier.

"We understand that the proposals - from Micheletti's delegation - were completely rejected" by representatives of Zelaya, Vilma Morales said in a prepared statement Friday afternoon.

She added that Micheletti's delegation had demonstrated from the beginning its willingness to resolve the crisis through dialogue and that it continues to have the same will and commitment to seek a negotiated solution.

"We can only express our regret for not satisfactorily concluding the negotiations due to the intransigence of our counterparts," Morales said, in reference to the end of the current round of talks that began Oct. 7.

Both Morales and another negotiator for the Michelleti government, Arturo Corrales, told reporters that Zelaya's side was responsible for cutting off the dialogue.

Corrales added that "other spaces will be opened," without elaborating.

A spokesman for the Micheletti camp, Armando Aguilar had told Efe earlier Friday that his delegation was "preparing a counter-proposal," but that apparently was rejected by Zelaya's delegation.

A representative of the Organization of American States who accompanied the talks, meanwhile, expressed optimism that a solution can still be found.

OAS special envoy John Biehl told Efe that his organization will always believe an agreement can be reached to the crisis stemming from the forced departure of Zelaya in June.

He told a press conference that a majority of Hondurans support a plan put forth by Micheletti that calls for both him and Zelaya to renounce their claims to the presidency and for a third party to serve out the rest of Zelaya's term, which ends in January.

But Zelaya's delegation has consistently said that such a solution is unacceptable.

"If the coup d'etat can't be reversed, no democracy in Central America and Latin America can be at ease, because (putschists) will find an ideal, simple path: stage a coup and whitewash it later with an election," Zelaya representative Mayra Mejia said Friday, alluding to Honduras' Nov. 29 presidential ballot.

The Zelaya camp, run by the former president himself who is holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he emerged after secretly slipping back into the country on Sept. 21, claims it has made numerous concessions to achieve an accord with Micheletti.

They argue that the ousted president agreed to preside over a national-unity government for the balance of his term, which ends in January.

Zelaya also pledged to abandon his push for constitutional reform, an initiative bitterly opposed by the military, the political establishment and the few dozen families who dominate the Honduran economy.

Those points were contained in a plan laid out by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to resolve the crisis triggered by the June 28 putsch.

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 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.”

In August, the U.S. Congress Law Library issued a report that calls the disempowerment of Zelaya, with the exception of the removal of Zelaya from the country, constitutional under Honduran law.

According to report author Norma Gutiérrez, the Honduran Congress has the power to "disapprove of the conduct of the president".

The Congress "implicitly exercised its power of constitutional interpretation in the case of Zelaya when it decided that its power to 'disapprove' the president's actions encompassed the power to remove him", the report says.

Even Zelaya's own political party voted to remove him.

In the meantime, 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. Elections have traditionally been the only way that coups and changes of government have been peacefully resolved in Latin American history.

According to US Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the US House of Representative Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, “The presidential candidates in Honduras have asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to provide international observers for the country’s November 29th election. I urge OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to grant this request, so that an effective election monitoring effort can be put into place.”